PROJECTS IN THE GARDEN

22 March, 2002

In 1987 professional help was called in to install a number of features which have given the garden a sense of separate areas or vistas. The steps were installed complemented by a stone terrace to form a backdrop to an enlarged mixed bed as a major viewpoint from the house. The rectangular sense of the house was softened by the swept curves of an enlarged patio, made more in proportion with the house. The texture of the patio was varied with Victorian bricks. Inevitably, these have spalled with frost damage and are not a long-term solution. Bed and pots etc were added to the patio for colour and variety.
The games area was levelled and re-turfed and the vegetable and soft fruit areas were prepared. This proved to be over ambitious, vegetables demanding more time than weeds. This area has been cultivated but mainly controlled and remains an ambition to make truly productive. Planting of stone fruit trees has taken up a significant part of the space as had the erection of the soft fruit cage. The main purpose of the games area has been for croquet and petanque. A social/croquet league has operated over recent years among friends

The first major project involved making the dank, biologically ' dead' pond viable for wildlife and plants. The 20 leylandii surrounding it with trunks by now around 1 foot in diameter had to go. Some of the more slender trunks can still be seen as part of the children's overhead runway. 20 trees, felled and roots pulled out single handed with the aid of a chain and a hand-cranked 3 tonne winch.

The pond was bought to life by scrapping the inappropriate concrete bowl, replacing it with a flat lined bottom and installing a range of oxygenating plants. Shortly after this daughter, Alex, gained some pet ducks who loved the pond but behaved like football hooligans with the plants. The duck saga is another story but eventually the pond has been returned to the more gentle clear habitat of newts, snails and a wide range of typical pond life. Water lillies and bullrushes are especially attractive.
In the early stages the bareness of the backdrop was corrected with the part architectural feature, part functional Summerhouse. Gradually, the pond surrounds have been added to with bamboos and grasses and this year the area has been gravelled to set off the plants with a new background and texture. It has also brought the summerhouse into a close relationship with the pond and sitting area.


Several areas of the garden involve semi wild beds around trees and shrubs which need regular annual attention to control pervasive weeds and nettles. These areas tend to merge with other more controlled areas and overwhelm more valuable plants. Ways of achieving long term control of such areas are under consideration, including heavy bark chip mulching and using plants that prefer shady areas and are themselves more invasive, for example Germaniums such as Johnson's Blue The Vegetable area similarly need more control of boundaries and access areas. Arranging plot size and boundaries around use of a rotovator needs some planning to allow for best use of a powerful tool, especially turning space and longest possible continuous runs. Rabbits while being at home and in the garden and fun to watch from the conservatory are an expensive pest for vegetable cultivation. Being able to grow anything requires expensive rabbit-proof fences. Speaking of pests, Moles are a contiual challenge and tend to appear in waves as patches on the lawngive testament to a recent damp spring invasion. Longer term damage involves collapse of mole runs and uneven lawn for mowing purposes. There are no friendly solutions and vigilance to discourage the early invader with Renerdine foul smelling oil down the mole runs is the prefered approach.