Weather patterns

The seasons are shifting and the autumnal weather patterns are setting in.  The nights are extending, the days shortening.  The garden moves with the seasonal change like a vessel upon a sea.

We are cutting back the last of the Lavender, the x intermedia varieties such as Grosso, Sussex and Edelweiss.  The Lavender angustifolias in beds and pots are done and form nice crisp balls now reacting to the clipping by a flush of small new grey leaves.

The next big job is the cut back and shaping of the hedges and shrubs making them clean and crisp for Winter.

But the abundant crop of fruit is a real bonus.  It is the best crop of fruit we have had here by far and a feast of apples, pears and plums.  We have gorged ourselves!

Living in the moment

The Lavender still looks lovely, the colour palette of later Summer mixes the vibrant and the subtle.  But times are chaning again in the garden and the days imperceptibly shortening.  It is time to live in the moment.  No planning for next year, no point looking back at earlier times.  It is a time to simply sit and watch, stroll and gaze at the garden.  Everything is as it is and should be accepted as such.  This is a time to sit back and relax.

Soon enough we will be cutting and shaping, pruning and clearing.  But I rather like the relaxed feel of the garden at this time of year and its sheer abundance of produce.  We have so many apples this year and for the first time pears too.  I am surprised by the amount of fruit we are now producing.

But we must do something about the soft fruit and create a proper fruit cage that is easy to get into and out of.  Our rather feeble frames and netting is ineffective and unattractive.  A job for the future I think.  But for now we will enjoy out long labours as Summer greacefully fades away.

Afloat on a sea of Lavender

We look out over a sea of Lavender.  Above it flutter moving clouds of butterflies while in and about it, busying themselves, is a humming, hurried workforce of bees of all sorts and kinds.  Our main Lavender bed washes right up against the house like a sea against a coastline.  This was entirely deliberate for we wanted to look out over a Lavender field from the very heart of the home and enjoy the vivid feast of colour and delicious scent.

To extend the season as long as possible, we grow both angustifolia and x intermedia varieties.  So we have Lavender in flower from the end of June to mid September.  The angustifolias tend to flower earlier and are going over around mid August which is when I cut them back.  The x intermedias flower later and are going over by mid-September when they too are cut back hard.  This allows the plants to put on around 3cm of growth before Winter which I suspect insulates them during the colder months.  But key to the survival and wellbeing of Lavender is the conditions which must be sharp draining, sunny and very dry.

Our list of Lavender plants is now a very long one. The list includes the predictable angustifolia Hidcot but includes more unusual varieties such as Beechwood Blue which I prefer.  We also grow Folgate, Felice, Bowles Early, Imperial Gem, Elizabeth, the pink Miss Katherine, the small white Nana Alba and many, many more.  The x intermedia range includes Grosso, Sussex and the white Edelweiss.

As well as growing Lavender in beds and along pathways we have many in pots dotted around the garden.  If you have problems growing Lavender due to the wrong aspect, soil or outlook then you can always plant up a pot and place it in a sunny spot on a terrace or patio.  It should do just fine but do remember to water it.  Lavender, even in pots, does need some water to survive.

In Winter I like looking out over a Lavender bed which is dotted by the cobbled effect of the Lavender plants which look like box balls once they have been cut back.  On a frosty morning the effect is lovely.  In late Spring and before the Lavender flowers, the bed looks like an array of grasses so fresh and green are the shoots.

The fact that Lavender attracts so many insects into the garden only adds to the benefit of growing it and helping to maintain the delicate balance of a healthy garden.  Such is the beauty and benefit of Lavender.

Long days

We have reached midsummer and the days are long.  The Alliums, which produced a stunning display this year, are over but their green seed heads forming globes remain continuing to add structure and definition in beds and borders.

Now is the time of the foxglove, astrantia and dianthus.  The garden colour has changed, losing the purples and fresh green of Spring to be replaced by reds of many shades and hues. But soon the hotter colours will arrive and the Lavender will begin to dominate.  The Angustifolia's of Hidcote, Munstead, Folgate, Felice and Imperial Gem flower earlier and ahead of the x intermedia varieties which form the bulk of our Lavender stock. Their longer and more dramatic flower stems will soon unveil themselves.  

Our yew cones, all 9 of them in our front garden, have been trimmed and shaped to form teardrops.  Planted back in 2011 in a line along our northern boundary, they are maturing well and their formality works well in the more open and green sward of the front garden which contrasts with the billowing abundance of colour at the back.

But now, for the first time, the garden feels truly mature with beech hedging forming real structure, partition and division.  I think we now have what we planned on paper four years ago.

Showcase of plants

Our only National Garden Scheme public opening will be Sunday, 24th May, between noon and 5pm.  It is a lovely time of year to showcase the garden and follows a week of horticultural loveliness at the Chelsea Flower show so everyone's gardening juices should be bubbling over.

May and June are the jewels in the crown of the horticultural year as far as I am concerned.  Everything in the garden and the English countryside is so fresh, vibrant and green in its multitude of shades and hues.  I love this time of year and yearn to be at home in the garden enjoying every thrilling moment.  The garden moves so fast now and its shape and form changes from day to day.  The garden I leave on the way to work in the morning is often different to the one I return to in the evening, so fast is the growth at this time of year.  These are moments I miss with enormous regret and loss.

We have a number of private visits this Summer from gardening and horticultural groups with some coming from as far afield as Holland.  But a public opening opens the garden to those who wish to visit alone or with friends and family.  Over the years, Vanessa and I have met and shared the garden with many people and enjoyed each and every opening.

If you are free on the afternoon of Sunday, 24th May then come along.  Entry is £3.50, children free and dogs are especially welcome in the garden.

Spears of delight

I love Asparagus.  I had always wanted to grow it and so we planted it here at Ordnance House in late 2011 in a raised bed atop of our chalky, free draining soil exposed to full sun.  It has thrived.  I confess that the crowns we planted looked alien and strange.  I planted each on a ridge I prepared in rich soil spreading its tenticles very carefully before covering them up, hoping for the best.  In 2012 we let it establish, havesting none.  In 2013 a tiny crop was taken early in the season.  In 2014, we had an abundant harvest.  So much so I was giving it away in large bunches.

There is a thrill to see the first spears appear in April and we then harvest it until June.  It requires very little work.  Once we arrive at the end of June, we let it go to seed before cutting it all down once its frothy fine leaves yellow in Autumn.  Then we simply give it a really thick rich mulch and leave it to face Winter under its warm and protective duvet.

I am told it is a long lived crop and harvests can be taken over many years.  I do hope so and will look forward to enyoying it this year, next year and far beyond.  

If you have room and the conditions to grow it (free draining and sunny would be my rule of thumb) then do so.  It is a rich, abundent and rewarding harvest.  It is also, of course, delicious too!

Christmas rescheduled

In just a few short weeks time my personal Christmas Day will arrive.  Forget the dark, damp, miserable twilight half days of mid-Winter and December 25th.  My gifts arrive in the full, fresh glory of May and provide me with enormous joy and wellbeing for the weeks which run into June.  My sparkling presents are Alliums.

I have long adored Alliums and planted many thousands of bulbs over the years wherever we have lived.  I plant them in meandering, winding drifts of purple and white.  I entwine them around and around beds and borders.  I dot them here and there.  Set them aganist a background of Spring's fresh vibrant green and you have, to my mind, a truely perfect combination.

There is a feature on our garden which has just appeared in Country Homes & Interiors (May 2015) which shows the abundance of Allium planting.  These pictures, taken in late May 2013, show how quickly Alliums establish and thrive.  So, if you have never planted Alliums before, then do so.  Come this Autumn, plant as many as you possibly can and enjoy the visual feast of colour and vibrancy in your own garden next Spring and for many Springs to come.