Blotanical Awards 2009 
Best Garden Art Blog |
If you read my last post, the eagle eyed among you will notice I mentioned my three “Thalia” daffodils, yep, sadly I do only have three.
Yesterday was our local gardening club’s “Spring Show” as I have resolved to become more involved with the club, this year for the first time ever I entered the show and I am happy to report that my daffodils won third prize in the “small cup multi flowered” class!
I also managed to get a third for my three floating hellebore flowers, and a second for my Primula.
Perhaps I am better at the Spring gardening thing than I thought – and I am absolutely buying more daffodil bulbs in the Autumn – there were 7 different classes just for daffodils – who knew they were such complex creatures.
At the end of last year, the time when my garden peaks, both Elizabeth and Kate were full of admiration over the riot of colour and texture that I had right through to the Autumn.
Regular readers will know that I am not very good at “The Spring Garden”. However, last week I picked up Kate, whose meadow is a beautiful sight just now, and I was blown away by the scent of the primroses, they were everywhere and the meadow was like a carpet of jewelled delights. We then drove over to visit Elizabeth, whose hilltop garden was looking wonderful in the Spring sunshine. Elizabeth has planted 100′s of daffodils at the top of her meadow area and I was quite taken by “February Gold” which is a small daffodil with swept back petals, giving it a light and airy feel. I was also entranced by Elizabeth’s side garden – where the blue of the pulmonaria “Blue Ensign” jostled for attention against the red of tulips, against a background of hellebore – this was a sparkling combination.
The boot was well and truly on the other foot as I went around both these gardens exclaiming over little spring treasures and wondering why they were absent from my own planting!
Ornamental cherry blossom flowering in my garden
My garden is not bereft of Spring colour, but it does have a very different feel from Elizabeth’s and Kate’s gardens, which is how it should be. I have a lot of flowering trees and this week the large Magnolia has bloomed. With all the sunshine, and no wind, I think it is looking magnificent. Every year I say to Shedman “This is the best year ever for the Magnolia”.
I have lots of Hellebore, and I even have quite a few primroses and 3 daffodils – “Thalia” plus one or two other little treasure scattered about the place. After this visit, however, I decided I would like a concentrated early spring area, and I know exactly where it will go!
My Mother has helped me towards this decision by “acquiring” (She has bought it – and I still have to pay her for it …. Next time I see you Mum, promise) for me a Daphne Marianni to replace a Daphne that I lost last year. This will be planted close to the gate, to take advantage of the sweet perfume in January. So it follows that this will be my new Early Spring area. There are all-ready two scented azaleas here for late spring perfume and colour. There is also a monster rhododendron that will have to go and this will mean there will be room for a Hamamelis “Jelena”, which has been on my wish-list for a couple of years and now I have found the right spot – I can buy it. Result! If I remove the Kaffir Lilies, which seem to self seed themselves with abandon I can plant pulmonaria and daffodils (Yes Elizabeth, you heard right, daffodils, but only little ones).
Now while this won’t instantly turn my garden into a Spring garden – it will mean that in one small area which I can see from the house, the garden will be awash with early Spring colour.
I love the way my gardening friends can open my eyes and extend my thinking and planting pallet
I was invited to the media launch for Matthew Wilson’s book “Making a Garden” last Thursday.
Sadly, I couldn’t go;-
Too far – 233 miles
Too expensive – petrol is 145.9p per litre in this neck of the woods and my car does not do very many miles to the gallon.
Not enough time – I am awash with bedding plants! They seem to be inhabiting every room in the house!
I was sad not to be there. I would have liked to visit Clifton Nurseries, where Matthew Wilson is Managing Director. I really enjoyed his series on channel 4 “The Landscape Man” and it is because of that series that I made the treck to Devon to visit Keith Wiley’s garden at Wildside.
So I was delighted when Quadrille Publishing offered to send me a copy of “Making a Garden” to review.
When I received the book, I was disappointed to realize that it was the paperback edition of “The Landscape Man – Making a Garden” published in 2010 to accompany the channel 4 series. Although for this new edition the publishers have left out the words “Landscape Man” and changed the picture on the front. Generally I am not a fan of books that accompany series.
After I had got over my frustration with the publisher, I have to say that I enjoyed the book, and it is packed with information
The book is divided into three sections;-
Thought Process
Vision
Realisation
One of the first questions the Wilson asks is “Who and what is the garden for?” Such an obvious question and yet one that is so often overlooked. Our gardens are often evolved rather than designed seamlessly for form and function. This first section covers topics such as site consideration, soil, climate and time or rather, no time to tend the garden. The elements covered were the ones that it is important to give some thinking time to right from the outset. This section also included case studies from the gardens featured in the series “Landscape Man”
The section entitled “Vision” was the section that I dipped into frequently. This segment of the book touches on a variety of design considerations including division of space, scale, light, colour. Some of the subjects here gave me food for thought. Whatever stage your garden is at, it is always interesting to look at it with new eyes. The topics covered are quite brief but have lots of ideas and starting points useful for people who want to create or improve their gardens.
The final section of the book entitled Realisation includes the plans, outline sketches and “realised” gardens in a variety of styles.
For me, the balance between the gardens featured in the channel 4 series and the new or additional material was right. I didn’t want a book that was simply a rehash of the series. Matthew Wilson has produced a delightful and practical book which will suit those who want to create the garden of their dreams, but are not sure where to start. It is a book that I would buy for my adult children, particularly my eldest son and daughter-in-law, who are embarking on major improvements to their house, both inside and out. With the help of this book, they will be able to asses what they have. Work out what they want and need. As “Making a Garden” is both aspirational and practical, it will help them to work towards the goal of creating their garden.
Wildside garden July 2011
February is the time of year when I am quite likely to do something thoughtless to the garden! It is the time of year when I see a space and plan to fill it, or move something, totally forgetting that beneath the ground there may be something going on …. like bulbs! I have found Helen’s end of the month meme very useful indeed, although this year, my end of the month posts are going to focus on particular flower beds. Shedman and I have more or less finished all the design and building work in the garden. Now I want to really focus on the planting in various areas of the garden and I think the End of Month views will be a good way to make notes for myself about what is needed and why. This month it is going to be the “Shady Spring Border” In April, this border will be 4 years old and if you want to see it when we started, then I have written a post about it here on my old wordpress blog
Half way down the garden is the Spring border. It has Pieris which was here (somewhere) when we arrived. A camellia ‘Anticipation’, which my Mother bought for me and through the border are hellebores, which I moved from other areas of the garden. At the end of the bed, by the return of the wall is a black bamboo and a Hydrangea ‘Fireworks’. The Hydrangea is struggling a bit in this location, it didn’t flower at all last year. So this year is make or break time for it. I think that there is water running underground in this area. The bottom end of the bed and path is quite sodden. It is also a cool area as it is on the north/east side of the stone wall that you see in the picture.
This is the view look across the “river of stones” path and I have marked where the spring perennials will fill in the gaps – but there is room for improvement! Although as the season goes on the hellebores will fill the spaces with their leaves, at this precise time of year I was thinking some early dwarf iris reticulata would be a welcome splash of colour and, if I plant them amongst and around the hard cut back alchemilla, at the edge of the border, fingers crossed it wont be too cold and wet for the bulbs. A couple of years ago I ordered some ‘plug plants’ of double hellebore – I planted 4 of these in the flower bed above, and 4 in another one. It took a couple of years for them to flower, the 4 in the other bed were white, and the 4 in this bed were dirty pink!
In this image – the “dirtiness” of the pink is not as bad as I perceive it in the flesh. I believe the red of the camellia and the dirty pink kill each other stone dead, so I am thinking that I will move the pink hellebore and replace them with the white doubles and perhaps add some tiny early flowering daffodils – as the red of the camellia and the yellow of the daffs would add a little zap for this time of year.
Notes to myself:-
- Plant miniature iris and daffs in the Autumn.
- Swop the dirty pink hellebore for the white doubles in another bed
- Keep an eye on the hydrangea – its days are numbered unless it perks up!
- Think about other early flowering spring plants that dont mind a bit of cold and damp.
If you haven’t joined in with the end of the month views – it is not too late to start, and dont forget to visit Helen / The Patient Gardener and have a look and see what is going on in her garden, and then you can visit the other folk who join in the “EOM Views”.
Happy St David’s day
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