As I'm absent from my own garden, I thought I'd do a little garden journal of my mother in law's garden in Somerset, UK. At the time of posting, it's actually two weeks on from these little stories, and I imagine it's warmed up a bit. But you'll get the idea of the place.

I was out braving the cold as Jamie and his sister trimmed a holly bush. This holly doesn't have spikey leaves, which is actually a defence against deer! They were trimming it so we could get the Landie up the driveway when it arrived.

As they did the dirty work, I was admiring the various flowers about the place. This is England. People go mad planting flowers and bulbs in Spring. The grey of winter MUST be superseded by colour ,and lots of it! One needs cheer!

Who knew you shouldn't feed bees honey? Unfortunately we googled this only after we tried to rescue a bee who looked rather poorly and cold. It was a freezing day and he'd been huddled in a flower in a pot by the doorstep for some time. He drank tons of honey. Apparently one shouldn't do this as store bought honey can have pathogens. Anyway you live and learn. Bumblebees are so beautiful, fluffy and huge - it just brought out protective instincts but I should have known better and left the bee alone.

Just behind where the siblings were working is Faith's tiny shack and the hucky duck. When she split from her husband, she had no where really to go but to her mum's house, and Jamie had this great idea of building a tiny home in a bit of space against an aquaduct that formed the back of the property. She absolutely loves in there and it nestles into the landscape so beautifully.

Oh yes, I called it the hucky duck didn't I? That's because that's what the villagers affectionately call it.

Behind that is a tiered garden - it's very slopey. His mum had painted flowers on the wall where it's crumbling which is cute, but if we were here we'd find some stone and face it so it's prettier. Sometimes she wants to move as the garden is so steep but it's such a beautiful village and the way it's positioned, there's so much sunshine, which can be rare in these higgedly piggedly villages! The green man below used to be ours when we lived here but we gave it to her as no one in their right mind would take a concrete ornament to Australia.

My mother in law is the kind of person that has a lot of cute ornaments in her garden. It's not to my taste but it suits her. She's such a nice person and it's little wonder she likes badgers, rabbits and other lovely animals. She used to live in the grounds of a zoo where her father was the grounds keeper. How amazing is that?

There is a greenhouse as well, and a small shed. She did used to have a vegetable garden up here but it was too hard to maintain as she got older and not worth it for her. I can see so much potential in a garden like this but of course our style of gardening is very different.

Later in the year I'll be able to see other plants in bloom and leaf as well I suppose, making the garden prettier. I know there's a gorgeous black elder (sambucca) with beautiful pink flowers I'll be sure to share at some point.

I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone's gardens are growing, so don't forget to join in the #gardenjournal challenge. @owasco is doing the wrap up whilst I'm travelling but I'll do my best to upvote any entries and hopefully comment on a few. I love this garden community and appreciate you all joining in and making it a lovely place to be!

Happy Gardening!

With Love,

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