In quiet repose

There is a quiet solemnity about the garden at this time of year which I like greatly.  None of the frenetic rush and bustle of late Spring and Summer.  The garden is in quiet repose.  Mornings often see mist hang in the air drifting up to our hedge line from across the fields that surround us.  We are like a ship on a ghostly white sea.

Apart from the lengthening hours of darkness, the hours that are spent in the garden are even more treasured.  Now that all the hundreds of bulbs have been planted, the borders cut back, shrubs and bushes shaped and made tidy, there is a restful almost monastic peace about the place.  This serenity is far removed from the growing mayhem that is the build up to Christmas and the neon lights of the towns and cities.  But I like the garden all the more for being a refuge away from the crowds of shoppers.  The greatest gift for me at Christmas is one of time and a luxury present it is too when the majority of my time each week is at work.

I am particularly looking forward to the time I will have this Christmas to begin work on creating a floor for the Orchard Room.  I will replace the grass, much dried out and worn, with a more solid base which will look so much better.  The hard labour will do me no harm while keeping me active and away from the sofa and television for a while which seems to be the habitat of most at this time of year.  I just hope that the weather will be kind.

But that is for a month or so away.  In between times I can now just potter around the garden attending to the odd task or chore and letting myself drift along just like the garden seems to be doing.  Quietly, peacefully, serenely.

The check list

It may feel like the end of the gardening year but in so many respects it is the beginning of the next one.  This is a time of year for a check list and we have been slowing working our way through ours each weekend.

Hedges all around the garden trimmed - check.  Shrubs including all roses cut and shaped - check.  Garden furniture cleaned and stored - check.  Cuttings taken (the Penstemons are doing great) - check.  Central round bed cut back and many more Alliums added to enhance the display - check.  Tender plants in pots placed undercover - check.  Last month all box balls and lavender trimmed and shaped - check.  Compost bins turned and processed compost laid - check.  All lawns edged - check.

The main herbaceous bed is next on the check list for many plants need cutting back and dividing.  Plants will be moved or potted on to sell at garden openings next year.  Then comes the planting of hundreds of bulbs which sit awaiting planting at present in their netted sacks.

The clocks go backwards next weekend making our time in the garden all too short now each weekend.  Less time means fewer items can be ticked on the check list.  But at least the hard work done now will mean that we will reap the rewards next Spring and that in itself will get me through Winter.

Time flies

This garden is young.  It has matured suprisingly quickly and it does look much older than it is.  I know that this rate of growth has also suprised many people who have visited the garden during both last year and this. We are just 3 years in and are where we were in our old garden at Linden Barn after 5 or 6. This accelerated evolution has meant that the garden became photogenic much sooner too. We have already had some professional garden
photographers visit and take some beautiful pictures which have appeared in the gardening press both in the UK and abroad.

But I confess that once a series of pictures are taken it is all too easy to lose track. In most cases we know roughly when and where a series of pictures might appear and it is always a joy to see them on the printed page. But sometimes an article appears which we knew nothing about and that is the case with the German title 'Garden Style' this Summer. We had no idea that we had been featured in the magazine let alone on the cover and this came as a suprise, be it a nice one of course.

Looking back through the pages of a magazine at your own garden on sun filled days of stunning colour and contrast is surreal. For one thing I find it hard to rationalise that the garden laid out on the pages is our own. Such is the skills of garden photographers for they capture a vista and view that seems strangely unfamilier.

At this time of year, with the ballance of day and night time hours juddering on a pivot, these snapshots of a sunnier time have a particular allure. I suspect that as this pivot tilts now toward the dark of Winter I may find myself delving into gardening magazines even more than usual. I expect that I shall paw through the pages of many beautiful gardens, taking thoughts and ideas which I can use and incorporate within our own space. That is the beauty of a magazine.

Short back and sides

It's time to give the Lavender a short back and sides!  We grow both angustifolia and x intermedia varieties here in the garden at Ordnance House and I have been gradually cutting back the angustifolias these past couple of weeks.  Mid August is when I start this process and then, around this time, I move on to the x intermedias.  I cut back hard and effectively treat the plants as topiary creating small globes that dot themselves all around the beds and borders.

This dramatically changes the dynamic of the garden especially in the main Lavender bed close to the house.  For months, the Lavender has created drifts of differing colours and hues.  Once cut back the garden shifts to a more architectural feel and the underlying structure and framework of the planting is laid bare.  I quite like this change but then again I do fall on the side of order and symmetry.

But I confess that the one question I am asked more than any other about the Lavender we grow is how to prune it. There appears to be a real fear associated with pruning Lavender but once understood, it is a simple process.  Like most plants, Lavender responds well to hard pruning.  Cut them now and they have time to put on new growth (around 3cm or so) which will quickly appear and help them through the coming Winter.  I cut right back the new growth but not into the old wood.  I try to create a ball or globe shape and it has to be said that some Lavender forms this shape quite naturally especially the x intermedia varieties.  Others seem to want to grow quite leggy but the same pruning principle applies.  Get a globe shape in your mind's eye and prune back to it keeping some new growth from which the plant will regenerate.

I suspect that there are two fundamental reasons why people struggle to grow Lavender.  The first is that they do not keep on top of the pruning and the plant gets woody. It is essential that you keep on top of this pruning regime each and every year.  The second reason is slightly more fundamental and that is the soil type and conditions of your garden.  Lavender loves really sharp draining, poor soil conditions with full sun and an open aspect.  They hate being shaded out and do not do well in a conventional herbaceous border.

At Ordnance House we are on a hill with a poor chalky soil and are entirely open to the sun all day. Lavender just loves it here. It you have a north facing site on clay and have a soggy soil that gets cold in Winter, do not plant out Lavender. That is not to say you cannot have Lavender for if you have an area which does get some sun, then why not try planting up some pots. I have planted many pots with all sorts of Lavender, some quite rare which I treat as specimens. Call it a collection if you will. But Lavender does well in pots. It does need watering so do not think you can just plant it in a pot and leave it, it will need a water around once a week but will do well and thrive in the sharp draining conditions. Just make sure you use lots of grit.

So there is always a place for a Lavender plant in every garden. Enjoy the colour, enjoy the scent and enjoy the bees and butterflies that are attracted to it.

An apple a day

The apple trees in the orchard are groaning under the weight of their fruits.  I have never known such a good crop in the time we have been here.  The branches bow under the weight of apples on the trees and the double-U cordons which divide the garden from the orchard.  The orchard is now established and thriving.  The bountiful crop may be due to this being such a hot Summer. 


Certainly the herbaceous planting seems to have gone to seed much earlier this year.  With the nights beginning to draw in and cooling temperatures, it does feel more like a typical September here. But I have my Lavender to extend my Summer and I have begun pruning back into neat, round balls my angustifolia varieties.  These are now faded, their flowers a pale grey reflection of the intense blues of high season.


But now is also a time to plan for next year.  We will be busy moving and dividing plants this Autumn and Winter.  Changing areas, fine tuning others.  But for now we still have time to enjoy the fading joys of what has been a long, hot Summer.

A moment in time

One year ago on a clear sunny morning Abigail Rex, a professional garden photographer based in Brighton, drove the long journey along the South Coast to the Hampshire/Wiltshire border to take a selection of pictures of our garden here at Ordnance House.   


She arrived very early at the dawn of a new day with the mist still hanging over the fields and the garden awakening from its slumber. The selection of pictures she took that morning captured a moment in time.  I suspect that is the case with all gardens; that they are merely a moment in time destined to move on, to change and to never to remain the same.


The pictures Abby took  that morning appear in The English Garden magazine (August issue) which has just been published.  They are lovely but then again I am biased of course.  They are a pictorial memory which I will keep with me for a long time and on future dark Winter nights will help provide me with some much needed cheer.

Thank you Abby.

Bunches of scent

In late 2011 when I decided upon planting Lavender here at Ordnance House I confess that there were two key reasons.  One was the very sunny and sharp draining site that the house and garden occupy.  The other was purely aesthetic.  Lavender, in all its many shades, just looks lovely against the backdrop of the house with its chalky white walls and blue grey roof of slates.

Now, almost three years on, the Lavender has thrived in its harshly dry conditions and does look as pretty as a picture against the house.  But I also wanted to plant interesting and unusual varieties of Lavender.  Unable to grow the plant at our former home and garden with its north facing aspect and heavy clay, I confess that I took on the role of a student of Lavender with great enthusiasm. 

The garden centres are, of course, full of Hidcote and Munstead - not surprising for both are marvellous Lavenders.  But I became increasingly interested in x intermedia (Lavandin).  These have longer flowering stems and a more pointed, conical flower head.  They also have, in my view, the very best scent and colour evoking a feeling of Provence here in this English garden.
  

I have found them very hardy too with no losses in the garden which is maybe not so surprising as they are hardy to around -15°C.  x intermedia are a sterile hybrid of angustifolia subspecies angustifolia and latifolia (Spike Lavender). The name intermedia simply means ‘between’ and although the common name for the hybrid is Lavandin they are usually, if somewhat confusingly, referred to as Lavender. 

The flowers appear in July and flower their socks off until August, although some continue well into autumn.  The great thing is that this is the most popular species grown for oil extraction, higher yielding than angustifolia, but producing lower quality camphoraceous oils, used in cheaper perfumes, soaps, cosmetics and detergents. It is also widely used for drying and the grains can be stripped off and used for scenting pot-pourri. 

Now that the Lavender beds are mature I have ventured into drying Lavender this year, cutting bunches, tying them with raffia and hanging them upside down in whatever cool dry place I can find out of direct sunlight.  As well as making everywhere smell terrific they also look wonderful too.