Learner driver

Last week at Heale I had a go on the ride on Mower and it was great! It really gives you a new perspective on the garden and makes you aware how big it is. Michael and I worked on a mower each and cut the larger areas together. Tricky bits such as border edges and trees take a bit of getting used to but fun to learn. It makes a right racket but with ear defenders on you just go into your own world a bit.

 I also got a lesson in correct planting of trees and shrubs and that will stick with me forever. Methodical and take your time. Once you have done it properly there is no point in rushing it. I had a guest Photographer on hand to record the memory. 'Volunteer Michael' as I know him and good pix they are too!
We planted a Styrax 'Purple Dress' and this plant doesn't like competition from grass roots so we made a large planting hole and fingers crossed it will thrive. We also planted a Magnolia seiboldii by the river which will be beautiful.

I also did a bit of hand mowing on the pond beds and Swimming pool area. Michael showed me some damage on the main croquet lawn, 'Fairy Rings' which are caused by a fungus. We also have Speedwell which seems difficult to eradicate. The flower would probably look quite nice at home but not on a formal croquet lawn!

The Japanese garden will always be my favourite but it is looking lovely right now, Hostas, Ferns, Zantedeschia and Sambucus elbus (a herbaceous elder, looks like cow parsely and will end up with orange berries). Lots to see and the weather was not so harsh, the rain came just as we finished the mowing, perfect timing.

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tidy, tidy, tidy

Heale this week has been about trying to tidy the gardens before it is time to tidy them again! Summer and growth is well under way. We spent most of one day edging, weeding and generally making sure the Peto pond beds by the house looked good and boy do they look good! We edged another border which had overgrown and trimmed a Choisya back to allow a better pathway through past the house (and hopefully it will flower again).

The Box parterres needed a hedge trim and that had three of us on the job, two to hedge trim and one clearing up trimmings with a rake/leaf blower. 

Michael showed me a neat trick of using a bamboo cane as a guide to how low to trim the top of the hedge. Then you move the cane to your next hedge and trim to the same height and with any luck they are all fairly uniform by the end. Very handy to learn!

Great to be using machines too, boys love toys but us girls don't use them as much generally and so need the practice. They are noisy, smelly and heavy but quick. I want a hedge trimmer now!

I also helped to maintain the single cordon Sweet peas which are being checked and cropped twice weekly now. We remove tendrils, side shoots and blind stems (ones with no flower) and then we crop the flowers for the house, 96 stems one day this week! What a wonderful smell.

It is the time for all the Roses to be showing off and the Hybrid Musks are still going. I thought I wouldn't get to see them again. Heale has many huge climbing Roses through various trees. One I remember was Rosa bobby james and Rosa 'Sally Homes' which flowers in big heavy clusters.

Working with Michael in the gardens you get to discover all sorts of things you wouldn't ordinarily notice. The Tulip tree which I have been merrily walking past, weeding by and walking under has flowered and our native Iris foetidissima was hiding amongst grass near the river.

I am so immersed in the garden when there and my bubble goes pop when I get home and don't have the luxury of that space! Another lovely week.

Scorcher

Pfoof! What a hot couple of days at Heale. It is what we have been waiting for and now we go on moaning about it (well I do anyway). Fantastic blue sky days, the grass gets cut and it is British Summer time as we know it, wonderful.

The long meadow areas are coming on with Yellow Rattle and Pyramidal Orchids popping up thanks to Michael's hard work.

The Hybrid Musk Rose border is super right now and will be going over by the time I next enter Heale so I tried to smell and look at them a lot today - handy as I was working right by them today.

I found it quite tricky to capture them on camera today with the Nepeta six hills giant looking striking at the front. You really need to see and smell their glorious scent to take it all in.

We trimmed 3 big Pyracantha this week, right at the front of the house which required ladders and they look much neater, tight to the wall instead of unruly.

The Sweet peas require twice weekly love in order to promote strong and long stemmed flowers. Pinching out side shoots and removing tendrils needs to be done regularly at the moment and then the flowers go to the house for decoration. 

We spent a lot of time weeding and edging Box parterres this week and it looks so much tidier but not for long, four weeks and we do it all again.

Michael showed me some Eremurus tubers today, crazy starfish kind of creatures, anyone other than a Gardener would not believe something could grow from such a thing.

Lots of visitors stop me at Heale, everyone is interested in the house and says what a wonderful place it must be to work. I quite agree, even when kneeling and weeding in the meadow this week, I couldn't help but think how I use to pay to see meadows like these and wish for them when living in London. 

Great British Garden Revival

Well it isn't every day you get the BBC coming to film at your garden so Tuesday this week was a bit of a surprise and really interesting to watch. The Beeb came to record Heale and mainly climbing plants for the new series of the Great British Garden Revival. It takes a long time to get a minute of footage in TV land and lots of retakes too. Joe Swift chatted to Michael whilst pruning an Akebia quinata and Michael was a pro throughout. The sheep wanted in on the action and bleated for ages until they settled down and realised all the kerfuffle wasn't to do with them!

All day long we tried to work where they weren't filming to give them a bit of space, so en masse we weeded the Lavender borders and moved up to the terrace gardens to the Robinia trees. I edged around some Honeysuckles which the crew wanted to film and we tried to second guess which direction they would go in!

Quite a surreal day all in all.

The garden is choc full right now and the most delightful change recently has to be the Roses and Nepeta which fill the length of the wall border all along the front of the house and croquet lawn, quite something.

Irises are just right this week, some are over and some are just opening. The borders are stuffed full with colour and the weeds keep coming. We spent time in the Miscanthus borders this week, weeding and edging and trying to avoid being scratched to death from the hairy beastly grass. It really does some damage to your skin.

Some of the gardens Magnolias are out like the wonderful (and rare apparently) Pyramidata and some are still to come and remain in bud.

This week I also got to try the monster that is the All Terrain Mower.  A petrol mower with gears and boy is it heavy. It sucks up anything in it's path and is great! We used it to cut meadow areas including down to the river. I didn't feel anything afterwards but the next day I knew I had used muscles that haven't been used for a while! And I only used it for a very short time. Dear oh dear...

Another great week, I remember Lambs, birds flitting around, jet planes and TV crews. Swans overhead, scratchy grass and mud. Wild grasses, the river and sunshine and showers.