This is part of a series of Hubs about my garden.  I do not claim to be an expert, and try to show my mistakes as much as the pretty parts of my flower beds and lawn.

 I live on the south coast on England, about half a mile from the English Channel.  This proximity to the Channel means that my garden is exposed to salt in the air, and occasional high winds.  On the bright side, the weather is usually mild, and heavy frost is rare.

I was away from home for most of May, and as a result the garden got rather out of hand.  I had good intentions to catch up during June.

 The photo illustrates some good and not so good choices I have made.

The tall bright pink flowers are wild gladiolii.  They were here when I moved into this house in 1987.  Every year I pull up any that are in places where I think they are out of place, and the next year more come up.  I believe that if I did not pull them up, my garden might be absolutely full of wild gladiolii and nothing else.  On the whole, I don't mind because I like the colour.

The small pink flower in the lower right hand quandrant of the photo is a wild oxalysis (looks like big clover).  Again, I like the colour but it spreads like mad and is hard to get out all the little bits of corm (tiny bulbs).

On the whole I am happy with my pink and blue colour scheme.

The one really bad choice (in my opinion) can be seen in the upper right corner.  It looks as if there is a brown patch in the flower bed.  It is a yellowy/bronze heuchera, with a name something like 'marmelade'.  It looked delightful in the garden shop, but in my bed it looks as like a dead plant.  I will try moving it this autumn.

 When I am choosing new plants, or decided to let wild plants stay, I am aiming for a colour scheme of shades of pink, with occasional splashes of white or yellow.

The cottinus cogyrius shrub with its dark red foliage provides a good backdrop.

The geranium to the right in this photo is Johnson's Blue.  Sadly it flowers for only a few weeks, but the leaves provide good ground cover, which saves a bit of weeding.

 The cherry tree had an abundent crop this year, possibly because of the unusually wet winter.

Nobody in our house except me likes cherries, so I usually pick a few for myself and then leave the rest for the birds.

This attracted large numbers of starlings, but also some blue tits, sparrows and blackbirds.

I have seen groups of about 8 or 10 swifts overhead, and of course have heard their shrill noise.  They seem to take such glee in their amazing flying skill.

 In the past I would mark the arrival of spring by the appearance of frog spawn in the pond.  Sadly, for at least the past two years, there has been none.  Nor have I seen any frogs.

I wondered if this was due to my cats.  In their young days they delighted in bringing live frogs into the kitchen.  My son and I always tried to catch them and return them to the pond, but occasionally we would find a dead and shriveled frog under the fridge (yuck).

However, in about mid-June I was going out in late afternoon to get the laundry from the line, and paused to look for newts. 

To my surprise, I saw this frog.  I said 'stay right there' to it, and dashed back into the house to grab my mobile phone.  The photo was taken with the phone, which I had to hold out over the water to get a close-up.  Of course i was trying to be a still and quiet as possible, but as you can see I was not entirely still. 

Apologies for the quality of the photo.

 In this area, late May is the best time of year to plant out summer bedding plants.

I was away from home, but tried to catch up in June.  The photo to the left was taken leaning out of a window. 

I bought the plants shown from a church sale.  They are assorted colours, but that is all that was left.    This was a bit of a disappointment, as I like to work to a colour theme.

My intention is to lift these plants into pots at the end of September, and plant tulips in this bed.

I also bought bedding plants from two different plant nurseries, but there was a limited choice at both places that I visited.  As a result, there are still some gaps in my flower beds at the beginning of July.

 The raised area and the pond were here when we moved into the house in 1987.  There are actually 2 ponds, linked by pipe work. I think that the man who built this area intended to install a pump, so that water could flow from the higher (and smaller) pond as  a water feature.

I have never really liked all the crazy paving and concrete, but it would be very labour intensive to remove it.

I have tried to make the best of it by making it into a colourful and slightly wild area.

Likewise, when weeds appear that are pretty (such as these poppies) if they are not too pernicious I try to incorporate them into the garden.

 I started the garden diary series with a Hub in November 2008.

You might like to start with November and work your way through (if you are deeply interested in my garden), or just take a peek back at May.