August 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
First the bad news. Sorry to start in this way but we heard at
the weekend that we had not won the Daily Mail National Garden
Competition 2010. After getting over the disappointment we
reflected on the achievement to get to the final in what the judges
stated to be a very high standard of finalists this year. If you
have read the Weekend Supplement in The Mail during the last 2
weeks you will have seen all the 6 finalists and from some pretty
average photographs of the gardens had the chance to judge them for
yourselves,. We have been very touched by the support we have had
and the many messages of encouragement we have received. Thanks to
everyone who has contacted us. The winning garden will be announced
some time in September and we congratulate the owners on their
achievement. As a consolation we will get from the Mail some framed
photographs of the garden and a blue plaque stating that we were
finalists in the competition.
Back to our normal gardening life again - it's great!!. We have
had another busy month with more visitors and lots of maintenance
to do. We also found the time to have 2 short breaks - visiting
gardens! - what are we like!! No ordinary gardens mind you and all
very different. Our beloved Great Dixter in Sussex, Lullingstone
Castle in Kent home to the famous plantaholic Tom Hart - Dyke
and his World Garden designed whilst in captivity by guerillas in
the Columbian rainforest, Longstock Park Water Gardens in Hampshire
and The National Trust Buscott Park near Lechlade in
Gloucestershire (an amazing structure garden with work by Harold
Peto from the 1920's - surprised I liked it so much!)
It was good to get away but jobs still pile up at home and the
normal routines of our life continue
Weather Report
We were reminded whilst in the Cotswolds and the South East how
very different the weather has been there to Wales, with parched
lawns and borders and many trees shedding their leaves. Here it is
lovely green fields and lawns but less flowers because there hasn't
been too much sunshine although there has been plenty of rain.
Always look on the bright side if you can so its good to report
that it has been mild and very humid and we have been out under the
pergola until late every evening with the scent of oriental lilies,
nicotiana silvestris and best of all 2 large brugmansias, 8 foot
tall and dripping with 12 inch trumpets in white or yellow.
Fabulous !!!!!! The rain is preventing a lot of activity in the
garden of late and in the vegetable garden especially as we
desperately need to get the spuds up before the late blight gets
any worse and the keel slugs start on the tubers (so far they have
been remarkably clean).
Garden Update
It's that time of year on the cusp of the changing seasons when
some of the summer stalwarts are going past their best (campanulas,
early phlox, some monardas and the first flush of hardy geraniums)
and others (crocosmias, heleniums and asters) are beginning to get
into their stride. There is still an amazing amount of colour
particularly in the Paddock Garden borders but many of the annuals
especially those from mediterranean climates have hated the wet and
decided they have had enough so there are gaps appearing in some
borders. The dear old violas - how we love them - continue to
flower and thrive, the cornutas weaving their way up neighbouring
plants to reach incredible heights (3 - 4 feet) for what is
supposed to be a low growing plant. They will go on until the end
of September but then it's time for an annual trim and a well
earned rest. The cuttings can be potted up for growing on into
saleable plants for next year. For variety, colour, scent, ease of
cultivation and propagation and length of flowering there can't be
a better plant and every garden should have one (or more!)
In the veg garden we have managed to keep the carrot fly at bay.
For us this is a major news story! Although we always use
horticultural fleece over the rows, in the last few years this
hasn't been so successful because the carrot fly seems to be
endemic and apparently overwinters in the soil so this year we have
grown them in a patch of ground that has never previously grown
carrots. Result! Clean large carrots with no holes or
rotting. Brassicas have loved the rain and some of the Primo 2
and Endeavour summer savoys have reached football sizes with no
loss of quality - they have also stood in good condition for ages
without splitting or bolting.
What's looking good
Crocosmias are Absolutely Fabulous - sorry Edina and Patsie but
they are. Considering that not so long ago they were considered to
be borderline hardy (crocosmias of course not Edina and Patsie),
all those we grow in the borders came through the severe winter and
are flowering better than ever. Much as I like Lucifer it is a bit
of a thug and flops everywhere however much you stake it, it is a
bit too orange for the Red Border where we have it and it flowers
very early in July and is already spent. Most of the others are now
really getting into their stride, Emberglow being the current star,
shorter than Lucifer but much redder and more flofirous, better
leaf to flower balance and longer lasting. It has been with us a
long time but we acquired Pauls Best Yellow from Cotswold Garden
Flowers only last year and it is already showing considerable
potential, a really zingy orange/yellow, large flowered and quite
vigorous. We are really pleased with it and it has had many
admirers. Although there are a good few other crocosmias in the
garden (names of some of which have been lost) the best is yet to
come. My absolute favourite bar none is Star of the East a real
humdinger with huge mid orangish flowers that go on and on (a bit
like me when talking about plants - OK OK just like me!) and it can
often be in flower from a late August start until November if the
autumn is kind.
Dahlias never disappoint and are a little later than usual but
incredibly many survived the winter in the ground and are making up
for lost time. All time favourite is Summer Night a really dark
red/black cactus form. It anchors the red border throughout it's
length, as does a new dark leaved incredible, almost black
waterlily type called Karma Choc (what a name!). David Howard a
warm orange waterlily type never disappoints, some good orange and
red pom poms are interspersed in their appropriate borders but with
my passion for more natural looking plants the current star is
dahlia merckii, a species form with lovely dainty foliage and small
single pink flowers in profusion that is dotted over the
garden. One specimen in the North Facing House Garden Border is 6
foot tall and almost the same across. It takes my breath away every
time I look at it and it just gets bigger and bigger. I just love
plants like this to keep us in our place and fill us with
wonderment and delight. A native of Mexico putting on a show like
this in such a miserable late summer. Absolutely Fabulous
(sorry!!)
I must also mention the supporting cast without whom none of
this would be possible (sounds like the Oscars and in a way it is)
A variety of thalictrums in some shade love the current weather, as
do impatiens tinctoria, arguta, namchabarwensis a fabulous blue and
a newish introduction. Gingers too in the borders, yes
overwintered, are growing well but may not flower, and thanks to my
special friend Tony of www.shadyplants.com a
growing collection of arisaemas that have done well in the open
ground. There are some real show stoppers grown as much for their
foliage as their flowers especially conccinum, tortuosum, galeatum
and costatum, some of which are up to 5 feet tall.
One last star to mention, like the Oscars it's Bob Brown's (no
relative) big night, is a stunning recently introduced astrantia,
dark red, with blackish stems and leaves in shade, 3 feet or so in
height and no staking:- ladies and gentlemen I give you Ruby Star
and predict a glittering career. Loud applause again for that great
nursery, Cotswold Garden Flowers
Wildlife
I am normally a very mild mannered person and passionate lover
of all forms of wildlife both great and small and having lived in
the countryside for most of my life I respect its place in the
natural order of things. My mother much to my embarrassed has
always called me "nature boy" but two recent events have tested my
patience this month and called my love of wildlife into question. I
always accept that some soft fruit will be taken by birds and mice
and that caterpillars will attack brassicas but the audacity of the
attacks on my produce has defied belief. Firstly a family of
blackbirds has found the tomatoes in the big polytunnel and taken
such a liking to them they are making serious inroads into the
crop. They are so bold that they carry on munching whilst I pick
tomatoes just a few inches away!! If you want to know what the
pecking order is - sorry that is NOT funny - it is 1 Sungold, 2
Piccolo and 3 Rosada suggesting to me the order they rank in
sweetness. Knowing that the blackbird has a very discerning sweet
palate I think this can be taken as the definitive taste test (at
my expense!). There are of course plenty still left for us but I
mean it's the principle after all.
Not so funny was the concerted squirrel attack on our first crop
sweetcorn. Just a couple of days before harvest would have begun,
overnight there was such a violent attack you wouldn't believe it.
AK 47's couldn't have caused more devastation. Out of 50 ripe cobs
we lost 30, the haulms ripped off, some of the cobs removed and all
of them eaten to the core. I have never experienced this before in
all my years of growing veggies and I was seriously pissed off
(sorry!) I have never liked grey squirrels and needless to say they
are not on my Christmas Card List. And they have eaten all the
marvellous crop of hazelnuts of course, long before they were
ripe.
Lovely kingfishers have returned to our stretch of the river
restoring my faith in wildlife, their high pitched whistling being
one of the best ways of spotting them. There is a also a giant hawk
moth caterpillar with its enormous "eyes" (privet hawk I think)
getting stuck into a fuchsia cordifoilia and I don't care!! There
you are normal service restored!
Visitors
We still get regular private visitors to the gardens and have
numerous bookings over the next week or so and a group visit from
Builth Wells Community Support this Thursday. It's still not too
late to arrange a visit so get in touch please if you would like to
arrange to come. By the end of the season visitor totals will
exceed 700 - a record for us and we are overwhelmed by such a show
of support. So as my neighbours would say "diolch yn fawr iawn"
Thanks very much.
A final note of apology for the absence of pictures. I have been
told how to do it by Ed my mentor and designer of the website but I
just haven't had the time to perfect the processes to load them.
With increasingly less tasks to do in the garden I am determined to
come to terms with this and to bombard you in the not too distant
future with the dozens of pics. I take every month.