Friday 15 April 2016

Naming my garden - GBBD April 2016

As a foreigner living in Britain, English is a language I am still learning – even after 17 years here in London. I still bump into words I have absolutely no idea what means and I love looking them up and see their meaning and history. Some words just jump up and down and do a little dance for me when I see them, some words are just hilarious whilst others give me a lump in my throat. Have you heard the word ‘Discombobulate’ before? What a lovely word! And what about haberdashery?? I absolutely love that word too. OK, so the title of this post is naming my garden. I have thought about doing that for a while. Well, to be honest, I have thought about it for many years, but I never really found a good name. I know it is quite common here in Britain to name your house, at least if you live in a countryside cottage or in a somewhat grand house. Naming your house in a council terraced 2-up-2-down in East London would probably have raised some eyebrows, so that was never on my agenda. But my garden? The most important room in my house? Sure! ....But what?

I have collected words I like for a long time, and one of them is SERENDIPITY. I didn’t really know the true meaning of the word in the beginning, but after looking it up it dawned on me that this was an excellent name for a garden! So I decided that when I found a new house and had moved in, I would name my new garden that. It is now 11 months since I moved house so it’s perhaps about time I announce it – so I am hereby declaring my garden named The Serendipity Garden.

I have told a couple of people about this so far, and I realise that although some people have heard the word Serendipity, people put just as many interpretations into the word as you would to an abstract painting – but that’s fine! That’s absolutely in the spirit of The Serendipity ethos! The word Serendipity has been voted one of the ten English words hardest to translate, I guess it would do well together on a list with for example ‘Gobbledygook’ and ‘Double Dutch’ – the latter means something completely different here in Britain than in America and has nothing to do with skipping ropes :-)
          
But if you do wonder what Serendipity means, here is a bit to help you on the way, much more can be found online if you do a search.

"Serendipity is the gift of finding the things we did not know we were looking for."

"Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally stumbles upon something fortunate, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated."

“Serendipity is an unsought, unintended, and/or unexpected, but fortunate, discovery and/or learning experience that happens by accident.”

“Serendipity is making unexpected, pleasant and fortunate discoveries by chance, and in gardens, this happens all the time. There are new things to be seen or uncovered every day and not always the way we expected or even hoped for. Mother Nature sometimes has a way of rearranging our gardens and placing things how and where she wants instead. This is serendipitous gardening. Nature has struck again. Enjoy the unexpected in your garden!”

And here is my new garden sign, hanging on the door into the garden.

Let’s dip into The SerenDIPity Garden (sorry, I couldn’t resist!) – and see what’s happened the last couple of weeks.

I have been busy planting, and I did have this crazy goal of getting all the plants I took with me from my previous garden planted before end of April – a year after moving house. I say crazy, because with the turtle speed I am doing gardening I am afraid it will take another year, but despite the impression of being stacks of pots EVERYWHERE you look, I have been planting a lot. Honestly, I have. But then I did have around 700 pots with me from my previous garden....

The last couple of months I have been quietly working on this bed without writing much about it. This is my Japanese inspired bed – and I say ‘Inspired’ because it is not a true Japanese garden or bed, but just elements of it I like and appreciate. I would love to make a proper Japanese garden, but that would cost a lot of money and mean a lot of work – so this is my version. The inspiration for the Japanese Bed came from the big, old Salix integra 'Hakuro Nishiki’ growing in the middle of this bed, the only plant I kept apart from the plumtree to the far right.

I bought some cheap plastic containers from Argos, they were silver coloured and looked really tacky, but after I spray painted them black I think they look much better and much more suitable to the Japanese theme.

This is Prunus incisa ‘Kojo-no-mai’, a lovely, slow growing cherry from Japan. I have two of them and intend to have them permanently in these containers. Most of the plants in this bed will be grown in pots and containers due to the high pH and the clay soil and I have tried to find plants that will be happy long-term in containers.

Prunus incisa ‘Kojo-no-mai’ is grown for its gorgeous flowers in the spring, but come the autumn, the leaves turn glorious shades of red and orange and is a spectacular sight.

The cherries are not the only trees with gorgeous flowers right now, my plumtree is looking absolutely lovely!

The flowers are really decorative and I can’ wait to see if I get as many plums as last year.

This is the view of the Japanese Bed looking towards the house and I have been spray painting more containers – some of the old terracotta pots are now black and glossy and look like they are glossy ceramic pots instead of very cheap terracotta pots from B&Q. I hope the spray paint doesn’t flake off too quickly, time will tell. There should always be water in any Japanese garden, and in my Japanese Inspired Bed, the bird bath will have to do as the water supply. It would have been nice with a water stream cascading down, but I don’t think that’s going to happen :-)

This acer was new a couple of years ago, in new black glossy pot it makes a grand statement. This is Acer palmatum ‘Ariadne’.

This is the view from my shed, the obelisk at the front is my new rose obelisk, more about that one in my next post. And behind the obelisk is the plumtree again.

Pretty plum flowers.

My plumtree is Prunus domestica ‘Victoria’.

And this is Chaenomeles speciosa 'Moerloosei' – gorgeous flowers and so at home in the Japanese Bed.

Let’s move on to other parts of the garden, this is the Sunny Bed – not much has happened here in terms of planting, it is still a complete pot-jungle, but things are emerging and flowering and not really that bothered about pot or ground – as long as they get watered.

And in a pot of yellow and orange tulips I planted in a pot last autumn I found this one – very pretty, but probably not meant to be there!

I still have daffodils in flower – very late, but then I was extremely late planting the bulbs, some of these didn’t get planted until 2 weeks before Christmas! I might do that again, I like having daffodils this late. This is Narcissus 'Furbelow'.

And here are some Muscari – I especially like the Muscari armeniacum ‘Pink Surprise', although here they have faded to almost white as they are almost at end now.

The seeds I showed growing in my living room in my previous post has since all been kicked outside after having been potted up. It is much colder outside than indoors, but there is much more light outside. What survives survives - Que sera, sera.

And now to a bed that is finally finished; The Woodland Bed. It looks a bit sparse still in terms of plants, but that’s because we are still in April and there are a lot still to emerge here. And all the plants will grow, fatten up and fill in the space a lot come the next year or two so I recon I might possibly be able to squeeze in a few more plants, but not many.

The tail-end of this bed is actually in full sun most of the day, well, at least when the sun is shining! So the woodland plants end just about here where the left container is. In front of the wrought iron trellis is a climbing rose which I hope will be happy here and there are lots of lilies planted in the ground.

On a distance - this little space has now got a table and chairs and the beds around are planted up too.

But the pond is yet to be fixed, that will be a while yet till I get to! But until then the pond serves as a space to put my water feature and plants.

Sitting here with the tinkling of water behind me, waiting for my two clematis’ to grow up the new arch – I just need to get the fence fixed and painted and this part of the garden will be sorted for now.

The planting here is mostly woodland plants, and who can resist Fritillaria meleagris.

One more photo of Fritillaria meleagris, also called snake's head fritillary, snake's head, chess flower, frog-cup, guinea-hen flower, guinea flower, leper lily, Lazarus bell, chequered lily, chequered daffodil, drooping tulip or simply - fritillary.

There are lots of primulas flowering right now, this one is quite unique, Primula vulgaris 'Blue Zebra'.

Oh, I have to tell you about these ones, well, the primula is lovely, this is Primula 'Don Keefe' and I got it from Angie in a plant swap a couple of years ago and took it with me here to my new garden. But behind it are my new toadstools! I have always wanted some sort of garden sculpture or figures or decoration to my garden, but never really found anything suitable. There are hundreds of fairies, angles and gnomes online, but that’s not really me. That REALLY isn’t me. And the sculptures I would have liked to have cost LOTS. But then I found these ceramic toadstools, just by chance. I was looking for something completely different so this was a true serendipity moment when these turned up and I knew instantly I had to have them in my Woodland Bed.

I got two sets of 3 and this is the other set. They were said to make a tinkling sound in the wind, and being made from ceramic they do make a very pleasant tinkling sound when you carefully clink them together, but I think it will take a hurricane before they make any sound on their own and I am not likely to sit here and listen out for the sound in that kind of weather so in terms of the sound it’s probably more for the advert!

Here in the Woodland Bed I am also very pleased to see the trilliums I took with me from my previous garden now emerging and flowering. Trilliums don’t like to be disturbed and dug up so I am happy for every single one surviving the ordeal.

And I also took Lamprocapnos spectabilis ‘Alba’ (Dicentra) with me from my previous garden, it is just about to flower.

The Mini Bed is also planted up, can’t remember if I have showed this before, but I have used Primulas and Saxifraga stolonifera and in the middle is a group of Arisaema amurense just emerging.

More primulas, all these are Primula vulgaris of different varieties.

I have planted some violas in the Woodland Bed, they have been growing in pots for years so it was about time to get them in the ground. Hopefully they will spread nicely and not too invasively. This is Viola odorata 'Annie'  

And this is Viola labradorica.

My magnolia flowered last week, only a few flowers this year but I had not expected any so the few I got was a nice surprise. After moving last year and keeping the magnolia in a container for a whole more year than I had planned, I thought flowers were off the menu this spring, but the few that came were very welcome. Sadly the strong winds we had the other day took all the flowers and that was it, all gone. Hopefully next year will be back to full flowering like I have had in previous years with this lovely Magnolia soulangeana ‘Heaven Scent’.

And here you can see the magnolia planted in the ground in the side part of the front garden – where I haven’t really started any work yet at all. But this makes a nice lead back to the title of this post – the naming of my garden. Here is the garden sign on the door into the garden - when the door is open, the sign can be seen from both outside and inside the garden. The plan here is to get the prison look barbed wire removed (hopefully by the council!), paint the gate and fence, and then the new clematis in the container next to the door will hopefully climb up to the top in no time!

One final, a bit different interpretation of the word serendipity that I also like.

“Serendipity: A combination of events which are not necessarily individually beneficial, but occurring together to produce a good or wonderful outcome.”

And the word serendipity has been tried translated into other languages, even though it is difficult to get the actual meaning of it. Someone has attempted to translate it into my own language, Norwegian, and the meaning of that word would be something like ‘stumble-upon-fortunate’ (snubleflaks) – I am not sure if I like this kind of translation as the actual word doesn’t mean anything unless you know the story behind it – and I suppose the word should be like that in all languages – like the names for cities and countries. Serendipity comes from the word Serendip, the old word for Sri Lanka. But that story is too long to put here, if you are curious you can Google serendipity :-)

Final photo from me today, another true serendipity moment, I was taking a photo of the sparrow on the birdfeeder and while I was pressing the shutter, these two other sparrows turned up, realised suddenly that there was only one feeding port available and two of them - and started to squabble in mid-air, fighting for the available space. The sparrow on the feeder was completely unfazed by this cacophony and just continued eating! I can plan for all sorts of photos in my garden, but sometimes it’s just a question of being there at the right time!

I am linking today’s post to Carol at May Dreams Gardens, please visit her for many more Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day posts.

And if you after all this would like an interesting link about serendipity, of all the pages I have been through making this post I have chosen this one about a study into serendipity at UCL. Enjoy!
I am off to see what surprises my garden has to offer today.

That was it for today’s middle of the month roundup and Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day post. Next post will be the end of the month with another garden video, hope to see you then, until next time, take care.

54 comments:

  1. Fint navn på hagen din, Helene! Det er nok sikkert flere ord du kommer over som du ikke vet hva betyr ;) Sånn er det med noen dialekter her i landet også som jeg faktisk ikke forstår hva de sier ;)
    Så vakkert det blomstrer i hagen din, og så langt alt er kommet! Her har våren og blomstringen akkurat startet. Det er en deilig tid fremover nå.
    God helg!

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    1. Hagen min er omtrent 3 uker etter det som e r normalt, og enda lenger etter sammenlignet med år hvor våren har vært tidlig. I år føles det som om det aldri kommer i gang! I natt skal det bli 2 grader og jeg har tatt nesten 100 små planter inn i skuret - igjen. Sikkert ikke for siste gang denne våren. Begynner å bli lei, vi skulle ha mye varmere netter nå. Ha en fin søndag!

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  2. I've always liked the word Serendipity too. It's not so easy to find the right place to use in a sentence yet just right for your garden name. Behind that gate is a special garden.

    Your garden is looking beautiful and I'm glad to see you moved the maple. As always, I am impressed with all you have accomplished in a short time.

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    1. I am glad you like the word for my garden, I have thought about it for a long time! The acer I have taken with me was growing in a pot, I never attempted to take with me that old, mature Acer palmatum, it is still back in my old garden. It would have been too much upheaval to dig it up as I would have had to ruin some of the gravel path to get enough root ball with me. So instead I bought a new acer baby – good excuse – so now I got 2 acers. The new one is Acer palmatum 'Bihou'. I am still looking for a suitable third one, needs to be 2-3m tall and slim with spectacular spring and autumn colours.

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  3. Congrats, Helene. your garden has a name. I liked this word, although it's difficult to pronounce. Love your Japanese bed, you really have 'sacura' - plum tree flowering is nice. Also fritillaria is very pretty!

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    1. Thanks Nadezda, fritillaria is very common over here and easy to get hold of, I love them but so does the lily beetles so I have to be vigilant just like with the lilies.

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  4. The Serendipity Garden - I love it! And it does seem highly appropriate. Hmmm...I wonder what I should name my garden?

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    1. Glad you like my garden name Dorothy, I have thought about it for a long time and I think the name is very appropriate for my garden, but it is a word with many different meanings so it’s all up to each and every one to put their own interpretation into it – and I love that!

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  5. Serendipity is a word I use quite often and a wonderful name for a garden, Helene! I've thought about naming my garden too but have never come up with anything that seems right - Lizardville or Raccoon Haven would be descriptive but I don't want to encourage those critters in any way.

    I think your Japanese-inspired garden bed is off to a great start. The whole garden is coming together beautifully!

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    1. I had to smile when I read your comment about Lizardville or Raccoon Haven – I suppose I could have named my garden ‘Squirrel Antic Retreat’ or ‘Fox Convention’ – but I didn’t want to jinx anything either!!

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  6. Oh, I like your garden name! Serendipity is a fabulous English word. I, too, find it interesting how sometimes one simply can't translate the full meaning of a word into a different language. Sometimes it takes an entire sentence to do so! ;-) Your photos of the fruit tree blooms are gorgeous, and all the spring flowers are so pretty. You found a great spot for your Magnolia! Spring is happening so fast in my part of the country now that my GBBD post is terribly out of date. Oh well. ;-) Great shot of the sparrows--wow! Serendipity or not, it's a fabulous photo!

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    1. Thank you Beth, I am glad you like my new garden name – I researched it thoroughly and found so many different meanings my head was spinning in the end. Finally I just had to choose to go with the meaning I liked and thought applied to me – which I have referred to in my post – but it is up to everyone to put their own interpretation into the term.
      Spring over here in London is colder now than in January – I am more than ready for some warmer days and nights!

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  7. Something has nibbled holes in our fritillary flowers. The black pots look really classy.

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    1. Thanks Sue, the pots looked really scruffy and each were spray painted in minutes – so easy I will do many more if the paint doesn’t peel off.

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  8. Dear Helene, how nice that you named your garden Serendipity, I think it is quite fitting.
    There are so many lovely plants blooming in your garden that I really like: The cherry trees and the plum tree, the Chaenomeles speciosa 'Moerloosei' and the Primula vulgaris 'Blue Zebra', Viola labradorica, just to name a few.
    The new sitting area by the arch is lovely and I hope you will spend many enjoyable hours there.
    Thanks for all the serendipity moments I have, when visiting your blog! Looking already forward to your next post!
    Warm regards,
    Christina

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    1. Thank you Christina, I thought you would like the name for my garden :-)
      Spring here in my garden is very slow and late, it’s so cold here still! I had hoped to have a couple of roses to show on this post but the bids are quite small still. ‘Ingrid Bergman’ will be the first one to flower this year, but several of the others are following straight behind. Next month I will have roses. I MUST have roses! Have a great Sunday :-)

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  9. Hej Helene! Trevligt att se framstegen i din trädgård, krukorna blev snygga med svart färg. Den Japanska hörnan är fin, härligt med vackra träd som redan blommar. Ni ligger långt före oss. Namnet passar din trädgård bra, något oväntat fint överraskar varje gång.
    Ha en fin fortsättning på April.
    /Marika

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    1. Hei Marika, fint du liker det nye navnet på hagen min :-) Her hos meg har vi en veldig sen vår for det har vært uvanlig kaldt, så jeg venter spent på varmere vær slik at hagen kan komme i gang. Ha en fin søndag!

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  10. You chose the perfect name Helene - naming my garden is not something I've ever considered although for mother's day I got a wee wooden plaque with the phrase Granma and Olli's garden written on it. I've not found the perfect spot for it yet.
    I've got those ceramic toadstools too but in different colours. I had a large one but the wind caused it to crack. I wrap mine for winter just in case the frost catches them.
    Loving the Trillium and Hellebore combo. Your garden has a nice light about it just now I think.

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    1. Hi Angie, your garden name sounds very sweet, I hope you find the perfect place for you plaque. I saw those toadstools on your blog last time, I think I have commented on them – I was still waiting for mine then and had not received them yet. Those I bought are frost and water resistant and can be left outside all year round so I am going to just leave them. Hopefully the squirrels will leave them in peace!

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  11. As a lover of woodland plants I homed in on that bit.. and it looks really lovely. How lucky you are to be able to grow trilliums and fritilleries, I am not giving up but they seem to be a problem here!

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    1. I still haven’t tried any of them in the ground over time, the trilliums were planted in December and the fritillaries are still in pots waiting for me to finish dithering….I might just plant them in a big container together with a shrub. Trilliums are great in pots by the way, I still have some trilliums in a 15L container, they have been there for almost 10 years, together with some Arisaema amurense. When the trilliums are finished the arisaemas take over. I am a big fan of using containers when the soil doesn’t play ball :-)

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  12. I think your name is perfect! If you hadn't mentioned that the black pots had been spray painted, I'd never have known. They look great! Trilliums in England seem like a surprise since they're a US native but what a wonderful addition to your woodland bed. :o)

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    1. Thanks Tammy, I think trilliums are just as home over here as in an American woodland setting – if you look for native plants there aren’t many in British gardens….British native plants are plants that were here before last ice age, 10.000 years ago. All the beautiful plants brought us the last 2000 years from all over the world are off that list :-)

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  13. Så mye fint som blomstrer i hagen din nå! London ligger ett godt stykke foran Norge på vårblomstring ser jeg! Nydelig Magnolia! Ha en fin vårdag!

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    1. Takk, jo vi er nok foran dere, men våren her er utrolig sen i år! Vanligvis har jeg roser i blomst nå, og i år er det bare knopper å se foreløpig. Og magnoliaen min blomstrer vanligvis til GBBD i mars - ikke april! Ja, sent men godt, nå håper jeg det blir litt varmere også.

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  14. Helene thank you so much for dropping by my blog : )
    Your garden is amazing and I think the name is perfect for it !
    There is so much to take in with all of your gorgeous plants and designing .. I too love a Japanese theme but I don't have the room to make a more authentic looking one so I fill spaces with little Japanese maple trees.
    It would take many many days to see all of your treasures here .. it is stunning.
    Our weather has taken a turn to almost hot .. 19 degrees at 9:30 this morning and way too dry .. we always have something to complain about the weather ? LOL
    I hope your weather settles down to a nice friendly pace soon to.. I also wanted to say those black pots are wonderful spray painted or not !
    Joy : )

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    1. Thank you Joy, I am glad you liked the name for my garden – and I hope my spray painted pots will look nice also in the future, because then I will spray paint a lot more – it was dead easy! The weather here is changing every day, still cold at night but for a few days now we have quite nice day temp – and towards the week-end it’s all downhill again. Oh well, as long as it isn’t raining too much so I can be in the garden.

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  15. I think 'serendipity' is a warm friendly bumbling kind of word and I love it. What a great name for your garden. Well done in only a year...

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    1. Thank you Roger, naming my garden has been an idea I have been brewing for a long time, but I am glad I took the plunge. Nice with so much positive response :-)

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  16. I loved your post Helene and the name for your garden is just perfect. Thank you for stopping by to visit once again. You made my day with your kind words and it is always a pleasure to stroll in your gardens, as I always look forward to your latest additions, such as your new name and sign! We also had some cold and strong winds, but the weather seems to be getting back on track this past week. You have so many wonderful blooms already and I'll look forward to more!

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    1. Thank you Lee, I always enjoy visiting your garden and it has a feel that makes me very much at home – perhaps as a Norwegian I see your pines and other trees as very familiar features. My own garden isn’t big enough to add more big trees, but I am determined to get some miniature conifers for my Japanese inspired bed.

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  17. Hi Helene, thanks in dropping by my blogpost. I replied to you there regarding your questions on hoyas. I suggest you visit www.myhoyas.com for more info suited to your climate, because this is in Sweden. Christina Karlsson is a very successful indoor hoya grower in a country like yours.

    You have a beautiful garden worth visiting by tour groups, to emulate and learn from. Oh i love that word "Serendipity", i also admit i just learned the word when i already finished college. I've always used it from then on. Serendipity has a mystical tone to it than synergy, isn't it, haha! God bless and best regards.

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    1. Thanks Andrea, I have visited Christina before, but I will look again. I am a complete beginner to growing hoyas so I suppose I should find a website with more hands-on growing advice for beginners – I will need it!
      I am glad you liked the name for my garden – I think people put different meaning into the word and that’s perfectly fine, to me it means: the gift of finding the things we did not even know we were looking for – whilst looking for something else. And I hope visitors have an experience like that when they are visiting my garden.

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  18. What a great name for your new garden! I really enjoyed this post. I like peculiar words, too. Here is one, a colloquialism in my region of the US, but I bet you have't heard it: catywampus. It has a variety of meanings from unexpected to off-kilter to joyful or full of glee. Not a bad description for a garden, either!

    I love the plants in your woodland area. 'Blue Zebra' is amazing! It is great to see so much progress in your garden; it is all coming together!

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    1. Thanks for the new word, great!
      I have obviously not heard it, but there are many words that are specific for American and British English. And even in English we have words specific for regions not used in other parts of the country. By the way, have you hear the expression ‘Chin Wag’ - this is another word for a Chat. You can probably tell why!

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  19. I had to chuckle at the previous comment, I was also going to mention a word my S. Carolina mother used, catawampus, and she also would say discombobulate. I actually thought she made them up. I read sometime the story of Serendip but forget the details. Your move seems to be going very well, having all that paving instead of all my weedy lawn would really help with upkeep and being able to really enjoy the gardens without spending all your time fighting weeds like I do. The Japanese theme, and the black pots and Japanese varieties, make a beautiful garden, I have a Japanese tree peony just blooming that would fit in. I love your colorful toadstools, they fit so well in a woodland garden, Helene.

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    1. Thanks Hannah, I guess there are LOTS of American words I don’t know! There is a website with British words not much used in US, and I think I know most of them or at least have heard them. I would probably not be able to say the same for a similar list from America!
      Getting control over the weeds was my priority when starting on the garden, as here everything was COVERED in weeds. I use shredded bark and as soon as one area is cleared I cover it with bark. It helps for a number of reasons so the bark is a useful investment. Come back at the end of the month, there will be a movie from my garden then and you will be able to see the garden better :-)

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  20. Love, love, love your garden name, Helene. It is perfect. Now Pam's English Cottage Garden sounds really boring -- you've got me thinking. There are so many beautiful blooms in your April garden. You have created a little bit of heaven there! P. x

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    1. Thanks Pam, glad you like my garden name! I have wanted to give my garden a proper, well descriptive name for ages – even before I moved and got a new garden. I have chewed on the word Serendipity for a long time and although there seem to be just as many interpretations as there are people - I don’t mind, that’s perfectly fine – just as my garden is a different experience for everyone who visit.

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  21. Hi Helene, I am sure you must be stressed about your image problems. I hope you can get it sorted out. When I see how the pictures are displayed I have to wonder if it is a problem I occasionally run into. Sometimes I forget to resize my images properly. They upload fine, but become oversized on the page. It could be some other problem, but I'd check your file sizes just in case.
    On to the post...I love the name of your garden. It's just perfect! The 'Blue Zebra' really caught my eye. So pretty! What a neat shot of the sparrows. Serendipity indeed!

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    1. Thanks Jennifer, it’s all sorted on the blog now – nothing to do with me, just Google tinkering with their settings – again! This time they were applying thumbnails in the popular post widget for people like me who has their photos stored elsewhere, on external servers, before I never got any pictures up next to the popular posts, now I do – but they came up full size! I went on to the forum and a helpful person gave me the CSS code for resizing the thumbnail so I could put it into the advanced settings. Not the first time Google has messed bout with my blog, gives me palpitations every time!!

      If you want to you can now go in and see the rest of the photos that were obscured when you last visited – fortunately this didn’t happen on the 15th when I posted…and I am glad you like my garden name, a lot of thought went into that :-)

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  22. Oh my goodness, Helene, we must be kindred spirits! I read the first paragraph or two of your post and chuckled at some of our stranger English words. And before I clicked on the "read more", I thought about my favorite English word--Serendipity! Yes, I've always loved this word, just the sound of it as well as its meaning. What a perfect name for your garden! I think it would fit my garden as well--though I won't copy it--because so much of my garden seems to be a surprise or a happy accident:) Beautiful spring bulbs. Once again, I'm just amazed at all that is blooming in your garden after such a short time here.

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    1. Hello Rose – I think I also have said before that we must be kindred spirits – can’t remember now exactly about what, but I think it was about what plants to have in the garden, or favourite plants or something like that :-)
      I am glad you like the name for my garden, and I am happy so many people have thought it was a suitable name! I hope I can live up to it and give my visitors many unexpected and pleasant experiences with my writing, photos and videos – which is what I had in mind with the name of the garden.

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  23. Love the name of your garden. I also think of many names for my garden but I do them in my mother language. It would have been interesting if you did it in Norwegian. I heard all those English words before :-). What a beautiful garden you have. You are a talented gardener who can grow such beauties in pots. It's usually very difficult to grow things like fritaliary and bulbs in pots as they rot away.

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    1. I suppose it would have been interesting to come up with a garden name in Norwegian, but then very few people would have understood it so what would be the point? I would have had to explain what the name means, just as I always had to explain what my cat’s name meant as he had a Norwegian name so it was easier to just call him ‘my cat’ when I wrote about him. So for my garden I tried my best to find a word that would be understood in lots of different languages, and Serendipity is a word like that even though the meaning of it might be a bit hard to get :-)

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  24. It's so amazing to see in what short time you created a gardenparadise again. And it is not a bad idea to have plants and shrubs in pots first before planting. You have time to see what your plants are doing before give it it's final place. It's beautiful Helene. Overhere it's still very cold. Nature is far more later then it was for years. Normaly the tulip fields are full in color but it is not at the moment. It's great to see your primula. helas they don't come back in my garden.
    Have a wonderful springtime.

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    1. Thanks Marijke, it’s not only you who has cold weather, over here spring is later than I can remember for many years, and large parts of the country had frost last night! Here in London it was down to 2 degrees C, cold for last week of April. Brrr! We are promised a bit warmer weather next week, hope it comes, about time.

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  25. Your right, naming a house that's perhaps a little on the humble side just does not work. Naming your garden is great though and (Serendipity) really like that.

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    1. Glad you like the name Alistair, I hope you will continue to have many serendipity moments visiting my garden :-)

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  26. Catching up a bit and glad I didn't miss the naming of your garden...a perfect name Serendipity.

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    1. Thanks Donna, glad you liked the name :-)

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