TODOS April

Assailed by a never ending list of things todo I keep a master list for garden tasks in the kitchen, mostly scribbled on my latest Gardener’s World calendar but some months it stretches to include post it notes stuck one on top of another. With the arrival of each new magazine ( I get 4 or is it 5 mags a month?!) or garden program (GQT, Beechgrove Garden and of course Friday nights with Monty and GW) I add to it, which to be honest makes it frightful and frightening at some stages of the year!

That might seem terribly disorganised and I will admit to having it electronically as well – spreadsheet by plant by month – so it can be sorted and juggled and pondered over if there is time, which is rarely!

Mostly I have it down to what MUST be done that month as a priority and what should be done but could wait a bit, follows that. It helps to not miss vital pruning or planting stages and that way there is no arguing with myself about the necessity of completing certain tasks.

So April’s MUST do’s – not an exhaustive list by any means and anyone wishing to add to task or ask a question please feel free to comment!

MULCH MULCH MULCH

What can I say, there is so much about our current drought that I probably don’t need to say this but just in case you missed …….Apply a 10-15cm layer of mulch (soaking wet news paper or cardboard under bark chip or homemade compost is good) to reduce evaporation and lock in as much moisture as you can.

Alternatively hoe the top 5cm of soil to a fine dusty tilth. It acts like a mulch though if your site is exposed and windy it’s probably best to stick with adding a mulch!

PRUNE:

Formative prunes after flowering (that’s 1/3rd of old wood to the ground and upto 30% off remaining branches) – Viburnum  bodnantense etc, Lonicera purpursii, Forsythia, Chaenomeles

Formative prunes before flowering (that’s 1/3rd of old wood to the ground and upto 30% off remaining branches) – Buddleija

Grasses – cut back deciduous  varieties to 10-15cm above ground level – already a bit late for this if they are off to a green and glorious start.

FRUIT, VEGGIES AND CUT FLOWERS:

Plant those spuds! I’ll be trialing a new (to me) method of planting on top of the ground and mulching over them this year. NO DIG rocks!!!

Dig out trenches for beans and peas and apply a well rotted compost. Beans are GREEDY feeders. Plants will go in in 4-6 weeks

Dig in green manures, a bit late for this too but not too late quite yet. Cut the leafage down and chop up with a spade/rotavator and then dig the sod over  and into the soil. In theory it needs 4-6 weeks to break down, though mine did it’s stuff in 3,  good wormage levels I think. I am planting sweetcorn, pumpkin and and courgettes (2 of the 3 Sisters) into mine in mid May.

Chop back old wood of Autumn fruiting raspberries to 10cm above ground if not done in winter.

Get any Dhalia tubers into slightly damp compost, only half cover the tuber,  in a frost free area to give them an early start before planting out.

Keep liquid feeding your bulbs as they grow, preparing them for bulking up before next year.

Planting annual flower seeds into modules or seed trays and keep them in an unheated greenhouse until the frosts pass (Mid May/June). This year I’m doing Ammi, Sunflowers, Phlox and Stocks and Cosmos. They’ll sit alongside Tomato, Pak Choi, Cavalo Nero, Peas and French and Runner Bean seedlings.

VISIT:

For seasonal inspiration and ideas on extending your own gardens seasons visit at least one amazing Spring Garden. Try Great Dixter, Beth Chatto’s, RHS Hyde Hall or for something more local to you have a rummage through this Telegraph list, an oldie but still a goodie!

Lawn, or is that TURF?

Spring has sprung and the grass is growing. What more could you want? well an informal presentation on the ins and outs of lawn care might be nice!

I will admit to having succumbed to lawn fever earlier in the year and sprinkled the patchy patch behind my house with indestructible, shade loving lawn seed mixed in compost. Watered lightly and waited, and waited, and waited. Last week it decided to show it’s shoots and then shot up about 3 cm in a couple of warm days! I want a sward by the end of the year, it’s a long time to that point but it’s a modest goal I think.

Lucky for me the Rolawn rep came to visit the SGD cluster group meeting this week. Dave, plied us not only with info and promo literature but also soil and left me with 2 sample patches of their best product. Medallion and Minster Pro. I am gleeful, I will have two patches of fabulous turf in the garden, not exactly what I had in mind but nevertheless 2 patches will stand out and act as a good guide to perfection.

Medallion and Minster Pro in a sample box

Rolawn are the turf kings. They have been farming, yes farming, hectares of the stuff in Yorkshire for 40 years. Plenty of rain and a cool steady climate apparently, well up until the last couple of dry winters and hot springs that is, so a perfect climate for growing excellent turf.

Having studied lawn care with the RHS I thought I knew quite a bit about it but in fact there is much more to know. It’s not just about mowing, aerating, scarifying, weeding, feeding, top dressing etc but about laying it correctly in the first place. Gardening well, pretty much always comes back to good preparation.Thinking about  things like Where, When and What you lay turf on is important.

The absolute basics are to remove old turf, compost it elsewhere in the garden by turning it upside down and leaving for 6 months.

Turn over you soil to a depth of 5-10cm no more, overusing you rotavator can destroy the soil structure making it nigh on impossible for the turf roots to find food, water or purchase.

Raking the area over and removing/breaking down big clods of earth and then firming the soil with your heels. I laugh at this particular step but it is a vital thing to do.

Follow all this preparation with a application of pre-turfing fertiliser in the top 25mm.

Turf needs to be laid on a damp surface so if it’s been dry water before laying and then lay your turf in offset pattern on the fine tilth you’ve just prepared.

Dave says it should take in 3-5 days, so be prepared to get mowing as soon as a good tug doesn’t have you standing with a patch of grass in your hand!

Usefully there is every kind of information on how to make and keep a good patch of turf on the Rolawn TV website with some chap from TV series Emmerdale apparently. One wonders if he now actually knows how to lay turf?!

Drought and being a bit more waterwise….

So there it is from April 5th we, in the South that is, will be in an official hosepipe ban. Drought has officially hit (21st Feb 2012) due in the main to the drier winters and increasingly warm summers.

DEFRA is asking all of us to help by taking shorter showers, 4 mins which to me sounds like a ship shower (dowse, lather, dowse!) and not running the tap whilst cleaning your teeth – who does that, didn’t your Mother ever tell you about wasting the worlds resources? and pushing up the family water bill!

I have mixed feelings about a hosepipe ban as unlike many gardeners I abhor sprinklers and the mostly inefficient auto-watering systems one sees about the place. Of course I speak as someone with a small enough patch to not worry about watering by hand but then I don’t water anything unless it’s in a pot, in it’s first season of growth or a crop of some sort. Plants shouldn’t need it and doing it just creates bad habits in the plant/tree!

So how can we help ourselves with this imminent water shortage?

Soil

Yes that’s right improving your soil can help with water retention. The more organic matter it contains the better it stores moisture. Organic matter can be added as compost, well rotted farm yard manure or green waste from your council. Typically this is done in late Autumn (November) or Early Spring (Feb/March) when the ground is moist. Spread a thick layer (50-75mm) on top of your soil leaving a 7-10cm gap around the stem/trunk of plants and then let the garden worms do the rest.

Right Plant Right Place

I know I know broken record stuff but it holds true for a reason. Planting moisture loving plants on dry slopes of sandy soil is going to cause a headache even if we didn’t have a drought. Beth Chatto‘s wonderful Dry Garden has shown that even in areas with low rainfall, and they have one of the lowest in the country, it is possible to plant a fabulous garden that won’t guzzle water but will still make a breathtaking display right through from Spring to Autumn.

Good plants to aim for are those you might find in mediterranean countries, silver leaved Lavenders, Salvia’s all sorts of furry and silver leaved plants and of course succulent Sedum, Euphorbia  and Sempervivums. The hairy leaves capture any moisture that falls and traps it for the plant, small leaves transpire less, grey reflects more light, fleshy leaves hold water well and so on. These plants have adapted well to their native environment and we can make use of them in our bid for low water, drier gardening. The RHS do a good drought tolerant plant list but then also investigating your own local varieties is half the fun.

MULCH IT

My favorite topic and a favorite pass time  - I definitely need to get out more – A bit like improving your spoil mulch helps in the retention of water, stopping it evaporating as quickly so the plant has more chance to sup it up. There are lots of types of mulch from black plastic and bark chips to aggregates including gravels.

I get my bark chip from a local Arboriculturalist for paths but for anything going on the border it has to be well seasoned or there is a risk of nitrogen leaching from the bark and causing imbalance in your soil, most shop bought bark chip will be well seasoned.

As with soil improvers make sure this is laid between AUtumn and SPring so that the soil is good and moist before the mulch goes down. Mulch acts as a barrier both ways, so if your soil is dry it will take much longer to get wet.

More solid barriers, like Terram (a permeable black membrane), can be very useful in weed suppression and water retention but I find them a bit annoying if I want to have a fluid planting style – i.e. planting all those things that have tempted me in the local nursery! – it can get tatty if cut too many times and basically should be reserved for industrial style mulching and weed suppression

Water Sensibly

So we’re back to those sprinklers! Water garden plants in the evening, after the heat has gone out of the day. Water at the base of the plant don’t waste if on the leaves, really dowse each plant, soaking it once a week rather than watering every day. The soaking of the soil makes the plant send roots down in search of water rather than noodling about in the top 10cm, which is more prone to drying out and consequently not a great place for a plant to have all its roots!

For pot watering I challenge you to a test, take a couple of pots and water them as normal, after 15 mins take the plant out of the pot, soil and all, and see how far down you watering has gone. I suspect, unless you already know this one, that you water will have gone down a mere cm or two and nothing like the depth of the pot. A good rule of thumb is to soak your pot from below for half an hour, so a deep drip tray  or bucket is good. This encourages the plant to send it’s roots down and also it takes up the water it needs.

One more thing on pots, large pots do better as the fluctuations in temperature and water are reduced, aim for 60cm or bigger. Terracotta are the best for root protection and limiting temperature fluctuations but plastic pots will obviously retain water better. Clustering pots together creates a cooler micro climate. Metal pots are the devils work and basically fry the roots!

Water retaining gels

When making pots or hanging baskets for the summer, mix in water retaining gel to your compost. The crystals soak up water and create tiny reservoirs of wetness to be released later. Do not use them in winter pots or baskets as the same dampness is likely to cause root damage and possibly freeze.

Water Butts

It has to be said they are not the most elegant of things but they are fabulously useful in drought a couple of well placed containers connected to drainpipes will really boost your plants. Rainwater is also far better for plants than chemically treated tap water not to mention keeping the water bills down. Some funky new designs are on the market. You might consider grey water recycling as well but this is a slightly more complex occupation, you can find more information about the how’s here.

One final note to all you lawn lovers, a brown summer lawn is the new green, it will re-grow once it rains, don’t waste your water on the sward!

A bit more info about this drought:

http://www.ceh.ac.uk/news/news_archive/February-2012-UK-hydrological-summary_2012_17.html

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/drought/31749.aspx

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/interactive/2012/mar/14/drought-proof-your-home-interactive

and something to annoy the English

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/feb/29/welsh-want-english-pay-for-water

Inspirations from a Walled Garden – Wimpole Hall

I know I have banged on about Wimpole Hall on several occasions, it is my ‘local’ NT garden after all but it  remains an inspiring place to go and is full of ideas to take home and try out, on a somewhat smaller scale of course!.

When I say it is inspiring I am not really talking of the parterre, which is best glanced at through dark glasses. Suffice to say it is a painful homage to bygone trends though may inspire budding Britain in Bloom entrants I suppose.

Making a right on the path to avoid the garish parterre one finds oneself ambling through a rather new woodland area that seems loaded with interesting specimen trees it’s difficult not to get distracted by the unusual selection and find it takes a long while to walk a short way.

Being determine though and knowing where I am headed I resist the urge and head decisively towards the Walled Garden. In fact it is a double walled garden.

Outer wall gate

The first gated entry, tucked into deep evergreen plantings,  leads into a well stocked, expansive orchard.

Hay drying under the apple trees

Juicy fruit

A well designed path encourages me to move to the inner gardens but it’s tempting to wander in the orchard admiring the uncommon fruit varieties and wondering if anyone would miss a juicy applethat it calling my name. The long meadow grass lies briefly as hay beneath the trees, a gardener tells me it will be collected once dry. It’s evocative of a rural idyll of the past and somehow pleasing. He also tells me of the new beehives installed at one end of the orchard.

Bees feasting on nectar

It’s not difficult to see how much the bees enjoy the enormous late summer borders that flank the outside of the inner walls. Wide flanks of abundant planting humming with insects.

Long wide, nectar rich borders of the orchard gardens

That said I will say that they seemed to be far more interested in inhabiting a hole in the tall red brick wall a few feet up from the nectar rich border than flying hundreds of yards away to brand spanking new purpose built wooden boxes.

Nectar rich borders

I can readily understand that desire.

Inner wall gates

 The inner wall gate states that rabbits are unwelcome and one can imagine Peter, Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton Tail would have a field day in the productive gardens that lie beyond.

The large green greenhouse

Then there are choices to be made, ahead, left or right. Ahead one is greeted by  a large greenhouse which is literally green and surrounded by a plethora of seasonal plantings both tender and hardy you can’t enter it but you can admire the gourds within.

Cutting borders

Plant label

To the right are blocks and blocks of flowers with enormous wooden labels identifying each variety.  Though you have to know your genus and species as these are not well documented.

Leading around the gardens hedges of Gaura froth over the path

Gaura lindheimeri at the path edge

and walls of ripening fruit line the inner, inner walls.

Trained fruit

Espalier, cordon and fan training all in evidence.

To the left the productive gardens are showing off

Rotavator pausing between shifts

and alongside education material incorporated into borders. I didn’t know I could grow Woad (Isatis tinctoria)

Isatis tinctoria - Woad - give a blue pigment

still and am seriously considering a spot for it in the garden, though painting my face with it may not be on the list of things to use it for.

Though the walled garden is clearly used for educational purposes what stays with me the most is the idea that cut flowers can also be grown like a crop.

Echinacea purpurea crop

 Long blocks of them are dotted through the big cultivated areas.

Crocosmia Lucifer crop

Echinacea, Crocosmia, Lavender, Iris and lots and lots of Dhalia.

Cosmos bipinnatus

There is something pleasing about order in a productive garden, everything has a place and an order presides. The design is formal and symmetrical as are many productive plots, this one speaks of borders designed to enhance views as well as accommodate ‘crops’ .

Views within the inner garden

On every visit I come away with more ideas and plans than can possibly be put into a 30x10ft town garden and that is the joy of it, always something new to try next year. This year though I have an 80x12ft allotment to play with. Last years dahlia crop, grown from 3 packets of seed, in large garden pots is going in the ground once the frosts pass. It won’t be Wimpole but it will be fabulous all the same.

Dhalia from seed

RHS London Plant and Design show – Horticulture Halls 14/15th Feb 2012

Not having been to this RHS showbefore I was delighted to find out it was free to members, I knew that membership card would come in handy one day. Half term is not the best time to be schlepping down to the Big Smoke on the first ‘off peak’ train but beggars can’t be choosers I suppose. The London gridlock was much much worse than I recall, according to our cabbie it’s all in preparation for the July Olympics. Seriously Boris? isn’t this a bit ‘day late $ dollar short?’

Plant Hall at RHS London Plant and Design show

We made it through the traffic and arrived at the packed show which is located on two sites close together. It works quite well, the hubbub of the jostling plant sales hall versus the slightly more silent and serious hum of the design rooms. Starting in the plant hall I was immediately floored by the rows and rows of gorgeous spring plants that are available and had to put my purse firmly at the bottom of my bag.

Ashwood Nursery Garden Hybrid - Variety names no longer feature on labels, which will be confusing for buyers

The show could feasibly be renamed, the Galanthus and Hellebore show for indeed these varieties were being shown off to their full capacity with block after block of delicate bloom tempting one and all. Avon Bulbs, Ashwood. Foxgrove Plants and Broadleigh Gardensto name a few of the participating nurseries. It was fun to get up close and personal with one or two of the Galanthus without having to grovel about on the muddy ground. I will admit to something along the lines of galanthophile envy at the range and clump size displayed.

Galanthus 'Wendy's Gold'

The Design Hall was awash with colleges vying for new students and industry bodies selling their expertises. The SGD hosted a HUGE stand offering a showcase of MSGD’s work and offering quick, free garden design consults to all comers. It was exciting to see the photoshopped illustrations of the upcoming Chelsea Gardens and it looks to be another good year in 2012. Personal favourites were Laurent Perrier Garden by Arne Maynard. Is that a brown or purple pleached alle we are going to see I wonder? and  The Telegraph Garden by Sarah Price of Olympic Park renown.

A fine lunch followed at the Blanche eatery, not a stones throw along Horseferry Road from the Channel 4 building and a quick jaunt around the British Museum foyer, due to the Grayson  Perry exhibition being entirely sold out!

Timeless and elegant architecture at the British Museum

How do you clean YOUR garden tools?

Bit of a nerdy topic I will fess up to but really I am curious I have watched numerous YouTube videos espousing the virtues of one brand or another of American lube or cleaner but on trying to obtain same here have drawn a virtual blank.

Homebase: No sorry we don’t do anything like that. Me: really, not even WD40?, Homebase: No sorry, don’t think we do that. This followed by 3 tannoys and a heated conversation to someone on a break who didn’t care to come and find out if they infact had stock of WD40.

Wickes fared no better though they did at least know what WD40 was and had sand paper sponges though not wire brushes or WD40 alternatives.

In the end Tesco had WD40 AND a wire brush (good on yah Tesco!)

Gleefully I looked up the lovely Felco lube, but to no avail, Felco UK don’t sell their own product to specially clean their products, apparently! Though they do have rather wonderful instructional videos showing how to dismantle your secateurs to clean them. I won’t be doing that as I know from experience that I will lose a) patience once they are fully dismantled whereupon they will sit for a month or two or so in a bag marked ‘to be fixed’ , b) some vital working part that will render them unusable or c) I will proudly disassemble, clean, sharpen and reassemble them only to find a lone piece still sitting on the table. No, ordinary cleaning, sharpening and oiling will suffice.

I must admit to being somewhat amused by references to putting away my tools in ‘The Fall’ since I finished maintenance work in December which by my calculation in the first month of winter. My tools have lain silently and slightly dirtily in their storage cupboard waiting for their winter servicing. Initially it was simply too wet every time I set out to clean them up it rained and then the festive season was upon me, and this week it has been horizontal rain and wind.

I usually clean tools after working at each clients garden. It’s good hygiene for your garden not to pass potential diseases around and as a professional, well needless to say you can’t be sloppy about this task. I don’t molly coddle them with oiling and pimping until the winter rolls in and then they get a once a year primp which thus far has been limited to sharpening and oiling the metal parts. This year inspired by my research there will be sanding and oiling, or waxing of handles as well.

Secateurs and pruners are an exception as they get sharpened at least 2 or 3 times a year, mostly when they have been hard at work in the big pruning seasons. Lately this has been at the local ironmonger, the treasure trove that is Goldings on Bedford High Street. 2012 though is spelling change for this task as I have dug out an old tool file and am planning on a bit of DIY.

Having secured enough materials to do a fair job of clean and sharpen I am sure by the end on Sunday to be happily applying the Swarfega, with tools gleaming in readiness for a return to use in Feb.

http://youtu.be/PwPQZmfypTY

Cleaned and Sharpened, oh and veg oiled

For a live demonstration see below, the Felco lubricant is not available in the UK

How to Sharpen Tools – US Style

And for serious primping see Felco’s how to on maintenance and dismantling

Felco Secateur Primping

The Single Digg

I’m sure lots of you know all about single digging, that is as opposed to the dreaded double digging or ‘ bastard trenching’ as my RHS tutor once called it!

Today I initiated my lovely nephew and his mate in the finer arts of the single dug trench and although I am not certain they appreciated the finer points, they made stirling efforts to at least look interested and to follow instructions relatively closely.

Some of you may be wondering what the hell is ‘single digging’ ? Well the first trench is dug a ‘spit’ down and a ‘spit’ across. A spit being approximately a standard spade depth. This soil is placed in a barrow and the next trench dug throwing the soil into the first trench. At the final trench the soil from the first trench is used to backfill. Simple. Double digging simply roughs up a second spit’s depth of soil and usually adds some organic matter before replacing the topsoil.

We added plenty of gravel and some well rotted farm yard manure, minded all the sticky, slippery worms

wiggling their way through the slabs of ‘soon to be concrete’ like clay and pulled out the worst of the grass clumps, last winters phacelia went in with the grit and manure.

Progress was slow, it’s hard work, even if you’re 17 and solid muscle, this is hard graft. But the lads are grafters, they’ll be back next week for another couple of hours of digging.

This time I am setting out, we’re not wasting time on digging over what will be paths, just  the new Iris beds. 

Week 3 and we’ll be onto the vegetable beds, might even get a fine tilth seed bed ready, by the time spring frosts are past of course.

Planting in Shade

Like those red busses where you have none then 3 come at once so my latest projects all seem to have varying degrees of shade planting required.

I have long been a fan of shade so it didn’t fill me with the usual groans I often hear about shady spots. In fact shade is wonderful for many plants that cannot bear the scorching (!) heat of summer. Ok maybe that scorching weather is in my dreams in the UK, but there are many plants that do better with a light dappled shade during the day.

Visits to Beth Chatto’s Colchester garden have inspired several planting plans and having recently purchased her excellent book The Shade Garden I am rather excited about putting more of these ideas into practice.

Sample planting plan for partial shade - Green and White focus

The 3 plots are in fact quite different. 1st is woodland with mature deciduous trees around a meadow area, 2nd is a wide sandy bank in full, deep shade and the 3rd a front garden with a large un-moveable, un-trimable conifer.

Let me say here that not all shade is created equal and though shade is often considered a ‘tough environment’, a light dappled shade with plenty of well drained, moist soil is heaven for literally hundreds of well known varieties.

Hosta in late April

Dicentra alba, commonly known as bleeding heart

Aquilegia vulgaris - commonly known as Granny's Bonnet!

Anemone bland - wood anemone

Deep shade on dry soil on the other hand is less appetising for most plants and thriving in such conditions is a tall order for all but the most vigorous and yet, some do.

Like all garden designers I have my favourites for planting and like any kid in a sweetshop I want to have everything, in this case that means trying out new plant combinations in these, new to me, planting environments. Taking into account the clients interest and expertise in plants is also something I consider and if they have a professional gardener that’s all to the good for introducing the odd specialist variety.

I am ‘composting’ ideas at the moment but am excited about the emerging combinations.

Euonymus fortunei Emerald Gaiety

Ajuga reptans ' Catlins Giant'

Liriope muscari

 

Which tool for Plant Specification

After learning about the National Plant Specification resource at college it had been assigned to the ‘someday when it can be afforded’  box – currently £156+VAT subscription then £99+VAT PA thereafter

What is the NPS?

“The updated National Plant Specification takes the guesswork out of plant selection and procurement by providing a comprehensive and accurate ‘bible’ for planting selection and ensures an effective method of producing rigorously specified plant schedules.” http://www.gohelios.co.uk/

There are other resources of course that are free-ish, The new and updated RHS plant selector which provides extra care information for a logged in member – £49 for an individual member. There is also Shoot Gardening which provides extensive plant information for professionals £30 to £130 depending on services) and amateurs (£19.99).

Of course good nurseries will also provide this information free in their own catalogues.

In my ideal world the NPS would be integrated into Vectorworks at no extra cost and updated every 6 months to reflect new RHS AGM varieties, but that is my personal wish list and not so likely to happen!

Designs

The first few weeks are under my belt now. It has been daunting and exciting and many other emotions since starting, I am on another steep learning curve which is all to the good (Outliers here I come!) as far as I can see.

One aspect that intrigues me, and I feel I have not completely settled on how to progress, is the design process. Now as The Designer one has time to design, research, design some more, that’s what you ‘job’ is. But as a designer for design and build company it’s not entirely the same. The job is: design, fast; sell the design, fast; cost and quote it; schedule it; detail the construction, fast; project manage, at the fastest pace you can, and let me say thats 4 or 5 jobs at a time not 1 at a time!

In all this I find the methods taught to me at college are simply too time consuming, perhaps I am still a slowcoach though? Drawing up a basic 3d model takes me 1.5-2 days (depending on how much visual material there is for reference and how good the survey is). Sketch plan, for a large garden (2 acres plus and still my bette noir) another couple of days with cogitating and inspiration finding in between. Rendering elevations and perspectives at least 1 maybe 2 days. But it seems as if the time frame for all is budgeted at about 3 days, max!

I need to speed up!

Beginnings of a sketch plan for front and side gardens

Aerial view from rear, trees as circle

That said, I did re-design and draw up a front garden in 4 hours last week!