Gardeners Diary

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June 28, 2010

Unseasonal weather

Posted by Barhi under Gardeners Diary
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This is Glastonbury weekend, the middle Sunday of Wimbledon – by rights it should be pouring, but instead we are experiencing temperatures in the 30s C here in the south of England.  Maybe it is climate change, but I certainly remember summers being like this when I was a kid.

New border at the side of the house - 1 year old

Thankfully, there isn’t too much to do in the garden at this time of year apart from sitting back and enjoying the fruits of ones labours.  I wander outside for a short while to do a little dead-heading, but the main work in the garden is left until the evening when things cool off a little.  Then the hose comes out and the garden can be enjoyed as the heat of the day gives way to a slight breeze.

 

June 7, 2010

A lovely weekend

Posted by Barhi under Gardeners Diary | Tags: |
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What a lovely weekend.  The weather decided to behave impeccably and sun shone throughout.  We had over 80 visitors (and two dogs) come to have a look round and we made £250 for the charities supported by the NGS, the highest profile of which are MacMillan Cancer Support and Marie Curie Cancer Care. 

It was definitely a weekend of firsts for our visitors.  We have always believed that the garden was suitable for wheel chairs but this was the first time we were tested on this.  I am glad to report that this visitor was able to get to all parts of the garden, even if the driver found one of the paths a little on the tight side.  It was really lovely to be able to have this family visit and enjoy their day out.

Whilst the majority of visitors came to see the garden, at least one said that the main reason she had come was to meet our dogs.  Oliver did a great job of waiting by the back gate and welcoming new arrivals.  Given the fact that the dogs were loose in the garden, we of course take precautions to avoid escapees.  There are signs on both sides of the gate asking people to make sure that they shut the gate and the helpers who welcome visitors and collect the admission money are doggy people and so are watching for any escapees.

Despite our canine focus, we have never had dogs visit before.  This year we had two, a border terrier and a golden retriever.  Both were warmly welcomed by the three dogs that we had in the garden during the opening.  The goldie stayed on the lead but, after asking our permission, the border was released and had a great time wandering around.  It was wonderful to show the ethos of the garden at work.

We had one garden designer visit who said that she has previously had clients decide to part with their dogs when they had the garden redesigned.  I just cannot comprehend how anyone could bear to do this.  Hopefully she got enough ideas to be able to prevent this happening with her clients in the future.

We had some wonderful comments from our visitors about the garden and a lot of plant names were recorded on pieces of paper.  As I suspected the lovely anemones that I bought in March were a real hit. as were our double white peonies.  Many of our visitors also took the opportunity to visit other local NGS garden in the area making a real afternoon out over a lovely weekend.

Thank you very much everyone who came and supported the NGS and its charities.

 

 

May 30, 2010

Titivating

Posted by Barhi under Gardeners Diary | Tags: , , , |
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This is a real garden and so not quite as pristine as one at the Chelsea Flower Show, but in my own way, I have an understanding of what those gardeners go through.   I am now at the titivating stage before next week’s NGS opening.

There is a path - I promise 🙂

For myself, I am happy to have the plants spilling over the paths in gay abandon, but I know that visitors would like to actually see the paths in front of them.  So this weekend, the job has been to persuade the plants to stay behind the border edging plant supports I have. 

Border plant supports – hopefully soon to be hidden

Whilst they are also made from metal and robust, they are different from the ones that I use to protect individual plants from the unwanted attentions of the dogs.  If you are interested in this type of support, check out Snape Stakes.  In the next week, the plants should grow enough to hide the supports whilst still benefitting from them.

Aqualegias are looking wonderful this year

I am spending my time wandering around the garden and watching for anything that looks out-of-place.  Never before have I had to dead headed Aquilegias as they are usually over by the time of the garden opening.  They are looking wonderful at the moment and I am just praying that they can manage to hold on for another week.

The bay that I had to avoid pruning earlier in the year as it was home to a blackbird nest has now had its annual trim, and the stock of bay leaves for the kitchen has been replenished.  Any yellow leaf that I see is whipped of the plant – everything is so late this year that the evergreen shrubs are still losing last year’s leaves.

Fallen wisteria flowers carpet

The big job left is sweeping the paths – this has to be done again and again.  The remnants of the wisteria’s flowers are still trying to carpet the garden.  Obviously they have competition from other plants which are dropping leaves and flowers too.  Then there are the bits of wood chip that the birds clear out of the way in their search for worms.  I used to blame the dogs for this until I realised that it happened even if the dogs hadn’t been out.

Less than a week's growth, the wisteria is trying to invade the house

In other posts, I have mentioned that the wisteria is a thug.  It grows so fast that it can be hard to keep it under control.  One of my more unusual jobs is to go upstairs and prune what I can reach from the bedroom windows.

But next weekend, the garden will be lovely – and all the big jobs I have to do each year will be done.  After the opening, I can sit back and enjoy my garden without having to worry too much.

 

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