Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2017 i The English Garden

Janine Wookey A former editor of The English Garden, Janine is a freelance garden journalist who also specialises in bespoke garden tours. She takes note of the garden at Hazelby House in Hampshire on page 22. Fionnuala Fallon Author and organic flower farmer and florist, Fionnuala is also the gardening correspondent for The Irish Times. She explores Dublin’s Airfield garden on page 38. Lucy Purdy Lucy is a freelance journalist who lives in north London. When not tending her allotment, she writes about the power of people’s connection to nature. She visits Tresco on page 52.…

WUDSTON HOUSE, WILTSHIRE The 15-acre garden at Wudston House provides the setting for a wonderful afternoon. Visitors can explore formal gardens, a pinetum and arboretum, a kitchen garden and, during August, hot-coloured herbaceous borders at their peak. Wudston’s owner designed the garden, with input from Nick Macer and James Hitchmough, who pioneered the flower meadows at the 2012 Olympic Park; perennial meadows here have added wonderful aspects to the garden. Open for the National Garden Scheme on Sunday 27 August (2-5pm). Admission is £10 with children free. Pre-booking essential. Wudstone House, High Street, Wedhampton, Devizes, Wiltshire SN10 3QE. Find more gardens at ngs.org.uk…

“Many new hybrids are really no improvement and only fit for the bonfire” “I’m an autodidact,” declares Ivor Stokes, former curator of the Botanical Complex of Swansea City Council and founding head of horticulture at the National Botanic Garden of Wales. “I was probably the last person in that kind of position without a formal qualification.” Recalling his youth, Ivor describes how, after two years working as an apprentice silversmith, he travelled to India. “I did the hippy thing in the Sixties, and yes, unlike some politicians, I did inhale.” Upon return, he decided he couldn’t work inside, or in an office. “I got a job as a labourer at Kew. What was good about that was the plant labelling and the internal promotion boards, so one could learn and…

VIEW FINDERS The colonnade is draped in honeysuckle, Rosa ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’ and white Jasminum officinale. It leads the eye from the formal to the informal; even the dovecote at the end opens its doors to reveal the meadow beyond. IT’S ALL IN THE CUT Head gardener Kevin Rush is justifiably proud of the line of variegated box cubes in the Long Walk beside the rose garden which are clipped to the shape of a bishop’s mitre. The formality is softened by clouds of self-seeded foxgloves behind and ferns in front. SNAIL’S EYE VIEW The snail-shaped mound was designed to create a point in the garden from where it could all be seen. Inspired, in part, by Charles Jencks’ Garden of Cosmic Speculation, it was also an excellent way to…

BALANCED LAYOUT The layout is a combination of design and architecture. Ian explains: “I look for symmetry, balance, height and proportion. The design takes the house, set into the curve of the wall at the head of the rectangular garden, as its departure point. CLIPPING ROUTINE Ian starts by shaping the grey foliage of Pittosporum tenuifolium after flowering in late spring. Box is clipped from Derby day (early June), and the prunings are raked up to help prevent blight. Hornbeams are clipped twice a year to ensure a precise outline. PERFECTLY LEVEL A major challenge was the change of level within the walls: a 1.5m drop from north to south, and a 1m drop from west to east. Ian admits his obsession with level was key. The hedges and topiary…

MEADOW MIX To create Airfield’s pictorial meadows, head gardener Colm O’ Regan sources seed mixes from French supplier Euroflor. In spring mixes including ‘Miel’, ‘Rainbow Annuals’ and ‘Jour de Fete’ are sown into weed-free, freshly rotovated soil raked to a fine tilth. Try also pictorialmeadows.co.uk VEGETABLE LOVE The kitchen garden is as ornamental as it is productive, showcasing a range of experimental or non-traditional crops such as the New Zealand yam, also known as oca, ‘King Henry’ spinach, amaranth and edible flowers as well as more conventional crops including potatoes, brassicas and beans. UNUSUAL GRAINS The kitchen garden’s sculptural beds of heritage cereals or ‘grain waves’ offer visitors a chance to learn about important food crops, but they are also beautiful to look at, particularly in late summer when ripening…

TOPIARY PAVILIONS Designed by Alfred Parson and planted circa 1910, these capacious yew ‘houses’, albeit without windows, provide shade from the sun and shelter from rain in their dark interiors. They are cut into shape once a year in September. THE ORCHARD Set between the formal gardens and the spring-fed medieval fish ponds, the orchard is a romantic sight in spring and summer when the grass below the trees is full of wild flowers. Rambling roses like ‘Rambling Rector’ blanket trees with blooms in summer. COLOUR THEMES This border of blues and yellows sings in summer. Spikes of deep, inky blue delphiniums and hooded aconitums complement long-flowering argyranthemums with their sunny daisy-like flowers and luminous violet campanulas. THE LANDING STAGE The steps leading to the landing stage are edged with…

Since the discovery of the first purple-leaved Heuchera (named ‘Palace Purple’ after Kew Palace) at Kew Gardens in 1980, the interest in coloured foliage forms has increased. Breeders in Europe and North America have created a vast array of sizes, shapes, forms and colour. Today, 15 or 20 new varieties are introduced every year and we are spoilt for choice. However, not all have proved reliable garden plants and some are short lived. Over the last 20 years we have trialled many new heucheras at Bressingham and selected those that have proved the most reliable and long lived. I have used Heuchera ‘Prince’ to create rivers of purple in my Foggy Bottom garden. They made a marvellous display for 10 years at which point I divided it up and planted…

Most Pelargonium species come from South Africa and as a result they usually thrive in relatively dry and sunny conditions. Although, as Heather points out, “The species are very varied, which means the cultivars are, too. Each division has its requirements. In general, grow them in a 50:50 mix of John Innes No. 2 and multipurpose compost and feed them with a high potash fertiliser, such as tomato feed, every time they are watered. Water when the compost, not the plant, has dried out.” Pelargoniums are not hardy, so they need to be kept under cover until late spring and then protected again in autumn. According to Heather there are three golden rules when it comes to caring for pelargoniums over winter. “Keep them frost-free and give them good light…

‘KALETTES’ A cross between kale and sprouts, Kalettes form mini cabbage-like sprouts on their stems. Ollie also harvests the leaves as a more conventional kale crop. ‘CAVOLO NERO’ This Italian kale has delicious dark leaves. Allow it to produce flowerheads and harvest them too – Ollie says they are tastier than purple sprouting. ‘REDBOR’ Ollie’s choice for distinctive red-purple leaves which maintain their colour to look good on the plate, and add blocks of colour to the kitchen garden too.…

ASHWOOD NURSERIES A traditional working nursery situated in the West Midlands. We specialise in Hellebores, Hardy Cyclamen, Salvias, Hepaticas, Hydrangeas, Lewisias, Dwarf Conifers, Snowdrops, Primula auriculas and offer many more choice plants. We feel Ashwood Nurseries is a plantsman’s paradise. Our mail order service sends plants, garden essentials and gifts to UK and EU destinations. Special events throughout the year. Please visit our website for more details. Open Daily. Free colour brochure quote EG17 Tel: 01384 401996 mailorder@ashwoodnurseries.com | www.ashwoodnurseries.com Ashwood Lower Lane, Kingswinford, West Midlands DY6 0AE SPRING REACH NURSERY Spring Reach Nursery grows a fantastic range of clematis, trees, hedging, ferns, shrubs, fruit, perennials, roses, climbers and grasses. STARRING NOW Echinacea, Lavender vera, Perovskia, Hydrangea paniculata and Campsis Mme Galen. Visit one of Surrey’s finest nurseries – a…

High summer and, in theory, the hardest work of the year is done. It is time to relax and enjoy the fruits of your labours – and those of others. This month is the perfect time to seek inspiration and top up your well of gardening ideas by visiting gardens. Our round-up of romantic gardens in the settings of the country’s fairy tale castles could be a start. Or wait for a hot, sunny day and head to the seaside. There is something special about the combination of sunlight, salty air and a coastal garden that always charms, not to mention the wonderful array of tender plants seaside gardeners can grow that landlocked gardeners can only dream of. Tresco Abbey Garden on the Isles of Scilly are a fine example.…

• Make sure vegetables, young or new plants and containers are well watered in hot spells. Top up ponds and water features, too. • Increase stocks of strawberry plants by lifting and potting up rooted runners. • As crops are harvested, sow green manure in empty spaces in the vegetable plot to enrich the soil and protect its surface. • Give Wisteria its summer prune. Shorten the long, whippy shoots that have grown this summer to five or six leaves. • Keep deadheading roses to encourage further flowering. Pick off leaves affected by black spot disease and burn them. • Check greenhouse plants for summer pests such as whitefly (below) and red spider mite and treat with a biological control.…

• I try to combine controlled planting such as box shapes with wild abandoned planting but I am really strict with colour. I think my natural planting style is quite exuberant but the more I garden, and the older I get, I realise that simpler is better. • Nothing beats getting in and doing it yourself. I’m hands-on, but I couldn’t manage without the help of my gardener, Paul Sheaf, who helps me once a week. • I am a great believer in the adage ‘right plant, right place’. • Listen to advice but follow your instincts. Paul is lovely, he’s really good and incredibly knowledgeable, but he gardens differently to me. He likes everything neat, and not touching, whereas I love profusion. I love everything all jammed in together,…

Pelargoniums are synonymous with blowsy summer flowers but there is much more to this group of plants than the bedding plants sold at garden centres would suggest. The genus offers something for everyone, from bold, colourful blooms, rare species, heritage hybrids and exotic night-scented plants, to my own favourites, the scented-leaved varieties. Their diversity made them popular with the Victorians who were avid collectors and breeders of them, and interest in pelargoniums, known as ‘pellies’ by ardent fans, is just as strong today thanks to their versatility. Many make great container plants; others are at home as houseplants or in the conservatory; the flowers and foliage can be cut and popped in a vase; and you can even use some to add flavour to baking. Nowhere highlights the diversity of…

Design a back garden for a middle-aged couple with no children. The couple has recently moved to a terraced house built, in the 1900s, of red brick with a slate roof. There are neighbouring gardens on all boundaries, and the garden is overlooked by houses to the left and right, but not the rear. The garden can be located wherever you wish – in a country village or a city suburb – but think carefully about how it will link to its surrounds, which you have chosen. It is 6m wide by 20m long, with the house at the narrow end. It faces south-west. THE DETAILS • Produce both a plan and a 3D drawing on A3 paper, with colouring where appropriate. List your choice of hard landscaping and plants.…

“I amuse myself by idly peeling back the layers of sensuous responses provoked by cherries” When work is impossible in the suffocatingly hot upstairs rooms of the house, I decamp into a room on the north side, where there is a casement window that opens wide above the garden. There are cherry trees on the wall outside the window, and they are laden with fruit. I have been admiring their colour as it deepens from clear bright red to dark burgundy with each successive day. I could have, should have, picked them long ago. But they are so handsome. I have been admiring their shape, spherical-conical with a deep shadowy dimple where the fruit joins the stalk; the way their surfaces reflect the light, glinting beneath the dark canopy of…

YORKSHIRE FLOWERS AND GARDENS 8 August, West Yorkshire This full-day workshop includes floral design, a tour of the cutting garden, all meals and a vase to take home. £600. Tel: 07772518298; simplybyarrangement.co.uk SEASONAL FLOWERS AT THE DAYLESFORD GARDEN 11 August, Gloucestershire Start the day by exploring the productive Daylesford gardens, then return to the workshop to create designs for vases and place settings. £125. Tel: 01608 731712; daylesford.com LARGE-SCALE FLORISTRY WITH JAMIE ASTON 16-23 August, London Over six days, London florist Jamie Aston explains how to create event and large-scale designs from start to finish. £1,850. Tel: 020 7387 0999; jamieaston.com CUT FLOWERS COURSE WITH SARAH RAVEN 22 August, East Sussex An intensive, hands-on course with gardener and writer Sarah Raven, covering how to create a cutting patch in your…

• We actively encourage wildlife at Hazelby. I couldn’t imagine a garden without songbirds breathing life into it. Domestically, we keep chickens, we have five beehives and we have cattle and sheep. In the wild we are visited by deer – muntjac and roe – despite the deer fence. More welcome visitors are hares, white egrets, geese, lapwings, swallows and house martins. • The new wildflower meadows, filled with cowslips, yellow rattle, ox-eye daises and knapweed are still settling in, but they are already a wonderful bonus for birds, butterflies and bees, and terrestrial orchids have established themselves. All this eases the transition between the formal garden and the woodlands beyond.…

• Grow hedging plants from hardwood cuttings. Ian was inspired by a television programme featuring Lady Salisbury at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire. “Lady Salisbury held up her little finger and said all her box was grown from ‘finger’ cuttings no more than 7cm long,” he says. • Keep stepping back to check your work. You have to live with any mistakes. • Avoid cutting tall topiary during windy spells. Clearing up time is doubled. • Invest in a double-bladed powered pole cutter – an invaluable tool at Parkhead. • For straight, level hedges up to waist height, Ian cuts the top first, then uses a plywood template and follows its edges.…

• We use peat-free compost from Klasmann. It costs more than conventional brands but we feel it is worth every penny. • We sow a lot of the garden’s vegetable and bedding plants under cover rather than directly in the ground. This protects young plants from pests and poor weather. It also allows us to rotate food crops quickly. • Birds are a constant challenge when protecting the food crops in the kitchen garden. We use hazel rods or hazel hurdles to support the netting we run over crops. • In the kitchen garden, we use environmentally friendly, biological pest-control products. that contains microscopic beneficial nematodes normally found in healthy soil. • We always scrub and clean all propagating equipment before use, and wash down polytunnels and glasshouses. Compost is…

• Deadhead like mad, it makes all the difference and you’ll be amazed at what can repeat flower. Make sure you cut the stem below the flower head just above the next joint down. • Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) is a fine plant with grey foliage and mauve flowers but it doesn’t do well with competition in a border. We grow it on its own so it receives light and air from many directions. • There would be little in the garden without ‘horse exhaust’. We mix horse manure and bedding with shredded garden waste and let it rot down for four years. Every border is mulched annually. • Don’t be afraid of colour. Play with it and look for inspiration in other forms of design such as paintings and…

Some pelargoniums are easier to propagate than others. Scented-leaved types are one of the easiest and can be propagated from cuttings any time between June and mid-September. • Look for healthy new growth, non-flowering if possible. If not, snip out the flower bud. • Cut above a leaf node then trim the cutting to just below a node – the plant has concentrations of hormones here that will encourage roots to form. • Remove any lower leaves. • Push into free-draining compost – either a seed and cuttings compost or a 50:50 mix of multipurpose and perlite or horticultural sand. • Water sparingly – the compost should be moist not wet. • Keep somewhere warm but out of direct sunshine. • It should take 6-8 weeks for the cuttings to…

PICK CURRANTS Pick ripe currants before birds find them and prune the shrubs afterwards, shortening shoots and taking out one third of the old stems. SUMMER PRUNE FRUIT Shorten sideshoots and young, whippy growth to three or four leaves on trained fruit such as apples and pears in fans or espalier shapes. HELP SQUASH RIPEN Encourage squash and pumpkins to ripen by cutting away large leaves and letting in sun. Lifting fruit off the soil onto slates or matting helps stop skin rotting. LIFT AND DRY SHALLOTS Gently fork clumps of shallots from the ground and dry them in the sun on chicken wire to let air circulate. They’ll store for months once skins are crisp. HARVEST TOMATOES Keep checking tomato plants and harvest when they’re ripe to avoid split…