Archive for June, 2015

Sissinghurst – the Moat Walk

‘In the afternoon I moon about with Vita (Sackville-West) trying to convince her that planning is an element in gardening. I want to show her that the top of the moat-walk bank must be planted with forethought and design. She wishes just to jab in the things which has left over. The tragedy of the romantic temperament is that it dislikes form so much that it ignores the effect of masses. She wants to put in stuff which ‘will give alovely red colour in the autumn’. I wish to put in stuff which will furnish shape to the perspective. In the end we part, not as friends.’

Harold Nicolson, 1946 (published 1966)

So, where do you stand? Can a focus on planning and form combine happily with a looser, romantic approach to gardening and garden design?

Old School Gardener

Tags: garden, garden design, gardening, national trust, planting, sissinghurst, vita sackville-west

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PicPost: Sunburst

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16/06/2015

Picture by Colin Garratt

Tags: daisy, flower, garden

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7 plants for moist soil in the sun

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15/06/2015

Aubrieta

Agapanthus

Wisteria

Rose

Nepeta

Crab Apple

Passion flower

Old School Gardener

Tags: garden, moist soil, plants, sunny position

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PicPost: Detailed

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14/06/2015

Picture of a Southern Magnolia by Ellen Zillin

Tags: flower, garden, magnolia

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Squashed at Blickling

Filed under: Blickling Hall- rebirth of the Walled Garden, Community Gardening, Heritage Gardens & gardening — Leave a comment

13/06/2015

Two weeks on and I was finally back in the Walled Garden at Blickling this week.

I arrived later than usual as I was giving a talk to a group called ‘Inspired Gardeners’ in Aylsham. 25 gardeners were inspired enough to turn up and hear me talk about Water Management in the Methodist Hall. What a splendid group they are, with my session but one in a packed programme of talks and garden visits to keep them on their (senior) toes! I’ll put together a precis of the Water Management talk and feature it in a future article.

The handful of other garden volunteers were hard at it weeding under the large Mulberry Tree in the Walled Garden, but I was detailed by Project Manager Mike to help him plant out some Pumpkins, the first things to go into the newly cultivated borders in the Walled Garden! The digging on one of the hottest days of the year so far certainly generated some perspiration, even after only half an hour, before we paused for lunch.

Pumpkins with space to invade

Mike raking the soil tidy around the new planting

Irrigation system nearly ready for action

After lunch we pressed on and in total put in some 36 plants of different varieties. Mike’s thinking is to get something going in the new borders, even if it isn’t part of the full and final plan for the different spaces, just to get the ground covered and producing something; pumpkins with their ‘space invader’ habit are perfect for that.

After loosening up the bottom of each generous planting hole we filled them with plenty of farmyard manure, mixed this with loose soil and put in the well-watered plants, which had been inside the (very full) Greenhouse. We created a saucer-like depression around each mounded plant to encourage water gathering around the roots and then topped off each with some organic ‘rocket fuel’ and a generous mulch of more manure (having given each plant a good soaking).

Very satisfying seeing something going into the new borders, and hopefully it won’t be long before more things are introduced. Certainly the irrigation seems to have been fully installed and I gather the metal edging for the paths will be done in the next month or two as the other members of the gardening team have a little more time on their hands to help with this mammoth job.

I mentioned in my last post a rather lovely ‘artist’s impression’ of the regenerated Walled Garden and I’m grateful to Mike for sending me a copy, which I set out for you to see below. It was done by local artist Fiona Gowen.

Having a few minutes to spare I planted a few Basil and Lettuce plants near the front of the main cultivated strip of the Walled Garden, which all in all is starting to look very good, as the various vegetables and flowers are bulking out and putting on colour.

I also had the chance to see the beautiful, blousy Peonies which, two weeks on, were now getting fully into their stride.

Further Information:

Blickling Hall website

Blickling Hall Facebook page

A 360 degree tour of Blickling Hall

Old School Gardener

Tags: basil, blickling, garden, lettuce, national trust, norfolk, peonies, planting, pumpkins, squashes, walled garden

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PicPost: Show Stopper

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12/06/2015

Picture of a Clematis by John Aspley

Tags: clematis, flower, garden

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Trees, trees, trees…

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11/06/2015

I had an interesting trip to a Tree Nursery on Tuesday.

Barcham Trees, near Ely, Cambridgeshire, grow trees on an ‘industrial’ scale. They also have in depth knowledge about development and after care. I was impressed with the scale of trees on offer, and which- because they are container grown- can be big enough to provide instant impact in landscape and garden design schemes.

Big trees require big carriers…

I was attending a seminar on ‘Garden Design as Landscape Painting’ (I’ll do a further report on this shortly), and as part of the day we had an informative tour of the nursery with a lively guide, Ellen.

Ellen, our guide

Detail showing the irrigation systems which delivers a mix of water and feed (tailored to different species and time of the year) to each container

The day was cool, with a brisk north-easterly wind sweeping across this massive site, but we made good progress and were told lots of interesting stuff about the different varieties of tree on offer, saw some fascinating examples of pleaching and surveyed some 120,000 trees (we didn’t get to see a further 100,000 younger examples in the fields down the road).

Example of ‘ready to pleach’ specimens

120,000 trees and counting…

The visit reminded me of my series of articles on Garden Trees, making use of Barcham’s very useful catalogue and online resources- I must get on with this ‘A-Z’ which has a way to go before It’s finished. So, expect ‘N is for…’ in a week or two…

Further information: Barcham Trees Website

Old School Gardener

Tags: barcham, cambridgeshire, container grown, ely, garden, landscape, nursery, pleaching, trees

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Archive for June, 2015

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If the soil beneath your walls is especially dry, dig it out, along with any rubble, making a trench at least 60cm wide. Lay a seep hose along the length of the trench in order to make watering easier.

Fill the trench with well rotted organic matter, such as compost or horse manure, to create suitbale conditions for growing climbers or wall shrubs. Alternatively, use topsoil, available from garden centres or commercial suppliers, but you will neeed to check the quality.

Finish off with a 5cm layer of loose organic mulch in order to help retin moisture and cut down on weeding.

Source: ‘Short Cuts to Great Gardens’ – Reader’s Digest

Old School Gardener

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Harold Nicolson, 1946 (published 1966)

So, where do you stand? Can a focus on planning and form combine happily with a looser, romantic approach to gardening and garden design?

Old School Gardener

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Share this:

Old School Gardener

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Two weeks on and I was finally back in the Walled Garden at Blickling this week.

I mentioned in my last post a rather lovely ‘artist’s impression’ of the regenerated Walled Garden and I’m grateful to Mike for sending me a copy, which I set out for you to see below. It was done by local artist Fiona Gowen.

Having a few minutes to spare I planted a few Basil and Lettuce plants near the front of the main cultivated strip of the Walled Garden, which all in all is starting to look very good, as the various vegetables and flowers are bulking out and putting on colour.

I also had the chance to see the beautiful, blousy Peonies which, two weeks on, were now getting fully into their stride.

Further Information:

Old School Gardener

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I had an interesting trip to a Tree Nursery on Tuesday.

I was attending a seminar on ‘Garden Design as Landscape Painting’ (I’ll do a further report on this shortly), and as part of the day we had an informative tour of the nursery with a lively guide, Ellen.

The visit reminded me of my series of articles on Garden Trees, making use of Barcham’s very useful catalogue and online resources- I must get on with this ‘A-Z’ which has a way to go before It’s finished. So, expect ‘N is for…’ in a week or two…

Further information: Barcham Trees Website

Old School Gardener

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