To be truthful it came to my ears that lots of readers wanted to see what I was sometimes talking of on line. My garden build .I did do a short blog on first start on the old cow pasture to hope of English gardens .
Well! here are a few of my photos that record some of the damage s man can do in altering natures plan to be wild.
Im not the greatest landscaper but I did have a full plan in my head and 5 years to do it . I have battled with nettles ,twisted 2nd World war tank lids buried in my proposed Iris bed.
Then the idiots who cut down forest woodland and released a herd of deer into my gardens . Overnight some 3000 euro worth of damage. Thought it a salad bar .Hedges of Tuja clipped to the very trunks . Roses cropped to ground . It was heart break and panic attack at daylight next morning .
I had worked day and night to build a garden set .I had ploughed in cash and had not planted a single plant until all borders had been made .Double dug weeded dug over again and finally black plastic and car tyres on top over winter and following Spring . Weeds kept coming up in furry .So spent months digging them out. Not until all had gone and only annual weeds remained did I dare risk build borders of flowers . Then this happened.
I spent all I had on fences and wire rolls . It worked so from seed planted up .The folly built and painted.
The above photo of main drive way with farm fields behind was blasted with deer that ruined hedges both sides so had to plant rose Rugosa hedge Hansa to right of photo behind sunny border as nothing was left of 5 year old Emerald green Thuja hedge .Some 23 trees devoured to stumps 6 inch tall from 5 feet high young plants .Fences only way around such a problem .Lost not just hundred plants over all but time lost growing hedges cant make up for another 5 years . Bambi was lucky it did not end life in my oven as payment for loss. Then people who chops forests down are more to blame I suppose
again. The hedges have not been replaced . Only what remained that could be saved are in the gardens now . Trouble is with fences weeds love to grow up them .Spray is my only weapon.
What you see in these photos is what took my plan to the winning line .Sheer grit and English determination .At 72 it was a feat I never thought possible. Then look at the land it has been wilderness perhaps since time began . A head on collision with a garden builder after 60 million years must have shocked Mother Nature as it took the strength out of me .
Im now on way to having my dream .A garden of beauty and just weeding planting pruning and mowing .A garden lovers job . A garden finished .
Then is a garden ever really finished ?
and plans and changes. For now I like to do a bit then sit and view . Do an hour more then tea and cake in my folly. “Tottering by Gently” as some one dear used to say . David Austin bred a rose using same name but it is too gentle for this set of gardens . Here, we are zone 5 but suffer minus 30c in winters . Summers of 32c .Hot and moist to very dry . Plants are all tested before being planted from pots and seed trays .
The work goes on and maybe next year my last big job the Roman water fall bath .
Thank you all for being with me reading this. Yours Sir Kevin.
Copyright Kevin Parr Bt2022
Reaching the festive season soon. So have a good rest and enjoy what you can. Here ,as in Britain greed has risen its ugly head. Food prices following Jeremy Clarksons stupidly nasty comment that all food was too cheap. All prices now up 200 % higher across the whole board. Winter heating briquets a ton…
Letter from Latvia, winter 2022
Hello to all . Christmas just around corner but we have started early with unexpected snow falls. Colder days now and still planting iris tubers in the warm insulated soils covered with inch of snows on fields and gardens . Time to rest in front of the great log fire in lounge room in house.…
Hero
Group leader Wing Commander of 617 squadron heavy bomber command Guy Gibson had flown 172 missions for RAF before taking over as Wing Commander 617 squadron .In 1942 he was only 24 years old and faced his greatest task .Bomber Harris and Churchill saw a need to stop German production of arms and machinery in…
I lost many of my old roses from England and was able by determined searches to find Canadian bred Morden Research station roses that can stand the winters here without cover. John Davis ,John Cabot are but two of the best roses to buy. Both climbers that can reach 10 feet x 10 feet . Here not a rose can cope where I grow these two explorer roses. Then Kordes of Germany roses. One or two can survive .I was surprised when finding Madam Le Gace de Sant Germain shrub rose as it is hard as old boots and a lovely old French rose of pink many petalled with yellow centres. It flowers all over and lasts 6 weeks . Scent it truly has
Solet an old lovely Moss rose also is a stunner and just as hardy. Big bush it makes and one treasure to find outside of France .Fabien
Amazing Facts On History 
The garden is beautiful! Glad you chose some fine Canadian bred roses. The John Davis should be fine, but the John Cabot may not fare too well under English hands. I’ve heard rumours of what happened to Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot) when he returned to England after his second failed voyage to the New World did not find a sea route to India, as he had promised King Henry ‘the Seventh’. History writes that he died in the New World, but rumours persist that returned and planned to lay claim to North America for himself, as his Italian friend and co-explorer, Christoforo Colombo (Chris Columbus) had done to Spain with the West Indies a decade earlier. Let us just say that King Henry preferred the name New England to Giovanni’s proposed Cabotoland. May your John Cabot roses fare better!
Make sure your fences are high. Being a Canadian countryboy I have seen many a deer (and moose) jump fences.
Best wishes,
Brian
LikeLike
Thanks Brian as a degree holding historian I agree but Davis died in his bed in England . Up to now both R John Davis x 4 and Cabot have been growing well on my gazebo . Ill keep close eye on Cabot from now . I had a hard job buying Canadian roses as Canada will not deal with any by Russia? Canadian roses bought from contact on Moscow . I am English but after Government taking over my estates after fathers death I left and built my new estate in Europe. Deer here seems not as bothered jumping 7 foot fences unlike in England attempt Lord Cavandishs 16foot walls in Cumbria northern part of UK . Canada most of my cousins live near Toronto moved there in 1961. My uncle Sir Charles Parr was member of Canadian Government for 23 years .He became British ambassador in 1958 .He died in London England when I was at school boarding so only met him once
LikeLike
Thank you for sharing your beautiful gardens with us Kevin! War tank lids and deer, how awful. What do you mean you are not a great landscaper, you certainly are! Now to sit back and enjoy all your hard work, I know I do.
LikeLike
Many thanks Ill try to show room by room in photos later as over all is impossible to effect . My roses are over the summer flowering old fashioned lovelies. Ramblers and repeaters are about now until October . Clematis take the place and so to my collection of honeysuckles of pergola . Managed to pave my gazebo floor in red brick pavers and the joy of sitting in it on hard flooring is amazing no slide on mud after rain s now all my visiting friends make a beeline for it . Covered white metal English gazebo 1854 in roses clematis in light sky blue against the soft pinks of climbing John Davis roses give a magic quality to its existence betix two garden rooms hedges each side . Peace on earth and Gods power to love it all .
Yes five years to date from wild field wild deer and world war one made it an eventful build . Books full of design before hand drawn but now most in existing form before me. Roman bath to build next Springtime and jobs done and dusted garden will be there to work of plants ,soils and borders ,weeds and pruning . Not a cement mixer in sight not a rock to lift all in place as intended . Then start on rest of field no doubt. Oven to brick this September .
Formal waterlily pond to line after digging out by hand 20foot x 4 x 3 foot deep .Intend for blacksmith to build my Monet styled bridge to cross over in woodland garden to rockery gardens and out to lake .My Roman bath water fall garden will be the grand finale to this project next June time finished .Concrete block and base and 20 feet x 24 feet 4 deep bath to dip in and cool off in in summers .This will be connected to filters and plant life to charcoal and foam and soil in header pool above the bath which makes the waterfall flow . A place to rest bath and maybe even swim I hope xx
LikeLike
Oh my goodness, so so beautiful! you must work so hard! they are stunning xxxxx
LikeLike