A resumé of changes to the garden, Winter 2005/2010

This garden (like most others)is constantly changing, during the winter months borders get
re-aligned, plants are moved, overgrown shrubs either pruned back hard or removed to make way for more suitable subjects, and a considerable amount of tree work takes place, the Spruce trees, planted by David Farrant during the 'sixties, are particularly prone to die-back, and some have to be removed, also, as we are quite exposed to winter gales we do lose trees to the weather. During the summer of 2006 the water garden gave cause for concern, the problem was excessive water loss which was traced to the boggy area through which the water passed on it's way to the sump where the circulating pump was housed, also we lost fish, possibly due to the system constantly being topped up with mains water. As soon as our last visitor had left in September 2006 I started work on a new control box which would house all the electrics and the automatic water level control, plus the provision for two pumps, the original pump is now used during the winter months with it's low output, but a new pump is now in place which produces (along with the re-designed waterfall) a considerably enhanced flow, all the supply piping had to be diverted to this new control system, and 55 metres of armoured cable laid underground to supply current to the waterproof distribution box (D) from the garage, 55 metres away. I also incorporated a ball-cock (B)to keep the pond topped-up, and connected by buried pipe to the water main. I also fitted a safety switch (A)operated by a float(C) to protect the pump should the water level drop drastically.
We are now into the third year of big changes to what was the "East" border, in the winter of 2005/2006 the outline of that area was drastically redrawn, this was necessary because a quite large Sycamore (outside our boundary) was causing shade problems, and some quite good plants were being drawn up and looking quite sickly. The plan was to move them to more amenable surroundings, level the site off, and then grass it over and plant three Betula "Jaquimontii" in a group, this was carried out, but the fig-leaved Hollyhocks and the biennial Verbascum "Banana Custard" were left were they where as time ran out during a very busy winter's work. For various reasons nothing further was done in the winter of 2006/2007, pond enhancements took longer than anticipated due to foul weather, so the final work had to wait till 2007/2008, when, at last, the Hollyhocks and Verbascums were moved to their new homes much nearer the ha-ha and in better soil conditions and in more-or-less full sun. Then, eight quite large lace-cap Hydrangeas were moved from the woodland area to take their place and complete the half-moon shaped backdrop to the "Jaquimontii" Birches. The other big changes over the past four years have taken place in the Pergola and grass borders, and what we used to call "The jungle", an area near the grasses that was dominated by overgrown trees and shrubs of low horticultural value. In the winter of 2004/2005 four very large and overgrown conifers were cut down and disposed of, also many overgrown shrubs also suffered the same fate, leaving quite a large area to replant. The Pergola border was now enlarged considerably, all our very best compost was added to replace the loss of soil fertility caused by the conifers, and then most of the plants from the old East border were moved into an area than now enjoyed full sun for most of the day. The "Jungle" was planted with a mixture of shrubs and shade-tolerant plants such as Thalictrums, foxgloves and Nicotiana "Sylvestris" the seed grown "Bottle brush" shrubs also found their way here in the winter of 2006/2007, having been brought on in large pots, in fact they started flowering in the summer of 2007. Winter work is mainly tidying the borders and spreading the large quantity of compost generated as a result of all the grass cuttings and organic waste you would expect from a two acre garden, we have two pits on the go, filling and emptying them on alternate seasons. Winter is also the time for propagation, having noted any "bare spots" in the herbaceous borders in late summer there are always plants to be divided as work progresses with the cleanup. I'm a great believer in digging the entire plant up, dividing it and then potting the results into 3 litre pots to be brought on in the small poly-tunnel, that way they can be replanted in the spring when the emerging shoots can show where the gaps are. Rabbits have always been a problem here, although the entire boundary has been protected with wire netting we had an incursion by a Badger during one summer night three years ago, and the rabbits poured in through the resultant hole and stayed----. the answer was electric netting fed by a power unit in the garage, with feed to the borders via buried cables, this does work quite well but the tiny rabbits still manage to get through, often by biting and chewing on the bottom (un-electrified) strand of the netting, so another winter job is to repair all the netting for the coming season. With advancing years comes a marked reduction in vigour and stamina, so I rely quite heavily on chemical weed control, using Weedol for the annual weeds and high strength glyphosate (roundup) for the tough things like nettles, bindweed, ground elder and brambles, bindweed has been a particular problem in the herbaceous borders but is almost gone now, the trick is to unwind it all, stuff the foliage onto a plastic bag and spray into the bag with a 40cc to the litre mix of glyphosate. On the 10,11th and 12th of March 2008 a series of storms hit the UK, with ferocious winds of up to 80 mph, unfortunately these winds were coming from the south, which meant that our prized Willow tree was completely unprotected, and at 2:30am a huge gust took the heart out of it, and also completely destroyed one of our Scots Pines in our woodland area the picture here shown the tree after I had stripped of the small branches ready to chainsaw the main parts of the limb, the problem was that after cutting off more of it it slipped down the trunk till the end of it became firmly wedged in the tree itself, with the far end deeply embedded in the ground it took a great deal of careful sawing and manipulation to get it all down to ground level in order to complete the cutting. (It had to be reduced into small enough pieces to lift into the Westwood-towed trailer to deposit near our car-park for burning). I think the tree looks very vulnerable now, with no central trunk, if we get any more winds like that it could be finally destroyed, but we try to be optimistic. Another big job was to modify the electric netting to incorporate tough plastic netting on the inside, because we found that baby rabbits were actualy jumping through the net - - - as the animal was off the ground it didn't feel a thing!, all this was slow and painstaking work but 100% successful, now, providing the netting is carefully erected and firmly pegged to the ground we get no incursions. AUTUMN 2010
The Willow has gone!. All through this summer it had gradually shown more and more signs of stress, the leaves went yellow and dropped off and then, in October enormous clusters of fungus erupted from the roots and up the trunk, so the poor old tree had to be cut down and the stump ground away. WINTER 2009/2010
Despite all the protection given to our standard Fuchsias they all succumbed to the cold weather, so the Rose Garden, which had itself been extended in the winter of 2008/2009 has been changed to include some standard roses to replace the Fuchsias - - -watch this space!



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