Low light, shorter days, garden love

I have been loving the low light of late Autumn recently and the quiet it brings as we slow down the gardening year. The onset of Winter allows time to reflect.

I worked largely alone one day this week and was only distracted by the beating of Swans overhead or the moment when I would occasionally tune in to the babbling river beyond the vegetable garden. When you have the time to be quiet it is amazing how heightened your senses become, particularly when in nature. The Robin chirping somewhere nearby, the rustle of a leaf as a Pheasant flaps away, Frogs squirming as you move the soil around them.

I have been in both my working gardens this week and have mirrored jobs in each. Lifting Dahlias is a ritual I enjoy very much (although it doesn't seem enough time in-between lifting and planting again!). Time to look at each name, remember their look and smell, how tall they grew, whether they were good cut flowers or grew prolifically on a very short stem. We store the tubers (carefully labelled) in trays, initially upside down to drain any water from the stems and then as they dry return them upright for the Winter.

Now is the time to be pruning many plants in the gardens too. Of course Wisteria which can be done any time from now until March really, a Winter prune to 1 or 2 buds. A tight shape and time to consider the structure of the plant, saving and training new stems, or removing leggy or old wood. Pruning roses begins now, removing old wood, tying in new if a climber or rambler. Preventing wind rock if a shrub. I absolutely LOVE to prune and so I find this kind of work a joy (I should point out if it is not chucking in down with a Northerly freezing cold wind in my face).

Now is the perfect time also to plant bulbs, we managed over a 1300 on Thursday this week. Rippling ribbons of bulbs through long grass and borders.

The ebb and flow of the gardening year. It changes each time yet remains constant in many ways. You can rely on nature to need your input but only when SHE tells you she is ready, like my Sedums (sorry something else now Hylotelephium) who last week were dying gracefully with yellowing leaves and strong purple heads only to today look slushy and weak with new rosettes forming at the base. Hurry up and cut us back they say! We are ready for the new.

Autumnal change

We have been very busy at Heale with a variety of projects on the go, aswell as keeping on top of the apple pruning and preening the Veg Garden.

We have had an old Poplar tree and stump removed which, at a guess, deposited a couple of tonnes of sawdust in the Japanese garden. This tree had been pollarded years ago but it was time for it to go. It was one of the original planting from the late 1800's/ early 1900's so it was sad to see it go. The noise made by the surgeons dropping huge chunks down was quite intense! It took over a day of solid work to bring it down.

We lost an old Medlar too and whilst they were at it they took old dead wood out of our 100 or so year old Cercidophylum which has improved the tree no end. Visually it is better but of course hopefully the tree will fare better now it has had a cut. Fingers crossed. It is trying.

The Veg garden continues to provide all manner of Veg we have grown from seed including Beets and Carrots of different colour, Spinach, Chard, Salads, Courgette, Beans, Cucamelons......time to crop the Gourds and Squashes this week before the frosts come. Important to crop these with a good stalk attached so as the fruit can harden off and store for a while as and when you want to use them. We have an unusual stripy looking Squash in a Butternut shape: Honeyboat.

HG noticed the Quince trees were hanging a bit too low for the tree to be happy this week so we cropped a couple of trays to help the tree out. Branches lifted, weight off! What a pretty fruit Quince can be. I like the furry exterior and the way a leaf generally comes with the fruit as you crop it making it extremely photogenic!

We have been busy pruning out the flowering stalks of our Blackberries which we train onto the exterior and interior of our fruit cage. I love this job, it is very satisfying seeing a mess turn to beauty again. Rubus fruticosus 'Oregon Thornless' which bears large black juicy berries (even afte a heatwave but we seemed to have cropped and pruned in super speedy early time this year as a result).

Much to do. All the while nature is moving around us. We have started to see Mole hills again. We have Solitary Bees all over the lawn near the VG pond doing their thing. White fly all over some of my crops ( aaaaggghhh!) and birds of prey, Peacocks, Sheep, Frogs and Toads.

Great time to be in the garden. Cooler mornings, warm blue sky days. Much easier to work in and beautiful to boot. It has been a gloriously hot Summer season but too hot to work in. Wonderful when swimming in the sea! but the garden has struggled and we have been on watering duty three times a week (household pots) and everyday we can and have time for in the VG with sprinklers being moved around. Never enough time and a constant thought especially when planting out new crops with a weekend in view.

We made it though and now onto Autumn.

How did you all get on?

Horti thoughts

I have been quiet on the blog of late. I have been busy with my gardens and my boys and as we have had a heatwave, have been spending my spare time watering my garden and trying to keep a float.

I have also felt of late, a little bit stuck in my gardening ways. I sometimes wonder what it is all about. I work and work (and sometimes eat some of my rewards) and what comes of it? Well, I get tired and know the weeds will be back the next week and the dead heading will need doing and the veg plan will need some input again very soon (even though I feel like this years rotation is only just coming to fruition). I hear news that my veg have been eaten by Voles and should have a solution to hand and asked again if I have dead headed the Sweet peas (yes I have I do it instinctively every time I pass the pots which is several times a day but they grow and die at an alarming rate so look like I haven't. Same with Cosmos).

I recently found a book on my shelf from back in 2014, when I was just starting my Horticultural adventure. How to Grow a Gardener features input from a group of us Horti's about our journeys in gardening. I sat down and read mine avidly. How far I have come! I hardly think I have moved on at all. Reading my entry, I realize all of the work has made me so much more confident and knowledgeable without even noticing. I worked on my own, without instruction in the veg garden this week in two gardens. I didn't need any advice. I didn't cut anything back that wanted to be left alone instead. I produced veg from my earlier sowings. I managed to succession sow to avoid a huge food gap. I primped, preened, cropped where needed, left behind to grow, tied in and answered a slew of questions that came at me from excitable visitors which ranged from History of the house, which airport is nearby, how do you grow a gourd from seed, what supports do you buy for the Brassicas and what boots do you wear and do you work here or are you 'just' a Volunteer? (I'll have you know there is never a 'just' with Volunteers, their work is hugely valued and appreciated. Who else would weed in the rain for free getting muddy but those amazing Volunteers?).

We sometimes need to stop and take stock. We are coming to the end of what seems like a very long season and I am very happy with where we are. Four years in as a professional Gardener and I feel happy with what I have achieved. Sure, some crops don't perform, some are awesome and some miss the boat to be perfect (a week too early to crop, miss it by a week and they are over).

That is NATURE and I love it. I think we all need to slow down a bit, lower our expectations of PERFECT and ENJOY Horticulture a bit more. Who wants a perfectly straight Cucumber or identikit Potatoes. There are plenty of well known Supermarkets for that.

I know which I prefer.

The ever evolving herbaceous border

I wanted to write about the herbaceous border seeing as I have been immersed in them for a few weeks now. All sorts of textures, colours, heights and flowering going on. They can look so good and so beautiful in full flow.

It looks easy doesn't it? Stuff it all in and as long as there are no big gaps all should be well. Ha! How the hard work can be lost in the eye of the viewer.

As we all become more knowledgable through more information (overload some would say) from social media sites, from radio, non stop TV etc. we are always looking to get better with our planting, for the new and fresh, for unusual plants. But you know me I like to hark back to the past and keep things simple. I am interested in how we have got to this point in our planting and the origins of the evolving plant choices.

In one of my gardens, the owner has been gardening for about 50 years and she really has the herbaceous border down to a fine art. I have learnt so much from working in her space and with her (when she works alongside me). She has a great eye for the flow of the border, using repeats to bring the border together, planting in groups, changing up annuals with perennials.

She likes to begin a border with permanent shrubs such as Deutzia or Philadelphus. Then builds into the gaps with Nepeta, Geraniums, Alchemilla, Scabious, Hostas, the list goes on depending on site, permanence, size of border. But that isn't it for the season. From Tulips in early Spring, we move into Alliums and Digitalis. When Alliums are done but still hold their form in dried seed head, she moves onto Salvias and annuals such as Cosmos or Lily. As these go over, we fill with Sedums (I know I know but I always forget the new name) or the later flowering Verbena Bonariensis.

I also like the silver leaves used in a border; Stachys, Lychnis, Perovskia. I love how they contrast with many greens. I also quite like the way my client uses individual borders to show off one specimen. Rose border, Hot border, Iris border etc.

So much work is involved, all year around. We must remember as we breeze past a border in the height of Summer and it looks 'nice' what has gone on to get it there!

Little things

This week has been full of showers and sunshine. Perfect for May when growth goes crazy and everything grows like mad. As I write this, I am looking out at my tiny front garden. It must be only 6 by 7 feet. I inherited it as two Rose bushes in a rectangle of soil. When I had the time and as I began to enjoy horticulture more, I started from scratch and made a border either side of a gravel path.

The path began life enclosed in edging but as the edging rotted over the years, I just allowed the gravel to sprawl into the soil. A la Dungeness! The garden faces South so can get incredibly, unbearably hot and rather suits the gravel.

It represents me. A garden packed with plants I either bought, scavenged, raised from seed, took from cuttings. Plants from places of interest, plants from holidays, nurseries far away. A mish mash that has come together and makes me smile every time I see it. My poor Daphne that now curves over like a bent old spine, was damaged after some building works a few years ago. I didn't want to get rid of it so have come to love the way it curves and shoots new growth at each section.

Some Digitalis my youngest son chose are starting to flower, they make me think of him every time I come home.

Nectaroscordum planted as a bulb, the long wait over, as they tower over everything else and hang daintily from their stem.

The Trachelospermum bought by my Aunt, climbing our brick wall. The tiny flowers look and smell divine.

Rosemary, planted for my husband and of course for the Bees.

A happy place, on a fairly busy residential road. My oasis of lush greens and buzzing Bees. It is possible with a little effort!

Dahlia

Today was all about the Dahlia for me and planting out our tubers. Amazing things, we dig them up in Winter, once the leaves have turned black from cold and we store them indoors. We label carefully and spray them with green sulphur to help curb disease.

The day comes after the last frosts in May and we think about Dahlias again. Have any rotted throughout the Winter, have they still got a neck ? (without the stem attached to the tubers the Dahlia will fail).

Shrivelled, dry and ugly, how is it possible that such beautiful flowers will eventually come shooting from the ground?

Today I planted around 28 different Dahlias in our special Dahlia bed. We cane them, plant them up with bonemeal, label and water, water, water. Time to wake up the tuber and breathe life into it once more.

I cannot wait! Inspired, I shall dot some amongst my herbaceous borders at home and dream of the day I can cut the flowers for my house. ❤️

Easter energy

I have been away for a trip to Venice which has given me some renewed energy following a very long and cold Winter. Although my trip was to a place with hardly any space to really grow on a large scale, it was interesting to see how the Venetians get around this and the choice of plants they go for.

On my travels up and down the Campos and many many window boxes later, it seems that mainly succulents and Cacti thrive. The walls of the Calle (narrow lanes) are so high they sometimes block light and for much of the year there is little rain to keep them watered. Ideal for such plants.

The Venetians have to be a little bit experimental too to adorn their property with the green stuff. I loved some Ivy which, although only in a pot, had been trained to climb a wrought iron window covering. Art in a pot.

We made it to the biggest public garden at the Arsenale end of town but we are so spoilt in the UK with our gardens that it was a little underwhelming. Having said that, any green space in a city is good and what can top looking through trees to a glistening lagoon of blue? What Venice may lack in plants, it most certainly makes up for in beauty, architecture, atmosphere and water, water everywhere. Just stunning. The Rialto market provides many fresh fruit and vegetables, all grown on a separate island within the lagoon and imported by boat. The Asparagus and Artichokes were so fresh and I did cook a Courgette which tasted DIVINE!

Back to reality and today at work it was such a beautifully sunny day. The joys of Spring! We achieved a lot. We planted Broad beans, Radishes (grown and hardened off in modules), Peas (netted and protected from the dreaded pigeons with pea sticks). We released the Japanese tea house from its Winter shutters and planted out Wall flowers to nestle amongst Tulips in pots. It all felt pretty good today, progressive, moving forward once again.

New Season

And we are pretty much up and ready for the next Season which is upon us. Heale opened properly this week and we have had the odd visitor float past.

I am very happy with the way the veg garden looks right now. We have prepared all of the beds and are finishing some of the finer details now such as using cloches to pre warm the soil and cutting Willow supports for the wig wams so as to allow any new plants to cling onto something.

Tulips are popping up in the terracotta pots and bulbs are rearing their heads in the cutting rows such as Narcissus and Allium.

Varied work this week. My other garden is a smaller scale and so I managed to get ahead with planting our Broad Beans and Beets under cloches. I also pricked out quite a few flowers. I pruned and tied in a large Actinidia kolomikta, which has stunning variation on its leaves in white and pink blending with green. A beautiful foliage plant from the Kiwi family.

At Heale we started on a new project in an area of the garden under renovation. We marked up a design using canes and string. A learning curve for me as I have never formally studied Garden Design (as much as I enjoy designing for myself).

I really feel ready for growing now and am excited for all of the seeds we have sown which are waiting to come on.

Hurry up Spring!

Snow and the garden

Did I say in my last post about a brief dusting of snow? What snow we have had today!

Like everyone else, HG and I have had to decide what to do in this weather. Today we decided there was work to do and we battled on through until the snow became too much. Very cold conditions, but plenty to be done in the Greenhouses.

Once we thawed the compost (the outside temperature went to -4!), we sowed more Sweet Pea seeds and nurtured our seedlings and cuttings. Two Robins came to see us, starving and pecking at the bait on our mouse traps!

We checked on heaters, temperatures and the slipped glass in the windows of the Greenhouse which might let in the snow.

There is always something to do in the garden, even in the snow. Time to plan and reflect as the garden freezes, stood still, temporarily on hold before the season begins. We opened to the Public for the season today. The quietest opening day ever!

Border work

Today was a day in the borders at Heale. Big old borders too, in the Kitchen Garden, against an old cob wall. The border we were in needed cutting back, weeding and cultivating. We worked with Aster, Melianthus, Euphorbia, Digitalis, Echinops, Brunnera (agh! It keeps coming back!) and many more. A very satisfying job despite, in the process, destroying habitat for a big old Toad, which moved along the border away from us every time we moved out mats along! I think he finally pottered off into some Grasses.

Yesterday I continued digging the veg plots in the Kitchen Garden ready for the season ahead. The soil had a crust of frost on top. Very satisfying to dig into. I raked on a mulch of manure and began to trench dig back to the end of the plot. That is one way to keep warm for sure!

February has come with colder temperatures and today, fleetingly, it brought snow! What a joy to look up and see the garden with gentle snow coming down.

Happy weekend.

The Kitchen Garden

I have been pre-occupied with the Kitchen garden and food growing since the beginning of my journey in Horticulture. I am always drawn to the veg and productive part of a garden. Normally over and above the shrubs and borders on offer. I love seeing the way the veg have been ordered (or not if you go for the Higgeldy approach of stuff it all in) and what is on offer and how could I do it differently?

Our Heale volunteer @rachelwillis555 has lent me a wonderful book, which I have dipped in and out of, called The Country House Kitchen Garden 1600-1950 published with the National Trust. It recalls all sorts of fascinating facts about the role of a Head Gardener through the years and it is amazing how things have changed. Through some of the records kept by the Gardeners at the time, we seem to have moved on but only just!  And I can certainly see where the modern Gardeners role has come from by reading such historical accounts. One thing I have noticed is how we haven't always moved on for the better. In times gone by the HG would not only be growing more variety of plants for the garden and to sell but would have more time, more helpers and invest time in (and be expected to have the skills to be able to work with) Bee keeping. "Bee houses may always be rendered agreeable, and often ornamental objects: they are particularly suitable for flower gardens and enliven a kitchen garden, communicating a particular impression of industry and usefulness". There would be teams working in glass houses producing the finest and exotic fruits; Grapes, Figs, Pineapples. Work was hugely labour intensive but also productive.

We have certainly lost productivity in many ways. Both of my clients have my help to grow fruit and veg and still buy to fill the gap. Of course now we have more choice and there is less need to produce because we can just pop to the supermarket.

I am interested in the rise of the Restaurant which aims to have the Kitchen Garden at the heart of its operation in the modern day. These are the Restaurants I prefer to visit. The Ethicurean in Bristol will always be my favourite. A huge, beautifully situated Walled garden with a fantastic and experimental restaurant attached to it in the old glasshouse. The food is almost entirely sourced from the garden or locally.

Another is Pythouse, near Tisbury, again a beautiful Walled garden, maintained to serve the restaurant  with veg, herbs and flowers.

I visited The Pig, Brockenhurst, this week. A Hotel which claims "it all starts in the Kitchen Garden". Upon arrival you can meander along a brick path to view the Walled garden and take a look in the greenhouses, where I found lots of micro greens ready for service. Just outside by the pond, there were the Bee hives! And Chickens and many beautifully tended raised beds filled with spinach, Beets, Leaves, Turnip, Swede, Lettuce. Managed very well.

Inside my lunch was from Carrots raised just outside (a bright orange Carrot Rissotto), salads grown in the greenhouse, herbs too.

This type of veg growing is fantastic to see but ultimately is for those of us who can afford such luxury (Yes I am lucky to be able to sometimes, I am aware!) and not for the masses. The masses have to find a spot big enough to grow their own or maintain an allotment for themselves.

So, have we moved on with our a Kitchen Gardens, have we lost them in many ways and are we creating them anew because it is a trendy way of selling the idea to a new generation? I am not sure. I do find it fascinating though and I will continue to love every detail of the way we used to grow veg whilst all the time trying to move onwards and upwards!

New beginnings

So, I am guessing I am not the only one feeling a lack of motivation in the garden today! I always find it hard to get going again after the Christmas/New Year lull but I know it will come.

I have been reading about the Norwegian term for the gap inbetween Christmas and New Year called Romjul. I love this idea. In the UK we tend to think we must always be working, tired and pushing on no matter what. The Norwegians (amongst many cultures I am sure) embrace the down time and slow down to a meditative pace and take healthy walks. Well, sounds lovely if you can. I think we could all try and do that from time to time. But the Christmas period is so special because it is cold and wet and what else REALLY matters during this time other than friends and family. I feel very lucky indeed.

Despite feeling sluggish, in addition, I always feel excited about the gardening year ahead. The seeds need sowing and something will always thrive even if some fail. Nature working its magic.

I leave you with a photo from the Summer. Heale veg garden in full flow. Ammi majus, Lathyrus, Nicotiana, Plectranthus. A beautiful reminder that it will all come again, the dark days will disappear and the sunshine will be here before we know it.