Helen's Garden Renovation Project

This morning I dug up the magnolia soulangeana in the back garden and stuck it in a pot. I had to cut four or five roots with a diameter of one inch. I also pruned out one of its three stems in the hope that this will give it a better chance over the coming hot summer. I have no idea whether it will survive, but I will water it every two days and hope for the best. It left a big hole behind. I put some of the poor quality soil that came from the side passage when it was paved over into the bottom of the hole but I haven’t filled up the rest yet. I will have to check the plan to see exactly where the hole is in relation to the greenhouse base. If it will be underneath the greenhouse there is no point in putting good soil into it.

I have finished firming and raking the soil in the front garden. I added some 6X fertiliser to the top layer, and sieved the top inch or so of soil, so it looks lovely. The grass seed packet says I should wait four or five days after adding fertiliser before sowing the seed, so I think Friday will be a good day for doing that.

I also need to get on with my tool store. Taylor’s Garden Buildings haven’t given me a quote yet so I will have to send them a reminder. There is also another website I will investigate: Titan Garden Buildings, who are based in Guildford, not far from me.

Yesterday we had snow. It didn’t settle except on car roofs, but it was pretty cold. Sadly, my rhododendron is now definitely bovvered. The effect on my magnolia was not good either.

Today I dug up some more of the bulbs (you can see them behind the path, in the right hand side of the picture). I decided that they were probably all bluebells and that I didn’t want to keep them. They can’t be grape hyacinths or they would be in flower (see underneath the magnolia). I am pleased to see that the celandines are looking sickly on their weekly dose of glyphosate, and none of them has flowered. I don’t suppose I will eradicate them this year, because I have never succeeded before, but now is a good time to try, since there is nothing in that area that I want to keep, and therefore it doesn’t matter if some of the spray misses the celandines.

In my annual border, there are a few very tiny seedlings poking up out of the earth. My seeds may have germinated. On the other hand, they could equally well be bittercress. I shall have to wait and see.

I felt some regret when my garden designer told me there would be no room for the magnolia in my new garden. The reason was that it would eventually outgrow its space. She said I could prune it – apparently the Dutch prune their magnolias into a lollipop shape and the trees don’t seem to mind. However, I am not sure I want to do that. This week I have been looking out for magnolias along the local roads, and it seems to me that the impact of a magnolia is in its size. For example:

and

Comparing these two mature and magnificent specimens with mine, I see that mine is still beautiful, but it’s never going to look as good unless it is allowed to grow a lot more.

For now, I am going to dig the magnolia up and put it in a pot, because I might as well, but I am not sure whether I am going to keep it if I can’t let it grow to its full size. There may be room in the front garden when I renovate that, so we shall see.