Walking through the pretty featureless, grassed over walled garden you suddenly turn a corner and enter a more intimate, warm, walled garden with blocks of bright colours and interesting foliage. An amazing contrast, this formally laid out garden with a range of exotic plants as well as classic bedding, made me draw breath and smile like a Cheshire Cat!
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It’s the time of year to harvest red currants around here and this week’s question comes from Frew T. Bunn of Oldham:‘Our red currant bushes always lose their leaf colour in July or August, but the ribs of the leaves always stay green – are they suffering from some sort of disease?’
By the summer months red currant bushes are starting to lose their lustre, but the fact that the leaf ribs of yours remain green suggests a shortage of Magnesium, one of the ‘trace elements’ of importance to plant health. Commercial ‘Epsom Salts’ applied in the spring at around 65 grammes per square metre should improve matters, so try this next year.
My blackcurrants look like they’ll give a good crop again this year
On the subject of currants, my black currants are dripping off the three bushes I have here in Old School Garden, and the family of blackbirds nesting in the courtyard is relieving us of some – literally pecking them through the netting of my too – small fruit cage!
They are apparently not difficult to grow and seem to have returned to favour in recent years. Like red currants (and black currants) they fruit on old wood. ‘White Versailles’ is a popular and reliable early variety, the first white currant to crop. It produces a heavy crop of large, shiny, soft pale yellow/white berries in long heavy trusses during mid-late summer. The fruit is deliciously sweet, not as acidic as red currant, so is great for eating fresh or using for a wide range of culinary purposes. White Versailles has a vigorous, upright bushy growth habit with attractive arching canes and serrated three lobed pale green leaves. It is a very reliable cropper year after year, is self fertile so you only have to grow one bush if you want to – eventual height and spread: 1.5m (5ft).
‘White Versailles’
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‘We have two plum trees that both blossom, but a lot of the fruit drop before they are fully formed – why is this?’
So ask a Mr. and Mrs. Howard Hughes from Surbiton, Surrey.
Well, the likely reason is a lack of calcium, as this is vital when the stones are being formed. Many sandy soils are low in Calcium, so if you have this sort of soil, this might explain the problem. If there is insufficient Calcium to go round, some fruit will drop off before they have fully formed. To remedy this try a dressing of Lime over the whole area during the winter and then in the spring a mulch around the trees with well-rotted manure or compost should also help.
Whilst we’re dealing with plums another problem you might come across is the leaves developing a silvery sheen and the tree looking sick. This is most probably a sign of ‘silver leaf’ – a disease which requires all of the infected and dead wood to be burned before the middle of July. If you accidentally cut into healthy wood, cover the cut with a wound sealant. To improve the general health of the tree apply a general fertiliser such as Fish, Blood and Bone in February /March.
Silver Leaf- infected leaves (left) compared to healthy
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The Saffron Crocus (Crocus sativus)
We’d been here a long time ago and then only driving through so didn’t really have a chance to explore it thoroughly. Here’s a link to Wikipedia’s entry on the town if you’re interested in its history. In brief it’s of ancient standing, there having been a settlement here long before the Roman occupation of Britain 2 thousand years ago. Of particular interest is the derivation of the town’s name. In the medieval period the primary trade in Saffron Walden was in wool, but in the 16th and 17th centuries the Saffron Crocus (Crocus sativa) was grown in the area. Each saffron crocus grows to 20–30 cm and bears up to four flowers, each with three vivid crimson stigma. Together with the styles, or stalks that connect the stigmas to their host plant, the dried stigmas were used originally in medicines, as a condiment, a perfume, an aphrodisiac, and as an expensive yellow dye. This industry gave its name to the town and what used to be Chipping Walden became Saffron Walden. The town itself retains many old buildings, interesting spaces and features, as you’ll see in the gallery at the end of this article.
We began our visit in a fascinating garden – Bridge End Garden. This is actually a series of seven interlinked gardens laid out by the Gibson family (eminent bankers and brewers) in the nineteenth century. They are Grade II* listed (so protected), close to the town centre and church and are open to the public each day free of charge. Careful restoration has replicated gardening techniques and designs typical of the Victorian era and has brought the garden back to its full splendour.
Though there are signs around stating that it is ‘not a playground’ and ‘ball games are not allowed’, I can see it can be difficult to prevent its use for play by the town’s children, some of which might get a bit over exuberant at times…. While we were there I was delighted to see a group of teenage boys playing ‘It’ around the different spaces and the hedge maze was also an obvious draw for local kids. These features in an original 17th or 18th century setting must surely have been used in a similar, playful way – if not by children then by adults! The Dutch Garden with its complex parterre of box bushes also looks so like a ‘mini maze’ (in fact hedge mazes developed out of the complex parterres in France, Holland and elsewhere across Europe), so it wasn’t suprising to see another sign, perhaps rather desperately, announcing that it isn’t a maze!
The gardens are maintained by a team of paid staff (of the Town Council, which also maintains a number of other public gardens) and volunteers, and are in a very good condition. A long winding path flanked by well – kept mixed borders leads you past the formal Rose Garden with views to the parish church beyond (apparently the tallest church in Essex) to the walled garden with its fence and wall – trained fruit trees and two glasshouses with miniature orchard and citrus fruit trees, respectively, in pots that look as though they are brought outside in warmer weather.
All around are little curiosities to intrigue – statues of mock-snarling (or is it smiling) beasts, other classical statuary, some fine, mature trees such as a Cedar of Lebanon, a small summer house with a display of some curiosities from the garden (such as old gardener’s notes) and another gazebo called ‘Poets’ Corner’. The ‘Wilderness’, as it’s name suggests, was an area of more naturalistic planting (now with a developing Yew tunnel) and from the viewing platform at one end you can get a wonderful view of the Dutch Garden, with its swirling pattern of box hedging laid out to a design by Gertrude Jekyll, who visited the garden in the early 20th century.
Having seen a hedge maze, we went in search of one that is much older – and made of turf. At one edge of the town’s Common sits this wonderful example of a classical labyrinth (see my post on mazes and labyrinths for more information), of uncertain age, but several centuries at least as it was recut in the 17th century. This splendid feature is certainly a challenge to concentration and determination, being 1 kilometer long if you walk the full length of the winding brick path between the shallow turf mounding! Labyrinths are ancient features, adopted by Christianity as a way of encouraging meditation along the symbolic ‘journey of life’.
From here we passed by some of the medieval charm of central Saffron Walden, with their ‘pargetted’ walls (a technique that creates geometric patterns and pictures on the external render) and Market Square, and found a nice little Tea shop for our afternoon break. Unfortunately the west country ‘Saffron Cake’ appears not to be a local delicacy here, despite the town’s association with the spice! Instead portions of Strawberry Cheesecake and Millionaire’s Shortbread had to suffice! We finished our visit by looking round an old – estabslished Antique shop and the parish church of St. Mary- a superb example of a grand parish church built on wool – wealth (and latterly saffron – wealth). It has glorious glass, high painted wooden roof and stonework. Just as we were leaving this delightful town, the rain began to fall – great timing!
Further information:
Plantax 5: Crocus- spicy herald of Spring
Saffron Walden Town Council website
Bridge End Garden- Uttlesford District Council website
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‘The Jaboticaba tree – a mature tree will give you 6 to 8 crops a year. Apparently it’s one of the most nutritious & delicious fruits you will ever taste. ‘ Grow Veg
Nigel Boldero aka 'Old School Gardener'
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