End of the Year: Organised Mayhem at the Bottom of the Garden

Cathy

Dec 31

In terms of a review of the year as a whole, there is not a lot to say, with it being more a case of consolidation than of change, building on subtle changes made the year before, like moving snowdrops to the woodland, thinning the apple trees to introduce more light to the woodland edge border below, and extending the blue & white borders. Even the current project, despite the organised mayhem it has generated, will only bring about a subtle change to the garden. Within the garden as a whole, mixed weather patterns created uncertainty in flowering times but there were negligible losses from the previous cold winter and no problems with waterlogging during the last few rainy and unsettled months.

Let's dodge the showers and have a ramble around the garden, starting with the view from the house, the adjacent streamside and the shrub border. The witch hazels and cornus stems are glowing in real life but, sadly, the effect is not as obvious in a photograph. All but one of witch hazels are now at least partially in flower, very quickly adding to Boxing Day's total.

Walking through the woodland, you can see that more of the named snowdrops are emerging from the leaf litter and discarded beech nut cases, with one or two close to blooming. At the far end, from the bothy you can look out over much of the bottom end of the garden, although the chaos around the greenhouse is not yet evident. Recent winds kindly blew most of the fallen leaves into corners, where they were more readily bagged up and added to the leaf cage so, further emphasised by the view from the back of the shed, these parts look relatively tidy. By quickly trimming hellebore leaves today (after the photographs were taken), the woodland edge borders look neater too, clearing the way for hellebore blooms and the native snowdrops. The two hellebores all but in bloom for my Boxing Day count were mere forerunners, as there are now buds colouring up on many more, preparing the way for a relatively early display.

A number of Stipa tenuissima plants were removed from the grass border in the autumn, having outgrown their usefulness as young seed-sown plants. More editing is due, and I will add some Verbena bonariensis to bring colour to the other grasses next year. The bold border alongside is awaiting removal of the narrow raised bed at the back of it, which will once more bring greater depth (front to back) to the border and more scope for planting. To the left, the other bold border has been a relative success, but desperately needs better staking next summer!

Now let's venture through the gate and take a look at that mayhem, which might look like a lot of work just to move the greenhouse forward about a metre, as that's what the project was. Before it could be moved, the greenhouse had to be emptied and deglazed, the staging partially dismantled, and the cutting bed facing it emptied of soil. That done, it could be gradually inched forward, a job not as difficult as one might imagine. Paving from under the nursery stand outside then had to be lifted and used as a new floor in the greenhouse, requiring removal of all pots from the aforementioned nursery stand. Then, and only then, could the greenhouse be reglazed, a task completed today and which now allows a dry working space for the interior to be gradually put back to rights.

The reason for the move? To get the greenhouse away from the fence at its far end, not only allowing access for maintenance but also keeping it away from a marauding thorn that has been rapidly encroaching into our space. The nursery stand will now sit behind the greenhouse and a new cutting bed will occupy the area it was moved from. Although I shifted and bagged the soil from the displaced cutting bed, emptied the greenhouse and washed the glass before it was replaced, a huge amount of credit is due to the Golfer who deglazed and reglazed, surprising both of us with his hard work despite not being as physically healthy as he used to be. I was a little hesitant about starting the task before our February open garden day, despite an inevitable desire to get on with a new project, but the Golfer has done us proud, despite the very inclement weather (although there is still a long way to go before completion) - thank you Golfer!

Continuing with our ramble, we can leave the muddy paths around the greenhouse and make our way past the blue & white borders, through the rose garden (with newly painted fences) and main borders and back towards the house, passing the Obelisk Border and an illuminated view towards the wisteria on the back of the house:

Popping into the Coop, its iconic green fragrance is even more pronounced than usual, with the addition of some of the contents of the greenhouse, mostly the smallest seedlings and other things that need the most light, the remainder being in the sitooterie along with the overwintering dahlias. Behind the Coop, the Coop Corner has some winter and early spring treasures starting to come into their own, including the Clematis armandii which has far outgrown its useable space and has to be cut back regularly, leading me to consider replacing it with a less thuggish winter flowering clematis.

Thank you for rambling with me in 2023 and I look forward to sharing my rambles again in 2024. If you would like a better idea of how the different parts of the garden fit together, don't forget there are aerial photos and a map under The Garden tab.