A place to sit and relax

Until the hard landscaping starts in September most of the work in the garden is somewhat peripheral.

One such area is a seating area that is needed for the long oak bench and pots on the far side of the garden. This is actually a key focal point seen from the house.

So, out with the pickaxe and on a rather hot day it was hard and exhausting work preparing the base. But having excavated the trenches and laid the wooded board edging to retain the membrane and decorative chippings, the job was done.

Lots of effort for something that looks pretty simple!

Box planting

Our intention is to create structure with Box edging throughout the garden. As with our old garden at Linden Barn, we will again use Box hedging as a central theme defining areas of this new garden.

As work on the back garden begins in earnest in September, it is the front garden that offers us the opportunity to get some real work done in this regard.

We love the effect of Yew and Box balls contained in Box hedging and we will use this extensively throughout the garden. But Box is not inexpensive so we are buying small plants and allowing them to grow and develop. In the end I am sure these will be happier and healthier plants than those bought in larger sizes.

An apple a day...

The garden cries out for definition and structure.  Until the main ground works begin in September, all I can do is play around the edges and do what I can.  To at least create the sense of structure with what we have and the promise of what will be.

This applies specifically to the new fruit garden and orchard.  This area will be largely unaffected by the bulk of the landscaping and we have already allowed the grass to grow long cutting paths through.  It already has a certain sense of place.  But by adding some fruit trees this effect will be greatly enhanced.

So, this weekend we purchased two apple trees and a crab.  I confess that I was a little worried that apples would do well on our very alkaline soil but the local nursery who are quite reputable and respected say that they are able to grow apples on their fruit nursery with no ill effects.  So, let’s give it a go.

The varieties I purchased and planted were:

Royal Gala (MM106) – Originates from New Zealand.  Cross breed developed Cox's Orange Pippin and Golden Delicious

Discovery (MM106) – Dessert Apple.  Early season flowering. Scarlet and juicy fruit in August. 

Crab Apple (Malus hupehensis) – Small tree with ascending branches.  Abundant fragrant soft pink flowers opening white in May and June followed by small deep red fruits.

I ensured I dug a good planting hole (I tend to make these square based on latest advice) and filled it with good thick organic matter.  I then removed the fruits, teased out the roots, stuck in a stake, filled the hole, watered thoroughly and mulched well.  I then uttered the words advised by Alan Titchmarsh...”Grow you bugger, grow!”

The wonders of Lavender

Yesterday attended a fantastic tutorial given by Richard over at Long Barn (www.long-barn.co.uk).  This enabled me to see close up the many Lavender varieties they grow and propagate.  More importantly it enabled me to finally select the key varieties that will form one of the central themes of the new garden.
My selection of Lavender is: 

Main bed (dimensions 5m x 20m x 3m x 10m x 8m).   

Angustifolia:

• Hidcote
• Blue Ice
• St. Jean

Intermedia:

• Sussex
• Edleweiss
• Gross Bleu

Parterre:

• Bowles x 5 plants needed
• Nana Alba x 5 plants needed
• Beechwood Blue x 5 plants needed
• Lodden Pink x 5 plants needed

Pathways:

• Pathway 1 (10 m each side x 2 = 20m) – Gross Blue (22 plants needed)
• Pathway 2 (5m each side x 2 = 10m) – Sussex (12 plants needed)

So, the order has today been placed and planting will start around the second week of September.

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An arbour is a lovely thing

An integral element of our old garden was the rusted arch walk.  We had purchased these wonderful arches from Secret Gardens Furniture (www.secretgardensfurniture.com) and I think they were a wonderful feature and beautifully made.  So pleased were we that we commissioned an arbour which we designed and had them make.  We have brought this arbour with us and it will be a lovely place to sit and take in the vegetable, herb and cutting gardens. 

There is much work yet to do in this area of the garden but I was conscious that the arbour had been left in bits, taking up room in a corner of the garden since the day we moved in.  Best to get it in place now and we can build the beds around this central point.  I have to say it went back together a lot easier than I expected which was a relief.  And having cleared and prepared its site, I then laid a membrane and covered it with the decorative stone chippings.  I think a two seater wooden or stone bench will be perfect to finish it off and we will keep an lookout for one. Once planted with clematis around the outside to grow up against it and flowerpots overflowing with planting it should look great.

Wild and wonderful

We have deliberately left a section of the South Western part of the garden wild to encourage wildlife and to create a free and naturalistic feature. In time this will become a rustic orchard growing old varieties of fruit trees. My hope had been that we might grow apples here but the ph level will, I think, be too high. But more of this plan soon.  In the meantime we have placed staddle stones around the space along with a bee hive Vanessa repainted in colours that harmonise with the main house.

I have also cut a pathway through the long grass to create a sense of journey.  In time this will run to a summerhouse which we hope to build.  For the time being the path merely suggests a path across the wild areas going to places unknown.

The long border

Vanessa has been busy clearing weeds and grass from the long border on the southern boundary up against the old privet hedge. She did a great job on a task that took three or four days in total. Having dug up around the bases of the existing planting which included Laurel, Photinia ‘Red Robin’ and numerous other varieties of shrubs, I edged the border, watered well and laid a thick mulch of mushroom compost we had delivered in a massive bag.

It is amazing how creating definition to the border immediately produces a sense of order while elongating the perspective and line of sight.

The start of the pathways

Central to the garden will be a number of pathways that interconnect the sections of the garden.  The main pathways will be laid in September but we have sections of lawn that need replacing with paths immediately around the house and which need to connect terracing. So, some hard work was required digging out the turf, preparing the base for each path and then digging small trenches that we planted with box to edge the pathways. These box hedges, which have been planted with small quite young box, will soon develop into strong curving lines and structures. 

It has been difficult matching the decorative aggregate which has been used on the driveway.  After much searching, it is in fact a Cotswold chipping from a quarry called Horcott in the Southern Cotswolds.  10mm will do the job on the pathways.  Now completed and given time for the box to grow I think the effect will be great.