I am glad so many of you are enjoying our walk through the garden. Thank you for all your kind comments on my last two posts. Feel free to ask questions as we walk! Passing across the front of the house, you look left over the front lawn to a stand of lemon scented gums.

Straight ahead of you, I've planted three silver birches, under grown with Australian native violet. This is what you'll see in the spring:

In the autumn, the late afternoon sun lights up the white papery bark of these birches.

And in the winter, there is the brilliant pink of a Taiwan cherry nearby to brighten an otherwise dull garden.

The path kicks around to the left at this point.

... around a Betchel crabapple (Malus ioensis) ...

... and on to our tennis court.

When we built the tennis court, we had to remove some dirt to achieve the correct slope on the court for drainage. This excess soil became a low sculpted hill next to the court. It is the highest point in our otherwise dead flat garden! And a great spot for a picnic & some tennis spectating. The hill is planted with lime green gleditsias for shade.

A connecting path meanders around the hill, and allows me more room for garden beds, and more roses!

One of my favourite views of the garden is from this path, looking back across the front lawn to the house.

If you keep wandering along this path, it eventually turns back onto the front lawn, through a mass planting of 'Double Delight' roses. If you know this rose, you may well be able to imagine how amazing it smells as you walk through here.

Fellow plant lover,  KaHolly and fellow quilter Quiltsalott both commented perceptively that this garden represents 'a lot of hard work'. Well yes, that can't be denied. But it doesn't feel a chore to me. It is therapy. A way to relax. And a way to keep a little bit fit, supple and strong. I find a (weird?) physical pleasure in aching from a hard day's work in the garden.

Suzi-q hopes that I have my own gardener! Other than me, my Sweetness, and our three garden slaves, otherwise known as children? Nope, no gardener. I figure the day I need to employ a gardener is the day I had better downsize!

Mary Ann asks if we charge admission! Haha! There has only been one occasion when admission was charged. We opened our garden a few years ago for charity.

We had 1500 people visit our garden that day. It was unbelievable!

Amazingly, the garden held up well after all those visitors, and you could barely tell anyone had been there at the end of the day.

And in the true way of gardeners, there was not one plant damaged or a skerrick of rubbish left. It was a wonderful day for us, a very special opportunity to share our garden & help towards raising funds for our local cancer support group.