![\"Lily](\"https:\/\/www.kergudon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Lily-ot-Valley-Brittany-Holiday-Cottage.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWe are very lucky at Kergudon to have a little bit of land as the gardens which will become our area of focus when we have completed all of the work in the g\u00eetes themselves. We are also very fortunate that the grounds are effectively a blank canvas that we can work with and create something amazing to add colour and interest.<\/p>\n
We are conscious that we need to live here for a while before we make big decisions in terms of planting as once done, things are there for a long time. You will have seen from last week\u2019s blog <\/a>that we have planted 20 hanging baskets which will provide fabulous colour in the summer but we have also started to plant a number of other items either as stop-gaps or things we can work around. These include some new hedging to fill the gaps created when we cut back the hedges in February (and we have taken many cuttings to plant next year); some hostas and a new yucca in the front bed which we are planning to make our \u2018tropical jungle\u2019; as well as planting multiple bedding plants (those left over from the baskets) and bulbs as we re-discover or re-create flower beds.<\/p>\n There are some existing plants a number of which we know, hydrangeas and laurels which are ubiquitous in Brittany, others we don\u2019t such as a triffid like plants which grow amazingly quickly and make huge bamboo like stems at the end of the year \u2013 anyone able to provide a name? We were always amazed at the number of song birds we had in our tiny garden in London, helped we always suspected by living equidistant from 3 of south London\u2019s commons (Clapham, Wandsworth and Tooting.) However, it is nothing compared to the number and variety of birds we have here and the noise they generate throughout the day \u2013 more so since we have re-commissioned our bird feeder.<\/p>\n We have seen various finches including bullfinch, chaffinch and greenfinch; numerous tits (stop the sniggering at the back) including blue tits and willow tits; nuthatch; lapwings; jays; swallows; many robins \u2013 including one in Granary; wrens \u2013 including one in the house; blackbirds; sparrows; swallows; herons (flying); but above all, chickens! We have always had chickens on our list of things we would like but we appear to have \u2018adopted\u2019 our neighbour\u2019s four.<\/p>\n Having watched \u2018Chicken Run\u2019 (again) recently I think Aardman were onto something. Among Olivier\u2019s quad there is a Ginger who is both bold and curious and where she leads the others follow. She watched very closely when David was digging a new flower bed Most exciting, we have residents in some of the nest boxes I put up earlier in the year so hopefully we will see chicks in a few weeks. The sparrows seem to prefer nesting in the nooks and crannies of the buildings.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Some of the plants have been planned, most have self-set such as camellias and rhododendrons which enjoy the acid soil. Either way we think this year will be a year of discovery to see what grows where and when and see if we like it enough to keep, train or remove it.<\/p>\n<\/a>; and they are all now very interested in the flowers we have planted in the bed; interested too in the work we are doing in the Hayloft (perhaps we should have called it Chicken Coop!); <\/a>and after a long day scratching and generally doing nothing they relax by sitting in the dirt in our newly discovered garden (David having dug out the spoil inside a buried wall and gaining an additional 10 feet of garden.) <\/a>They have attempted to venture into the house but we have managed to cut them off \u2013 generally.<\/a><\/p>\n