| A new beginning? |
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| The men get to work. |
The camomile bank has not worked well for the past two years as the planting
here have been causing the plants to die off as a large shadow was cast by the conifers. Add to this the fact that the
conifers were also dead in the centre so it was time to call it a day. We are thinking of putting a set of steps in
here so keep watching for an update!
The very large conifers had grown way out of hand as it was thought that it was time
for them to go. They cast a large shadow over the patio and also caused one side of the bank to have very dry soil while
the other side of the bank the soil is heavy with clay all of which gave the camomile a real problem.
The under gardener and I decided that was this was going to be a most important feature
in the garden so it was worth investing in the job being done by professionals. We had a local company spent two days
here and did a wonderful job on these steps and we are just delighted.
| Planted up and looking good. |
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The under gardener took this picture just after I had finished planting
up with box plants and filled the two centres with bedding plants which were raised in the greenhouse. We have not decided
what to replace the camomile with so this year we shall just go with the African marigolds.
| Under construction |
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| The woodland walk get a face lift. |
A long held ambition of the under gardener has been to put a "proper"
path through the woodland garden. March 2010 and work begins. It proved much harder than expected but when it
was finished we were both delighted with the effect.
| The begining of the work. |
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| A project for the under gardener! |
The picture below shows the first bed completed in a project
to bring the orchard into the garden. I have under planted the tree with hardy geraniums that will very quickly
cover the ground, together with forget me nots for the spring, and added grasses that can be moved when required together
with an orange corcosmia. The only problem with this job was processing all the turf!
| New orchard beds January 08 |
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We have left a walkway between the two beds to enable, in the
future, a set of steps to be built into the bank to the right of this picture, so allowing easy access from the drive up the
quite steep bank that leads into the orchard. Doing this work proved more difficult than I had thought, as the angle
of the orchard here conflicts a little with the direction I wanted to take the beds, whilst allowing for the tractor to be
able to maneuver around them. It also transpired that a pear tree I had planted in 06 was now in the wrong place
and had to be moved to allow an avenue to be created, without an interruption in the vista. Half way through this project
I was having serious doubts, however it has been said by visitors to the garden that it draws the orchard into the main
part of the garden. So I guess that worked!
Job done! We are very pleased with the effect.
| The Arbour Seat. |
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| A new vista has been created. |
| The arbor seat compleated. |
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| The under gardener's garden! |
In the process of a little pre Christmas tidy round and armed with
a new pair of loppers the under gardener cut away some low growing branches of the large conifers that are in the picture
to the right. The end result was this rather splendid view of the top of the orchard. When the small garden was
then completed around the Arbour seat it made a perfect vantage point to sit and look across to the forest.
| The Under Gardener at work |
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A very cold January day and we are hard at work
reducing the height of the western boundary hedge. This has come down a good 2/3 feet. It took me over two hours
just to collect all the bits that had been cut away and then drag them over for processing but at least it kept me warm!
| Our new pergola |
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| The under gardener at work. |
January 2008 and our new pergola is in the process of construction.
Not an easy job but has made an interesting entrance to the woodland garden. The mock orange on the right of the picture
is just wonderful in summer and I have planted Rambling Rector over the pergola together with a winter flowering honeysuckle
and a clematis so this should be most impact-full in a year or so. That's gardening for you it is always about what
it will look like in a year or so!
| The Stumpery |
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| Dug over and ready to go. |
All dug over but the question is will the ground elder return?
| Now for the heavy mob! |
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| This should keep the ground elder at bay. |
With lots of our compost added the area which has been treated twice
for ground elder (we have the national collection), I have added the membrane and then planting began. Oh and yes
the ground elder did come back. Not all of it but enough.
| The first Spring for the Stumpery |
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| Now all we need are the hostas! |
| The new rose walk |
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| This is just the start! |
So here begins the work on the "Rose Walk". An idea
I took from another garden! David Austin Roses were ordered and I chose some that do well in shade for the left hand side
of this path as they will, at the early part of the day, be shaded by the trees. Some of the roses failed due to the
fact that the bunny in the garden had a great time eating them, so new plants had to be purchased and they are now in their
second year and coming along very well. I hope that this year will see a more impact from the roses.
| A frosty December morning |
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| The new rose walk completed |
The new rose walk but from a different angle. You can see
the "gap" for the tractor to be able to access both sides of the path. An added benefit here is that
it takes up fewer roses. A garden that has won the Shropshire Star gardening competition, in which we came
third, had over 300 roses in it. The under gardener has said I should not even consider it!!!!!!
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| The under gardener at work |
The bank at the front of the cottage is very long
and on a slope of about 45 degrees, however one of the difficulties about working on the bank is getting into it and having
to climb over the fence. The under gardener has now put a gate in here and what a difference it has made.
