Belated GBBD

Well I have missed the date for this month’s Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - sorry Carol.  The weather has been so miserable that every time I wanted to take photos it was either raining or blowing a gale.  Anyway this morning I decided to get photos of what I could, some of them wont appear here as it was so windy they wereout of focus but here are some of my favourites at the moment.   The Crocosmia and the Toad Lily (a recent purchase) are among my favourites this week.

This is Sunflower Mezzulah F1 - I have grown it as part of a seed trial for the BBC Gardeners World magazine.  It is a dwarf sunflower and this plant, the largest of the 4 is about 4ft tall.  The flower head is much smaller than the usual giant sunflowers but I think I prefer it on this scale.

This is my favourite annual - Rudbeckia.  This year I am growing Rudbeckia Cappuccino.  I love these annual Rudbeckias, the colours vary across the plants and the petal have such a velvety quality.  They are great as cut flowers and seem to keep producing flowers right up until the frosts.  I think they are very underrated.

Slightly out of focus I know but I love the steely blue of these Eryginiums

My Ligularia is looking fab at the moment.  It is a huge plant now and I am wondering whether I should divide it and for that matter how I divide it!  Also wondering if division is the only form of propagation or whether I might try and collect some seeds from the gorgeous flowers.

      

On the left is Knophia Toffee Nose - I bought it recently because of the name!  Also because it is much more delicate looking than some of the Knophias.  It is destined for the bank border that I am currently working on - well when its not raining that is!  On the right are some Ostrich Plume Asters which I have grown from seed the last couple of years.  I think they are very pretty and they last quite a long time as cut flowers.

Of now to beg forgiveness from May Dreams about being nearly a week late with my August GBBD entry!

Wordless Wednesday - 20/8/08 The only sunshine I have seen recently

What to do on a wet summer’s afternoon

With the UK summer being a complete wash out this year with rain almost everyday and low temperatures it was a relief to discover a garden I could visit without leaving home.  My fellow blogger, VP has set up a virtual open garden on her site in aid of the charity WaterAid.

I was amazed at the quantity and quality of the ‘open garden’ it will take me several visits to absorb all the plants and the garden.   All VP is asking for in return is a donation to her chariity and in return there is a chance to win prizes.  What a great way to spend a wet summer’s afternoon.

Having got in the mood, you can then participate in the Emsworth Village Show set up by EmmaT in conjunction with VP’s open garden.  Here you can enter into a number of different categories ranging from Best flower arrangement, weird shaped veggies to best plate of scones.  I’m planning on entering some scones and maybe a flower arrangement.  But the never ending rain means that my flowers are all soggy!

So if you are wondering what to do while the rain falls why not pop over to VP’s and EmmaT’s sites

A devotee of Mr Lloyd

Today I went with my garden club to visit another local garden.  This is something we do on the third Saturday of the month in the summer.  Generally the visit is a private one and the owner is there to give us a guide which is great.  This month we went to visit Astley Towne House, near Stourport in Worcestershire. 

 

The garden was surprising as it was completely unexpected.  Much of the house is tudor with some of it dating back to 1595 but you go round the corner into the garden and you are in the tropics.  Huge bamboos, bananas some 7ft tall at least, Tree Ferns …… not the roses and cottage garden style I was expecting at all.  The planting was dense and made you feel like you were on the edge of a rain forest.  Here you see the first of the many garden buildings - this one a Gothic summer house very much in the style of one at Highgrove.  In front of the summerhouse there is a small stumpery with hostas and ferns and a gorgeous Bromiliead perched on top of the stumps.

From the tropics you emerge into a warm and bright garden full of Dahlias, Cannas, Sunflowers, Verbenas and Lobelia.  The owner love of colour had been hinted at in the tropical area with red Impatiens and Lobelias used to fill gaps.  Interestingly we are told that we should use white flowers to lighten dark areas but the red flowers really sang out from the shadows.  We concluded that the owner was a devotee of the late Christopher Lloyd style of planting -  all sorts of colours jostling together.  Unfortunately due to the inclement weather my photos do not do it justice.  In this garden there was another garden building - a revolving summerhouse.  I hasten to add that it does revolve all the time but has the capacity for the building to be rotated on its stand (you can just see a corner of the picture above).

Then on to a formal pond with gravel garden.  From here you notice wooden stairs leading up into the trees.  On closer inspection the intrepid amongst us discovered a treetop Safari Lodge complete with colonial tables and chairs and stunning views across the surrounding countryside.  But there was still more amazing things to come.

We were led to the latest project … a grotto in the true Victorian sense of the word.  You crossed over a small stream via stepping stones into a shell encrusted grotto.  The shells formed pictures of dragons and mermains and other  mythical beings.  All lovingly done by the owner.  The floor was covered in fossils and there was a secret passage which led round to an inner water fall.  The imagination of the owners is unbelieveable.

Everywhere is the garden there was strong plantings of Bamboos and unusual shrubs including an Indian Bean Tree and a White Handkerchief Tree.  Finally we came to the back of the house and here the owners have started an arboretum but typically its not any old arboretum, this one has bits of pillar in it and a large stone as a centre piece. 

The whole garden was breathtaking and I would thoroughly recommend it to any one who happens to be in Worcestershire on a day when it is open.

Wordless Wednesday - Globe Artichoke

Going native

I read with interest the other day an article in the Gardeners’ World magazine (July) about growing native plants in our gardens.  The author, Monty Don, questioned why it is that British gardeners are happy to grow plants from other parts of their world in their gardens but we neglect our British natives.  He went on to comment that in many other parts of the world the gardeners embrace their native flora.  I suspect this comment is as a result of his tour of 80 gardens around the world last year.  From what I remember of the series there were not that many gardens totally dedicated to the floral of the country they were in - apart from the botanical gardens such as  Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden in Cape Town and one or two private gardens, such as a beautiful one in New Zealand. 

I thought about this proposition for a while.  I like to think I garden with nature in mind and I have tried hard in recent years to plant in order to attract wildlife particularly butterflies so I try to avoid plants with double flowers as they are nectar poor in comparison to their single flowered cousins.  In the article there was reference to a database where British gardeners could put in their postcode and find out what plants were native to their area.

So off I went and logged into the Postcode Plants Database.  An extensive list of plants appeared for my area.  I quickly realised that those marked GW were the ones considered Garden Worthy.  Having trawled through this list I have come to two conclusions.  Firstly that I haven’t done too bad and have a number of plants in my garden which are native to the area such as a Spindle Tree and Silver Birch that I have planted in the last few years.  Plus I have all the usual suspects such as Primroses, Bluebells, Aquilegas and Valerian.  I am also growing on some Teasal for planting out shortly. So that is all good and a pat on the back for me. 

My second conclusion is that I think the reason many of the plants arent grown in the garden is because they need to be growing in environments which arent found in gardens generally.  For example, there were a number of orchids listed such as the Bee Orchid  - this is listed as garden worthy but its habitat is Chalk quarries and grassland.  I suppose if I had a sufficiently large enough garden I could have a wildflower meadow and then I could grow these but I live on a housing estate so thats just not possible. 

There were no real show stoppers on the list - after all the plants that we Brits love to grow are all from warmer climes.  Dahlias are from Central America, Penstamons and Rudbeckias are from North Amercia, Pelargoniums are from South Africa.  So should we Brits give up the flowers we love in favour of growing natives in order to support our wildlife?  Well I really dont know - from what I can see the wildlife seems to enjoy the Rudbeckias and Dahlias as well are all the other exotics, surely nature has proved itself to be adept at evolving to suit its environment.  Only this winter I have witnessed birds that are classed as ground feeders feeding from the bird feeders even though there was plenty of food available to them on the ground. 

Personally, I think I will keep the list of native plants and study it in more detail to pick out some plants which will add to the overall look of my garden but I will also continue to grow those plants which add colour and interest especially at the end of the summer when the pale British natives are beginning to wane.

The most beautiful veg plot I know

In my last post I gave you a flavour of one of my favourite gardens, Hampton Court in Herefordshire.  A major part of the garden is an ornamental vegetable garden.  It is everything I covert!  The garden is set within the walls of an old kitchen garden and is laid out in a pattern of raised beds.

What makes it so wonderful is the artistic flair that is employed in planting up the raised beds.  Each one is a tapestry of colour and texture.  Each bed is edged with a permanent planting or a wooden board.  In the case of the bed below, nepeta is used as edging and the bed is filled with Carvelo Nero (Tuscan Kale). The Nepeta was absolutely covered in bees and other insects.  I like the way the grey of the Carvelo Nero compliments the grey of the Nepata’s foilage.

In other beds there is a contrast between the foilage of plants as in the bed below. The edging is Lettuce ‘Bughatti’ - I wasn’t convinced it was lettuce but all the beds have labels and thats what it said so I’m prepared to accept this even if it doesnt look very lettucey!  Inter planted with the lettuce is an onion - I suppose the thinking is that as the lettuce are harvested the onions will have more space to grow.  In the middle of the bed is Florence fennel and carrot.  I thought at first that the carrot had been harvested but on closer inspection we could see carrot leaves amongst the fennel.  I thought this was an excellent method of disguising the carrots from the carrot root fly.

The garden is managed organically and there is example after example of good organic practice such as hiding the carrots in the fennel and mixing crops up so that pests cant easily identify a large block of one crop.  There is also extensive use of companion planting, as with the Nepeta mentioned above, to bring in the beneficial insects.

More companion planting above with Calendulas and Cosmos planted around the base of purple podded peas.  I thought this was also a good way of disguising the bare stems lower down. 

Just as you are becoming immersed in the wonderful planting and vegetables, all of which seem very healthy and fairly disease free the path you are following brings you to this centre area of the garden and you remember that you are in the garden of a castle!!  I’m not 100% sure I like these yews in this setting but I suppose it provides a focal point and some structure which is often missing in vegetable gardens particularly in the winter.

The garden was so densely planted with so many different areas you constantly came across surprises.  I particularly liked this tunnel of squashes with Morning Glory providing some colour.  I was surprised that there wasnt more foilage on the squashes all of which had substantial fruit on them. 

This ornamental veg garden challenges the arguement that if you garden organically your veg plot will be a mess with weak, disease ridden plants etc.  This garden is truely beautiful.  The produce was abundant and exciting.  Many of the varieties grown are not your standard ones, they are heritage varities or local varieties. I do wonder whether these old varieties are actually more disease resistant.  Maybe over the years the work done to produce uniform vegetables that crop heavily have reduced the ability to withstand disease and pests.  There was much to learn from this garden - it was truely inspirational and I came aware more determined to try and get more veggies in my garden next year.

One of my all time favourite gardens to visit

This week I managed to find a day when it wasnt raining to visit my favourite garden.  The garden in question is Hampton Court. Not the Hampton Court on the outskirts of London, Henry VIIIs famous palace but a lesser known castle in Herefordshire, close to the Welsh borders.  This garden is only 30 minutes or so from where I live but I havent been to visit for about 4 years.  It always amazes me how much gardens mature in such a short time though why this surprises me I dont know! 

The garden in its current state is a fairly new enterprise with work starting back in 1994.  However there has been a garden of sorts on this site for many centuries.  The original castle was founded by Henry IV in the 15th century as a reward for a knight’s bravery at Agincourt.  The formal gardens which were created in the 18th century where removed in the 19th century in favour of the craze for landscape in the style of ‘Capability Brown’.  However during the later 19th century a rose garden and fernery were added along with a conservatory designed by Joseph Paxton, the designer of Crystal Palace. 

However, as with many great English gardens, it declined after the second world war.  At the beginning of this century the castle came under new ownership and work started to rescue the gardens.  For those of you who read the English Garden magazine you will find a detailed account of this in September’s issue which is out now.

Why do I love this garden?  Well its everything I aspire to but on a grander scale.  It is beautiful and romantic.  There are numerous different areas but it still feels intimate.  You enter via the walled vegetable garden - well vegetable garden doesnt really do it justice but more of that in another post.  The garden is managed organically and most of the vegetables grown are heritage varieties.  From the ornamental vegetable garden you enter the South Garden which is set around two beutiful pavillions with a complex system of ponds and rills around them (see top photo). 

From this garden you can enter the Dutch Garden with its beautiful still pool complete with carp and adorned with pots of Aganpanthus - every time I visit they seem to be in flower.  You can also visit the herbaceous borders (photos in a forthcoming post), the sunken garden, the wisteria tunnel and a stunning maze, complete with tower and tunnel which brings you out behind a waterfall - kids love it here.

Once you have finished drooling over all the plants (and drool you will) you find yourself at the orangery - the one of Jospeh Paxton fame which is now a restaurant.  The restaurant serves local produce and Herefordshire has very good local produce I can tell you.  Above is the view from our table outside the restaurant. The lawns stretch down to the River Lugg - a small and gentle river.  After lunch we went from a relaxed amble alongside the river before retracing our steps through the garden, taking lots more photos and ending up at the nursery - only two purchases made (very restrained!)

I would thoroughly recommend this garden to anyone visiting the area but I am happy to say that as it is abit of the normal tourist route it is never very busy even on a lovely sunny day in the middle of the school holidays. 

 

What is your front garden worth to you?

I was intrigued recently to read a news article in Amateur Gardening magazine about a gardener who accidentally incinerated his neighbour’s front garden.  The article states that the neighbour had a ‘pristine front garden’ and he lost all his trees, shrubs etc.  The photo shows complete devastation (not the one above that’s my front garden!).  How you ask did the gardener do this?  By using a handheld flaming device to burn off the weeds in his driveway!  The article goes onto say that the neighbours have agreed a bill for the repairs.

This got me to thinking how would I feel if my neighbour did this to my garden?

My front garden is far from pristine.  It has only really been planted in the last couple of years and all the shrubs are still fairly small.  I have planted both laurel and beech hedges which are 2-3 years old and just becoming established.  Would I be upset to loose these plants?  I don’t think so apart from the Silver Birth at the front of the garden which my boys bought me as a birthday present some years ago and which has gorgeous white bark in the winter. 

I have been filling in between the shrubs and young perennials with annuals such as the Bidens above and the Cosmos in the earlier picture so these would not be a great loss.

I suppose there would be relief that the house was OK and hadn’t been damaged and that the car hadn’t been affected!  Then I started to wonder would this type of damage be covered by the house insurance?  If so who would decide how to value the damage?  Would it be based on how much I had spent on plants or would it be based on how much it would cost to put right and would this work be done by a contractor? If so could I have a new design, in which case it would be an opportunity to sort out some problems!?  I have read recently that a lot of people don’t cover their outdoor furniture, ornaments etc on their contents insurance and then cant claim for them when they are stolen so would damage to the garden caused by someone else be covered?

Would our trees, shrubs and perennials be valued in the same way as the furniture, TVs, DVD recorders etc? After all some gardeners invest a considerable sum in planting out their gardens not forgetting money invested in hard landscaping.  What if my neighbour and I couldn’t agree a suitable compensation, who would mediate?  So many questions! 

My conclusion to this is that I don’t think either of my neighbours will purchase one of these tools - they aren’t in to their gardening that much so I wont worry about it but I did wonder what others thought and how they would feel about losing their garden due to a neighbour’s incompetence?

Wordless Wednesday - Never enough thyme