When the garden begins to stir...

There is always a moment in spring when the garden seems to change almost overnight. After months of bare branches, damp paving and pots that look as though they may never amount to much, tiny signs of life begin appearing everywhere.

A fresh green shoot here, the first blossom there, and suddenly I find myself wandering outside with my morning coffee just to see what has changed since yesterday.

Our garden is an enclosed Victorian courtyard, sheltered at the back by an eighteen-foot red brick wall almost completely hidden beneath ivy that must have been growing there for decades. I love that sense of age. The old wall and established ivy live happily next to a very old and very large blossom tree and both give the garden a feeling that it was here long before us, and everything we have added has been intended to sit comfortably alongside it rather than make the garden feel new.

A handcrafted timber pergola has become the heart of the garden. Wisteria winds its way across it and onto the old red brick raised beds, while terracotta pots filled with blossom trees, roses and hydrangeas soften the edges. Beneath the pergola sits our garden sofa, somewhere to disappear with a book on a warm afternoon, a pair of chairs and a little table have become our favourite spot for morning coffee. Closer to the kitchen, the dining table is where we eat outside whenever the Scottish weather allows.

Our decades old ivy wall.