Some New Additions for my Garden

As a thank you for looking after her garden whilst she was on holiday, my lovely friend Fiona took me on a little trip to visit a place called the Garden Barn in Cotesbach, near Lutterworth.  In my mind I was thinking it would be just another run of the mill garden centre.  Was I mistaken!  From the outside it was small, nothing special - but inside was another matter.    It was just a wonderful cornucopia of delights.    As usual with photographs they don't do it justice.

Before you even get inside there is all this wonderful vintage stuff - old tin baths, buckets and watering cans.  Old terracotta pots and sculptures made from bits of farm machinery - inventive ways of using stuff that you would find in a reclamation yard.  But inside - well, it was enough to make your mouth water. 

The words 'shabby chic' were invented especially for this place - I could have spent a fortune - I was in paradise.  A lot of things weren't for sale - kiddi-cars from the 50's, old tricycles and scooters - someone in the buying department had obviously had a whale of a time finding all these lost treasures.



Well, after a lovely mooch round  oohing and aahing at all the lovely things, we went into the courtyard for a cup of coffee and cake.  It was a  sheltered spot where we were surrounded by vintage metal garden furniture and enamel babybaths on legs (which would make ideal container gardens) - and after soaking up a few rays and a bit of a chat we wandered round the garden bit where there was a small but perfectly formed selection of plants and a veggie growing area composed of several raised beds.  Right up my street.

As part of my treat Fiona bought me a plant that caught my eye - this lovely butter-coloured Crocosmia

Just right for my 'hot' front garden flower bed.  But one or two others caught my eye as well and I just had to buy them.

This gorgeous bright pink Echinacea, to replace those of mine that never re-appeared this year, and

a plant that was smothered in bees whilst we were there - a Stokesia, which I have never heard of before.  It looks as though it is part of the Cornflower family to me - simply lovely.  So thank you Fiona for a grea morning out, full of surprises and plenty of goodies to bring home.

While I am talking about buying plants - I had to visit our local garden centre - Wistow Farm Park -
 to buy some fish food, and whilst I was there I had a wander round the plants (as you do) and saw that the plant that was attracting the most bees was this lovely Sedum

A bit of a brighter pink than your normal one, and with fluffy heads on it - I had to have it - no question.  This has definitely been a plant-buying week, as I went into our local Homebase on Thursday to see if there was anything decent on the sale racks - and there, much to my amazement, were lots of trays of plants at only £1.00 each.

 Chrysanthemums, six plants for a £1

Gorgeous Dianthus the same, and

some mixed Geraniums, which will give me loads of cuttings for next year.  So all in all I think I have done pretty well this week.  Don't you just love it when everything falls into place.