Helen's Garden Renovation Project

The three readers of my blog will have noticed that there have been no entries for nearly a month. This is partly because I have been away on holiday but mainly because it simply will not stop raining. The damp weather started at the beginning of April – just after the hosepipe ban came into force. The hosepipe ban was lifted over a week ago, which we hoped would stop the rain, but no.

However, there is some hope that there may be some dry weather next week. When that happens, there will be a lot of maintenance tasks to do. The Willowherb Elimination Stakes are still in progress. And I do hope that one day I will be able to mend my shallow pond.

In the meantime, here is a colour combination that simply would not occur to an average garden designer.

Crocosmia with Lychnis

I planted the Crocosmia Lucifer deliberately. The Lychnis just turned up, as it always does, and I hadn’t the heart to pull it up.

Here is a Lychnis flower holding up its face against the rain. Brave little thing.

Lychnis in the rain

The rain continues, and I have not been able to repair the shallow pond yet. Maybe we will get a boiling hot October again and I can do it then.

Meanwhile, everything keeps growing, and the Plan is going to have to adapt itself to another new arrival – a Morello Cherry, which was a very kind leaving present from the parents of one of my students. I took a few photographs of myself with it, and chose the one that was most flattering to the tree, not to me.

Left to right: Cherry tree; me

I had been thinking about how much I would like a cherry tree that did fruit I could eat instead of just flowers and leaves, and suddenly I have one. I think I will put it at the right hand side of the garden, near the blackberries, or possibly in the front garden. It claims to be capable of reaching a height of 4-5 m, so it will be bigger than the apple trees, but not too enormous. And anyway, I can always prune it. The label has a knife and fork sign with “July. Aug.” next to it, but I think if I make the cherries into cherry ice cream I’ll probably eat them with a spoon. I have put the cherry tree into one of my square plastic pots with lots of organic compost.

I decided that the Phormiums had probably rotted away, and threw one of them into the soil mine, but as I was about to pick up the other one, I noticed it had a couple of tiny green shoots. So I put two bits of path under the pot so that the next ten days’ rainfall will drain away, and maybe it will survive. I put the five pots that contain bulbs aside, as they don’t need to be watered this summer. So I have gained one pot and lost six.

Pot count 58. Very good.

I have, I think, partly solved the mystery of why my Callitriche (starwort) and Hottonia (water violet) have failed to thrive. Something has eaten them. This thing has also taken chunks out of the Myosotis palustris, Ranunculus aquatilis and Veronica beccabunga. It hasn’t touched the Myriophyllum crispatum or the Equisetum japonicum. I am at a loss to work out what it could be, as the plants are far enough from the edge not to be in danger from land snails. I have seen pond skaters, but they eat insects. And of course, newts are also carnivorous, catching most of their prey on land. So I am completely baffled about what is eating the plants.

I think the problem is that the pond is out of balance. There is not much plant matter in there yet, and so it’s easy for whatever is eating them to eat the lot. I am hoping that the Myriophyllum and the Ranunculus will survive long enough to grow very big and healthy and oxygenate the pond themselves. If not, then the best thing is probably to buy a large quantity of oxygenators cheaply from a mail order company, and put them all in at once so that they can’t all get eaten.

The peony has no buds on it, and so I don’t think it will flower this summer. On Gardeners’ World, Monty Don said that peonies hold a grudge against being moved and can refuse to flower even three or four years after being moved. Since I moved it in 2007, and it has flowered at least twice since then, I think the time for it to register a protest has passed. Unfortunately there does not seem to be any statute of limitations for crimes against plants.

I made some more progress on pot reduction by planting the very congested flag iris in front of the thuja.

Number of pots = 63.

So far the weather has gone from constant rain to blazing hot sunshine to cool and cloudy, and now it’s cool and showery. Obviously the constant rain inhibited progress quite a lot. Less obviously, the cool and cloudy weather has inhibited progress too. This is because the conditions became ideal for me to stain my garage doors, which I couldn’t do in the rain or the extreme heat. So I applied two coats of stain to the garage doors, which took a good few hours that I couldn’t spend gardening, and then we had the Diamond Jubilee, which meant lots of rain.

Today there was only a little bit of rain, and I reduced the pot count by one, by planting the kiwi ‘Oriental Delight’ that I bought from J Parkers in the place where the passionflower used to grow. It’s supposed to be self fertile so doesn’t need a male companion.

Kiwi fruit plant

If I had thought ahead a bit more, I would have stained the trellis in 2011, just after the passion flower died. I can’t stain the trellis now because newly-stained trellises are not good for plants. So I will just hope that the trellis lasts a good few more years before I have to replace it. I gave the kiwi plenty of compost and some Rootgrow. I have lots of Rootgrow left because I haven’t been able to use it on the rhododendron or the blueberries.

Number of pots = 64.

Today may be our last day of hot, dry weather. I went out and finished off the job of repotting the oxygenators and marginals. As far as vigour goes, the winners are the Ranunculus aquitilis (Water crowfoot) and Veronica Beccabunga (Brooklime).

The Ranunculus was growing so well that I felt it was worth taking it off the marginal shelf and putting it down on the bottom of the pond, but not in the very deepest part in the middle.

Ranunculus aquatilis 11 days after buying it

The Veronica beccabunga was also doing very well, sending out lots of shoots and hundreds of hopeful roots. According to its instruction card, it doesn’t want to be drowned, so I left it on the marginal shelf, where it looked happy enough.

Veronica Beccabunga, including reflection of my television aerial

The Callitriche (Starwort) and the Hottonia Palustris (Water violet) have been the most restrained. The Myriophyllum crispatum (Upright water milfoil) is making steady progress.

While I was in the mood for playing with the pond, I cleared out some of the leaves in both the ponds with a sieve. I caught three newts in the shallow pond and tipped them into the raised pond. I wonder if they will stay there. A pond skater has turned up, and also I saw a damselfly alight briefly on a stone near the greenhouse.

Damsel fly taking a breather before going on to examine the ponds

I made some progress on the pot reduction programme. I planted four pelargoniums and a sedum. This not only decreases the number of pots by five but adds some much-needed colour to the garden (see yesterday’s entry). I planted them between the blueberries and the Discovery apple tree.

Pelargoniums and sedum

I also got rid of another pot because it seemed to have in it only a small hellebore seedling. So I planted the hellebore seedling in the marjoram patch, which has plenty of other hellebore seedlings in it. Unfortunately I may be involuntarily getting rid of two more pots. Just when I was congratulating myself on the fact that nothing, nothing at all, had died this winter, I discovered that the two phormiums weren’t well. I think they may have rotted during the wet spring. I should have raised the pots off the patio with a couple of tiles to make sure they drained. Or put them in the greenhouse to give them a rest from the rain.

Number of pots = 65.

For the past week we have had wall-to-wall sunshine and it’s been unusually warm. I have had to water my pots and my newly planted shrubs and trees. Everything is growing very fast and is very green. Except for the camellia, but it’s looking less yellow than it did a few months ago. And the evergreen Euonymus, which is meant to look yellow.

Overview of my garden, which is sadly lacking in May colour.

However, I can’t help but notice that there’s not much of interest to look at in May. The apple blossom is over, and the hibiscus is several months away from flowering. I will be planting the pelargoniums soon, but I need some May colour. To be fair, the rhododendron that I planted last month, in the far left corner, will probably be flowering at this time when it’s a bit older. It has buds, but I think it’s going to flower later than normal because it’s still very young.

I have been thinking of getting a ceanothus, and this gives me some justification. I would also like a lilac, but I don’t think I have room, and I need some more evergreens so it doesn’t look so bare in winter. Maybe I can put a lilac in the front garden.

As my own garden is so dull, here are some plants that I photographed at Wisley on Friday.

Iris Tirra Lirra

Paeonia Suffruticosa

Progress is happening with the ponds. The plants that I bought only ten days ago have grown incredibly quickly. You can see the Ranunculus aquatlilis doing white flowers in the raised pond. I potted the Ranunculus into bigger baskets last Thursday because its roots were coming out of the baskets they were in – only a week after I bought them! I have bought some more aquatic compost and some small pebbles to put on top of the planting baskets, and I am planning to pot the rest into bigger baskets tomorrow.

I have painted 12 concrete bricks that I bought from B&Q with black Blagdon pond paint. The paint has produced a nice effect and I have to wait another six days before I can put them in the pond. However, I may wait longer, and give them a coat of V8 Pondseal because I don’t think the Blagdon pond paint gives a very tough finish and the paint may rub off too easily.

If the hot weather continues, I will have emptied the shallow pond completely by the end of the week, using the water for my apple trees and shrubs, and then I will be able to make another attempt at repairing the pond and making the join between the pond liner and the render watertight.

We have had hardly any rain this week. That is, it has still rained on most days, but not as much as we have become used to. The temperature has been rising to double figures some of the time, and it’s time to think seriously about this year’s Pot Reduction Target. The Pot Reduction season lasts until the onset of the Willowherb Elimination Stakes.

So I took a pot census this afternoon and I found that I had 71 altogether. This includes a few bulbs. I didn’t count the bulbs last year because I was keeping them down the side passage, and forgot about them. This was very bad for the bulbs as they did not get enough light and probably not enough water either, and so this year they did not flower. I decided that it was too labour-intensive to try to keep bulbs going when they are so cheap to buy. So I threw out most of them, and I will buy some more when I am ready to plant them somewhere.

I then planted some Persicaria in a bare patch in the Residents’ planting area, leaving me with 70 pots. I think a good target would be 50.

I was pleased to see that my little oxygenators placed in the new ponds on Thursday have not drowned and are pushing up their leaves and flowers to reach the surface. Good oxygenators. Well done. I think they have started growing already. Nothing stands still at this time of year.

I made an attempt to remove some of the very invasive pondweed from the temporary pond, but I am afraid to remove too much in case I remove some newt eggs or tadpoles. I am thinking that my best bet would be not to try to salvage any of the vegetation to put in the new ponds, but to buy fresh supplies of the Pontederia cordata, iris and waterlily that are currently growing vigorously in it, if I want to have them in my new pond. In autumn, when the newt tadpoles have grown up and the new ponds are full of feathery oxygenators, I can just compost everything in the temporary pond and start again.

We have actually had a whole day without rain! And there was plenty of sunshine too. It was good to go out and catch up with what my plants have been doing. Here are the free lilies that J Parker sent me.

Lilies emerging

I have tried to grow lilies once before. I planted some bulbs and the lilies were promptly eaten. It could have been lily beetle or it could have been slugs. I have been putting slug pellets around my J Parkers lilies and so far they haven’t been eaten by anything. I will keep hoping.

The Euonymus europaeus, which looked so bare and vulnerable when I first planted it, is now looking calm and confident, with vigorous growth. I am a little surprised at how much it has put on, and I wonder if the Rootgrow really did work a miracle with it. Or maybe it just liked getting lots and lots of rain.

Euronymus europaeus 'Red Cascade' looking fine and dandy

And what a difference a couple of weeks makes! The beech tree is well and truly awake.

Beech tree looking very leafy

So I am now entering the period of the year where development work grinds to a halt as I spend all my time weeding and cutting things back. When we next have a few days of dry weather I am hoping to be able to empty the shallow pond and do some work on it. I will also be able to plan the rest of the planting better when the existing trees and shrubs regain all their leaves so I can see how much room they take up and which areas do not get much light.

I am pleased not to have to water my plants, and it makes me feel better to know that all the tuition work I am doing is not taking me away from the garden, but I have missed my garden so much. It’s all getting on with what it does best, with some help from the bees, and I feel as if my friends are all going out and having fun without me.

This afternoon it looked as if it was going to be dry for about five minutes, so I went out to mow the lawn. But it was already starting to rain, very lightly. So I planted the blueberries instead. I was just about to dig a hole when I realised I didn’t know how far apart to plant them, so I went inside to look up the spread of blueberries on the Internet. It’s up to 24 inches. So I found I could get two rows in between the edge of the lawn and the greenhouse. I have planted them 12 inches from the lawn edging and 12 inches from the greenhouse base, which makes them 28 1/2 inches apart. That should be fine. If not, then it’s supposed to be possible to take cuttings from blueberries, so I can make some new plants and put them somewhere else.

The levels are a bit difficult. The greenhouse base is a few inches lower than the lawn edging. I decided to plant the front two blueberries at the same level as the lawn edging and the back two blueberries at the same level as the greenhouse base, and have a ridge in between, rather than a gradual slope which will make watering the higher blueberries difficult. If the soil does not stay in place, I will use a line of small rocks to keep it there.

Four blueberries planted in a square

I like the way that although they are only about nine inches high, one of them is doing flowers, and the other three look as if they’re trying.

Blueberry flowering

I don’t know whether the blueberry that is flowering is better established than the others, or is an earlier variety. I may have to wait until next year to try to decide which one is which variety.

Not only are blueberries pretty little plants with excellent autumn colour, but this year their fruit appears to be an extremely fashionable source of antioxidants. They may not be as fashionable next year, but they should produce more berries, which will make up for it.

And then it stopped raining for long enough for me to mow the lawn as well.

I keep forgetting to mention that I bought some Rootgrow from B&Q because Monty Don used it to plant something. It’s a type of fungus that works symbiotically (i.e. it plays nicely) with the roots. Unfortunately it doesn’t work with rhododendrons, blueberries or heathers but it should work with everything else I am intending to plant. A packet of Rootgrow is not very expensive but it seems that you need a good hefty dose of it if you are planting anything of a reasonable size.

As soon as the hosepipe ban came into effect, we have had rain almost every day. On the whole I am pleased about this. It is my busiest time for tutoring, and so I have very little time available for doing anything to the garden, and it helps save time if I don’t have to water anything. The anti vine weevil nematodes that I applied a couple of weeks ago want a good supply of water, which has been arranged for me, and my newly-planted shrubs have not needed any attention. On the other hand, when my life gets almost completely taken over by work, it can make all the difference if I get to spend an hour or two in the garden.

Today has been no exception to the pattern of this April, with frequent showers but some sunny moments in between. I decided to take stock of the quick and the dead, hoping that there wouldn’t be anything in the latter category.

My neighbour said that the Residents’ Crinodendrons were dead, pointing out not unreasonably that an evergreen plant is supposed to have leaves on it.

Crindodendron in the communal planting area, looking dead

The Crindodendrons were both doing fine until we had a very cold snap in February, whereupon their leaves went black and fell off. However, on close inspection it becomes apparent that something is happening. Either the plant is producing some new leaves, or it’s been infested by a bright red pest that doesn’t move.

Crinodendron not dead after all

My neighbour also complained about my Camellia. I had to agree with him. The poor thing is very yellow this year.

Camellia looking yellow

I have given it some camellia food, both slow release and water soluble, and I will carry on feeding it this year. I think it has improved, but it may take time. This year I have noticed a general increased yellowness among camellias and I am wondering if the very dry weather has caused it. Camellias like moist soil, and perhaps even established plants have not been impressed with the low rainfall.

I was also very worried about the fuchsia Alice Hoffman who was a present from a student last summer. She is still not looking very vibrant.

Fuchsia Alice Hoffman looking dead

But she too is producing new leaves. At first I thought they were weeds or bits of marjoram (I overwintered her by burying her in the marjoram patch). It was difficult to get them in focus for a photograph, but here is my best shot:

New shoots from Alice Hoffman

It seems strange that these plants are only just beginning to get going now, at the end of April. Even the beech tree next door is slow off the starting blocks.

Beech tree next door, still leafless

We have lots of rain still to come in the next few days, but there may be some more settled weather as we get into May. I think that there will be a lot of catching up to do in the next couple of weeks.