The Garden at the end of March

Well March was a month. Covid reigned supreme here and let me tell you that whilst for Andy, who go anti virals and salted through it really, for me it was no joke and I am only just beginning to feel anywhere near close to normal.

But with that we had some beautiful weather and I spent three days in London for the Garden Press Event and where I visited an old favourite, The Chelsea Physic Garden. It’s a garden I love but there is also a lot to say about it so hold tight and that will come separately.

The woodland garden at the Chelsea Physic Garden

In reality it doesn’t feel like much was achieved in our garden at home but of course that’s actually far from the truth, although we likely haven’t achieved as much as we hoped by now. I knew in my soul that there would be a cold snap so I’m actually quite pleased I didn’t get carried away, but I have planted out the bare root shrubs we bought from Ashridge Trees, which I have to say were the best quality.

So we now have a Rosa rugosa hedge planted between the main part of the garden and the veg garden, as well as gooseberries and blackcurrants in the perennial food bed, a couple of new Elders and a Corylus which we hope will be productive here as thus far we have seen no squirrels. There’s also a small crab apple and a spindle still waiting in pots to go into their forever homes, and I finally planted out the Roe Dame Judy Dench we bought last summer in the local garden centre sale.

The other thing that is giving me joy is the pot garden on the patio which is filled with beautiful tulips, daffs and wallflowers, alongside a lot of what I think are Camassia but time will tell. The great folk at Dalefoot compost gifted me the compost for the pots and you can really see the health from the compost being passed to the plants-they’re all looking incredible and it’s so good to sit out there with a cuppa, soaking in the colours.

Of course work is also ramping up and I will share more of the Edible Bristol stuff as the season progresses. Excitingly we have a trainee grower beginning this week, which we hope will be an annual position that supports someone interested in land work to get a foot on the ladder.

Other than that there’s not much to tell other , and if you follow me on social media you will know this, we have our daughter’s dog living with us for a while, and so suddenly we have solved the cat poo problem, which is nice….

See you next month for more!

Bear…..

January..........

The weather is grey, and wet, with rain coming most nights and drizzling on and off most days. Underfoot it’s soggy and walking on the grass feels treacherous and horribly slippery. The plants are all looking at what can only be described as their worst, some with old tatty leaves hanging on by a thread, but mostly they are the skeleton the a garden that has definitely not had a gardeners touch for several years. In the oddly warm winter what I am learning is the weeds that are obviously at home here, as they appear, even during the darkest days of the year. Goosegrass is making itself known along the edges of the hedges, popping it’s fresh green shoots up through the sodden soil and making me nervous at the sheer amount of it. There are a lot of dandelions, as well as daisies in the front garden, some of which were flowering yesterday, but my main adversary here is going to be bamboo……..

Bamboo is beautiful plant but so often misunderstood and so planted in the oddest of places. This is a beauty as a plant and I think has come in from a neighbouring garden that is a few doors down and has a huge stand of it. Likely they have no idea how far it has spread, and I imagine were sold it as a variety that doesn’t spread, as is the phrase. “too badly”, but as with all bamboos once it gets it’s feet in they grow and spread like very little else. And it’s a beauty as I said; five feet tall with large green and glossy leaves. If I had acres I would be more than happy to see it but whilst this is by far the largest garden I have ever stewarded, it’s not the size to cope with bamboo. So over the last few days I have been forced to dig down in beds that I am determined will be as no dig as possible, and remove the shoots as they appear. Delicious bamboo shoots as they appear through the soil, but if they are this voracious in January, I am somewhat dreading June.

The lawns are also sad and sorry. The front garden is without a doubt more moss than grass and I my accidentally have taken up the thatch and sown wild flowers in the areas that were bare, hoping for a riot of colour in early summer. They are “real” wildflowers rather than a pretty mix so I hope that they will work themselves into the foundations of the garden and keep appearing year after year but we will see. Often I struggle to get them to germinate, most likely because I have a tendency to over love them, rather than let them alone to do their thing. They are the independent children of the garden, that get on with it and thrive when left alone.

Storm Arwen rocked us here in Wales and we found our beautiful front hedge damaged by the ravages of the gusts, with a fairly large area of it lost. I was deeply saddened by this as it was full of ripe ivy flowers, so important for pollinators flying in winter, so with that through we are replacing it with more wildlife appropriate planting than the privet that was home to the ivy. Thus far an Ilex Red Dragon has been bought and will be added to in the next months with, I am hoping, a winter flowering honeysuckle and a male holly to make sure the female Red Dragon gets pollinated.

And that is an update from the garden-something I promise every year and rarely manage but this year I will try to do better. Writing about the garden can feel self indulgent and self focused but hears hoping that it supports others as well as offering an insight into building a garden focused on climate and biodiversity crises.