For 21 Aug

Further to a recent post about restoring a Nitida hedge, I had a question from new Patron Jude (waves enthusiastically) who sent me pictures of the Nitida hedge she has inherited, which is wild and woolly at the top, and rather bare at the bottom.

 As you can see, lots of enthusiastic growth up top, not so much at the base: which is always annoying, as the base is the bit we can all see. And that's where we want the best of the greenery....

 

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This week: Lavender!

 Again!

In the sense that I seem to be always writing about how to prune Lavender, the reason being that people keep on asking the question!

So, Lavender: popular short-lived perennial, ideal for creating the "cottage garden" look, great for edging borders, easy to grow, withstands drought better than many others, available in a variety of heights and colours, and smells nice.

What's not to like?

Easy to maintain, as well, except that people - and by that, I mean Garden Owners - tend to be too soft-hearted with their pruning. Either they don't prune them at all, leaving the flower stalks to go brown and die ("Ugh!"), or they don't prune them hard enough, and after a couple of years, the plants get too big for the space, flopping open in the middle to reveal brown, woody stems:

 

The answer is.....

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July Newsletter

 

OMG! What a scorcher! AGAIN!!

I can't believe I'm writing this - AGAIN!! - but three months running, now, we've had heatwave after heatwave, the grass is well scorched, the water butts are empty, gardeners are sweating, and everyone with an irrigation system is thanking the lord, or me, in some cases, that they took my advice and installed it:

 ... because otherwise we would be getting this sort of thing:

 As you would expect, this month we talked about things dying in hot weather - plants, that is - along with the sort of jobs I have been doing at this time of year, including cutting down the oriental poppies (they've done their job), and pruning apple trees in summer, with a diversion about ermine moth infestations....

 

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Wisteria in flower again!

 Yes, that well-known spring-flowering climber, beloved of country cottages, is at it again:

 

What is going on with our gardens these days? Is it climate change? Are the seasons really no longer predictable and "set", as they used to be?

Or are we just remembering things incorrectly, in the same way that we all look back to our childhoods and remember long hot summers, when it didn't rain... oh hang on, that's what we're suffering with now, isn't it?

Well, actually, I think that the gardens really are changing -....

 

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Poppies: Off With Their Heads!

 Yes, it's that time again: we have enjoyed the beautiful flamboyant Opium Poppies - Papavar somniferum:

 

... but they have had their day, and now they are over, it's time to remove them.

As they are annuals, there is no point in keeping any of the "plant" part: they won't grow back from that root, next year. But they set seed very generously, so you are pretty much guaranteed to have them in your garden for evermore, even if you don't specifically try!

I usually cut them back as soon as the foliage starts to look tatty, and usually the garden owner will tell me that they want to keep the seeds, so I ask for a paper bag, and go round looking for the ones which are ripe.

How do I tell?

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Buying plants from Supermarkets and the “sheds”

 

I'm often asked about where to buy plants: is it necessary, Clients ask me, to go to a proper Garden Centre, or can we take advantage of the very cheap plants which they sell at the “sheds” such as B&Q and Homebase and, increasingly, our local supermarkets?

On the face of it, it seems like an excellent idea: they are close to home, you were going there anyway, the plants are cheap and look very cheerful, and big shops like that would not want to sell duff plants, would they? They know they need to keep their shoppers coming back.

However, I would say that "buyer beware" is the phase you need: you (“one”) can get excellent bargains, but on the other hand, supermarkets and “sheds” are famous for not watering the plants until they are on the verge of death.

This means that often, you buy a plant that looks fine, but has been repeatedly stressed, to the point where it fails to flourish once planted out.

Also, they usually import their stock, so it is not fully hardened off to our climate - often you will notice that the "garden" section is at least partially roofed, and often, the plants are stacked on wheeled trolleys. This means that you will have to take care to harden off any plants for a week or so, before planting them out.

So, how do you ensure that you get the true bargains?

 

 

 

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Sempervivum - flowering!

 

If you've only ever seen Hen and Chicks being rosettes, you might not know that they do, from time to time, produce flowers!

This is what they normally look like: evergreen, never changing:

 

 

...in fact, that's what their genus name means: Semper is from the Latin relating to time, ongoing, long stretches of: and vivum relates to "being alive", which is probably where the word vivacious originates.

So Sempervivum means "always living". Or, in everyday gardening terms, "jolly hard to kill, no matter how much you neglect them". Also known as "perfect for the forgetful gardener."

Most of the time, they just sit there, being green and somewhat spiky round the edges, but occasionally they produce sudden, upright, sprouts:

 

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And the prize for Most Patronising Comment Of The Day goes to....

 

As it's Friday, here's what I hope will be a mildly amusing, short, article.

I am often astonished/amused/horrified at some of the comments I get, while working. I mean, the insults. I don't mind compliments about how nice the garden is looking:

 

 

... or about how hard I am working. No, it's the insults that astonish, amuse and horrify me.

For many years, I was a member of the Professional Gardeners' Guild, and it was always interesting, for me, to observe the differences between us self-employed gardeners, and the PGG members who work in what I call "estate" gardens - you know, NT places, or private posh big places where you pay to go in.

So I asked them what comment(s) they had received, which were high up on the "gobsmacked" scale.

Would you like to hear some of them?

 

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Bearded Iris: why I remove old leaves

 

I do have a bit of a "thing" about removing old leaves from Bearded Iris: this has always been for two reasons, but now it has gone up to three.

As soon as a leaf goes yellow-ish, and droops, then it is no longer photosynthesising, and therefore of no particular use to the plant: it has done its duty, and is time to gracefully retire, not hang about going limp and mushy.

Like these ones: these are Bearded Iris which were lifted a month ago, and given temporary planting, as they are going to go to another garden, later in the year. As always, when lifting Bearded Iris, the leaves were cut back to a low fan shape, because they are otherwise very top heavy, and will fall over before the roots have a chance to establish themselves.

 And, a month later, the outer leaves are dying off - this is nothing to do with them being cut off short, by the way, it's the natural process of these Iris: new leaves (and flowering stems) form in the centre of each fan, and the outside ones die off.

 

So at this point, I leap on them like a dervish and remove those dying leaves.

So what are my two - now three - reasons?

Reason One:

 

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In Praise of water butts.

 It's summer, and all the lovely summer rain is a timely reminder that one day soon, there will be another hosepipe ban (!) so now is a good time to look at your water collection arrangements.

 

 

I've had several questions on this topic, unsurprisingly: and everyone with any sort of house has room for at least one water butt - I have six, on my small house (but then, I am a bit evangelical on the subject) - so here is what you need:

1) a downpipe

2) a rainwater diverter kit

3) a water butt

4) a stand: they usually come with a 3-part plastic stand.

5) a spirit level

6) a fine-cut saw (or a helpful neighbour) to cut the downpipe

Put the stand next to the downpipe, make sure it is level and on a firm base (a single concrete path slab is perfect), sit the empty water butt on top of it and look at where the inlet is - the only tricky part of the job is getting the diverter at exactly the right height...

 

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Berberis: I have nothing good to say about it.

As a garden owner, there are some plants I dislike, and won't have in my garden - not just the obvious ones such as Ground Elder and other spreading weeds: proper plants, which other people love and cherish, but which I would put straight in the green waste bin, ie not even worth composting.

And as you know (because I am always going on about it), I love composting, and am evangelical about the subject. So for me to reject something from the compost pen, it must be bad! ("In my opinion...")

Euphorbia is one of those: ugh, shudder, horrible things: I don't find them attractive, the so-called flowers (actually, bracts) are like sinister little satellite dishes, watching me... I would swear that they turn on their stems, to follow me round the garden..... and they all contain rather nasty sap (latex) which many people find to be a skin irritant, and which, if you get it in your eye, means a trip to the hospital. Nasty stuff. So I won't have them in my garden, and I won't have them on my compost, either.

Forget-me-Not are also on that list: I don't find the flowers particularly attractive, although I will concede that after a spring full of yellow, it is quite nice to see some blue... but there are other blue flowers to be had, which are much more manageable, which don't spread all over the entire garden, and which don't leave my entire body covered in seeds:

 

Talking about blue flowers in spring, I also won't ever have this in my garden, either:....

 

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Tools: they don't make 'em like they used to...

 

Yes, I know everyone says this... but honestly, they don't.

As a professional gardener, I had the same border fork and spade for over ten years, in daily use, and they were old when I inherited them from a much-loved Grandfather. (Not mine, someone else's, long story.)

Foolishly, I over-used the fork one day and bent the tines, so I had to buy a replacement, but I didn't like it very much, the handle was not very nice, so I found, in a Client's old shed, a border fork with a broken handle, and they were kind enough to give it to me. I took off the handle, learning a new skill as I did so ("How To Drill Out Rivets"), trimmed the handle on my own one to fit, and lo! and behold:

 It's back! I had my dear little border fork back!

Alas, two months later: .....

 

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Oh good lord, it's Forget-me-Not time AGAIN...

 It seems like only five minutes... but here we are again.

 

Yup, the Forget-me-Not have already started to go to seed. And I am covered in them. This is about ten seconds in, and it got rapidly worse and worse! They are impossible to shake off, and very difficult to brush off, as half of them will transfer themselves to whichever hand is doing the brushing, and the rest will "dig in" and become a permanent part of the clothing.

But the results are worth it: here is the House Bed......

 

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The importance of Labels

 

Does this ever happen to you? Some time ago, I can't even remember if it was last autumn, or early this year, I sowed a batch of twelve pots of seeds.

They are now sprouting, beautifully:

 

... but I have no idea what they are.

As you can see, I put labels in the end pots, which is what I always do - I don't bother to label every single pot, when they all the same.

But alas, they have faded so completely that I have no idea what they said.

Oh dear.

Worst of all, I don't recognise the seedlings... I know, I know, "call yourself a gardener!"...

 

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Preventative Pruning of Sedum

 

Ladies, are you troubled by your Sedum flopping about all over the beds?

Gents, do your friends laugh at the way your Sedum plants are laying down, instead of standing proudly to attention?

Are you tired of having to prop them up with canes and string?

There's no getting away from it, once Sedum become well established, they get a bit too big, and by late summer they are flopping outwards under their own weight:

 

... so here's a reminder to get out there and do some Preventative Pruning!

What's that? I hear you say.

Well, in a nutshell, if you do a bit of sneaky pruning to your Sedums now, you can avoid the whole "flopping over the path" mess.

Have you heard of ......

 

 

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Arum maculatum: how to get rid of them... the easy way

 I've yet to meet a garden owner who actually likes this plant:

 

The proper name is Arum maculatum, which always makes me think of eye problems (macular degeneration, I think), or Arum italicum if you have the version with white marbled leaves: commonly known as Lords and Ladies, Cuckoo-Pint or, if you went to school where I did, Waggling Willies.

They grow from underground tubers, and pop their early leaves up at this time of year. Then you get the amusing flowers: then in autumn the seeds turn a glorious shade of orangey red.

...but hearken to the warning in the seeds! Red for danger! Each one of those red seeds contains between 4 and 8 individual seeds, and the red pods are packed tightly together, resulting in what is called a generous self-seeder, which can quickly become a real pest in the garden.

They are also toxic (in fact, all parts of this plant contain irritant chemicals, thus not endearing itself to me), but frankly, as a gardener, it's the warning about rampant spreading.....

 

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Hebe: Big Brave Chop!

 

I am very proud of one of my ad hoc Clients: they have an overlarge Hebe, a large-leaved one, which was getting huge.

Last year, at one of my monthly visits, Mrs Client asked what could be done about it, and I said that at some point, we would have to be brave and give it a big chop, to "re-set" it: it was going to continue to grow in size, and it was getting rather sparse.

 

She looked at me with the puppy eyes - no, not the usual "oh go on, pleeeeease!" puppy eyes, but the "oh no, not the rolled up newspaper..." ones. I get this a lot.

 Clients are often, quite reasonably, worried at the prospect of doing something drastic to one of their precious plants. Unlike me, they don't do it all the time: they don't see the results, so they don't have my confidence that it will "grow back". And it's a particularly tricky situation when it's a precious plant, one which was given to them by a favoured relative (in this case) and where they don't know the cultivar, so they can't just go out and buy another one (again, in this case)...

 

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Deadhead your Daffs!

 

Yup, it's that time again: the earliest Daffs are already over, although there are plenty more yet to come.

And already people are asking me about deadheading them, which always puzzles me, because I thought that "everyone knew" about this annual task. It would appear not, as once again, people are asking me about it! So here goes.

 

What do we mean by deadheading?

It means to remove the dead/dying/fading/finished blooms, before they set seed.

Why?

Because.....

 

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"Hand over your Lupins!"

 

Said the Highwayman.

Noble lord in carriage: "Lupins?"

Highwayman, impatiently: "Yes, yes, Lupins. Come on, hand them over."

Lady in carriage: "What, the flower Lupins?"

Highwayman (sarcastically) "Yes. The flower Lupins. Come on, hand 'em over."

Noble lord in carriage: "But we don't have any Lupins!"

Highwayman, with restraint: "I happen to know, that this is the Lupin Express."

Noble lord in carriage, pulling bunch of Lupins from under seat: "Damn!"

 Anyone under the age of about 40 won't have a clue what that means, and the rest of are now singing "Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore, galloping through the sward, Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore, with his horse Concorde," for the rest of the day.

Why this nostalgic glance back at a very old Monty Python sketch? Yesterday...

 

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Hydrangea: time to deadhead them.

 

Or is it??

It's late March as I write, and although we are having sunny days with a welcome increase in temperature, it's still perishingly cold overnight, with frost first thing.

So is it time to deadhead the Hydrangeas yet?

This is what they are commonly looking like, at this time of year:

 

The dead flowers from last year are starting to look tatty, some of them are snapping and dangling untidily, and the new leaves are sprouting.

So it's very tempting to prune off the dead material - but it's still very early in the year, so should we dead head them?

There are two answers to this question - yes, and no. Oh dear, not very helpful. I will try again.....

 

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