How does your garden grow?

The warm weather at the weekend meant POD was able to take advantage of the the outdoors and spend a lot of time in her paddling pool. Or pouring water on me while I tried to take photos of her!

We had a great day and it was fantastic to have an alfresco lunch. We *might have* had an ice-cream too.

We realised sitting in the sunshine we have double the number of Red Hot Pokers than we did a year ago. Last week I had one yellow one and in a matter of days we’ve gained a further ten. They appear and die off so quickly but growing at different speeds has meant there are always several in full bloom. The bees love them as do Blue Tits it seems. On the subject of birds, the Robin is in the garden so often now I almost feel the need to name him.

Elsewhere our rose bushes are doing brilliantly and are awash with pale pink flowers. The borders, which house established shrubs, are thriving and we’re starting to see cherries grow on the tree.

The flowers are not fairing so well. They’ve been unintentionally starved of water recently and a few have been nibbled at.

You’ll see there are some photographs of the garden at the beginning of the slideshow. My desire to take close-ups of flowers has led me elsewhere this week though so overall there’s an abundance of photographs overall.

A few days ago POD and I took an impromptu visit to Stoke Park. Aside from it’s mass of green space, I’d heard it had a small garden but I wasn’t expecting much.

I found the sensory garden we discovered incredible. It was a special place. Perhaps because my expectations were so low. Or it was just a surprising sight.

It was walled, I always find these types of gardens intriguing, full of giant roses and interesting flowers. I’m not sure I’ve seen roses that large before. Some almost resembled Vanilla ice-cream.

For the most part it was completely silent, a peaceful place to just sit. Something I’m not particularly good at. POD was asleep in her buggy but soon woke up. We had a brief picnic before she was let loose to explore.

I love the big gardens but there was something rather wonderful about this garden. And it’s only 20 minutes walk away.

We’re linking this post up with How does your garden grow? over at Mammasaurus. If you’d like to join in too, click on the badge below.