Tag Archive: garden


White Walls and light paving can help to lift a shady space

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

Mirrors can give a shady space a whole new dimension

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

Old School Gardener

 

Picture of Parrot Tulip by Gina Gray

picture of Parrot Tulip by Gina Gray

Lettuce_JPG‘Sow Lettuce, Raddish -‘

John Evelyn 1686 (published 1932)

Old School Gardener

Picture of Dicentra by Eva Kovacs

Picture of Dicentra by Eva Kovacs

WP_20150604_14_12_41_ProYesterday’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.

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Further Information:

Blickling Hall website

Blickling Hall Facebook page

A 360 degree tour of Blickling Hall

Old School Gardener

 

Picture of Foxgloves and Lupins by John Benger

Picture of Foxgloves and Lupins by John Benger

SONY DSC

Installing an outdoor tap is one of the most effective changes that you can make on moving to a new house with a garden. This saves time clearing up the mess walked into the house when filling watering cans or threading hosepipes through windows, as well as reducing the number of hours spent on watering. Special kits are available form DIY stores or get a plumber to install a tap for you. 

butt

Try to conserve water by having your outside tap fitted to a water butt or other container connected to catch rainwater from downpipes. Though this won’t give you the pressure of a mains or pumped supply, it will be useful for filling watering cans and the like.

Old School Gardener

Centaurea- Photo by Lill Dunne

Centaurea- Photo by Lill Dunne

 

Most plants will grow in alkaline soil, but these are particularly tolerant of high levels of alkalinity (lime).

Old School Gardener

Wisteria Walk, Stoke Poges Memorial Gardens

Wisteria Walk, Stoke Poges Memorial Gardens

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