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This is the first bed completed. I hope that I have given each plant
enough room to grow. I have under planted the tree with hardy geraniums that will very quickly cover the ground, together
with forget me nots for the spring. I have added grasses that can be moved when required together with an orange corcosmia.
The under gardener had help remove the turf now all we have to do is the second bed and then process all that turf!
| New orchard beds January 08 |
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Here are the two beds now completed. We have left a walkway between
the two to enable, in the future, a set of steps to be built into the bank to the right of this pricture so allowing easy
access from the drive up the quite steep bank that leads into the orchard. Doing this work proved more difficult that
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 manoeuver around them. It also transpried that a pear tree that I had planted two years
ago 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 about it but feel now it will look good in the spring and I will
let you see another picture then.
I took this view of the new orchard beds whilst waiting for the judges of
the "Garden of the year" competition. They were most complimentary as to how these beds had drawn the existing garden and
the orchard together.
| The Arbour Seat. |
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| A new vista has been created. |
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 this picture.
The end result was this rather splendid view of the top of the orchard. It took quite some time to process all the wood
that was chopped away and it was in no shape or form what we had intended to do when we went out into the garden but hay ho
we were very pleased with the effect.
| The Willow Tunnel |
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| The extention being added. |
The willow tunnel was put added to the garden in December 06 and was a great
success but we both thought that it would be better if extended by some four feet this December. Here you see the extension
in the process of being added. As the ground slopes here it was quite a challenge to keep the tunnel at the same height
all along. Cannot wait to see it in the summer, I think the door at the end will have added mystery and will not be
so easy to see. We are allowing the hedging around it to grow to further conceal it.
| The extended arch. |
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| A different view of the extended arch. |
The main whips are in and awaiting the side pieces to be inserted when fingers
have thawed out enough to complete the task!
| 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 have come down a good 2/3 feet and we have decided to reduce it further next winter but
there is much to do now so this is to be stage one. It took me over two hours just to collect all the bits that had been cut
away and then drag them over for processing through the chipper machine. The chippings will be put onto the path in
the woodland garden. Of course if we had wanted to put them around plants they have to be left for quite some time as
in their newly chipped state by are not good for the plants.
As you can see here that the reduced hedge will let more light into the kitchen
garden and into the orchard. The field beyond once belonged to the cottage and the current owner is quite happy about
the work we are doing on this hedge. The field is full of sheep most of the time and when the lambs come the Doberman
thinks she has lots of friends to play with. It is most entertaining to watch dog and lambs touching noses through the
hedge.
Here is a shot of the bank taken February last year we had at this point
cleared half of the undergrowth! This area of the garden had been planted out over 25 years ago and then just left.
It has been quite a voyage of discovery as we hacked our way through it in an attempt to clear enough to see just what we
have got.
And now the clearing is finished and we can start to plan the re-planting
of this whole area. The under gardener noted that this area was bigger than our last garden in its entirety! There
are snowdrops here and when the ivy is cleared away I hope to find more, or at least lift and divide the clumps that we have
found. There are also signs of a good number of ferns which will now see the light of day again,also foxglove are here
together with bluebells which now shoud be able to do their own thing.
| Our new pergola |
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| The under gardener at work. |
Our new pergola in the process of construction. Not an easy job but
this will make an interesting entrance to the woodland garden. The mock orange on the right of the picture is just wonderful
in summer and I am going to plant Rambling Rector over the pergola together with a winter flowering honeysuckle and a clematis
so this should be most impactful in a year or so. That's gardening for you it is always about which 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 elger 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 not planting can begin.
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