Midsummer gardens



The Old Button Shop garden

In summer festivals don't seem to be so important. As long as the sun keeps shining life feels good.

My personal celebration of midsummer was to search through the National Garden Scheme website for any local open gardens. I was lucky to find two good hits, the first being open on Saturday and in Lytchett Minster. This was a community event with 6 (7?) gardens open and other events at the same time. The gardens are modest in size and (as usual with the ngs) highly manicured, this really emphasised to me how I love my space here and a reminder that I enjoy some wildness. My favourite garden was that of The Old Button Shop. This was one of the larger gardens and I appreciated not being able to see everything at once. I loved the mish mash of curios scattered throughout the garden. I wish that I could get away with this but I know that anything well 'placed' would soon become buried under the weeds.



Manor House, Blandford St Mary

The second garden I saw was a 3 acre one in Blandford St Mary. I found the layout of this highly inspiring, its a place that I would love to bring the family with a picnic if only it wasn't a private home. It was a great reminder of how much I enjoy pathways, I really must find a way to incorporate more into my own space. I need to propagate lots of herbaceous planting too! I appreciate the openness that the extra space offers and I feel incredibly blessed to have almost an acre to play with myself.