July 4, 2010

Very late Chelsea Chop

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For most people, the Chelsea chop is done at the same time as the Chelsea Flower Show, from where it got its name.  It is the cutting pack of perennials which are getting a little untidy to keep them looking good for the rest of the year. 

Before the Chelsea chop

 

I am usually a little late doing the chop since my garden opening is only a couple of weeks after Chelsea and there really isn’t enough time for the plants to grow back and look good.  So, usually I do a chop just after the opening.  However this year everything is so late that only the pratense geraniums had flowered by the time of the garden opening, so I decide to wait a little longer.  

Now, a month later, it is time for the chop.  I had finally got fed up with the untidiness.  My main concern is that the current dry weather will mean that the plants will take a while to recover – still the geraniums were looking so untidy, there really was no option. 

Ruby found her kong

 

When I started clearing, I found one of our kongs under the geraniums.  They are usually confined to the house, but obviously this time one had managed to get left outside.   Ruby was over the moon to have her kong back.  We had a few retrieves and then I managed to persuade her that it should stay indoors for a while at least. 

Just as an indication of how late things are this year, I noticed today that a dierama is just coming into bud.  These lovely blooms have often been out for the NGS opening and this year it looks as if we will have to wait at least another week to enjoy the beauty of these pendulous flowers. 

After the chop - compost added

 

As a direct result of the chop, I decided that I really should get on and empty my compost bin.  It was a long, hard job as I had to sift the contents to remove the larger woody bits that had not yet composted down sufficiently.  However I managed to get a huge amount of compost out of it and just four buckets of woody material.  The compost went straight onto my beds.  The extra mulch will help retain moisture as and when we actually get some rain and it will give the worms some more material to drag down into the soil and continue to improve it.  

Cylindrical compost bin

 

The buckets of woody material are now back in the bin along with the result of my chop.  Given the amount of heat that was coming out of my storage bags after just one day, I should soon have another lot of compost to return to the soil – just so long as I remember to turn it daily as the instructions say.

 

June 7, 2010

A lovely weekend

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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

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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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