Know your enemy

I love plants and spend every working day encouraging other people to appreciate them too but particularly during the summer, for hay fever sufferers, not everything in the garden is rosy. Most of us welcome the prospect of fine sunny weather to get out there communing with nature but being in the garden surrounded by the cause of so much misery is no joke if your eyes are streaming and your pockets stuffed full of paper hankies. Anti histamines are great and Vaseline smeared around your nostrils can trap allergens before they can get up there, but an already red and runny nose given the added allure of a greasy shine isn’t everybody’s idea of an attractive feature so it makes sense to do a bit of detective work and get to know your enemy. Two of the worst offenders are tree pollen early in the summer and grass pollen later on. Like other wind pollinated plants they rely on getting masses of pollen into the air in the hope that it will reach a female flower of the same species, indiscriminate and designed to cover as wide an area as possible, your nose included. Willow, alder and the Acer family are a few of them, from our point of view hazel isn’t usually a problem because it’s done its stuff before we venture out with the better weather but grass get us later in the summer when we’re outdoors much more and it isn’t just a problem when it flowers either. When we cut the lawn it gives off a chemical called Coumarin which can be an allergen to some of us and as the mower cuts it churns up all the dust, pollen grains and fungus spores trapped between the blades of grass. Cutting the hedge releases the same trapped particles too, privet seems to be a particularly bad one and the dreaded x Cuprocyparis leylandii can cause contact dermatitis as well as annoying the neighbours. It isn’t all doom and gloom though, there are many ways to make the garden a much less hostile place. Lawn isn’t compulsory, a mix of paving materials, preferably recycled and low spreading plants like Ajuga, Alchemilla, Geranium, winter heathers, Epimedium and Astrantia look lovely all year and instead of a hedge try a trellis screen for the boundary with climbers like Clematis hybrids, climbing Hydrangea, passion flower and purple leaved grape vine. Some of the prettiest trees don’t produce any pollen at all, like the double flowered Prunus avium ‘Plena’and lots of our favourite blossom and fruit trees in the Prunus and Malus families don’t cause a problem generally because they’re pollinated by bees. Shrubs like Hebe, Spiraea and Escallonia are fine too as are a wide range of fabulous perennials like Anemone x hybrida, Paeonia, Phlox and Veronica which chosen carefully and put together well can give colour all summer long so you can sit outside and enjoy the garden sneeze and tissue free.

Study Day

A fun day learning how to design and plant your garden the wild way!

Spoiled for choice

At this time of year we’re spoilt for choice by the sheer variety and volume of seeds and young plants for sale, it’s hard for inexperienced gardeners to know where on earth to begin.
A trip to any garden centre or a quick flick through a catalogue is evidence enough that traditional bedding is as popular as ever and eye popping colour mixes that have me reaching for my sun glasses are still there, but suppliers know we’re a bit more sophisticated now and offer mixes in enticing shades like ‘moody blues’,‘sunny yellows’ and ‘pretty pinks’ and it’s a recipe for success. Most plants for summer schemes are chosen for flower colour alone and for bedding in containers that’s fine, pots can be filled with perfect compost , placed wherever the species dictates and fed and watered to their heart’s content.

If the plants are going into the border though, the way we make our choice needs to be more thoughtful. Soil type and aspect should be the first consideration and if you aren’t sure what sort of soil you have look at the wild flowers growing in it for clues.
Buttercups and lady smock like to keep their feet wet so if you have lots of them then your soil is probably heavy and moisture retentive, forget me not and wild violets prefer dry free draining soil but if you have docks and nettles which like it rich and fertile then you’re lucky, most annuals thrive on it . But all is not lost if you don’t have perfect conditions, the wild flowers that like your particular garden might have flamboyant relatives if you prefer something fancy. Foxgloves have been bred to give bigger flowers, more compact plants and more colour variations but they will still tolerate fairly dry semi shade. Aquilegia are available in lots of colours now and are still happy in moist shade and for open sunny places what could be lovelier than the annual poppy, not just the vibrant red of cornfields, but in all shades of pink too.

We’re all aware of the plight of bees and other pollinating insects so they need to be taken into consideration too and the more pollinators in the garden the better our crops of fruit and vegetable will be so it makes sense to grow flowers to help them. Single open flowers like Cosmos and mallows are great as are daisy look alikes Rudbeckia, Aster and marigolds. Flowers in umbels like Achillea and Ammi are wonderful for insects and add diversity in shape and form as well

There is more to choosing summer bedding than which colour petunias this year and as for my choice it’s wild flowers every time, not for me the formal single species blocks the Victorian bedders were so fond of, but native species happy and healthy in my soil, the bees love them and so do I.

Willows for wildlife

We all welcome the cheering appearance of early spring flowers and for some of us it’s the bigger and brighter the better with strong yellow daffodils, vivid violet hyacinths and double flowered primulas now available in every colour under the sun.

Others find the subtle beauty of delicate wood anemones and single primroses more appealing and for me there is one flower to which I look forward more than any other.

Our favourite flowers are often those familiar in childhood and this is no exception. Salix caprea better known as pussy willow is one of the first I remember picking just to stroke the furry little buds. I still love to see a tree in full bloom especially on a sunny blue sky day as their silver sheen gleams in the sun and then as the flowers mature and turn to gold the bumble bees can be heard droning in the canopy as they gorge themselves on the pollen.

Like most willows they like plenty of moisture in the soil and so are happy in our heavy clay, but unlike many other willows they don’t outgrow their welcome, remaining a relatively small tree throughout their lives.

Weeping willows, Salix alba ‘Chrysocoma’, are the ones we all know for their dramatic shape, fresh new spring growth and the way their graceful curtains fall over water. But they are much too big for most of our gardens, so an alternative for small spaces, the Kilmarnok willow which is a dwarf weeping version of pussy willow, is often recommended. Try before you buy though and look at a photo of a mature one. Although it does have furry flowers it has none of the grace of the weeping willow and eventually forms a squat congested mushroom of a tree – it's only a personal view but you can tell I’m not a big fan!

Instead I much prefer two relatively small but still elegant willows. Most of us will have room to accommodate one of them and both give year round good value for the space they take up.  Salix exigua, sometime called the coyote willow is fairly tall and upright with typical narrow silver blue leaves. Similar in leaf shape but more grey green in colour and rounded in habit, as wide as it is tall, is Salix eleagnos ‘Angustifolia’. Both are lovely garden worthy plants with fine textured foliage which catches the light and ripples in the slightest breeze.

As early spring begins to break, new foliage creates a soft green haze in the hedgerows, buds burst and pristine leaves start to unfold. Sharp spears of Iris and ornamental grasses pierce through last year’s leaf litter and frilly fern crosiers slowly uncurl. There’s something new to see every day now, look up or look down, the world is once again becoming green.

The client from heaven!

 I was delighted with an e mail I received yesterday from a thoughtful lady who has really grasped what gardening is all about. Not an imposition of will over a difficult site but an understanding of how to encourage her garden to give of its best.

Dear Cheryl

Your visit was extraordinarily useful and has equipped me in a way that I wouldn't have thought possible in one session.  I think it was because you dealt in principles - natures, shapes, colours etc. it somehow felt integrated and that was what I was after, a garden that makes sense. 

It's been a fascinating process, it's like the garden has impressed itself upon me as much as the other way around.  Plants that I thought I wanted just wouldn't settle in my mind and it's been sort of give and take with me and the garden coming to an accommodation.  It sounds daft but that's the way it is.  Anyway, I'm nearly there now and have placed some orders today but with still the majority to purchase.  I think it will be lovely one day and we are both looking forward to seeing it grow.

Thank you once again for your assistance and guidance

With warm wishes

from Jane

Every Little Helps

At the end of last year I entered a garden writing competition run by the Society of Garden Designers and to my complete amazement I actually won!

The title was the rather long winded. 

‘Has the time come for garden designers to have in mind at all times the wider impact of their work?’ 

The short answer would have been a snappy ‘Yes of course’ but why use three words when a thousand will do. My answer was aimed at other garden designers but the basic premise is that all of us who garden, however large or small our garden might be, have an impact for good or ill on our own and the wider environment.

Here are a couple of paragraphs

'We all see our gardens in splendid isolation, jealously guarding our own private domain, when in reality each one is only a small part of a network of interconnecting open spaces, woodland, hedgerows, ponds, sunny banks and shady hollows with their own opportunities for shelter, feeding grounds and home making by species which have lived around and along side us for millennia. As our gardens fall victim to the swings and roundabouts of fashion trends in hard materials and planting styles, the natural processes of seasonal change, leaf fall and decay, spring and renewal are the constant beating heart of any garden. Its inhabitants, from the microscopic soil organisms we don’t see, to the insects, amphibians, birds and mammals we do, form part of the web of its life but will only be there if the conditions for them are right.

We can get it wonderfully right and our gardens become richly, joyfully alive, when we get it wrong they are silent and soulless.

Within the boundaries of even a small garden it’s possible to achieve so much for the body as well as the soul. We know that the industrialization of food production isn’t sustainable or in any way desirable and to encourage the growing of a few vegetables and the planting of the odd fruit tree may seem insignificant, even a futile gesture, but the pleasure to be taken and the benefits to be gained can be remarkable. To experience the pulling of a carrot from the soil, the popping of a pea pod straight from the plant and the thrilling discovery of buried treasure in the digging of new potatoes is to gain an understanding of our relationship with the earth and our complete dependence on it. To enable a child to learn that or a parent to teach it is an unmissable opportunity.'

Our garden is our own tiny part of planet earth and as short term custodians of it lets do our best this year to help it to be the best it can be for all its inhabitants.  Individually we might only make a small change, but if we all do our bit, together we can make a difference even if it is only one garden at a time.

What are gardens for?

I’ve recently been to a Society of Garden Designers seminar, where members gather together to listen to the wisdom of the most respected in the profession and the title of this year’s was ‘What are gardens for?’

Gardens are made by people and as people are all different, then the reasons for making them, although superficially similar, are as diverse as we are but I don’t think it’s unfair to say that most of us don’t really think about it that much, just carrying on mowing the lawn and pruning the roses with a bit of a change here and there as the babies become toddlers with trikes and a sandpit and then a trampoline and goal posts.

Eventually the children grow up, fly the nest and mum and dad can sit back and relax on a new patio.

Well that is a least how it used to be when children liked playing outside, but the sad fact is that being outside is now the least favourite occupation of seven to eleven year olds, according to an excellent speaker at the seminar, Wendy Titman. Sedentary pastimes are much more popular, with the dreadful consequence that by the time children leave primary school, countrywide one in three are overweight and if statistics are to be believed that figure is set to keep on rising.

Is it because so many children are now brought up in densely populated cities lacking in green space, or is it that gardens are so far down on planners’ and house builders’ agendas that they’ve dwindled in size to become only slightly bigger than the new kitchen?

I’m sure they are many and varied but whatever the reasons, many children have become alienated form the natural world right from the very beginnings of their lives. It’s hard for me to reconcile this fact as I watch my neighbour’s children hurtle along the street on their bikes, but a sad fact nonetheless.

 For the New Year what about this as a resolution. Get the kids outside in the garden more, encourage them to poke about in the soil, dig up worms if they want to, show them how to plant seeds, grow a few veg to eat or just chill out with them and listen to the birds.

It’s the earliest years which make the difference and maybe this is one of the most important answers to ‘What are gardens for?’

They are places to play and as children we don’t just play for the sake of it, it burns calories, it gives us vital vitamin D and stimulates our immune systems. 

It’s how our species learn to understand about the world around us - important or what!

Nobody will care about the natural world unless they understand it.

Sir David Attenborough