A gardener's garden page

17:12:41 o'clock BST
Feeling Frustrated

This web log page just will not display photos any more.

This one, on the other hand, will: Garden Page

Please change your Favourite pages accordingly: hope to see you over there!

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13:35:22 o'clock BST

Wow, a weekend off and I shot down to the Cotswolds to spend it with other folks from AOL near Wooton-under-Edge.

We stayed at Tortworth Court, a wonderful hotel with great gardens. I have photos to prove it but cant get them to appear on this page for some reason best known to those with expertise beyond gardening....which is a pity, because I have a shot of a most unusual tree called Tetradium daniellii.

In addition to the odd rarity, the hotel grounds hold a collection of very large, old trees ranging from Cedars and other conifers to cut-leaved Beech, Liriodendron and many others.

Leyhill Prison, the guys who do so well at Chelsea Flowers Show each year, was just next door and the tree collection extended into their grounds. I popped around to check them out and came away from their farm shop with an Echium pinatum to replace the one I bought in Devon a year or so back.

On the way home I hoped to look in on a garden down there: Hidcote perhaps. But after I had got up late, had a relaxed breakfast and driven aimlessly (I forgot to take a map!) through the Cotswolds for a while in beautiful weather and stopped off in Hook Norton for a pint and a sandwich, it was time to think about getting back for Sunday dinner. Well, you have to, don't you?

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14:04:14 o'clock BST

A weekend at work as usual, but it was a good one: I presented four new designs to clients, booked three appointments and confirmed a new landscape contract that will keep a team in work until mid October.

On Monday Chantal and I split office duties so I spent the morning in the front garden with the dog, getting the weeding done at long last.

The photos are from the back garden though: purple Sage used as very effective groundcover, our new Hydrangea arborescens Annabel in flower against a background of purple Elderberry and Rudbeckias.

The Aster shot is from work, with a path of Travertine stone behind. Walking the dog this morning in the field by the office I came back with a handful of Field Mushrooms: yummy. It's going to be a good season for them so we'd better start freezing mushroom soup now.

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14:01:21 o'clock BST
Hearing Aretha Franklin

Funny weather, or what?

Cool and alternating sun and heavy rain: today just overcast, but not at all the feel of August. My son says it's always sunny for Reading Festival so it should be fine, but heavy rains prevented us working for a large part of last week. Not good: we need to bank a little fat to get us through the winter and we wont at this rate.

I have half a dozen garden designs to present to clients over the bank holiday weekend so I'm being gentle on myself between visits. I have been out in the dsiplay gardens clipping hedges of Santolina, Box and Lavander which line some of the pathways. Easy work and I now smell like a Poodle Parlor.

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09:40:38 o'clock BST
Hearing David Gray (Sessions@AOL)

Yesterday was quite a busy one: prepared plans for the landscapers as we are starting a new garden in Stevenage on Monday. This takes quite a while. The plans we provide clients with are different to those the landscaper needs. He wants measurements, marking out guidelines, constructional drawings, technical specifications and other details which just get in the way of clarity for the presentation drawing the client recieves.

That done I then polished off a planting plan for a client in Welwyn Garden City. These are fun but tiring to produce, designing a scheme to look attractive through 12 months of the year, which work on both a technical and an aethsetic point of view.

Finally, I shot off to Luton to do a gardening slot for BBC Three Counties radio. I rather enjoyed that and rumour has it I may be doing it every month. It all adds a bit of colour to my working day.

Did you know, an anogram for garden designer is "deranged singer"? Having met a few 'change of career' designers in my time, that seems quite appropriate....but I digress.

The last entry showed a few more snaps from my garden, none of which I explained, so here goes.......

1. This shows the rather unusual Buddleja lindleyana, next to the grass Pennisetum villosum (they say its tender but it does fine with me) and a new planting of Crocosmia Emily McKenzie at the back, before the eye drifts off into the shelter belt.

2. Perenial Salvias, a favourite of mine: S. uliginosa at the back with S. hians in our raised bed.

3. The translucent purple red leaves of Cotinus Grace, poking out of Carex testacea, a sedge from New Zealand that seeds itself rewardingly around the garden.

4. More grasses, this time Phalaris arundinacae Feesey, a great plant covering the ground and keeping the weeds down under a Hawthorn tree. Anyone who has Hawthorn will tell you how hard it is to grow anything underneither: so here's your answer.

5. Finally, a shot taken at the new pool by the office: Lobelia Queen Victoria.

Ok then, back to work. First I must tidy up a design for a client who is coming to see it tomorrow, then its back in the car to survey a front garden in Walkern, followed by a visit to quote for a patio in Luton....

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15:29:33 o'clock BST
Hearing Jeff Buckley

As regulars will know, Wednesday and Thursday is our weekend. Yesterday we packed off after breakfast in the garden to walk the dog en famile up to the chalk downs above Barton Le Clay. Its lovely up there. You follow a path from the ancient church up a valley cut by a babbling brook which erupts from the chalk a mile or so further on.

A great picnicing spot, we chose to push on up to the top, with Pixie the Poodle covering miles chasing rabbits as we walked. After three years of operations, to see Chantal hiking on what would be a tough climb for most, is a joy. All the way we were admiring Campanula in two species and many other flowers I could not identify.

Two hours later and I was back in the garden, weeding and watering while Chantal and David were preparing lunch: home made Prosceta, salads (some from the garden), cold meats and a bottle of wine.

The afternoon was also spent in the garden and I planted some Iris germanica Raja in a bed next to Salvia officinalis Purpurea and Miscanthus sinensis Zebrinus.

We also found time for a game of boules and a run around with Supersoakers: this was a good day and at night a large yellow full moon came out. We would have eat diner outside, but I had AOL chat duties to perform and the footie was on.

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11:41:34 o'clock BST

We planted a grape vine this year, with the intention of using it to create shade for summer lunches. We already have a grape in the parterre garden and are gradually training and pruning this to cover the garage wall. This is a Madeline Angevine, an early-fruiting variety for eating or wine making. It is a popular variety with English vineyards (including Three Choirs) but originated in the Loire region of France in the 50’s. Like apples, I gather it needs cross-pollination by another grape variety flowering at the same time to bear good crops of fruit and I am hoping the new planting will be close enough to be of service in this respect

 

I often suggest grapes for pergolas: they cast a light shade when you need it at the height of summer and can be pruned back hard to allow light through in the winter. Grapes are fully hardy in this country but we are at the northern limit for fruit production. It is best to select early-fruiting varieties in our climate and provide a warm, sheltered spot if at all possible. This will also help prevent disease problems.

 

Of course, there is much to enjoy in a Grape plant even without fruit: they have attractive leaves that develop good autumn colours and bring a touch of the Mediterranean to even the most miserable of English summers. Plant hunting for a client yesterday I returned with a purple-leaved form and Vitis coiggnetiae, well known for its huge leaves and the brillient orange and crimson colours of the fading leaves.

 

Fruits, in a range of shades of blue-black or yellow green are also attractive and have potential for eating, cooking or wine making, of course.

 

If like us, you tend to holiday in areas with winemaking traditions, you might be tempted to bring a plant back with you and you may be disappointed. Successful fruiting varieties are generally bred for the purpose in Northern Europe rather than the sunnier South. Growing from seed is also likely to be unsuccessful in terms of fruit and proven varieties are propagated by grafting or from cuttings. They can be bought in  garden centres but for the widest range specialist nurseries are best and most sell plants by mail order. Worth a Google search, I would have thought.

 

Pruning puzzles or scares off many gardeners from growing grape vines. In commercial vineyards a number of techniques are used depending on tradition, climate or harvesting technique. The essential point to remember is that vines fruit on new growth made each year and these shoots should be encouraged to grow well and in the open.

 

In the case of our pergola I propose training a shoot up one of the four posts to the top bar and along this bar to the far side. New growth will be allowed all the way along this horizontal vine and encouraged to grow across the top of the square “roof” of the structure to provide the shade we seek. At the end of the year, after leaf fall, the new growth will be cut back to within a couple of buds of the main vine, which the following season will break and grow across the pergola again.

 

I suspect this seating area will not provide fruit for wine-making although wine will undoubtedly be consumed in its shelter. Perhaps this is the ideal garden feature, providing a little time for pottering and a great deal of time for relaxing. Cheers!

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13:46:16 o'clock BST

Box hedging has undergone an extraordinary revival over the last few years, partly fuelled by an interest in the restoration of historic gardens. European nurseries have provided topiary shapes and instant hedges at reasonable cost, while designers have seen an opportunity to create unique layouts or reproduce period gardens in modern materials

 

Parterres in the French style were at the height of their popularity for more than 200 years and consisted of tightly trimmed low hedges in geometric shapes. These were highlighted by coloured gravel or displayed in combination with other low-growing plants. Early examples included those of the French royal gardens at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Fontainebleau and reached a climax with those of the Versailles. The English knot garden was a variation on this, with patterns clipped to give the impression of platted or knotted strands of planting. Locally, fine parterres can be seen at Hatfield House and WrestPark

 

While other plants have been used throughout the centuries, Box, in the form of Buxus sempervirens or the dwarf cultivar B.s. Suffruticosa remain the most popular and successful for this form of gardening. Box was thought to be one of the easiest plants to grow and clipped hedges of the plant are known to have survived for a hundred years or more. Events of this decade have seen this view challenged with the decimation of historic and modern parterres by Box Blight, a fungal disease for which there is currently no chemical treatment.

 

We have designed and planted several Box parterres over the years but have also experimented with alternative plant species. In my own garden we have a parterre of Rosemary, a wonderfully scented feature in the centre of which we cultivate herbaceous plants to provide summer colour. I have planted similar features for customers and find it is a good choice where rabbits are a problem: the resinous leaves are unattractive to them.

 

Until recently we grew a number of dwarf hedges here at the office gardens but many were removed to make way for our new pond. We still have Box hedges in association with Roses but also grow Santolina and Lavender, clipped informally – some would say carelessly – allowing the flowers to develop fully. These are not long lived plants at the best of times and when grown in this way should be replaced every 4 or 5 years. Fortunately they both grow easily from cuttings so a rotational replanting should not prove too expensive to achieve.

 

Other suitable plants include green forms of Euonymus, Lonicera nitida and Sarcococca, while colour can be added using purple or yellow leaved Berberis, variegated Euonymus and yellow varieties of Ilex crenata and Lonicera nitida.

 

The formality of the parterre is suitable for many parts of the garden. Courtyards or other enclosed areas can benefit from the formality they provide and awkward shapes from the unifying effect of the strong geometric lines. They can be a stunning in front gardens and for those with a large space to fill create a distinctive “room” to split up the area into more manageable sections. The parterre has much more mileage in it yet and unlike many features is unlikely ever to look dated.

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17:38:04 o'clock BST

Doesn't the garden need the water? Of course, but if it could be arranged so that we get it every night leaving the day for sun shine, that would be ideal.

There is so much work to be done recovering the garden from the neglect of the last few weeks (or months, if I was honest) and progress has been very slow. Motivation is not high, it has to be said.

Many plants are responding well to the cool, with the Magnolia looking particularly good at the moment. This is also the season when the grasses come into their own and we have several patches including Penisetium and this group of Miscanthus Zebrinus, looking very effective alongside the lemon-coloured dwarf Sunflowers. Climber Solanum crispum is also in flower at the moment.

I am tempted to sow a few more lettuce. We are still harvesting small leaves from bolted Little Gem types and have Iceburgs nearly ready. I'd better be quick to stand a hope of having a continuous supply.

I had to go to a nursery this week to buy plants for a garden we are finishing off (if we ever get the pointing done in this weather!) and could not stop myself buying a few bits and pieces for ourselves. Crocosmia are in flower now: we already have Sulfaterre and Lucifer - so I bought a few pots of Mrs McKensie to add some colour to the parterre. Hydrangea arborescens Annabelle was looking too good to resist with huge white flowers but I am not sure where to put it yet. I also bought  Lavatera: amazingly we do not have one in this garden.

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14:41:52 o'clock BST
Hearing James Blunt

"Well, after two weeks away, what's the damage?", I hear you ask.

There have been disasters, but really what can you say? Watering by our son has kept alive plants the would otherwise have died. Of course, I could have done what I said I would and set up the famous holiday pot watering system. But I didn't, so the results are as they are.

The front garden is interesting: Verbena bonariensis going crazy (see photos). They are mostly self-sown seedlings in an area of grasses, intended to add summer interest to a section that comes into its own in the autumn. The Cleomi in the front are also looking good and ingeneral it is a riot of colour. "All good", as young David would say.

In the back there are lots of attractive things going on, together with a fair few suffering for lack of water. The Sunflowers are looking especially attractive and we cut some for the house. In pots, Cannas, which are basically water plants, hace survived well while my Banana plant grown from T&M seed has suffered badly: bit of TLC needed there.

A bed under the Cordyline australis is fine: Perovoskia, Ceanothus and Agapanthus providing a lovely blue understory to the palm. Not sure where the Jacob's Ladder went....Chantal's a bit upset about that as she started them off a few years ago from seed and they have done so well in the past.

An area of pink also: groundcover Rose Surrey and Indigofera in flower against the conservatory wall. Nerines starting to show signs of coming into growth near by.

In the veg garden lettuce planted before we went are beginning to heart up and bush Toms are turning colour. We picked leaves from bolted mini lettuce, broad beans and a yellow French bean variety. Sweetcorn is just starting to flower.

I had just managed to get our shelter belt clean before our holiday. By the time we returned the weeds were chest high: I spent my day off strimming them down again and will follow up with a rotavator shortly.

When we were in France we visited the gardens of the Chaumont Festival. If photos of this interest you, go to my "Gardener in France" web log.

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