Allotment update

This is what I call my allotment, I have previously referred to it as the pub veg plot if you want to look back on previous year’s progress. I am still growing stuff for the pub although only for the pop-up shop and takeaway ready meals at the moment. I am also spending a bit of my own time there to grow things for me. My new, and favourite, project this year has been a cutting garden, which you can see here.

On the left hand side, I have six beds. Two are permanently planted with rhubarb and fruit trees (underplanted with wild garlic) and the others currently have squashes, potatoes, sweetcorn and brassicas, and my cut flowers. And lots of weeds!

Not sure how to caption now WordPress has changed but this is courgette and a giant pumpkin with lots of space to grow.

This is just another view, including the flowers. The nigella have finished but I am using the seedheads and the godetia is just coming out. The cornflowers have just gone on and on.

End of June bucket of flowers.

On the right hand side, another six beds, this time three with permanent planting. One with herbs, one with newly planted asparagus, established globe artichokes and gooseberry and blueberry bushes and one with strawberries. Considering how I neglected the strawberry bed, it is producing well, plants in their second year now.

In the other beds, I have given up on the broad beans, harvested a few and pulled up plants. The red flowered, spring sown ones never really thrived and covered in rust and black fly, it’s time to go. I have let last years leeks flower, just because I like them, and planted s new crop, sown earlier in the year.

Also on this side, some later sown salad leaves and spring onions. The peas have been picked and eaten, by us and the pigeons.

Salad seedlings.

Autumn planted onion sets are almost ready to harvest, not very big because of the dry spring, after the wet beginning of the year, and a bit of a lack of time on my part, hence my ongoing weed battle. I have more courgettes and squashes dotted about, first courgette harvested this week.

Weeds!

July tasks will include weeding and getting to grips with the blog. I also have dahlias to add to the cutting patch. I have learnt a lot about growing flowers so I will try to put it all together in another post. I also have some more beans to squeeze in somewhere.

July diary 2019

1st July

Started the big chopping back. First the catmint by the pond taking care not to fall in!

 

3rd July 

8th July 

Good harvest of beans and courgettes from my Monday garden.

This was my only Rouge vif d’etampes pumpkin!

9th July

 

Having a good sort out in the rose garden. Pulled out the poppies and deadheaded the roses fairly hard.

10th July

 

Dieramas over the pond and magnificent Clematis at the back.

 

This customer really likes Clematis!

16th July

 

When the fence was renewed in the veg patch over winter, it was moved back along this edge, and I gained a new strip of earth. I have enjoyed using the space for annual flowers which wouldn’t stand a chance in the tightly packed borders. The sunflowers and sweet peas have done well and I particularly like this Nigella African Bride

17th July

First bean harvest from the allotment. The yellow ones were seeds from Lidl and the purple possibly Blauhilde. I’ve had the saved seeds in a jar for ages and I can’t remember.

18th July

 

Hot and sticky evening visit to the allotment. Pulled out lots of weeds. The artichokes look great in the late sun.

24th July

It has been so hot this week, in the 30’s everyday. I have spent as much time as I can in the shade and drunks loads of water. I don’t seem to have taken many photos. Just too hot!

27th July

And today the heatwave ended. It has rained much of the day. This is a self sown sunflower doing well at the allotment and the very late sown onions doing their best.

Sowed some seeds! I’ve never managed to do this before in July. Here we have Sweet William, saved seeds, various salad leaves, kale and beetroot.

End of the month.

Still cutting back and planting a few cosmos in the gaps. They may survive the rabbits, we’ll see. It’s a funny time of year with the first lot of flowers over and the late summer ones not quite out yet. All this rain and warm weather will encourage it back for a second flush. Had a quick look round to note what is looking good at the end of July.

 

Shasta daisy and Echinops. Verbena bonariensis and Echinacea.

 

Kniphofia and lovely, lovely Agapanthus.

 

By the way I’m on my third pumpkin seed, which hasn’t germinated so that’s it for this year.

June diary 2019

Lettuce

Broad beans

Lettuce and broad beans on the allotment

Sunday 2nd

Took Xand up to the allotment to water while I planted some very late potatoes and onions sets given to me by someone who had ordered too many. Harvested all the autumn sown peas, enough for a meal, and the first of the strawberries.

 

Tuesday 4th

No watering this afternoon as pouring with rain, good for planting out the lettuce seedlings. Also accomplished my mission of planting the brassicas and covering with netting.

Sunday 9th

Planted Cecil at the allotment.

Tuesday 11th

Warm and sticky but at least it has stopped raining. The rose borders are blooming abundantly and the peonies are magnificent too. Everything is growing  rapidly and there is a lot to do, I have to remind myself that I will get on top it and it will slow down.

Tuesday 18th

What a week, I’ve never worn my waterproofs so much! Finally got a proper sunny day yesterday and got tormented by horseflies and hayfever. Remembered the insect repellent today.

The garden is at it’s best, in the sunshine, with the sysirinchium out and the weeds mostly hidden. Still planting in the allotment, replacement pumpkins as Cecil turned out to be a courgette, and some celariac given to me by a friend. Not impressed with the seed company, they have not replied to my email, may have to tweet them.

Still lots to do, weeds growing like mad and a thunderstorm forecast for tonight. Picked broad beans and peas for tea.

June 20th

This isn’t gardening but I had to share this wonderful field of daisies.

June 25th

First courgettes and the second sowing of potatoes has survived. I still don’t know what ate the first lot but when I planted these, in May, I sprinkled the trenches with chives and blackcurrant leaves, to disguise the smell, and put netting on top.

The tomatoes in the greenhouse are gettig bigger and, keeping it real, the allotment is fill of weeds.

June 30th

Planted Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds again. My friend gave me 2 but one died so I am hoping 3rd time lucky. Monty said it wasn’t too late on Gardeners World on Friday so here’s hoping.

 

May Diary 2019

Saturday May 4th

At home, dodging the hail showers,  planted out my poor sweet peas they have been neglected and needed planting weeks ago. Sowed salad seeds in the raised bed and planted out the watercress.

Weekend 11th/12th May

Reached that point where everything has to be sown or it will be too late. Struggling with salad in the raised bed. Although early sowings are ready to pick, nothing else has come up. There was a lot of heavy rain last week and now it is  supposed to be getting warmer so fingers crossed. Still those chilly nights though. Can’t get runner beans to germinate at all this year but have some French bean plants and more seeds sown. Lots of squashes and courgettes ready to go out soon.

Tuesday 21st May.

Last week we had cold nights and one frost but temperatures of 14°c and above in the day.  Quite a lot of moving plants in and out of the poly tunnel went on. This week is more settled so plants are able to stay out but there is more watering now.

The garden exploded into bloom and I wowed at all the new flowers and all the butterflies.

Today I saw the first few blackfly on the broad beans so I pinched out all the tops. They are doing really well with beans forming now.

Moved a lot of the dahlias from the greenhouse into the beds making space for the tomato plants. Used very sturdy supports this year!

 

End of the month

It’s getting full on now with the Irises, peonies and poppies in bloom. Lupins in full flower ready for the first wedding of the season.

Looking Back

New year seems a good time to look back on the last twelve months of gardening. I started at Kenton Hall in January 2018 so this presents itself as a perfect opportunity to look at the changes over a year of extremes. Unfortunately I don’t have any of the snow as I didn’t go that week! The gardens of Kenton Hall provide a stunning location for weddings in the summer months and my job was to keep them up to standard.

January

 

It seems so long ago! I can remember being very cold and the first day that I did here there was a heavy rainstorm. I could see it coming but it was my first day and I didn’t want to give up until it was raining badly enough. I got soaked through to the skin. So what was here was overgrown shrubs and herbaceous perennials. I love a challenge!

February

 

Getting stuck in. Cutting back everything, perennials, grasses and shrubs, including evergreen ones as much as I dare, just so that I can see what is there.

April

 

Things start greening up. The primroses look fabulous along the moat.

May

The first wedding of the season was in May so lots of weeding in preparation, fortunately the owner does the hedging and grass as there is a lot of it. The house provides a stunning backdrop for photos, and the lupins came out, hurrah!

 

July

 

 

The beginning of the heatwave. The borders are full and the grass is just about hanging on. Flowering now Stipa gigantia, catmint, Achillea cloth of gold.

 

August

 

Still looking green, the main flower here was the almost complete bed of Japanese anemones but also shrubby potentilla and the grasses were looking good. I had been coming regularly, but not that frequently, mainly in the week before each wedding.

October

 

The wedding season had finished now, and I had started to cut back the finished flowers. A lot of plants were just getting to their best, especially the asters (michaelmas daisies) and fuchsia. The leaves were starting to fall off the trees at the back.

 

 

November

 

You can see that whereas mid afternoon in summer is still scorching hot, at the same time in November the shadows are really lengthening and the light is fading.

 

The seedheads did look good in the golden sunlight, they are still there, and there were a few late flowers on the lupins having a second flush. Feeling a bit more in control of the square borders, I got a chance to work in the rose garden and found a Clematis cirrhosa ‘Freckles in full bloom.

December

Almost full circle and back to a very wintry looking garden and a late flowering rose. January will start with less cutting back and shrub shaping to do than last year so maybe a chance to divide some of the perennials and make the beds more of a mix. At the moment there are big blocks of colour which look effective but then all die back at once.

It goes without saying that I was easily distracted by the beautiful house and trying to get it in the pictures. There are also views over the surrounding countryside.

For wedding venue details and photos I would suggest the website, link in first paragraph, or the Instagram account @kentonhallestate.

And breathe!

I started this post at the beginning of September when I had been away for a week and returned to my gardens to find that autumn had arrived. August was hot, cold, cloudy, sunny, rainy and windy and already September is over with a mixture of storms and sunshine as well.

The hoped for Indian summer never came but there were, and still are, all those richly coloured late summer flowers and abundant pumpkins and squashes.

Dahlias at Houghton Hall

Harvested pumpkins left to ripen.

The dahlias have been good in my gardens too, I divided up the tubers in spring before planting in pots in the greenhouse so there were a good number but always room for improvement.

 

 

Also looking good for August and September the delicate looking, but actually quite tough, Japanese anenomes and the jolly rudbeckia.

 

August was a month of trying to keep it all going, like juggling balls in the air. A bit in the vegetable garden, a bit in the borders, doing the lawn edges and looking out for the giant sow thistles which seem to arrive fully grown. I always reach a point where I feel overwhelmed with amount of work still to be done and then it’s autumn and things that are cut back, stay cut back and phew! We can all breathe again.

 

I’m not saying that there is not still loads to do,  the weeds are still growing and deadheading continues, but I am taking time to enjoy the long awaited asters (Symphotrichum) and my head is full of plans for next year. The vegetable garden is slowly being cleared and I have even sown some late summer crops, a first for me. Tulips have been ordered and it will soon be time to cosy up with the seed catalogues.

Meanwhile, the roses carry on flowering.

 

Visit to Houghton Hall, Norfolk

Full Moon Circle by Richard Long

Houghton Hall and Gardens in the heart of rural Norfolk, walled gardens, sculptures and a ha ha. We didn’t go in the house as it cost a bit more and there was a separate music festival in the grounds which provided a constant background of banging music, but here’s what we did see, until the camera battery ran out!

There was a combination of permanent sculptures by different artists and the Earth Sky exhibition by Richard Long.  It gave a focus to our wanderings and I do like a map to follow.  Through the stable block courtyard and a block of pleached limes, the first sculpture we stopped at was in front of the house, A Line in Norfolk, made of Norfolk carrstone. And that’s what it is.

The Full Moon Circle, which has been here since 2003, was my favourite and the bossy man was right, it does catch the light better looking towards the house although you want to get the long vista in looking the other way.

 

More sculptures were hidden in an area of hedges and trees and included a solid concrete shed but I really liked the building lined with benches their backs sloped to give the perfect view of the sky through the hole in the roof.

Skyspace Seldom Seen by James Turrell

A round about way back over the vast area of mown grass, along the ha ha, and retracing our steps through the courtyard to get to the walled garden.

The walled garden is divided into four by hedges, with some of these quarters subdivided, and two main flower borders down the middle. High hedges and small feature gardens mean that you never know what is around the next corner.

Following the outside wall, we are first treated to a bit of cold frame and glasshouse envy. What an amazing place to sit! It has a trickling fountain at the back with goldfish and a stunning view to the long borders out the front. To each side there are more greenhouses with proper work going on.

Cold frames in the walled garden.

Box hedges, so neatly trimmed, are a big feature of the walled garden and next along from here features an intricate pattern of hedges filled with scented bedding and punctuated with clematis.

Clematis pyramids surrounded by beds of chocolate cosmos, heliotrope and scented leaved pelagoniums.

Round the corner, more delights, a mass of pink Japanese anenomes in between the mellow red brick walls and box hedges.

After this, tempted by the sound of running water, I forgot the plan to stick to the edge and went in search of fountains.

In the foreground is Waterflame by Jeppe Hein but I didn’t stay long enough to find out that there is a flame that comes out of the top, it was also here that the battery began to run out on the camera so the next shots required waiting for the battery to charge enough then taking quickly before the camera shut down again. Lesson learnt!

This is the other pond with fountain in the middle and more fish. An enclosed space with only one entrance and full of spirally box and Verbena bonariensis. A peaceful space with tempting benches to sit awhile.

Back on track following the outside wall, some inspirational planting and something that I might be able to recreate on a smaller scale. A great combination of heleniums and sunflowers even if I don’t have the wall for a backdrop.

And the view from that pergola is of an ornamental fruit cage surrounded by dahlias in suitably orangey colours and then more fruit bushes.

There is a border devoted to named dahlias and small but old looking fruit trees. I am afraid by now we were tiring and knowing that we had a long drive home we hurried a bit and I completely missed the vegetable beds. Two herbaceous borders flank the central pathway and a bit late in the day I discovered the rose garden with a pretty sunken fountain and seating area.

The central path in two distinct sections looking towards the glasshouse. Nice mown stripes!

A whiz round the toy soldier collection in the stable block and the shop filled with lovely but very, very expensive artworks and we were done. Well worth the long journey and perhaps a return visit when the roses are out.

The front/back (where the drive is) Houghton Hall 

The in between bit.

I am in the midst of my cutting back (and aching back!) at the moment while the gardens have a pause between early summer fullness and late summer/autumn colour. I just can’t seem to avoid it. In some gardens, I managed an early chop of the ubiquitous pink geranium and it has reflowered, but in the biggest  I am still going.

Stage 1

It happens in three stages, I find. Stage 1 – faded glory. Still pretty but flopping everywhere and starting to go over. If you chop it now it should come back for another flush.

This is stage – too much Italian parsley!

Stage 2 – it’s got to look worse before it gets better.  Cutting back as much as possible. For me that includes the aforementioned pink geranium, catmint, Stachys  (bunny ears) and achemilla and in this case pulling out parsley.

Stage 2

Looking a bit bare but giving the dahlias more light and space to grow and the opium poppies a chance to self seed.

Parsley removed.

Stage 3  is when it all shoots back up again, less vigorously than the first time but enough to cover the soil again, like a regeneration of the garden, I don’t really like gaps. While we wait for this to happen, there are some things which are looking good now.

 

Echinacea, loved by bees and butterflies, and agapanthus in dazzling blue.

Crinium  with Cynara behind.

A close up view of the corner, now cleared with the Agapanthus, Crocosmia and Rudbeckia herbstonne at the back.

Ok it’s bindweed and it had to go but it was pretty!

Angelica looking awesome. I am now looking forward to the next wave of colour as the dahlias flourish in the rain and the michaelmas daisies take centre stage. Some more sun would be nice first though!