my terrible garden

The trouble with building your own home is that invariably you are left with a waste land/barren scrub for a garden. To add insult to horticultural injury the last dribbles of budget have usually been spent many moons ago, on fripperies such as heating and electrics. 

We will have been here for nearly 4 years and yet still our garden lurks outside like a neglected cat (keen but desperate) Our half hearted attempts to 'do something' usually end up with us putting the kettle on instead. But just recently it has become an issue, not just because there are no flowers to pick, but because our little ones need somewhere fun and pretty to play.

These are the paltry offerings in my garden at the moment - not quite up to Sarah Ravens standards I admit. But what do you do when a teeny tiny patch of garden literally brings you out in terrified cold sweats? We can't afford a garden designer and don't know where to begin - which is why we don't! And whatever we do plant seems to die a slow and lingering death. Poor flora and fauna.

these are my favourite colour hydrangeas - greeny pink, pinky green. I keep killing them though

These are lovely (Japanese something I think......oh dear) but I don't have enough to cut

My purple sage is growing like a weed - do I fight it or let it go crazy? Nice colours, but we don't like the taste so I think I will experiment with it in a vase. Desperate times call for drastic measures.

A beautiful seed head, which never seems to seed........what am I doing wrong?

But I do have LOADS of this - is it Veronica? Oh well, better put the kettle on.