Notes from the Garden - June 2020
This year will be like no other…
People are facing formidable challenges due to the pandemic. We’ve been lucky to have got through so far unscathed and without the serious disruptions many are dealing with. I’m aware this security is delicate, and is down to chance rather than much else. I sincerely hope that you, your friends and families are safe.
The last normality in the garden was an excellent display of miniature narcissi - and tulips. I was particularly pleased with the Tulipa ‘Negrita’ especially as some were on the north side of the house (see below). It’s a large sculptural form with deep purple colouration. Up close they are robust flowers and stems and the cupped petals flick out and lighten just a touch. A popular form in containers (try darker hues), or in the ground - shining like gems. More for next year I think.
Before the pandemic took hold, I was behind in planning, propagation and preparation for the garden. We locked down just as I was set to resolve these issues, but couldn’t get it all done in time - so some things have been left adrift. As a consequence, this last week has been spent tidying up and making do, with a focus on the tasks that might well have taken a back seat had other more pressing jobs taken precedence. It turns out, this was no bad thing.
Gardeners already appreciate time and seasons differently to those who have yet to get their fingers in the dirt. Our sense of time and timing are sharper and more in tune with our patch, wherever that may be. To know a space well, even if it is small - year in, year out - is a great joy that improves with each season.
Yesterday I unpacked all of the timber from the wood store to separate and arrange into useful pieces - dry and large splits for firewood; smaller bits for kindling; interesting bits for the container displays and around the small ponds. Wood fills plenty of gaps around the nook.
Later, I collected the willow poles that had been used last season but were now spare, adding them to the hazel that I coppiced earlier this year and then made new supports for the plants. I much prefer using tree sticks to the bamboo canes, ubiquitous from my childhood gardens. The bamboo has little going for it and there is something nice about using strong and flexible poles from your own trees - and you can run your hands down them without splinters. In this garden, there’s usually about the right amount of fresh wood available each year and so little is wasted.
Making structures from sticks is a pleasure. I enjoy the light focus needed and can become absorbed in it for a couple of hours or more easily. I’ve used willow sticks in installations and have been steadily planning a project based around sculpture from sticks and cord in natural settings - more on that later in the year all being well. To be honest, making supports for the sweet peas is just as fulfilling as making the sculpture.
Our Clematis ‘Super Nova’ is already appreciating the new supports, and is responding well by spiralling up the poles to find the light above the shade cast by the Hedera colchica ‘Sulphur Heart’ and the honeysuckle hedge. At this rate it will make it to the top of the pyramid and back down again at least once, perhaps more. Eventually it will become covered in purple flowers later in he year. We are fond of this particular plant and it does very well here. It has been with us for a few years now, and was bought just after its introduction in 2015/16 by my mother for my wife. It is an extra layer of enjoyment when plants have these human associations also.
This week we made a large bug habitat underneath a floating outcrop of deck at the lower end of the garden. We divided the sections up with broad timbers and finished off by clean cutting, (rather than breaking) sticks and twigs which gave a neater look - I don’t suppose the insects will mind.
Throughout the garden we try to balance nature doing its thing, with managed interventions - (perhaps this is a good definition of what a garden is?)... This garden is created as a place for nature and wildlife first - and we just try to fit in around it and manage it as sensitively as we can. The approach is straightforward - to create a diverse wildlife habitat while leaving space for designed elements that let us weave our way through. The aim is to make a garden that feels simple and natural but that makes good use of all the areas, sitting comfortably in its surroundings, and serving the human and animal visitors well.
Tulipa ‘Negrita’ Triumph Tulip
