Autumn Notes from the Garden
Above: an unusual image of Fairlynch Museum with agapanthus in the foreground
Anne Hurt, pictured below, writes:
For 17 years I have been working as a volunteer at Fairlynch, and by now I do believe I know every single plant, tree or shrub that grows there. Sometimes there used to be up to nine of us, all under the supervision and guidance of Mrs Jenefer Slater. It was she who is responsible for the design and structural planting which is so excellent in framing the Regency cottage. Only indigenous plants or plants introduced to this country before 1812 were allowed. We still try to adhere to this plan.
Jenefer had to be strict with us volunteers, as we all
came with our own ideas of how gardening should be done, and we all thought we
knew the best. The garden is meant to be a cottage garden, in style with the
building, and not a municipal run of the mill garden full of bedding plants.
Since the
soil is very poor free-draining sandstone and needs constant replenishment our
compost-making is vey important, but sadly we are not doing well.
If anybody
reading this has a spare supply of leafmould compost or horse manure, please
let me know.
I soon
learned that some of my favourite herbaceous plants would not do, as being
exposed to salt-laden wind and rain make it hard for them to survive.
We do
have some old fashioned roses, which I do love, but it is a stuggle and they
never seem to thrive. Otherwise, with all the Mediterranean shrubs and plants
that are doing well the garden is low maintenance.
After such
a good season there will be a lot of pruning shrubs and trees that have
outgrown their space, and there is always replacement work to do. I have
stopped taking it as a personal insult when a plant dies, and think of it
instead as an opportunity to plant something news.
One year we
planted two mulberry trees (Morus alba) to feed the silkworms that someone had
obtained. It would have been nice to show how silk was made from the start to
finished scarf.
Sadly the mulberries did not thrive and we never had enough
leaves to satisfy the silkworms’ voracious appetites.
Californian poppies, elscholtzias, are easy to grow in almost any soil
We are
always very insect-friendly and never use chemical sprays if we can help it, so
there is still ground elder, bindweeds and other weeds to annoy me. A few
nettle plants are allowed as they are good for butterflies and their presence
means that the soil is not too bad! There is always room for improvement and
like all gardeners I’m looking forward to next season no matter what Mother
Nature has got up her sleeve to test us.
Comments
Post a Comment