Archive for June, 2015
White Walls and light paving can help to lift a shady space
Even dense shade in the garden can be made attractive to look at and suitable for growing plants.
1. Whiten up
Make the best use of available light by painting walls and fences white. Also lay light coloured paving, stain trellis work white and use seats and containers which are either white or pastel shades.
2. Reflect on it
You can create the illusion of space and brighten up dark corners by putting up a mirror, which will also reflect light onto the plants.
3. Water works
The reflected light and the gentle sound of a water feature with a fountain will help to lift a dark corner.
Mirrors can give a shady space a whole new dimension
Source: ‘Short Cuts to Great Gardens’- Reader’s Digest
Old School Gardener
‘Snap’ the Famous Norwich Dragon, is currently here for some spa treatment from our conservators. He is looking pretty happy about the whole experience! Have a look at his special horse shoe teeth that make that distinctive SNAP!
We are also looking after his poor cousin too, who seems less happy with his treatment!
The statue of Christopher High and two of his sons arrived today. It has been created for us by Alan Herriot, and captures the moment when the farmer has to leave his young son at the workhouse as he can no longer afford to look after him. It will eventually be placed in the main courtyard.
Some of our previous statues are not very impressed…..
picture of Parrot Tulip by Gina Gray
‘Sow Lettuce, Raddish -‘
John Evelyn 1686 (published 1932)
Old School Gardener
Picture of Dicentra by Eva Kovacs
Yesterday’s session at Blickling was spent planting 6 million Penstemons ( I exaggerate)…
Chance would have it that the day I was to spend on my knees in the Long Borders, was the first day I’d wear shorts! Having finished off raking the bare soil, my fellow volunteers and I set to work planting out a large number of over wintered plants, which were brought over from the Walled Garden for us. The system worked well- a couple of helpers bringing plants to the three of us digging holes and planting; fairly close together, as the soil isn’t wonderful here and the plants, apparently, don’t seem to get very large.
Four hours later (and after a mild panic when we thought we’d run out of plants), the job was done. Apart from the sore knees, it was lovely planting out in the sun and with the fragrance of nearby Wisteria and Honeysuckle filling the air. It will be good to see how these mixed plants (some of the pots had been amusingly labelled ‘unkown’), progress in the next couple of months.
I also took a look at the Peony borders I featured a few weeks ago. Surprisingly, they haven’t yet fully opened, but there were a few blooms to give us a taste of what will come- hopefully soon, if the weather warms up a bit.
Over lunch Mike, the Walled Garden Project Manager, showed me a lovely ‘artist’s impression’ of the Walled Garden; a wonderful vision of how it will look in a few years time and something to spur those involved in pressing on with the regeneration project. I’ll see if I can share this picture with you at some point.
Further Information:
Blickling Hall website
Blickling Hall Facebook page
A 360 degree tour of Blickling Hall
Old School Gardener
By Stephanie Brittain
More than 800 million people suffer from chronic hunger and two billion suffer from nutrient deficiency. One in four children is stunted and one in two is malnourished. At the same time, 1.9 billion people are overweight, of which 600 million are obese. This is the current state of global nutrition; unbalanced and unequal.
In recognition of this, the Chicago Council held the London launch of their latest report “Healthy Food for a healthy World: Leveraging Agriculture and Food Security to Improve Global Nutrition” on the 2nd of June 2015. A distinguished panel discussed the key issues that are raised in the report, including Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Chair, High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition, Montpellier Panel member Lindiwe Sibanda, CEO of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), Catherine Bertini, Distinguished Fellow, Global Agriculture and Food…
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