The Lily pond, Cawston Park, Norfolk on a 5 mile walk this afternoon.
Archive for March, 2015
Click for better quality.
A visitor to New Zealand can’t help noticing how many native ferns there are and how large they can get. It’s not an exaggeration to say that some grow as tall as trees, and people even refer to them as tree ferns. I photographed the ones in today’s picture, which were perhaps two or three times my height, in the shade of the forest at the Parry Kauri Park in Warkworth*, in the northern part of the North Island, on the afternoon of February 6. Kiwis (as the inhabitants of New Zealand are known) will recognize that as Waitangi Day, the national holiday, and in fact earlier in the day our hosts had taken us to attend the festivities at Waitangi itself.
—
* New Zealand English generally drops an r that closes a syllable or that’s part of a syllable-final consonant cluster, so
View original post 34 more words
Azaleas at NT Bodnant- not long now…
Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’
First, three for damp soil in the sun
1. Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’- bright yellow flowers in June and an evergreen, golden-yellow carpet of foliage
2. Iris ensata– purple flowers in late June
3. Ligularia ‘The Rocket’- yellow flowers July – August
Iris ensata
Aruncus dioicus
Finally, four for damp soil in the shade
4. Cornus alba ‘Spaethii’- white flowers March to May and red stems in the winter
5. Aruncua dioicus – plumes of creamy white flowers in June and July
6. Primula prolifera– pale yellow flowers in June
7. Hosta ‘Zounds’- puckered leaves, pale lavender flowers in May and June
Primula prolifera
Hosta ‘Zounds’
Old School Gardener
Blue Iris by Gina Gray
‘Tickling’ the soil in the ‘Black Garden’
After two weeks away from Blickling, I was eager to see what progress had been made in the gardens. I wasn’t disappointed. Though some of the volunteer sessions had been rained off, they still seemed to have made a visual impact on the borders. And I gathered from Project Manager Mike, that there had also been major progress in the Walled Garden.
My first job was to prune some Buddleja in the borders established a few years ago which echo designs by the 1930’s Garden Designer Norah Lindsay, who made such an impact at Blickling. Then it was on to join my fellow volunteers in the ‘Black Garden’ where a lovely mix of dark flowering plants and dark foliage (including Black Mongo grass) combine to create a sombre mood.
Here the ladies were ‘tickling’ over the soil around the plants and especially in a border of tulips (‘Queen of Night’) and Iris, both just beginning their spring wake up. I pruned some Black Elders here to encourage a good show of foliage at head height. It was good to catch up on the news of the last couple of weeks and over lunch I was treated to a delicious piece of birthday cake (Almond and Apricot) brought in by one of the team. I must say I like this little ritual of bringing in cakes on your birthday, especially as I will hopefully be the beneficiary rather than the donor until next January!
Signs of spring…
Further afield in the gardens there are clear signs of the arrival of spring; beautiful patches of Crocus and Narcissus are just into their show times. And the major news in the walled garden is the arrival of the newly refurbished glasshouse. However, the former heating system- the massive hot water pipes are still in evidence- is not going to be restored. In future, I understand from Head Gardener Paul, the necessary heat will be supplied by a couple of fan heaters. He also tells me there’s hope of replacing the other glasshouse at some point too, funding permitting. I can’t wait to get into the newly restored structure and use its full potential.
The Newly restored glasshouse..
Heating as in the old days will be replaced by electric fan heaters…
The walled garden 100 years ago- the original glasshouse can be seen top right
Work was also underway to widen a major entrance path to the front lawns of the House and this was being used as a trial session using a new supply of metal path edging, a large quantity of which had been delivered for use in laying out the paths in the walled garden. Perhaps this is something I’ll be helping with in coming weeks.
For most of the day our gardening proceeded to a back drop of a buzzing in the air. No, not an early swarm of bees, but a ‘drone’ hanging in the sky like a bird of prey; filming the gardens for a new video that’s to go on the Blickling website.
‘Under attack’- can you spot the drone?
I also bumped into a paving contractor who was finishing off some repairs to a York Stone path at the entrance to the Gardens. He’d done a beautiful job, the new stone blending in perfectly with the older material. The contractor told me that the stone costs £120 per m2 plus VAT!
Further Information:
Blickling Hall website
Blickling Hall Facebook page
A 360 degree tour of Blickling Hall
Old School Gardener
First Rhododendron of the year, seen at Repton’s Sheringham Park, yesterday.
Old School Gardener
Watering-
To reduce watering time grow drought tolerant plants, apply a layer of mulch to prevent evaporation from the soil and water only those plants that really need it. Install an automatic watering system, especially where regular watering is needed, such as for container plants and in the greenhouse.
Further information:
RHS- Watering Advice
Drought-busting advice- BBC
How to water your plants- Gardeners’ World
Source: ‘Short Cuts to Great Gardens’ (Reader’s Digest 1999)
Old School Gardener
The purpose of plants is to make more plants. That is all they want to do. Gardeners sometimes frustrate, sometimes tolerate this will to reproduce.
Photo from http://www.TimberPress.com.
Some plants are particularly successful in this endeavor. Oftentimes gardeners consider such plants mildly criminal. How often have we heard the word “thug” used in the context of the garden, as if Monardas were members of the Blackstone Rangers? (Confession: I have used this adjective on plants a few times myself.)
Plantiful, by Kristin Green, suggests a different point of view. She lays out how gardeners can collaborate with the botanical drive to reproduce. This collaboration enables gardeners to create large, bountiful gardens at a greatly reduced cost.
Kristin Green. Photo from http://www.timberpress.com.
Green practices what she preaches. She works as a professional gardener at Blithewold Mansion, a non-profit, public garden in Rhode Island.
The book is divided in three parts –…
View original post 389 more words
Old School Garden 