All about the Roses

My week at Heale was all about the Roses and my hands sure knew about it by Friday night! We were working in some Herbaceous borders called the 'Top Terrace' which amongst many other plants, incorporates some Rosa Rugosa 'Alba'. We renovated it after it had been neglected for a while. It required a lot of dead wood being removed and some serious pruning.

The borders are quite deep and are planted with some beautiful plants: Perovskia atriplicifolia 'Blue Spire' (long name!), which looks kind of ghostly with silvery foliage. Pretty thing.

Buddleja loricata which has fine elongated leaves which have a gorgeous white underside. It will flower with white flowers I am told. Some Viburnums, Hydrangeas, Yukka (which was removed), Romneya which I love and a very old Wisteria with a monkey perched beneath it.

Back to Roses. The Rugosa renovation was great practice for me before we moved onto Ramblers on the Balustrades near the house and Peto's ponds. A different beast, thorny and tangled, like octopus arms all over the place. We began by untying all the shoots and deciding which to keep and which to lose. Follow it up with pruning all the laterals and then tie in again. Sounds easy, I'd say it was a challenge but a fab one! Once it is done it looks fantastic and the plant can breathe a sigh of relief. So can I, these Roses have been around a while and I want it to remain that way! We began with Rosa 'Alberic Barbier' which should smell of an apple but I don't think I got that this Summer. Will try again next year.

Moving onto Rosa 'Crimson Shower' and along to give "Dorothy Perkins' a bit of attention.

HG has the knack of weaving the stems artistically through the balustrades. I need practice! But job done and I was pretty happy with it. All I could hear were Sheep, my Robin fluttering next to me, the Kune kune pigs snuffling around and the odd Pheasant squawking away when startled. The days have been really still.

It is the time of year for cutting back Hellebore leaves and seeing Cyclamen shoot up their flowers. Heale also has many Iris, some of which are coming into flower now. Iris unguicularis, their flower buds hiding in tangled foliage, be sure not to cut back too hard, you will destroy all the emerging flowers. What a beauty of a flower especially now when the garden is pottering off to sleep for the Winter.

Another striking colour in the garden right now is the red of the Cotoneaster berries.

When the sun shines, the autumnal colours really glow.

To top my week I received my WRAGS certificate in the post, just to remind me what it has all been about. Retraining as a Gardener and moving on to working with nature. I have to say, I am loving it!

Rain rain go away

Already the wet weather is causing huge puddles on the road and making working in the garden a little but sludgy. The problem with carrying on in the rain means you transfer the mud and churn up the grass but if you take care, you can keep going and get on!, which is what we did last week.

We managed to weed and edge the Box parterres, a job which takes time as the patterns are intricate with small grass paths. In the same place are figs which are fanned along the wall and we needed to fleece them ready for the Winter. I love putting the Garden to bed, another little ritual complete, the fig will be happy under there.

We also continued with cleaning, labelling and storing the many Dahlias we have lifted from the garden. Many of them are varieties I had not heard of, so we were careful to label everything well and make a list to refer back to after a few months when we plant them out again.

I also pruned and tied in a Jasmine. There are several plants that go into the house and the Jasmines will do that over Winter. At Heale we use four canes tied at the top into a small wigwam and twist the plant stems around from the base of the wigwam to the top. A neat job.

Lots of jobs are tidying, clipping, cutting back at this time of year. Plants fall over/down, leaves always need attention.

Alas, I did not have my camera this week. I shall have to remember the low light on the browny/golden Miscanthus borders, swaying in the wind with autumnal colour as a backdrop from Liquidambar. The Lavender still flowering in November. The Robin that came to see me inside our bothy whilst I was sorting Dahlias. The Gingko leaves like gold.

Lots of beauty despite the rain.

Cycles, seasons, rituals

This week I have worked in four gardens, each very different yet Heale is another level. The sheer amount of work required, the size, the heritage, the variety of plants. It is gardening with care taking and a sense of pride in what you are achieving for future generations to enjoy.

Never before have I been in the river to wash my boots before caring for a 100 year old Japanese Teahouse, which requires shutting up for the Winter! What a beauty of a building, tatami mats which when you lift them, the original edging decoration shines gold and the paper thin shutters have bamboo images upon them. You can see the River flowing beneath the floor as you look down and the view of the garden becomes new for your eyes.

The weather has whipped up wind, rain, followed by sun and warmth; it has been frosty and cold and beautiful and wet and muddy and dirty.

We have dug and double dug and prepared for the next season of veg. We have cleared old crops, Courgette, Bean and cropped existing, Kale, Leeks, Pak Coi and Salads.

We have continued with the ritual of carefully lifting Dahlia tubers and labelling and storing them for their Winter storage. Some gorgeous varieties and new ones to come next year too.

We have planted more bulbs, slowly does it, 1000 went into the grass near the Medlar tree. Crocus crysanthus 'Blue Bird' and Scilla siberica 'Spring Beauty'.

Could I live without the seasons? I am not sure I could.

Such potential for next year and what could be.

Failing to prepare

An old friend of mine once said yonks ago "failing to prepare is preparing to fail" and I laughed and took the mickey out of him and wondered how on earth he could be so boring (I was young at the time!). As I get older though I am trying to slow down and do things properly and am enjoying seeing the results.

At Heale, HG and I have been preparing some of the Veg garden for next year's rewards and although it takes time and can be hard work, it is most certainly worth it. We started stripping out crops that were over (Beet, Chard, Cabbages) and cropping those still going (Salad leaves, Carrots, Mooli). Then to prepare the soil for next year.

HG has worked out the crop rotation so where I was digging I was working in compost into the trench and where he was digging, he was digging a trench and backfilling as he went. We worked out that Double Digging has the term "B*****d trenching" and wondered if there is a female equivalent! In this case, the soil is removed to a spits depth and the trench has manure incorporated (ideally to a second spits depth). My Granddad's book describes it below:

As you go along the plot, digging a trench , removing soil, digging in manure, digging another trench, you need to rake the excess back. After a lot of work you end up with the most beautifully prepared bed, ready for the Winter to break it down and you do nothing else to it until next year. Bingo!

In my bed will be Sweet peas, lucky flowers will get a good start.

The light yesterday at Heale was glorious, Halloween, last day of October and it was 21 degrees with a glow all over the garden. A perfect day for digging.

The day before, I worked with HG and Andrew bringing the Sundial garden up to scratch. We cut back, tidied, weeded and raked. The Nepeta and Lavender needed attention, Hornbeam hedges needed edging and weeding and we also planned out an extension to one of the hedges. More Hornbeam to block an entrance. Marked out turf with canes and string. HG pointed out how tolerant and hardy Hornbeam is as it is actually near the river and copes with flooding each year!

Lots still to see in the garden, the leaves are still hanging on and the colours are superb. Dahlias, Salvia, even the Asparagus gets in on the game and turns a beautiful yellow.

 Almost dark as I head for home now......

New team Member at Heale!

This week at Heale saw the arrival of a new Gardener, Andrew. The idea being that I work two full days and Andrew does three, which gives the HG a full timer. Great to have more bodies in the garden as you can get so much done together.

We started in the Japanese garden and I got to muck about in the River! Weeding and chopping back. We put the Gunnera manicata to bed for the Winter by chopping the leaves to ground level and placing them snugly back over the crown of the plant. We put the thick stems left over, on top of the leaves to help keep everything down from the wind. The leaves rot down and feed the newly formed plant and offer a little protection from the cold ahead. A lovely ritual and great job to do. It looks so good too I think, like little teepees for the mother plant.

We cut back Shuttle cock ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris) and left only the dark and striking fertile fronds, standing erect and looking stark against the riverbank. Many leaves to clear, Harts Tongue Ferns to chop (Asplenium scolopendrium), Herb Robert stuck his oar in too.....

We also spent time clearing cut Bamboo the owner no longer wanted, great Autumnal jobs to get done before the rain comes and the area floods.
More edging and turf cutting, finished the pond beds and we spent some time in the Veg garden preparing for the next few months ahead. Clearing Cosmos, Zinnia, Helianthus, and dividing Phlox (or was it Penstemon) which had been planted in the cutting garden. Great trick of two forks back to back and you split the clump into two parts.

In my absence the Croquet lawn had some treatment, scarifying and aerating and although it looks like it has been pelleted from the air and will never recover, of course it will and by next Spring will be grateful for it.

I love this time of year, I love the wind and unsettled nature of the rain and sun. The garden is looking colourful and it is a real pleasure to be able to see it at peace without visitors.

With the clocks changing we all have to prepare ourselves for the dark, cold and wet, we have been spoilt this year so I for one am not complaining. It has been a real journey and I am looking forwards to the next stage.

Bulb planter on fire (that one's for Morrissey fans)

Well, another week in Autumn has passed and it brought changing weather and warmth. Perfect time of year, fantastic light and time to get stuff done before the dark days set in. The bulbs have arrived at Heale, many, many of them and we made a start planting some in the Sundial area of the garden. Before we could start, the grass area needed mowing in order to a) define the shape of rough planting and b) allow us to see the bulbs on the ground by mowing up all the leaves.

I found bulb planting great fun but I appreciate that doing it on your own, thousands of bulbs later, it may become tedious. I worked with Michael and he did the hole making, I did the filling. I love stuff like this, a real impact will be ahead when the flowers come up, well worthwhile. We were playing with the weather a bit, do we scatter 500 bulbs and the rains come or do we wait? We did it in quick speed and I thought the planter may start smoking. We planted Tulip saxatalis mixed up with less Crocus versicolour 'Picturatus'. We also have many Alliums, Camassia, Daffodils, Narcissi and Crocus to plant too.

We spent quite a lot of time re-edging the Harold Peto Pond beds, which has several small lawns, each with ever increasingly hairy edges. Michael decided it was time to use a line and turf cutter and re-instate and define the lines. Takes time but worth it to smarten it all up.

Amongst all this, I had a bonfire (love this at this time of year), Cleaned some of the Greenhouse of Coolglass, cut some Pumpkins down, fed the Kune Kunes, chatted to some Chickens and watched the mist rise as I arrived early doors. The colours on the Liquidambar are vibrant right now and the light has a certain glow to it.

As an added bonus this week I go to go on a tour at Westonbirt Arboretum, near Tetbury, with the OldHorts group. What a place and at this time of year. We were spoilt for choice, where to look, every tree had glorious colour or form and the guide was very informative. Lots of men (why is it always men?) with tripods, setting up for the perfect shot.

 I would highly recommend a visit, big specimens planted randomly and experimentally, which was really interesting.