garden – Tales from a Country Garden

Garden Not Open Today!

May 17, 2020 talesfromacountrygarden4 Comments

Today we should have been flinging the garden gate wide open, boiling the kettle, slicing cake and putting plants out for sale – all to raise money for the National Garden Scheme. Sadly due to coronavirus the garden gate is firmly shut and locked and the only tea and cake served here will be for us and three of our adult ‘children’ who are in lockdown with us. There are worse places to be and the last few weeks have seen me gardening more than ever. There are still weeds that have evaded me, I see more each day waving to me from the borders but many have pretty flowers anyway, so some will be allowed to stay for a short while.

Some plants that I envisaged being at their best today have co-operated. Alliums are looking splendid and so far our two springer spaniels have managed not to destroy any of them as they charge round the garden. The spring borders are now full of Geranium phaeum Samobor, Queen Anne’s Lace (cow parsley), Comfrey and bumble bees! All looking just as I anticipated it would before it all slides into disarray next month. The first roses are just opening, Mme Alfred Carriere climbs up and through a partially hollow apple tree and the first couple of flowers are open right at the top. Rosa Gertrude Jekyll is always one of the first to flower and hasn’t disappointed this year. There are many buds on all the roses, promising a lovely display over the next few weeks.

IMG_0007_watermarked — The spring borders, taken over by Geranium phaeum Samobor

IMG_0011_watermarked — Geranium Mary Mottram

IMG_0014_watermarked — A barrel full of hostas – mainly miniatures

IMG_0019_watermarked — Rosa Gertrude Jekyll

IMG_0001_watermarked - Copy — Just some of the plants that would have been for sale

As I won’t be able to sell tea and plants this afternoon I’ll be in the garden anyway – weeding!

For more about the National Garden Scheme open gardens visit www.ngs.org.uk

Successful Open Weekend

June 25, 2019June 25, 2019 talesfromacountrygardenLeave a comment

What a wonderful weekend! The sun shone and it was warm on Saturday with just a little rain late on Sunday – perfect for visiting and enjoying gardens.

We had record numbers of visitors to our garden, counting around 325 visitors. The final total for the group as a whole is not yet known but I think records will have been broken, and importantly money raised for the NGS Charities.

Just a few pictures from the weekend, as we now relax and enjoy the garden ourselves.

IMG_3292_watermarked — Rose Charles de Mills

IMG_3298_watermarked — Papaver somniferum

IMG_3333_watermarked — Papaver rhoeas Mother of Pearl

IMG_3440_watermarked — Erigeron karvinskianus (and a rogue dandelion)

IMG_3281_watermarked — One of the plant sale tables nearly ready

IMG_3365_watermarked — A last check round by one of our canine helpers

IMG_3423_watermarked — And a final check for moles before the gates open!

Open Weekend

June 19, 2019June 19, 2019 talesfromacountrygardenLeave a comment

Not long now and our open weekend will be upon us. Saturday/Sunday 22 and 23 June 1-6pm, more details http://www.ngs.org.uk (Astley Country Gardens, Worcestershire)

We wanted rain and now we’ve had plenty of rain, what’s needed now is a little more warmth and sunshine! Plants are growing well and full of buds ready to open to greet visitors at the weekend. Here is just a taste of the garden at the moment.

IMG_3087_watermarked — “The gardener” hard at work

IMG_3089 - Copy_watermarked — “Help” from a friend

IMG_3147 - Copy_watermarked — Peony Monsieur Jules Elie

IMG_3187_watermarked — It’s a cat’s life!

HAPPY NEW GARDENING YEAR

January 4, 2019January 9, 2019 talesfromacountrygarden4 Comments

A mild start to 2019 has seen us eager to make changes and improvements to the garden. The orchard is bounded on three sides by a native hedge, two sides we planted around ten years ago with a mix of hawthorn, hazel, viburnum and blackthorn and the third adjoins the lane and is mostly hawthorn. This latter hedge is very sparse at the base, filled most summers by nettles and bracken and cut most years by a man in a tractor with a flail (if we happen to spot him in the village cutting other hedges). Although this method of hedge cutting gets the job done and instantly “tidies up” a straggly hedge we are never happy with the “chewed ends” on closer inspection. This is the year to lay the hedge properly, my husband and younger son have made a good start and there are heaps of prunings all across the orchard awaiting disposal. A bit of clearing up first I think before the next stretch is laid. We will feel very on view to the walkers of the village and their dogs for a year or two but hopefully we will end up with a much thicker hedge with growth all the way from the base rather than just a thicket at the top. Two more hedges to go in following years ……

With all this activity going on with the hedge, I have not been idle. Grass clippings from the orchard have been piled up in the corner underneath the hedge for years and are now well rotted. This heap is high and could give the dogs a launch pad for escape over the hedge so my task has been to start digging away this compost and barrow it away to use as a thick mulch on both the asparagus bed and a new bed filled with autumn flowering plants and grasses. I have yet to decide whether it is better to fill the barrow too full and do fewer journeys or half fill it and do more – I walked nearly two miles back and forth with a too full barrow one afternoon as it was.

This morning there is a sharp frost (minus six degrees), so maybe no digging today. However there is plenty to enjoy in the garden with Snowdrops now flowering along with the first Hellebores, Cyclamen and Iris unguicularis. Winter flowering shrubs are in flower including Viburnum bodnantense Dawn, Lonicera purpusii and Hamamelis, all with a lovely scent.

The garden is open for the National Garden Scheme in June along with others in the village. There is at least one flower bed that needs a complete overhaul before Spring not to mention the vegetable garden. No time for slacking!

A Hot Garden …

July 19, 2018July 31, 2018 talesfromacountrygarden2 Comments

..but how I long for a green garden! After weeks of blisteringly hot, dry weather I can’t be the only gardener who anxiously watches the weather forecast for even a hint of rain. In fact to be fair it did rain last Friday afternoon for a couple of hours but it didn’t make any difference at all. Two waterbuts (out of six) are empty and the others are running very low, but the rain made absolutely no difference to their levels. At first it was a novelty using a hose and waterbut pump to empty bathwater onto the flowerbeds but I’m now getting tired of dragging the hose and pump upstairs. In fact I’m not even sure that it makes that much difference to the plants but as I leave the hose on the earth rather than spraying the water around I hope that the water is sinking in.

Of course it’s not all bad, how could it be, what a treat to be able to sit out in the garden late into the evening watching the bats flying round and not to need a jumper. Another bonus has been the sheer number of butterflies in the garden – there are just clouds of them. We are currently seeing many Cabbage Whites, Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers, along with Common Blue, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell and the odd Brimstone.

There are plants that are valiantly flowering including a very persistent perennial Helianthus. The flowers are lovely but what a thuggish plant! It has taken over a large flower bed even though I have spent the last two winters digging and pulling out every bit of root that I can find and burning it. There it is though in all its glory just as vigorous as ever and funnily enough it seems to relish the heat, lack of rain and rock hard soil. Maybe I should just let it take over the whole garden! Phlox also seem to be coping in the conditions. Phlox White Admiral is just coming into flower and around the garden various other varieties in shades of pink and purple are also doing well. Bronze fennel loves the heat, a self sown plant at the corner of one of the outbuildings is doing really well and attracting plenty of bees and hoverflies. Eryngium “Miss Wilmott’s Ghost” is a plant I have long coveted. I can’t count the number of times I have sown seed and nurtured the seedlings only for them to disappear without trace. Two years ago I had what I decided was a final try. Seed was sown and left in a tray outside on a potting bench and ignored. After a year I saw seedlings but thought they would probably turn out to be weeds of some sort, however I persevered, pricked them out and potted them on. They didn’t grow that well in the pots but I decided to stick them in the ground and let them take care of themselves – well they did and this year they look splendid. Not huge but good enough and hopefully they will start to seed around and luckily I planted them in the bed that has grasses so they look just right!

A real surprise in this hot weather is how well hydrangeas are doing. They are a recent discovery of mine – it has taken me years to decide I like them. Now I love them and we have several, many purchased at a plant auction a couple of years ago. A specialist nursery was closing down and selling off its stock and we managed to secure a number of small named hydrangeas. I didn’t have a clue what any of them would be like and it was a bit of a gamble as we have free draining sandy soil. Some are currently being grown in containers while we decide the best place for them and others are already enjoying a spot in the garden. If they start to wilt a little a quick drench with a watering can soon perks them up.

Hydrangea aspera Peter Chappell (above and below) note the lovely large leaves which are slightly felty to the touch.

Hydrangea macrophylla Selina (above and below)

For now though a bit more watering, although the weather forecast this evening did mention rain for tomorrow, however whether we see any here remains to be seen. Fingers crossed!!

Peonies

June 14, 2018July 31, 2018 talesfromacountrygarden2 Comments

Peonies are definitely my favourite plants in the garden at the moment, closely followed by the roses. The peonies have been in flower for weeks it seems and just keep going. The scent coming through the open sitting room window from Peony Monsier Jules Elie (the huge pink one in the photos) is so strong. The double white is Duchesse de Nemours and the beautiful deep red one is possibly Karl Rosenfeld. My favourite though is the single white flowered variety – it was bought as Duchesse de Nemours which it obviously isn’t but what a find! It is such a clear white and the scent is amazing. A quick search on the internet shows that it might be called White Wings, but who knows. Sadly it only has one flower this year, I think many years of mulching the flower bed caused the plant to be too deeply planted and it didn’t flower at all last year. Last autumn I dug it up and replanted it and it has grown better, I will be careful not to mulch too deeply round it in future and hopefully with patience (mine!) it will be covered in flowers again in future years.

Then the roses. We have sandy soil which is not ideal for roses, but we have planted old fashioned shrub roses mainly and picked those which are meant to be good for poor soil. This year they are flowering so well, I am hugely impatient, not good for a gardener, but the wait for masses of flowers has been worthwhile. The photos show Rosa Louise Odier, Gertrude Jekyll and Charles de Mills. My absolute favourite though is Rosa Tuscany Superb which is only just starting to flower. There won’t be so many blooms on the plant this year as the shrub was moved last autumn, it has survived and is growing but I will have to wait patiently for it to go back to its former glory. Last year we planted two roses in huge terracotta pots – both David Austin roses recommended for growing in pots. Rosa Olivia Rose Austin was a must as we have two daughters with middle names Olivia and Rose and Rosa Desdemona which is a beautiful creamy white with an amazing scent. Both are growing really strongly and a perfect addition to the garden.

Who knows what will be my favourite plant in a week or so – I can’t wait to find out!

May days in the garden

May 23, 2018July 31, 2018 talesfromacountrygarden4 Comments

The garden is absolutely sparkling in the May sunshine. Everywhere you look plants are growing so well, possibly the best the garden has ever looked at this time of year. Plantings are now starting to mature and fill their spaces, meaning that from a distance weeds are barely visible. Plenty there but only to be found on close inspection! The pink Clematis Montana growing on a pergola is looking stunning, and who knew that the flowers had a perfume? It’s something I’ve only become aware of this spring. The rose in the large terracotta pot by the clematis is ‘Desdemona’, a white English Rose which is growing well and now in flower too.

In the orchard the fruit trees have been absolutely laden with beautiful blossom, and have never looked prettier. Looks like we will have a good crop of apples in the autumn.

Wildlife in the garden is important to us and having had a pair of Mandarin ducks visit on several occasions we were thrilled to discover they had a nest in a hollow tree close to the house. What a cosy spot to choose. A couple of weeks ago four Mandarin drakes visited and spent around half an hour waddling round the garden, what a lovely sight but the dogs were frustrated at having to wait a while for their walk! This week we caught sight of mother duck waddling along the hedgerow with around 6 ducklings following behind. What a treat, and we nearly missed seeing them. Let’s hope they enjoyed our hospitality and will return next year.

Gardening books

December 7, 2017July 31, 2018 talesfromacountrygarden3 Comments

“Mother you have the National Collection of Gardening Books!”. This announcement came from youngest son recently having been asked to help me look for a book that had gone AWOL. Of course I was hugely flattered (and amused) but I don’t think his aim was to flatter! The missing book was duly found in the obvious place, the sideboard, then the next question was how do you quantify the national collection. Is it just by quantity or by having every book written by certain authors or every book on a particular topic. I set about counting the books, starting with the sideboard – 51 in there – and got to a total of 345 which I found slightly disappointing. I thought I had more! Then we found another one propping up the end of the sofa – that one obviously isn’t a favourite!

Having satisfied himself that I had too many gardening books son went off to do homework and I started thinking about it even more. One of the very first books we bought was the RHS Gardeners Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers at the huge cost of £25 (this was nearly 30 years ago). I treasured this book, and still do, and used to sit poring over the pages of photographs trying desperately to learn the names of everything. I started to acquire “text books” that would tell me what to do and when, all very useful and of course we all dip into them to check things out. However it was the purchase of Geoff Hamilton’s Ornamental Kitchen Garden and Geoff Hamilton’s Cottage Gardens that really inspired not only our gardening adventures but also my love of gardening books. So inspired were we by these two books that one winter with eldest son aged two and a half years and eldest daughter aged four months we dug up the entire garden (approx size 60ft x 25ft) and transformed it into a “cottage garden”. Hard work but fun and who cared what the neighbours thought as we carried on digging and laying turf in the half dark once the children were asleep. Checking the book shelves I seem to have many books with “cottage garden” in the title which probably indicates my gardening style.

Of course I was always being recommended books I should read. Both Mother and Mother in Law would recommend “We made a Garden” by Margery Fish. I tried to read it and enjoy it and just didn’t, however my next theory is that you “grow into” certain books and authors. Certainly the case with me and “We made a Garden” is now a firm favourite and indeed I think I have most written by Mrs Fish including “Gardening on Clay & Lime”. Not the most useful book for someone with acidic sandy soil, but a good read nonetheless! I have also come to appreciate and love the books of Vita Sackville-West, Christopher Lloyd, Beth Chatto and Gertrude Jekyll amongst others.

Some of the older gardening books almost cross the line into social history books too as they give an insight into how gardening life has changed immeasurably as society changes.

My absolute favourite books though are the ones written by people charting the making of their own gardens. Always enjoyable and inspiring me to get outside and do something about the muddle. One I happened upon by chance many years ago in the local library was “The making of an English Country Garden” by Deborah Kelloway. I read it, enjoyed it , returned it but could never find it in the library again. I was thrilled a few years ago to find a copy of this book in a second hand book shop in Hay on Wye, so now it is in my “collection” and treasured. One more favourite – so many to choose from – is “The Ivington Diaries” by Monty Don. I never feel that I have “done it all wrong” and must start again when I read this book, it inspires and entertains in equal measure. It reassures me that even if I don’t garden by the text book it will probably be ok or if it does go wrong there is always next year.

So a National Collection, definitely not but a Personal Collection – Yes.

A Welcome Drop of Rain … and more favourite flowers

July 13, 2017August 6, 2017 talesfromacountrygarden1 Comment

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The garden has been baking for the last few weeks with hot temperatures and no rain, however what a difference a day makes. A day of gentle warm rain has rescued plants that had been looking very sorry for themselves. Cans of water help but not in the way that rain does. In the last week the only gardening I have accomplished is deadheading and then only out of the glare of the midday sun. With the much longed for rain the garden now looks bright and fresh again and hopefully plants will recover and flower well. Dahlias are getting into their stride, the best at the moment is Rip City which is a very strong grower with lovely large double deep crimson flowers. I took a chance last winter and left this one in the border with a thick mulch of garden compost and it is growing better than ever. The tuber of the main plant has got so large it’s hard not to damage it if I dig it up to store overwinter so this one will stay in the garden but I will lift a couple of smaller Rip City plants later in the year to store in the shed “just in case”. I’ve also grown Dahlia Bishops Children from seed this year, plants in the borders are struggling a little but I have planted a large container with several and these are flourishing and just starting to flower.

Crocosmia Lucifer is a beautiful stately plant, it is planted next to Stipa Gigantea and currently looking stunning. This is my favourite crocosmia and well worth its place in the garden, which is more than I can say for the rather ordinary crocosmia often referred to as Montbretia. I laboriously dug a huge clump of this up last autumn, it wasn’t flowering and had completely taken over a peony. I now find it is growing rather well on top of one of the compost heaps, but still not flowering!

On the edge of a raised bed are two huge clumps of oregano with white flowers, not particularly showy but favourites nonetheless, mainly due to the insect life they attract. Currently these plants are literally heaving with dozens of honey bees, bumble bees, butterflies and other insect life. I’ve been privileged this morning to sit on the grass right next to these plants observing the industry of the bees. They are so intent on their work that they have completely ignored my presence and I haven’t been stung. I won’t stay close for too long though, you never know when they may change their minds … ! My photography skills are not up to capturing an image that does justice to the sheer hard work being carried out by these bees, however I was pleased to photograph a Small Copper butterfly making a brief visit.

Penstemons are short lived perennials and this year some of my older plants aren’t flowering quite so well, although I do always take cuttings so that I don’t completely lose them. A particular favourite is Penstemon Pensham Plum Jerkum which is generally strong growing and has deep maroon flowers. I also grow a pink penstemon which may or may not be Hidcote Pink, P.Bodnant (bluish purple flowers), P.Garnet (deep bright red) and P.Margery Fish (pale blue with hint of purple).

I seem to be amassing quite a collection of Daylilies, ranging in colour from creamy yellow to deep purple. Although each individual flower only lasts a day now that the plants are bulking up we have had daylilies in flower for several weeks. They are all favourites, unfortunately I seem to lose the name labels as quickly as I put the plants in the garden but I can enjoy the flowers without knowing their official names!

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