The Poncey Bits; Episode 1 – You’ve made your bed…

So far you have only heard from Mark, as he is the techy one of the duo and it is he who set up the blog. He describes himself as a ‘mud relocation device’ and has no pretensions to any gardening expertise, confining himself to the structural aspects with occasional light hoeing and weeding of the vegetable beds. Oh, and blasting weeds in our garden (and the neighbours’ garden too on one occasion, but that’s another story) using a highly hazardous flame thrower. Boys and their toys…

He has been on at me for a while to contribute some pearls of wisdom of the horticultural variety (or poncey bits) so as it is peeing it down, making sure that gardening is out of the question, here goes.

I have a fair bit of gardening knowledge, partly genetically acquired from mother and both grandfathers and partly from a lifetime of getting soil under my fingernails and messing around in my own gardens (and anyone else’s who would let me). From a very early age I had my own small patch of a large garden, and had to be dragged from the greenhouse at mealtimes. The window ledges of the primary school I attended were full of plants and cuttings scrounged from the nursery over the road, and seedlings grown from apple pips and the like. A life without greenery is not worth living, in my view, and gardening is the best remedy for the stresses of modern life. The other thing I have learned is that you never stop learning, most valuably from your own mistakes!

When we bought the house, I had a clear picture in my mind of how the garden should be planned. One feature that I wanted to retain and develop was the long east facing flower border which runs from the patio at the rear of the house down to the end of the orchard area. This contained nothing much to write home about so it has been dug and cleared (retaining any useful plants) and reshaped into an undulating ribbon, making it more interesting. The only feature in the border that has been retained is the four neatly spaced columnar specimens of Cupressus macrocarpa ‘Goldcrest’ which are growing quite slowly, probably due to the dry conditions caused by the beech hedge behind them (the tallest is about 10 feet tall) and these will be kept under control in topiary fashion. And I like them, so there. The border is backed by the boundary which consists of firstly a close boarded fence fronted by a hedge consisting of ‘pompom’ silver birches (these will go at some time in 2008 as they serve no useful purpose as far as I can see); then a stretch of mature beech hedge and finally a picket fence which is in the process of being replaced (see previous blog entry). This means that a large stretch of the border is in sun for the early part of the day but in shade or semi shade for rest of the day. Add to this the problem that during wet weather, parts of it have a tendency to flood, and you can see the extent of the problem – sometimes dry and shady (due to the hedge), sometimes wet and boggy. It’s a real challenge to find plants that cope with that lot!

I have spent quite a lot of time over the years collecting and reading books on all aspects of gardening – some of the most useful for the purposes of this border are those by the now sadly deceased Christopher Lloyd, for flowery and leafy inspiration, and Beth Chatto, for how to cope with the rising damp. I shall list these at the end, for anyone who is still awake.

I originally pictured the border in the traditional (and overdone) ‘cottage garden’ style, but experienced the blinding light of conversion when I discovered Christopher Lloyd’s ‘Colour for Adventurous Gardeners’. Now, the border is in the process of becoming a mixed border of themed but vibrant colour, primarily herbaceous perennials but incorporating pot grown bulbs in the spring and summer, and bedding plants and dahlias the summer and autumn. No pastel shades allowed here! The whole will be supported with carefully chosen shrubs to give some structure throughout the year. The border shades from a cool scheme of greens and white at the patio end, using dark reds and ‘black’ blooms for contrast, through deep reds, into purples, ending with a riot of vibrant magenta in the sunny orchard end. The whole border is unified with violet flowers running throughout, using Verbena Bonariensis a lot, as it seeds itself everywhere and looks right.

Locating suitable plants for the purpose has been fun. And expensive, but don’t tell Mark. The first approach was to look at what grew well in neighbouring gardens – peonies, hostas, hellebores and geraniums to name a few. However I was determined to grow more interesting plants and not follow the flock. There are not a lot of garden centres and even fewer nurseries in the locality, making life difficult for the ‘Adventurous Gardener’. In my opinion, the best local commercial garden centre is the Crown Garden Centre at Whitley, but this tends to stock only commonly available plants, albeit of good quality. I wanted much more than this. After a lot of web surfing, I discovered Stillingfleet Lodge Nurseries, only 20 minutes distant, who stock a treasure trove of unusual plants, which have been chosen because they grow well in the locality, always a good thing! Another great source is Choice Plants, run by Joan & Jack Gunson, and choice is a truly accurate description of their stock list. They can be found on their own website and also as an eBay trader. Their plants are a good size, top quality and packaged immaculately. A good source for bulbs and bedding plants (and seeds, both for flowers and vegetables) is Sarah Raven’s Kitchen & Garden (see websites). I must also mention our long suffering neighbours, who have watched our progress with amusement and occasionally donated bits and pieces from their own (much neater) gardens.

Over the last two years I have amassed quite a selection of plants and shrubs, which was finally planted in position at the end of the summer when the ground dried out sufficiently. I am now waiting eagerly for spring, to see what has survived… any that do will be propagated, for sure.

More details of what I planted the border with will follow when I have time; I have to go away now and work out a planting schedule for the vegetable beds!

Books
Christopher Lloyd - Colour for Adventurous Gardeners (ISBN 978-0-563-53492-1)
Christopher Lloyd - Exotic Planting for Adventurous Gardeners (ISBN 978-0-563-49319-8)
Beth Chatto’s Damp Garden (ISBN 978-1-844-03045-3)