The garden is stirring
This April it is cold and bright. Looking back last year it had been warmer for longer with the Acer in full leaf, yet today the tree is only just showing signs of emerging leaves.
The garden is stirring. The last of the catkins hold to the branch of the willow tree. The birds have been picking at them over the last few weeks. Coal tits, great tits and goldfinches. I spotted female bullfinch at the top of the tree early last month but have not seen her again.
In what had been bare earth at the end of the garden, we are reaping the rewards of last years efforts to establish a natural ground cover. This area was set with competing factions in an attempt to let it find its own balance - and it is working so far.
This experiment goes against conventional wisdom, however so far the results are good. We now have small emerging pockets of British native wildflowers, slow, but steadily establishing. In other areas we have shade tolerant grass seeds growing. Ultimately without care and editing the grass will win in a tussle with the wildflowers, but I think the area is manageable enough to allow such editing over the coming seasons - time will tell.
The third element added to the ground here is perhaps the most unusual. We have used discarded lawn thatch from other areas. This is a mossy mix that is the bane of other gardeners. Yet here we are gardening with a focus on providing natural habitat as custodians of the space, gardening harmoniously with and for nature.
Last year I broke the surface of the hard ground and laid finely shredded splintered birch over the area to break down over the coming years, and to add some structure to the soil. Next I carried sacks of moss into the area and spread it as a mulch over the dry earth. I chopped it up into very small pieces in situ with a spade, shredding as you might a winter cabbage for the plate.
Those gardeners looking for a Wimbledon court lawn may be horrified at the prospect but this area of the garden is not about pristine green stripes. I wanted to create a ground covering with a naturalistic and self emergent feel that would look as though it had not been guided or created by us.
At present the area looks like a game of Risk, Three factions: grasses, mosses, and wildflowers, each claiming their own spots and spreading. It will be interesting to see if it is possible to manage this unstable balance as we progress.
The area slopes from north to south and ends in the shade of trees. The space is currently punctuated by clumps of narcissi reaching their end. As the flowers fade and the leaves relax they will sit and absorb the new April sun, sending energy back to the bulbs for next year. When they emerge again hopefully this three way contest will be in full flow.
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