Unlatching the gate

In a week's time on Sunday, 26 May between 1pm and 5pm in the afternoon we will open our garden gates for the first time in support of the National Garden Scheme.  It looks like the Alliums will be in attendance but the Foxgloves  may be a little late and miss the party altogether.

Opening the gates of your garden can be daunting and as we only moved here two years ago (almost to the day as it happens!) we are very aware of the shortcomings of the garden and indeed of ourselves as gardeners. 

But the garden does have a fine bone structure and in time will be, I am sure, quite beautiful.  It is very young but already it shows promise and on a fine day and in the right light, it does look captivating.  But I am sure most gardeners can say such things about their own gardens with equal meaning.

Gardens are a very private space.  A place to escape to, to enjoy, to relax in.  For me, well I just love being outside in the fresh air coexisting with nature and creating planting schemes using the myriad of plant forms, shapes and textures.  All of which are very private things of course.  So a National Garden Scheme opening comes with joy at being able to share the garden with people who enjoy gardens as much as you do while being balanced by a large slice of trepidation on the other. 

If you have taken the time to read this entry, please try and visit for the opening is for a very good cause.  There will be sales of wonderful plants, scrummy cakes and teas and I hope, a lovely garden to walk around.





 

Natural rhythm

Throughout March and April the garden has been some three weeks behind where it should have been due to the cold.  The race is on to catch up and the garden seems to change before our eyes from one moment to the next.  Now we have more seasonal temperatures and lengthened days, growth abounds everywhere and a more natural rhythm has started to return.

Good job too for we open the garden gate for the very first time in support of the National Garden Scheme in less than a month's time. 

We have Allium leaves everywhere, sharp blades of green sticking up in rivers of planting most noteably in the central round bed that occupies the very centre of the garden.  This has the tall white Allium Mt. Everest along with Purple Sensation and another white Allium, Nigrum.  I cannot wait for the raspberry ripple display to finally arrive. 

But for the time being, Tulips of all kinds dazzle and catch the eye.  Hummocks of green testify that many plants are twice the size they were last year and reassure that the Summer display will be better than ever.  The Lavender is turning a fresh green and preparing for its flowering season while buds on trees have burst into leaf.  The orchard is awash with blossom from Apple to Cherry and Bluebells nod their heads gently.  The frothy green serrated leaves of Papaver orientale 'Patty's Plum', dot themselves around the main herbaceous bed biding their time before they throw out their exquisit and wildly exotic flower heads   It's a time of promise and trembling expectation. 

The vagaries of a dysfunctional Spring

Weather dominates everything in the garden at present.  From the raw and bitter cold of the past few weeks to brighter and warmer conditions these past few days to today's wind and heavy rain.  Spring is late, the garden held in check.

After an encouragingly light, bright and positively hopeful morning, just when I was about to plant out our potatoes, the heavens opened and a wind careered in.  A task I had been looking forward to and had delayed until a break in the weather, turned into a sodden labour of sullen toil. 

No matter, all the first early potatoes are in and this year we are trialling a range of varieties including - Rocket (which did very well here last year), Winston, Pentland Javelin and the second early, Charlotte.  We will also try the early main crop variety Harlequin as well as Mayan Gold which comes highly recommended.

Our dog celebrates his 9th birthday today and as he sat warm and dry on his comfortable bed, he must have looked out at me through the french doors and wondered what on earth I was doing out in such awful conditions.  By the end of the process I was completely sodden and bedraggled but the mission was triumphantly accomplished.  I can now move on to the increasingly long list of tasks still undone this dysfunctional and confusing Spring.

Late Expectations

A vindictive and bitterly cold easterly wind has been an unwelcome guest in the garden for two weeks now.  The garden's procession into Spring has been stopped in its tracks and when I look back at my garden journal from a year ago we are well behind where we should be for this time of year. 

No matter, Spring will come and soon the buds that abound in the beds and borders will burst forth and the garden will catch up in double quick time.

I have to say that the Hellebores are looking lovely, occupying centre stage as the stars of the show.  Meanwhile, we have been busy mulching the borders and erecting posts with tensioned wire to support the double-U apple cordons which are maturing well.  In fact all the trees in the orchard seem to be doing well and we have high hopes for a decent fruit crop later in the year.

It is also the time of year I scarify the lawns, getting as much moss out as I can so as to allow the grass to grow more freely.  This tends to be on our north facing lawns at the front of the house.

But this is the time of year that offers the most promise, which is the reason why our bitter easterly wind is so frustrating.  I want to wring every moment from this time of year, especially as the clocks have sprung forward and we get that extra hour of light in the evening.  For us to be held back by such a cold Spring this year is a real hinderence.  But I have been able to buy small plants in trays which I have potted on into bigger pots and placed in our new and rather smart cold frames.  They are doing well and this stock of plants will be planted out once the beds and borders fill out and I can see gaps and opportunities to add more colour.

But for now, all I can really do is work away in the potting shed keeping myself busy while wrapping up warm and venturing out in to the garden to carry out the most mundane of chores.  Roll on the warmer weather.

Miss Katherine

From the very outset, Lavender was always going to be one of the signature plants here at Ordnance House.  I confess that two years ago I was a novice when it came to Lavender.  Our old garden at Linden Barn was mostly north facing on cold, heavy, damp clay soil.  Not conditions condusive to growing Lavender and any efforts we did make to grow it ended miserably.

But at Ordnance House, with its light bright south facing garden and sharp draining soil, it was obvious that Lavender would have a large part to play in the new garden.  I also think it fair to say that I have become slightly obsessive about Lavender too.  I have become something of a collector and whenever I have the chance to add to our collection I do so.  The new western beds are an example.  I excavated these at the turn of the year.  The colour scheme is pinks and dark reds and I was keen to add a Lavender to line both sides of the grass pathway that splits and divides the two beds.  I hunted around and was recommended 'Miss Katherine' which has a strong pink colour and a pronounced scent.  Twelve plants have been purchased and planted this weekend and the results will be seen in Summer.

We have many Lavender plants now.  Many varieties were planted in late 2011 in our main Lavender bed.  Row upon row curve in a ripple outward from the central round bed which is at the very centre of the garden and around which the whole garden design revolves.  Before a single Lavender plant went in the ground I was determined to research how I could have the longest possible flowering season and the widest array of colours (pink to white to blue to lilac).  I also wanted to gain a genuine understanding of how to care and tend the plants and this included the right time to prune.

Another ambition was to have as many unusual Lavenders as possible, hence the use of a wide range of intermedia varieties which you seldom see in conventional garden centres.  Richard Norris at Long Barn, a Lavender specialist near Alresford, has been immensely helpful, supportive and a great source of information and knowledge.

Now we are awash with Lavender.  They intermingle with stone and box balls in our parterre.  They line pathways proving perspective and a sense of journey.  They are used in pots to punctuate certain spaces.  They work well with the colour of our house as a backdrop.  But best of all is that they are thriving and certainly love the conditions here at Ordnance House.  As they say, the right plant in the right conditions.

Green balls on a distant mound

In the south west corner of the garden sits a mound.  This overlooks the garden and upon it stands two majestic Beech trees of considerable age.

It's a lovely spot to take in the garden to the south of the house.  We had a bench made out of off-cuts of an Ash tree by Ray a neighbour and trained tree surgeon.  He did a good job too and the bench he made is one of my favourite pieces of garden furniture.

But the bench has looked rather lonely and forlorn since Ray made it last Summer.  I had planted a scattering of crocuses in front of it in the Autumn but the bench needed something to anchor it to the mound and give it a sense of place.  Last week we decided to plant six green box balls in a geometric pattern in front of the bench and these were planted on the weekend.

Over time these will get bigger and look more substantial but now the bench has company and looks all the better for it.

Powers of recovery

The garden has had to withstand almost continuous rain, heavy snowfall and high winds.  Terracotta pots have been damaged by frost or blown over and broken in gusty and destructive winds.  But the plants have come through well, are growing healthy and now showing the first signs of Spring.  Light levels are increasing as the days slowly lengthen and temperatures, recently at least, are climbing.

The garden is showing remarkable powers of recovery after all that has been thrown at it over the past few months.  Unlike our old garden, with its heavy clay soil making it impossible to work on the garden for long periods of time during Winter months, Ordnance House is remarkably dry due to the open southerly aspect and sharp drainage.

All of which is good news as we have lots to do in the garden.  The Hellebores are nodding their elegantly beautiful heads in the sunshine and it's time to prune the Wisteria back to two buds and cut the Clematis viticella purpurea plena elegans ruthlessly to the ground at the foot of all the rusted arches up which it grows throughout the garden.  In fact, we have just erected two more of these arches on the short stretch of path which leads to our rusted frame which makes up our garden arbour near the vegetable garden.  Over these arches we have planted the same variety of Clematis as well as four Bleu Magenta climbing roses.  The combination of Clematis and climbing rose, both being so close in colour and form, should work well while providing a framework for the pathway.

I also plnated many more Foxgloves in the central round border (Giant Spotted and Foxy) as well as Camassia caerulea along the length of the long border, which is amongst the dampest parts of the garden.  In the newly extended part of the original border near our newly installed rusted arches, I planted a smattering of Poppies (Patty's Plum) and a Geum called 'rivale'.  More plants will be added to this border soon as we have plans to make this our cutting border.

I have also decided to plant up many pots with Lavender to showcase our increasing collection.  Varieties include Imperial Gem, Grosso, Blue Ice, Royal Purple and Melissa Lilac.  This should also cut down on the amount of watering for the Lavender should thrive in the dry conditions of a terracotta pot with gritty compost mix.  It should also complement the garden and the backdrop of the house. 

Meanwhile I also managed to turn all our compost bins which is a task, I confess, I have been putting off for some weeks now as it is such hard work!

We also have new cold frames which Vanessa has been staining in our preferred colour palette which I call 'Ordnance House grey'.  We will assemble them next weekend.  But to finish off this weekend I have cleared the vegetable beds ahead of the Spring planting.  Each raised bed was cleared, dug over and fed and I am now revelling in the crisp clean linear lines of the vegetable garden which, although completely empty is, for me, curiously satisfying.

So, fair weather has injected us with new vigour and stirred us from our late Winter malaise.  There is a spring again in our garden steps!