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!

Winter's duvet

The garden slumbers under a 6 inch white duvet this morning.  Only the lumps and bumps of plants and garden structures provide reference of what lies beneath.

Heavy snow rolled in from the south west yesterday and layer upon layer covered the garden.  Dean Hill to the south looks Alpine and the fields surrounding us stretch out like crisp linen sheets into the grey haze.

The branches of the trees are scratchy dark lines against the pale subdued sky and all signs of work carried out last weekend, creating the new western beds, is hidden from view.

It's a time to rest up and take stock.  I can only hope the thaw comes soon and I can get out into the garden again and continue my checklist of tasks.  But for now the order of the day is a hot chocolate and a thick woolly sweater.

Hard labour

Like most people occasionally life's cares and woes lay heavy on me.  My remedy is long periods of repetative, systematic hard work in the garden.  In recent weeks I have focused these labours on the lawn on the western elevation of the house.  I confess that I have held off starting work on the creation of new borders for this part of the garden, along with a completely new planting plan, because I dreaded what I might find under this lawned area.

In Summer this lawn dried out quickly and never looked healthy.  We had poked and proded the lawn and in large areas the fork had hit something solid just beneth the surface.  But in recent weeks I had decided to bite the bullet and get on with what I knew would be a long and very hard task in creating and preparing new planting beds.

I excavated some test pits and straightaway hit solid concrete.  Out came the pickaxe and fortunately I was able to smash my way through to find chalk beneath.  So clearly this was not the base of an old garage or some such structure.  First task was to strip the turf.  Crazily areas of the lawn had been laid on top of an area of concrete.  My assumption is that this was some kind of temporary work surface that the builders had used or even part of an access drive to the rear of the house.  Either way, breaking up this area took some time and a great deal of effort.  Then it was onto the breaking up of the whole area of former lawn with fork and pickaxe. 

Eventually the area was cleared and large amounts of compost laid to prepare for the planting.  I have used the old trick of making the paths wider at one end and narrower at the other to create the cheat on the perspective which appears to make the paths look longer.  This new area of the garden we have called the western beds and over the next few weeks we will start the process of planting them with a variety of plants creating a different colour pallette to the rest of the garden.  It is an important area as it is the first sight you see when entering Ordnance House.  It also creates a new line of sight to the Orchard Room on the far side of the garden.  But for now it is time to recover from the massive effort put in during recent weeks.  The planting will be the easy bit!