We started gardening by spreading black plastic under the orangerie and around the area that was to be a woodland walk. Our Bulgarian neighbours were confused – why would we want to do this? We explained in pidgin Bulgarian that we were trying to suppress the weeds that grew like wildfire as soon as our backs were turned. At this time (2005) we could only spend short periods of time in Bulgaria – perhaps three weeks out of every four months. While we were here, we managed to tame the weeds but as soon as we returned they’d be waist high again. The black plastic was worth its weight in gold. Back in the UK, a friend who is a garden designer created a plan for our garden. We arrived back in Bulgaria clutching the plan and began to follow it.

The first thing was to get a path built from the gate to the front door. A path of best fit had been created by our footsteps, so we were clear where to put it. We also needed to create the centrepiece of our garden design, four circular raised beds made from stone from our demolished barns. The area around raised beds had to be covered in black plastic (again), speared with a fork to provide drainage and covered with gravel. This was a huge job. Luckily for us, one of our Bulgarian neighbours is a market gardener and he needed more space. He asked to buy a piece of our land that was outside the walls of our garden. We agreed to trade rather than take money. If he built the raised beds and the path and spread the plastic and gravel, we would give him the land. We legalised the exchange in front of the notary, the work was done and now looks so beautiful that our neighbour has signed his name in the stone and often brings friends to admire his work.

Last November we managed to plant bed 1 of the raised beds with 30 bulbs, tulips, narcissi and daffodils to commemorate our son’s 30th birthday.

In January some of our furniture came over from the UK, including a birdhouse. Our Bulgarian neighbours were astonished – didn’t we know that birds made their own houses in trees?

February was so mild that I bought 12 conifers to plant between the gravelled area and the intended fire pit. My thinking was to create rooms in the garden – something I’ve read about in magazines. However there were only two days of snow in the whole of last winter and the day we’d arranged to collect the trees happened to be one of them.

Fortunately, a few days later, the weather became warmer, so we began to plant. We’d just started when my neighbour arrived; she loves to help and despite living behind a high wooden door, she always knows when I’m in the garden. She took the spade out of my hand and proceeded to dig and plant the trees beautifully, finishing by making a reservoir around the base of each tree for later watering. I was so frustrated that after four trees I wrestled back the spade and began digging inexpertly myself while she looked on, mystified. Eventually the trees were planted and, despite a very dry summer, have survived.

February also brought the blessing of the vine festival in our village. We were able to join in the horo, as we’d been practising, but as for planting the vines, clearly we needed a lot of help. As a result the vines are looking quite good – perhaps we’ll be making our own wine and rakiya next year.

February was a busy time because it was then that we realised that the gravel was looking quite Zen-like but rather bare, so we planted some grasses, hostas, a groundcover plant, a buddleja and a spirally grass called Corkscrew Rush. Out of all of those, the grass (whose name I can’t remember) has done wonderfully well, the hostas have died off, the groundcover plant has not covered much ground, the buddleja is magnificent and the spiral grass looks very puny, but I’m going to give it another chance.

Alongside the path, I planted lilac trees on one side and six euonymus Emerald and Gold on the other side. The lilacs have done well, but the Emerald and Gold are looking a little bedraggled. I have to tell you that these trees were planted by me alone just as dusk was falling!

In March we really got going with the raised beds and planted:
Bed 1 with thyme, lobelia, myosotis and leontopodium.
Bed 2 with six lavender plants and seeds plus a few pinks.
Bed 3 – not sure. These plants came from a neighbour and despite trying, she can’t get me to understand exactly what they are, but they produce the most beautiful yellow flowers. I also planted thyme in the centre together with two alpine plants – these were a mistake as the other plants have overwhelmed them – I’m going to transplant them in my rockery when I’ve created it.
Bed 4 – a big mistake here. I tried to plant herbs without the benefit of my neighbour’s help. I had just stepped out of the house and could see her coming up the path, so I quickly scattered parsley, basil and borage seeds everywhere – she was appalled and said I should have planted them in lines. It turns out that she was right, as bed four is a jumble of plants. Next year I will let her help, if she still wants to.

Our final piece of work before going back to the UK in March for a few months was to seed a lawn. Again we confused our neighbours: why would you want a patch of grass – you have no animals? We weeded, rolled and smoothed the land and scattered rye grass. Some friends and neighbours managed to keep it alive in the driest summer for years and now we have a lawn, albeit patchy, and in need of some infill seed.

Alongside the lawn we’ve planted a border of dogwood, forsythia and margaritas that are doing really well. We also planted seeds – gypsophila, petunia, matthiola (stock), shasta daisy and heather, of which the gypsophila and heather have survived, so much for my carefully planned border. I’ll try again next year.

Since returning to Bulgaria in late August, we’ve been clearing a patch of ground (no sight of helpful neighbour for this!) where we’ll plant a wildflower meadow. We’ve been on foraging expeditions for wildflower seeds and have lots of plants drying out in the summer kitchen. I’m told autumn is a good time to sow a wildflower meadow in order to get colour in early summer. It’s also a good time to seed lawns (must buy more seed to fill in the bare patches) and to plant shrubs – hope the bamboo I’ve put in the gravelled area does well.

We’ve also been working on the orangerie; it’s slowly taking shape. We’ve created four beds and sown 100 strawberry plants – looking forward to those already. How do they survive the snow? And we’re using the frame of the orangerie to create a Contemplative Walk. However as the frame is quite low the walk may only be suitable for short people. Watch this space!