Many shades of green

This is a white house and many of the retaining walls in the front garden are white.  Many of the planting combinations in the garden include white but by far the most important colour in this garden will be green.  After a long Winter and the tentative start of Spring, it is the colour green that I appreciate more than any other.  Green comes in so many subtle shades at this time of year that it offers its very own colour palette.   

We certainly have too much white at the front of the house and adding planting and the colour green in the form of the foliage that appears on plants and shrubs is the best way to counter-balance the backdrop of white. 

Yesterday I was up early planting the last of the box in the front garden.  I have planted these between the Yew cones and in front of the low white retaining wall.  In time this will form a substantial low hedge and a wonderful backdrop for current (Scabiosa) and future planting.

We have also added two jumbles of pots planted up with Nemesia, Lavender, Heliotropium, Calibrachoa, Geranium and Marguerite daisy.  These create focal points and much needed colour.

We have also been busy assembling herb planters for the vegitable garden as Vanessa is keen to include herbs in this space.  They came in kit form and once assembled Vanessa painted each before I added John Innes number 3, some compost and lots of horticulteral grit.  We then planted up with a selection of herbs including chives, winter savoury and mint.

But it's been so very wet and windy lately.  Thankfully we have had some sunny spells so the garden has been able to soak up the water while recovering in the sunshine.  But I do long for green in the form of hedging and trees.  Our Birch is only just in leaf, our Hornbeam and Hawthorn about to leaf and only now can we see signs of our Beech hedging coming to life.  But I am sure this yearning for green in its many profusions will be satisfied in the next couple of weeks so I must be patient.