In April last year I bought a
Syringa 'Red Pixie' (a dwarf lilac) and planted it a short distance from a wooden fence at a point where it gets a few hours of sun in the morning. After it had flowered, I trimmed the shrub in order to encourage it to grow in a fan-shape rather than as a bush. Behind it I am growing a
Dr Ruppel clematis and
jasminum officinale (I also grow jasmine on a north-facing fence, see this link). These three plants, two of them very fragrant (the lilac and the jasmine), are not so very far from my kitchen window and I am hoping that when the plants mature and when the kitchen window is open that the fragrance will travel into my home. That's the plan. I'm pleased to say that my gentle pruning, and the fact that Alfie, my Ragdoll cat, has a habit of rubbing against the lilac, haven't discouraged the lilac from flowering. It's loaded with fragrant pink blooms right now.
 |
| Syringa 'Red Pixie' |
Some people seem to be fooled, quite unintentionally on my part, into thinking I have an enormous garden. I don't. It's very roughly about 25 x 30ft, probably less. You can get an awful lot of stuff in a garden this size. The thing is, when you can, grow things upwards - trees, climbers, and suchlike. They take hardly any space at all. So, since summer last year, I have three jasmines, several clematis, two honeysuckle, three climbing roses, and seasonally I grow sweet peas and runner beans up the fence, not to mention the loganberry and the raspberry canes. A
dwarf sweet cherry, Prunus Stella Gisela 5, is in a large sunken pot in the middle of the sunny border, surrounded by perennials.
.JPG) |
| Syringa 'Red Pixie' April 2014 |
 |
| Alfie, the resident Ragdoll cat, using the stepping stones |
