Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2020 i The English Garden

Sue Bradley Sue has been a garden writer for almost half of her 30-year career in journalism. She has a hilltop allotment near Stroud and plays the violin. She tells the stories of families who’ve restored lost gardens on page 125. Max Crisfield Max is a professional gardener, currently working in a private garden in West Sussex, and a writer for the national press and leading garden magazines. He reveals how Parham revamped its borders on page 97. Caroline Beck Caroline writes about gardens from her home in the North Pennines and grows cut flowers for weddings in a walled garden near Durham (@verdeflowerco on Instagram). She visits Havoc Hall on page 66.…

ROSA ‘GRAHAM THOMAS’ This classic golden-flowered shrub rose has a light tea scent and repeat blooms. ALLIUM CRISTOPHII Plant the bulbs in autumn for displays of metallic-purple firework flowers in June. ROSA ‘HERTFORDSHIRE’ Carmine-pink blooms smother this low-growing groundcover rose in summer. SALVIA ‘ CERRO POTOSÍ’ A long-flowering, shrubby salvia that will add colour from July to November. ROSA ‘JACQUELINE DU PRÉ’ Blush-white flowers start to appear from early summer on this well-shaped shrub rose. DIASCIA PERSONATA Spires of dusky pink flowers top this semi-evergreen perennial from May all through summer. Try ‘Hopleys’.…

PHYGELIUS CAPENSIS Cape figworts are super shrubs for pots. Protect in winter weather below -10°C. PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM Let opium poppies seed around for silken flowers in pink and purple hues. OLEARIA MACRODONTA Grey-green toothed leaves and daisy flowers on a shrub that hails from New Zealand. LOBELIA TUPA Felty grey-green leaves and eye-catching spikes of scarlet tubular blooms. Protect the crown with a winter mulch. PENSTEMON ‘SOUR GRAPES’ Pale lilac-blue trumpets with white throats are held on upright, bushy stems. SALVIA NEMOROSA Choose cultivars of this sun-loving salvia for flower spikes in shades of pink and purple from June to October.…

Gardeners have fewer excuses than most to struggle with change. Whether it’s the result of plant growth, or seasonal and climate shifts, change is a constant in our lives. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to embrace. As the gentle transitions of this private garden in Oxfordshire show, when it comes to making changes, there’s a balance to be struck between the old and the new. Experience helps, but a pinch of courage can be useful too. When the owners of Greenlane Farm extended their house a decade ago, they asked landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith to create a garden to suit. In the field at the front of the hilltop property he started from scratch, stripping the soil and establishing a wildflower meadow that now flourishes with over 50 native…

We stand on the shoulders of the gardeners of the past. Humans have been fashioning cultivation implements since the beginning of time, first with stone, then with iron and more sophisticated technology, so that implements used by the Romans bear a striking resemblance to those we use today. Unearthing a piece of broken china or a rusty bit of tool in a flower bed is all it takes to be reminded that someone was here before us, possibly also despairing at the slugs and working in all weathers to put in the potatoes or stake the delphiniums. Loosely termed gardenalia, the objects that survive the gardeners of the past few centuries possess a certain appeal. There is a particular pleasure in picking up a sturdy second-hand tool, its shaft worn…

Despite nearly all of the lilies we grow originating from Asiatic countries or North America, these are plants that seem to be indelibly associated with English gardens. Think of John Singer Sargent’s evocative Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, a painting set in a twilit Cotswold garden, glowing Chinese lanterns bobbing between the tall stems of milky white lily flowers, their scent almost discernible from the canvas. Gertrude Jekyll’s 1903 book devoted to the genus, Lilies for English Gardens, cemented their place in the gardening firmament, and their expansion into the thousands of species and cultivars available today only confirms their enduring popularity. But with so many to choose from, how do you find the best for your garden? That’s where the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit scheme comes in…

Coreopsis tripteris has strong sturdy stems and deep green foliage that is topped by hundreds of small golden daisies in August and September. Ratibida pinnata flowers earlier on long, slender, grey-green stems, looking like a Mexican hat with slender lemon reflexed petals and a prominent brown cone. Rudbeckia triloba ‘Prairie Glow’ has richly branched flower stems and masses of yellow-tipped, bronze-orange daisies deepening to reddish-orange: the very epitome of autumn glory. Helianthus ‘Sheila’s Sunshine’ is a giant with small, pale lemon sunflowers atop towering stems reaching 3m or more. Unlike other sunflowers, these blooms are angled so they look directly at you! Silphium laciniatum has extraordinary deeply pinnate rough foliage, resembling a strange fern rather than a herbaceous plant. It grows to 3.5m with a top mop…

Brassicas June is one of the loveliest months. The work of early spring has come gradually to fruition, yet all of summer lies before us, taut with possibility. In the vegetable garden this is one of the final months for sowing warm-season seed. Now is the time for a quick run of peas, carrots and parsnips to ripen in autumn – and to make a few final sowings of French and runner beans that will be productive until the days become too short and cool for comfort. This is also the time of year for planting out brassica seedlings, especially summer cabbage, and for sowing seed of curly kale, cavolo nero, winter cabbages, cauliflower and purple sprouting broccoli. All these feature in the Walled Garden at Babington House in Somerset.…

Cath Kidston’s rambling, 17th-century manor house, which she shares with her husband Hugh Padgham, is so neatly tucked into a Cotswold fold in Gloucestershire that it is almost invisible to passers-by. It has, however, one very special feature: incredible views to the valley below. The property had been in the same ownership for over 30 years but little had been done to the garden, so Cath and Hugh were presented with a near blank canvas with which to work. “When we arrived here I realised we would probably grow old in this house,” says Cath. “I knew we had to keep the garden very simple.” To an existing orchard, they added more trees, plus daffodils and tulips for spring. “During summer the grass is left long with a mown path,…

We live in interesting times. As a child and then a morbid young person, I never expected (or hoped) to be happy exactly; to survive was all one could hope for – to somehow come in under the radar, to get through life without experiencing the disasters, personal as well as political, of my parents’ generation. For them, ‘May you live in interesting times’ – an ancient Chinese curse, supposedly – meant living through the effects of two world wars and the Great Depression. Well, here we are again in 2020, after 9/11 and the 2008 banking crisis, with Covid-19 and whatever economic apocalypse follows. Interesting times. I wrote last winter about being stuck indoors with ‘flu’ (in retrospect, hardly more than a bad cold), admiring the view from the…

When I last wrote this column the blossom on the cherry tree opposite my window was just starting to fall, turning the kerbside pink with petals. Now, four weeks later, it’s in full leaf, as are the lime and ash trees that overlook the back garden. Everything grows so quickly at this time of year. Everywhere you look, there’s swift change to discover: sweet peas halfway up their obelisk already; a clump of bleeding heart twice the size it was last week; potatoes that need earthing up, again! Thank heavens we can seek out these small yet life-affirming joys in our gardens while we endure uncertain times in the world at large. To quote Alan Titchmarsh, with whom we chat on page 141: “Plants and gardens anchor us to the…

If you do a little bit of discreet staking in spring it really pays dividends later in the year. I always used to hope that my peonies would stay up on their own, but they won’t, so I now use metal hoops to support them. Deadhead as often as possible to keep flowers coming, and don’t just take off the spent flowerhead – remove the stem as well, cutting back to the bud or leaf joint below. Feed roses in midsummer using a balanced rose feed that will keep them flowering. If you can keep certain elements looking crisp, such as clipped shrubs and topiary and even lawn edging, it will make the whole garden look tidier. If there’s a plant you think would look good in a planting scheme,…

Havoc Hall in North Yorkshire: the name alone would make you want to visit. It sounds as if it has issued from the pen of Emily Brontë or Stella Gibbons, all stone mullioned windows, thick ivy and menacing crows circling overhead. But put away your Gothic fantasies, for the house was originally built in the 1930s under a different name. As the hall’s current owners, David and Maggie Lis explain, it was the previous owners who extended the house to its present size and chose to rename it Havoc Hall, because as well as embarking upon considerable building work, they also had six young children. David and Maggie bought the property in 2008 and the garden they have created is anything but chaotic. It is an oasis of calm with…

Architectural Heritage A range of antique and reproduction ornaments, fountains and planters. Tel: 01386 584414; architectural-heritage.co.uk Frome Reclamation Established in 1987, this is a large stockist of architectural salvage and various reclaimed materials, including bricks. Tel: 01373 463919; fromerec.co.uk The Hoarde An online marketplace for dealers of vintage and antique items for home and garden. Tel: 01798 815572; thehoarde.com Lichen Garden Antiques Specialists in original garden antiques and decorative ornaments, such as urns, benches and statues. Tel: 01608 678890; lichengardenantiques.com Lorfords Selection of mainly seats, chairs, tables and plant stands, some of French origin. Tel: 01666 505111; lorfordsantiques.com Jardinique Edward and Sarah Neish have been collecting and selling architectural antiques and ornaments for 25 years. Tel: 01420 560055; jardinique.co.uk Jon Fox Antiques Cotswolds dealer with a focus on garden pieces,…

Plant lily bulbs in autumn or spring, at a depth three times the height of the bulb itself. Look for healthy bulbs with plump scales and no signs of disease. Plant them in groups of three for a nice-sized clump. Leave a gap between each bulb that’s about twice the width of the bulb itself – this is particularly important if you plan to leave the bulbs in the ground long-term, but less so if they’re going to be lifted at the end of summer. Lilies like rich, fertile soil, so at planting time, incorporate some slow-release fertiliser to gradually deliver nutrients throughout the growing season. In the run up to and during flowering, give them a weekly or fortnightly dose of a high-potassium fertiliser such as tomato feed mixed…

First and foremost, greenhouses are for plants. Once you have the greenhouse of your dreams, it would be almost criminal not to exploit its warm interior by making the most of its growing potential. Over the following pages, you’ll find ideas and inspiration for plants that will thrive under glass to fill a greenhouse with colour or crops this summer. Whether it’s flowers for the house, fruit and vegetables for the table, or simply a show-stopping display, a greenhouse can provide. TRADITIONAL Put on a show Make a theatrical display using all the favourite plants of Victorian glasshouse gardeners Of all plants, it’s pelargoniums that instantly give a greenhouse that traditional, Victorian look. Leave the zonal types to outdoor pots and instead seek out special varieties for the greenhouse: the…

Keyneston Mill Estate, in the idyllic countryside of the Tarrant Valley near Blandford Forum in Dorset, is home to Parterre Fragrances, founded by David and Julia Bridger in 2015. “We were already growing cut flowers and herbs when we went on a trip to the south of France,” Julia recalls. “We visited Grasse, the heart of the French perfume industry, and that inspired us to grow scented plants to create our own perfume.” On their return they set about finding a location for their venture. Five years on, a 50-acre estate has been transformed from fields of grass and nettles into a flourishing, aromatic hub, with formal gardens that double as trial beds; fields where crops such as vetiver, hyssop and scented geraniums are grown; and buildings that are home…

Britain’s Trees by Jo Woolf National Trust, £12.99 Through means of satellite imagery and on-the-ground counting, scientists publishing in Nature have estimated that there are approximately three trillion trees on the planet. Soberingly though, we currently lose some 1 billion trees a year to deforestation. Such extraordinary numbers underline the importance of trees to climate, but also point to our relationship with them. This last is brought home in Jo Woolf’s examination of British trees. In June, our wooded landscapes are coloured every shade of green before trees slip into luxuriant summer leaf. Here Jo picks out around 45 species (some chapters feature species; others genera) and considers their character and the social history attached to them, from their presence in Old English to current tree diseases. Sycamores with their…

Joy Larkcom The author and respected vegetable garden maker discusses her approach to edible gardening I never liked using chemicals, but my Damascus moment came when spraying tar oil wash on apple trees in our Suffolk garden, my baby in his pram behind me. I turned to see him covered with black tar spots. I’ve never sprayed since. The key to organic gardening is to build up soil fertility. Perhaps you need to accept you may not be able to grow everything. I don’t grow aubergines, for example, because I find it so hard to control red spider mite. It was being commissioned to write Vegetables from Small Gardens that stimulated my interest in traditional intensive peasant systems and led to ‘The Grand Vegetable Tour’ – the year my husband…

• When young tomato plants produce their first truss of flowers, make sure they are in their final pots or planting positions. • Plant out tender bedding and unwrap exotics or move them outdoors now that the risk of frost has passed. • The earliest potatoes might be ready to harvest now. Investigate by unearthing a couple of tubers and seeing if they're a decent size. • Give evergreen hedges such as box or privet a trim: pruning box on Derby Day, in the first week of June, is the traditional gardening adage. • Keep sowing small batches of quick-growing salad leaves, radishes and lettuce, for a continual supply of crops throughout the summer months.…

When Penny and Andy Pritchard and their three children moved to Cleave Hill, on a hillside near Membury in south Devon, in 1998, the handsome 17th century thatched farmhouse stood in a small, empty garden. “It felt very bare and exposed,” recalls Penny, “but the idea of making a garden here really appealed to me, particularly because of the old stone farm buildings. We loved the way you could look straight through the barn. And it came with a couple of acres of land which was perfect for my two horses.” Gardening is in Penny’s blood: her Mum is Mary Benger, creator of Burrow Farm Gardens in nearby Dalwood, which has opened to the public for many years. “We each had a little bit of garden to look after when…

The beauty of working in my own garden as opposed to a client’s is that it is more of an experiment and the time frame is flexible. I don’t really have to make a planting plan – it can be more fluid. I can try things out to see how they like their position and to see if I like the combination. I’m a devil for moving plants around. Take time to prepare your soil before you embark on your new garden design. I have learned that my white garden has different underlying soil – half of it is clay and the other half sand. With hindsight, I wish I had spent longer digging in much more soil improver and manure than I did. It’s a lot easier to do…

Drainage and waterlogging are ongoing problems, and David admits some of the planting was an expensive mistake, with even tough plants like yew succumbing to the wet. Most plants dislike winter wet, which rots roots and impedes the uptake of oxygen and nutrients needed for growth. “Take time to investigate your soil,” recommends David, “then fit the plants to the soil, not the other way round.” He also suggests good drainage from the outset, since installing land drains after planting is expensive and disruptive. In the early days of a new garden, annuals can fill lots of gaps. In particular, stalwarts like Verbena bonariensis, Nicotiana mutabilis and Cosmos ‘Purity’ will cover large areas and can be supplemented by the use of dahlias and lilies to striking effect. When it comes…

For over 30 years, David Ward has worked at the Beth Chatto Gardens in Elmstead Market, Essex, where he is presently gardens and nursery director. David and Beth worked together on the renowned Gravel Garden, which was famously built over a car park. It has never been watered yet still it thrives, even though Elmstead Market is one of the driest places in the country, with plants chosen to suit the conditions and microclimate of that particular patch. Beth was a great advocate of growing the right plant in the right place, and her approach lives on in the garden today. Here David picks out his ten favourite plants for dry conditions. Buy dry-climate plants and many others online for home delivery from the Beth Chatto Gardens. See bethchatto.co.uk 1…

Change is the lifeblood of a garden. From the micro to the macro it is forever in flux. Plants self-seed, run, colonise. They senesce, retreat, die. The weather changes on a sixpence, and the seasons provide an overarching framework of alteration. We may wish otherwise, but gardens do not remain static. And when we embrace change and the opportunities it affords, that’s when gardens take our breath away. “Gardens change; they develop, decay and are altered,” says Lady Emma Barnard, of Parham House and Garden in West Sussex. “Parham’s garden walls date from the 18th century, but it is possible that the land had been cultivated for hundreds of years before then. Our only ‘rule’ is to work with, not against, this ancient place, accepting and preserving its spirit.” It’s…

• When summer sun is relentless it soon gets too hot under glass for any plant to survive, making shade essential. Green shade netting is handy for a quick fix, but installing greenhouse blinds is even better. Unless your greenhouse is tucked away out of sight, white shade paint is best avoided since it can look a little ugly. • Open doors in the morning and make sure roof and side vents are open (automatic openers are a bonus) to ensure air circulation. This will cool the greenhouse down and help minimise disease. • Pour a watering can full of water on the path during the day to raise humidity inside and keep the air buoyant.…

LONDON Church Gardens, Harefield The McHugh Family The walled gardens built to serve the original Harefield Place are among the oldest surviving structures of their kind in the UK. Yet when Patrick and Kay McHugh took on the three-acre site in 1995, its features were obscured by years of neglect. “It’s a miracle we even came across the place!” exclaims Kay. “The first manor house was demolished 200 years ago and everything had become so overgrown and derelict that by the 1990s, few people knew the walled garden was here. The walls date back to the 16th and early 17th centuries and enclose three different areas, including one of just a few surviving renaissance pleasure gardens in the county, along with a unique arcaded wall that has 33 man-sized alcoves.”…

When did you start writing poetry and what has kept you writing as an adult? I used to write poetry as a boy – infrequently and rather badly. I started writing poems about gardens for a one-man show back in the 1990s and a couple of years ago I worked with the composer Debbie Wiseman on The Glorious Garden, an album of music and poems about plants and flowers. Marigolds, Myrtle and Moles rather grew out of that. I enjoy writing poetry and, while I make no extravagant literary claims for my work, I hope they amuse (some of them are meant to be funny) and perhaps make people think a bit more about plants and gardens and the importance of nature. You draw from a deep understanding of British…