Welcoming our friend, Summer to the porch.

As the debate continues about who pays Buyer Agents I want to take time out to welcome a visitor who has been gone since the end of last September – Summer! I was beginning to despair that we were becoming a nation of raincoat and welly wearers and that we would never have another BBQ, when finally the sun came out and warmed my front porch, making it a lovely spot to sit with a cup of tea. We live in a small circle with 12 homes that all face a central green and we have beautiful, lush trees and some nice plantings. Early spring was beautiful with many varieties of blossoms lasting several weeks, then came the glorious lilacs and azaleas, and now they have all given way to lots of green – and lots more green!

I absolutely love the trees – I am a wannabe tree hugger! Around here they are glorious, especially on a blue sky day with a little breeze and right now they have the freshness of late spring.

All that greenness does a great job of keeping the temperature down and absorbing Co2. In a future blog I will have a few tips to share on being kinder to our planet but for now I miss English gardens terribly. If you follow me on Facebook I post pictures of glorious gardens full of color because they make me happy! In an effort to recreate a little of that I visited a garden center last weekend and bought plants and herbs to put in pots on my porch so I will always have color to look at when I am out there with my tea.

As the summer progresses we will add to these so hopefully we will end up with a little slice of horticultural heaven on the front porch by the end of August. We don’t have a garden of our own so my husband is lovingly growing tomatoes in a big pot that compliments my flowers and herbs. I grow basil so between us we have the makings of the freshest tomato salad around!

I want to give a shout out to two local garden centers – Weston Nurseries in Lincoln and Stow Garden Center in Stow – both in Massachusetts. I have yet to find one like those in England that are open year round and often have cafes and well stocked, good quality gift shops. There I can buy real waterproof wellington boots for 20 pounds instead of $70 here! To be fair we do not have a 12 month growing season here in New England so I imagine that you might find these in more southern states – if you know of some and want to share I would love to hear from you.

If you love gardening and subscribe to Britbox you can find the ultimate gardening program called Gardener’s World. Monty Don and his friends bring tips and advice in a real world of gardening and each program is a feast for the eyes! Many of the ideas can be used in our gardens, just a little later in the calendar. Another tip – if you are visiting England go in May and book tickets ahead of time for Chelsea Flower Show – what a treat!

The moral of this shaggy dog story is that you can still have a nice garden even if you don’t have a yard – a porch or a balcony can be just as beautiful and if you have photos to share I would love to see them.

In the meantime I wish you a happy and safe summer and I will update you soon on the progress of the tomatoes!