The first of March is wet and there’s a cold wind so I was happy that I only needed to climb the stairs to the top of the house to take the images for today’s Long View.
The long view, I can’t wait to begin planting those 3 new beds!
Gloomy view
Colour from the crab apple and the Nandina domestica
The Melia has its yellow berries but looks best against a blue sky
I’m not sure if Heather at Xericstyle is continuing with this meme as she didn’t post last month and didn’t mention it yesterday when she posted. I will carry on posting this view on the first of the month along with my weekly, Thursday, view of the slope as I think we learn a lot from seeing the overall look of an area of the garden rather than focusing in on individual flowers.
No blue sky today, but the colours of the foliage stand out well in the grey light. Everything is growing and on most days there is a definite feeling of spring in the air.
Creating my own garden of the Hesperides 
Your long views are instructive Christina. I will be fun to learn your plans for the new beds.
One will be for cut flowers (a first for me) and the other two will be for vegetables.
The view in your first photo is beautiful, a study in textures. I too like to see long views, I don’t think we see enough of them!
I will try to show some long views every week, not just the Slope which I will continue to feature every Thursday until I’ve shown it for a year, then I’ll choose another view. Maybe you have to be brave to show longer views because then it is harder to hide what really doesn’t work.
The colours and shapes hold up even in the gloom.
Yes, its good sometimes to look at the garden when the weather is grey as it shows what works and what needs to be changed.
glad you could take photos in the warm Christina, I don’t have an upstairs and when I see photos some people post of their gardens from above I wish I could as it really shows the lay out more,
it all looks so lush, I’ve noticed in both your long view and slope posts that there is always plenty of foliage, I know you have a lot of evergreens that stay evergreen through winter (here due to storms and windburn many evergreens are only semi unless planted in a very sheltered position) are most of your shrubs and trees evergreen or are deciduous plants only bare for a very brief month or two?
enjoy planning your new beds while is isn’t suitable to actually do much, Frances
Hi Frances, in today’s view there are lots of evergreens but the rest of the garden is pretty mixed. Most of the trees are deciduous; walnuts, mulberry, Melia, fig, plum and Pommegranite are all deciduous. The evergreens are Arbutus and large bushes of Quercus ilex. Lots of things do green up every quickly even the sedums have their new rosettes of growth from about December.
thanks Christina, after writing my comment I looked again at the photo with the crab apple and decided to view the larger image, it’s still not clear, is the apple the red one and are those apples or flowers, it looks really lovely whatever, I planted 2, 2 years ago, they are growing one quite well, my sedums are just shyly peeping out, Frances
The crab apple is in the foreground of the third image with the Stipa tenuissima blowing about. It still has its fruit. They hang on this one even after the new flowers! I’m even tempted to cut them off just before the new blossom as they rather spoil the look – but who has the time…….
I have to use quite small images on the blog as the internet isn’t very fast. If you ever want to see a particular image I can also send one vis email (just one at a time)!
thanks Christina, I thought it was the fruit but wasn’t sure, they do hold on and it does look nice, thanks for the e mail offer too, Frances
Great mixture of colours and interesting variety. I immediately noticed something had changed in your garden – the three new beds! You have a nice challenge there.
In Hampshire we are seeing our first blooms of the year (camellias, crocus, daffodils, hellebores, etc) which are beginning to relieve the winter gloom! I’ve been busy preparing the garden before our move to Belgium in April. Mark.
Will you have a house with a garden in Belgium? I hope you haven’t had too much bad weather this winter.
So very beautiful! I love the vertical accents and the colorful tapestry of plants that are lovely even at the end of winter. My son was passing by as I was looking at your post, and he said, “Wow!” I am so happy that March is finally here. It is always exciting to see beds ready for planting!
many kind people have used the word tapestry and that gives me so much pleasure. Thanks for telling me anout your son too. It’s nice to think the garden has the wow factor.
I love seeing the long view from your upstairs window Christina!
I was glad I hadn’t chosen a spot outside today it has been colder than for a while and I just checked the forecast and they’re saying two weeks of cold weather – I do hope not.
Enjoy planting up those new beds, Christina! I’m starting to plant 2 new beds of my own, although I’ve been temporarily side-lined by the long-awaited rain that has finally shown up in southern California. I’m continuing my monthly wide view shots as well.
Maybe if Heather doesn’t want to continue you would consider hosting, I already have GBFD and don’t really want to be greedy and do another.
I agree. The long view does give you real perspective on the garden. It’s only this year I’ve been brave enough to do it.. close up shots hide a multitude of sins!
The Stipa around the crab apple look great. I have greenhouse envy too.. so much space!
Yes I am very lucky to have such a large green house; I’m hoping to use it more effeciently this year.
The new beds look very inviting! Like how there’s lots of green around there.
The new beds are ready and waiting to be a cutting flower bed and the for vegetables.
It may seem gloomy because of the sky, but all that green still stands out. It looks very tidy and well-cared for too!
The mild winter means that I am going well with my spring tidy, just a couple of borders left to do. It gives me a good feeling.
The crisp lines of the new beds are striking against the softness of the surrounding countryside.
They are part of the vegetable garden but I hope they will appear softer when they are planted.
Nothing ever looks gloomy to me at your place. I am so envious that you have such a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside…. and all that green, beautiful.
It’s not so green in the summer, everything around me turns brown!
Loved the views from above and those new beds look so promising. 🙂
Good luck with the book!
I’m glad you’re keeping on with the long view, it gives such a nice overview and helps me put the closeups into perspective.
You mentioned needing bravery to show the longer view, I’m not there yet! lol, there’s still too much here that I’d prefer to hide 🙂
I keep saying I will show some other long views and I will.
Christina this is becoming my favorite view. There is so much going on in this view.
Being taken from high up does give a nice wide view.