Transformers

Trees have the most wonderful way of transforming spaces. I love the way they add height and perspective to gardens.

We have been searching for four key specimen tress that will be the focal point of the garden here at Ordnance House. The round central border acts as the centre piece of the garden and the beds and borders radiate off it so these trees will be seen from all parts of the garden.

But what trees should occupy such a key space? Well after much deliberation we decided that Crategus Prunifolia was the best option. This Hawthorn has pale ivory flowers in Spring and dark leaves which work well against the backdrop of the house.

With the central bed prepared with a rich loamy soil, all four went in pretty easily and once staked they now stand tall and imperious.

The whole garden has been immediately transformed by their presence and I think they look great.

Planting for winter colour and spring promise

November will keep us busy with the planting of more fruit trees as well as the feature specimen trees in the garden. But in the meantime we are kept busy with planting for winter colour and spring promise. The spring promise comes in the form of wall flowers. Orange alongside the garage wall and Ivory beside the new lawn in beds opposite the veg patch. Come April and we should have a fantastic display.

Meanwhile the veg patch has its own winter colour with purple and white cabbage and kale to cheer up the gloomy months ahead.

Indian Summer

The weather has been fantastic and the garden basks in the heat of an Indian Summer. I am busy planting out the main herbaceous border with plants that catch my eye and fit the colour palette.

This week it is 3 x Sedum Spectabile, 4 x Erysimum 'Bowles' Mauve' and Verbena bonariensis. I have also added an additional Virburnum tinus standard.

Meanwhile the grass seed is taking well in the new lawns and lush green lines are appearing in the grass after mowing.

All in all, the space has the feeling of a proper garden at long last.

The price is right

Collected the remaining Lavender from Long Barn on Friday and as fortune would have it they had an end of season sale of plants. I'd say £1 for plants that retail at £5.99 each was a snap so I purchased:

• Monarda Gardenview Scarlet x 1




• Nepeta Souvenir D'Andre Chaudron x 1




• Veronicastrum vir. Alba x 1




• Sisyrinchium Striatum x 6




• Nepeta Longpipes x 1




• Achillea 'Mondpagode' x 3




• Aquilegia Barlow Black x 4




• Sedum Mediovoriegatum x 3




• Hemerocalis (type unknown) x 3




• Campanula Perisicifolia Blue x 2




• Iris Ceasar's Blue x 3




• Campanual Prichards Variety x 1

Great variety of plants and not normally found in garden centres so I am extremely pleased. And Saturday was fun planting them all out. Then cracked on with planting the Lavender border.

Lovely lollipops

Planting of the key structural plants continues. I have been busy this week planting Ligustrum (Privett) standards along the side of the main path that disects the garden.

In fact these lollipop standards are a theme in the garden and we already have a grove of Portuguese Laurels and Viburnum Tinus standards standing to attention in areas of the garden.

I have also now pretty much enclosed the vegetable garden with box hedging underplanted below pleached Hornbeam hedging.

So progress is good and steadily the outline structure of the garden is beginning to take shape.

A firm footing

I have spent each evening this week barrowing 14 tonnes of decorative stone around the whole garden to top dress the many paths and walkways.

It's been hard work but the transformation is dramatic.

The garden now begins to actually look like the garden designed long ago in the depths of my mind. But the garden is, of course, devoid of planting.

We have reached, nonetheless, a watershed for from now on the garden will be all about the plants and the colour schemes that will define the space.

I cannot wait!

Coming along nicely

The new fruit garden is looking good. The latest edition are three step-over Apples and a Cherry.

One of the step-over varieties we have opted for is Pinova (M27). This dessert apple is a new mid season variety which seems to have a high resistance to both mildew and scab. We should also be able to pick the first crop late September next year.

The other two are Ambassy which appears to have large juicy fruits with a red flush and is a heavy cropper.

I have always wanted step-over Apples and they have always been part of the plan to provide the boundary between the fruit and the vegetable gardens.

Meanwhile, I have planted a dessert Cherry (Stella Giesla) in the fruit garden itself. This is a self fertile sweet Cherry with dark red or even black fruits and should be ready to pick in late July next year given luck.