Home is Where the Heart Is...

I pinched this title from Frankie. I thought is was rather appropriate, as I too believe home is where the heart is. What I loved about Frankie's post, was that she was talking about people being the heart. My post is about home being where the heart. This is an excerpt (which is most of her post). I just love it because Frankie describes what I think is a recipe in richness to a T! Here it is...

"Eight years ago when I split with my husband, I moved up from a semi-rural area to an inner city suburb. It was a big move. It was scary, and I felt completely alone...but not for long.

I moved into a little street that leads to a park. But this wasn't just any street. This was a street where the neighbours care. They want to know you. They hang about on the verge and chat, day or night. The kids play on anyone's front lawn, at any time, even if you are not home. There was 'the tree' - a beautiful climbing tree that swallowed up several children at a time. On summer days when there wasn't a sign of a single child in the street, if you stood under that tree, a faint giggling could be heard. It was a good street.

My next door neighbours were the BEST. A couple in their sixties who acted as surrogate grandparents for my two (who were 3 and 6 when we moved in). They looked after me through my hip injury, took me shopping, to the physio and made sure the kids got to school. I sat with them and held their hands when their baby grand daughter died. They were like family.

We lived in that street for six years. I'll always consider it where the kids 'grew up'. And then, one day, we had to leave.

That was 3 years ago. We've still kept in contact but it's not been the same..until now. I found a house..right next door to where I lived before - in the street!"

As you might have guessed from the first couple of photos, I love cottage gardens! So much so, I am endeavouring to recreate the feeling of a cottage garden. It takes alot of thought, trial and error in getting your garden to look how you imagine it in your head. So those first two photos are examples of how I want my home to look.

The rest of the photos are of my garden. There's a long way to go, but I'm getting there. I was so excited this year, because alot of my plants flowered for the first time, and right now I'm enjoying the wafting fragrance of my star jasmine currently in flower. I can't wait for the whole side of the carport to be carpeted in it! The fragrance wafts through my home and it's just lovely.

Nodding Violet

Blue Salvia (which looks purple to the eye)

Geranium

My morning ritual (when Philomena wakes me up) is to open all the curtains, and I sit in my PJ's with a cup of tea behind the big glass doors at the entrance and I soak up the morning sun. I look out over my front garden and delight at all the colours, the sparkles of dew on the plants and spider webs. I like to see how the garden has changed and I'm always dreaming of what to do next and which plants to grow and where I'll place them. I can think and ponder about this for weeks until I'm satisfied that I've chosen the correct plant and location to achieve the 'look' that I want. It doesn't alway work out exactly as I plan though, but I learn more each time about plants and my garden.

Red Salvia

Native Violets

Native Violets, Rhododendron, Azalea

So the last plant I'm waiting to flower is my Gardenia bush. I didn't get a chance to prune it in August, so the flowers aren't as robust as last year, but I'll prune them back when they've flowered and they should come back much better the next time.

Iris

Star Jasmine (on lattice), Geranium, Daisies, Lavender, Ivy Geranium, Violas,

Agapanthus (which is about to flower)

This picture is of the front of our home. I wanted to show how the jasmine is starting to grow onto the carport, and I really love this. I can't wait for it to not only cover the lattice but also snake up and across the carport facade.

My garden is due for some more mulching and a little cleaning and pruning back, ready for the next line of showers and rain. You can see where in one of my photos of the front entrance and path with the table and chair, where the native violet has just about covered once side of the path. I'm now waiting for it to be completely blanketed on that side, and the other side is coming along nicely too.

American Wisteria (a smaller and less aggressive type of Wisteria)

And just quietly, I have to tell you that at the moment I have a new love...Climbing Roses! Well actually, I've always loved them, but I'm planning the next stage so that the entrance, or to the side of it, will be blanketed with climbing roses!

I'm going to move a beautiful palm I've got growing in a big pot, and replace it with two large pots with climbing roses. I'll be establishing a support on both walls for the rose plants. One will be red in colour and the other white and I want to intertwine them. So I'll be starting this project in the next couple of months.

You can see where my Eden Rose (Pierre de Ronsard) is growing nicely and currently blooming (the rose is out the back of my home). I've only just discovered how to get climbing roses to look more voluminous and get lots of roses, so I'll start working on getting that going, as I want to fill that whole trellis with masses of beautiful roses!

Well, that's about it. That's part of what makes my home feel like a home, and I'm very much a romantic when it comes to how it looks, and without a beautiful cottage garden, it just wouldn't be the same!