Happy ramblings: Rosa 'Seagull'

When we were leaving our previous house and garden, I took 10 cuttings of my rambling rose, Rosa Seagull. Roses aren't exactly known for being easy growing plants, and I'd never taken rose cuttings before and wasn't that hopeful that the cuttings would take. So it was quite a surprise when 9 of the 10 cuttings did!

So two years ago I planted two 20cm 'sticks' into the border of our south-facing fence. Here's the result. 

This was after a large attack of greenfly, just when the flower buds were developing, which my soapy water squirter took care of. It recovered well!

It's a very fragrant rose, and in the hot weather last week, sitting outside for dinner at our garden table, the aroma was beautiful.

 
And it was alive with buzzing from the many bees seeking it's pollen.

The flowers are now spent, so I'm going to prune back the stems and with luck, I might get a second smaller flowering.

As for all those other 7 plants, I didn't have room for them, so I gave them away so others could enjoy them.

It turns out that taking rose cuttings successfully is really quite easy, so do give it a try.

Autumn: Prunus mume 'Beni-chidori'

The second in my Autumn series, is Prunus mume 'Beni-chidori'. This is a small (up to 2.5m) upright tree which I've planted in a pot. Whilst it's only about 3 years old now, the idea is that, along with the other plants in pots next to it, it will filter out the messier storage part of the garden from view. Because every garden has a messy storage area.

The autumn leaves change from darker green to orange-red.

To fully red. Though maybe there is a pink tinge to that red.

It looks good hiding the messy corner, and looks magnificent against the blue Autumn sky.

Filtering through the sun brings up the intricate detail of the veins of the leaves.

And in Spring... Yes, that flower is simply stunning. It also has a beautiful fragrance. It's also a great plant for pollinators in late Winter.

I've admired this tree for a few years in other gardens and finally obtained my own earlier this year. I feel it's a most worthy and beautiful addition to the garden. Plus, who cares about a bit of mess with those colours?!

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Other posts in the series:
  Autumn: Acer palmatum 'Sango-kaku'
  Autumn: in the Peak District
  Autumn: Salvia 'Amistad'
  Autumn: Cornus 'Norman Hadden'
  Autumn: Fagus sylvatica 

Autumn: Acer palmatum 'Sango-kaku'

As Autumn is now in full swing, I thought I'd do a short series on some of the plants that I think really shine at this time of the year. First up, Acer palmatum 'Sango-kaku', and it most certainly shines!

It's young branches really show off the reason for it's common name, the coral-barked maple.

And I'm very pleased with how under-planting it with Heuchera 'Paris' has worked.

The leaves are now changing from a softer orange-yellow, to rich and buttery.

It glows in the autumn light.

It's a slow growing tree. This one is about 10 years old and has been moved twice. It's really taken off in this garden, so I think I've found it's happy place.

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Other posts in the series:
  Autumn: Prunus mume 'Beni-chidori'

  Autumn: in the Peak District
  Autumn: Salvia 'Amistad'
  Autumn: Cornus 'Norman Hadden' 
  Autumn: Fagus sylvatica

Wisteria border: before and after

A year ago, this is what the Wisteria border looked like.

What Wisteria border you ask?

Well, this is now.

It's always good to take before and after photos. You often get caught up in what work you still want to do in your garden, so it's good to be able to take stock to see how far you've come.

It's hard to point out where the actual Wisteria is, as it's still a young plant. Hopefully this time next year I'll be able to show you.

Creating a mini forest garden border

For some years I've been enamoured of the idea to create a forest garden, an edible and fairly low maintenance way to grow food. It's only with this garden that I realised that I had the right conditions to finally create my own mini forest garden border.

Martin Crawford's book (right) is the seminal text for learning about forest gardening, and it was a rare occasion where I read a gardening book from cover to cover. It just has so much information that was written in a straight forward tone, following each step of the process, and offering a large range of suggestions of what plants can be grown in each layer that will suit a range of climates.

My intention here is to show you how you can use the principles of creating a forest garden on a small urban garden scale. I aim to create a space that offers food for myself and for pollinators, that works within my health limitations (I have the chronic illness, ME), and that adds beauty to my small garden, whilst also being low maintenance.

The space that will become my Forest Garden Border

First up, I measured out the space and plotted this onto a base map, including the direction of North. I had previously done a soil test so I knew that my soil is acid clay. Apart from digging the holes for plants, I use the no-dig method. I plan on adding compost and mulch each time a key plant is planted, and will continue to add some each autumn to the whole border and I'll let the worms do the work to loosen up the soil, and release the nutrients that are locked up in clay soil.

I had spent a few months surveying the space and the way light and shadow moved across it and added a sun map on top of the base map. The border has one south-facing side and one west facing side and the arrows show how the sun moves across the garden during the day, moving from the top arrow, down. Plotting this and the base may measurements out was important for helping me decide how many trees, and what type, I could include in my design.

For example, the Amelanchier, which is shown on the Sun Map, is in a raised border off to the right. Though it will cast a small amount of shade a certain times of day when in leaf, because of it's height, and the height of the sun from April to September, this will be quite minimal and won't impact on the amount of light plants like the rhubarb and apple trees will get. And in winter it's deciduous so the forest garden border will benefit from all light available during this period. The greengage is in the South-West corner, and won't be casting an shade at all on the plants below as the sun is always moving in front of it. I do need to ensure I keep it pruned so that it doesn't get to big and block a neighbour's garden though.

Now we come to the layout map. Here I have plotted out all the key plants, A - N, and worked out their ultimate size and placed each onto the map. The ground cover plants will be slotted in here and there as space allows.

See the full list of plants below

Drawing circles is not my strong point(!). But I've been able to map out the maximum size of each plant so I'm clear what can fit in. It will still look a little bare for the first couple of years whilst the plants start filling out, so I'll have to be strong and not add any more, only to have to remove them later because the other plants have grown to their full width and height.

A forest garden has 3 layers, though I've broken them down below into 4 (separating out the Perennial and Ground Cover layers), as I found this more helpful for my planning.

Tree canopy layer: This includes small as well as large trees. These are A, H and N on my plan, a greengage and two apple trees.There is also the Amlanchier tree off to the right of the actual border, that I consider a part of my forest garden. Whilst it looks like they will be crowding the plants next to them, they won't because they will all have trunks with the first branches growing above the plants below in the Shrub and Perennial layers.

Shrub layer: Because my soil is acid clay, it made sense to add in fruit that grows well in acid soil. So cranberry and blueberries have been chosen. One of the blueberry varieties, Hortblue Petite, crops at least twice a year, and it is a nectar source for bees and other beneficial insects.

Perennial layer: This is going to be a mix of edible plants, such as the sorrel and rhubarb, and plants for pollinators, such as the comfrey. The comfrey is the 'Bocking 14' variety, which doesn't self seed. Comfrey, with it's deep roots, is an excellent nutrient and mineral accumulating plant, particularly of potassium. If you plant comfrey near fruiting trees and shrubs, they benefit from the minerals the comfrey has accumulated. This is why the two comfrey plants are on either side of the greengage tree and not far from the cranberry and blueberries. Comfrey leaves can also be used as a mulch, and of course, to make comfrey liquid feed.

Ground level layer: This is also a mix of edibles, such as the sweet violets, strawberries and ramsons, and plants for pollinators. Eventually there should be no bare soil showing, which should limit annual weeds from germinating.

Two Blueberries and some violas waiting to be planted out into the Forest Garden Border

I want the border to be low maintenance, in particular because I have so little energy to undertake tasks in the garden. The main maintenance tasks will be pruning the fruit trees, summer for the greengage, winter for the apple trees, and cutting back dead foliage of the perennials in early spring. At this stage the soil is mostly bare, so there may be some weeding required, but hopefully the ground cover plants will do their job and make weeding minimal in the future.

I took time in planning the border. This is in part because of my health, but mainly because good permaculture practice is to take time to observe the space, ideally over a year. This helps you spot issues that might not show to start with. Although my garden is relatively flat, careful observation showed me that this part of the garden is the highest, but another area is lower and I discovered it could be prone to some flooding, mainly water sitting on top of the soil/grass. Water flows from the Forest Garden Border area down, so hopefully as mulching over time loosens the soil, it will also drain better so it doesn't all flow down to the lower part of the garden.

It was also important to really think through what I wanted to grow and why. Each plant I've chosen suits my taste, skill, and health limitations, and is also suitable for the space where I'm creating the Forest Garden Border. I'll continue to observe how the border grows, and adapt, if needed, over time. For now, I'm excited to put the plan into action; I'll finally have my own (mini) Forest Garden Border!

Andrea, my gardener, will be helping get the blueberries and other plants into the ground next week, and I'll choose two apple trees in the autumn. I'll post follow-up in the summer, so you can see how it's coming along.

I inherited the rhubarb with the garden, and it's now ready for my first harvest of the year.

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PLANT LIST
Canopy layer
A: Greengage, Prunus domestica 'Golden Transparent'
H & N: Apple trees, to be chosen. They will be on a dwarfing or semi-dwarfing rootstock.
K: Akebia quinata, also known as the chocolate vine. Although the fruit is edible, I'm predominately growing it for the flowers and to allow it to grow all over the wall as it's an evergreen. I'm hoping that, along with the ivy that's already growing on the wall from a neighbours garden, that it will offer a further habitat for small insects and pollinators. 

Also, just off to the right of the top border is an Amelanchier x grandiflora 'Ballerina', also known as  Juneberry or Apple serviceberry tree. This has the most edible of all Amelanchier fruits and I consider it part of the forest garden, though it sits outside the border.

Shrub layer
E: Cranberry (variety unknown)
F: Azalea (variety unknown). It's here because had it, and it's happy in acid soil. The flowers are good for pollinators.
I: Blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum 'Hortblue Petite'
J: Blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum 'Bluecrop'

Perennial layer
B: Rhubarb (variety unknown)
C & D: Sorrel, Rumex acetosa (non-flowering variety)
G: Golden oregano, Origanum vulgare 'Aureum'
L & M: Comfrey 'Bocking 14'

Ground cover (plants mixed all around the border)
*Strawberry, Fragaria x ananassa 'Samba'. This is a smaller sized strawberry, but is made up for in the fact that it fruits from May until November.
*Sweet violets, Viola odorata 'Queen Charlotte'. Edible flowers and good for pollinators.
*Ramsons, Allium ursinum. Also known as wild garlic. Edible stalks and leaves and good for pollinators.
*Ajuga reptans 'atropurpurea'. A good evergreen ground cover plant. Helps cover bare soil so there are less weeds.
*Primula vulgaris. Good for pollinators and will self seed and help cover bare soil.
*Phacelia tanacetifolia. This is an annual that will self seed. It is known as a green manure and is excellent for pollinators.

I will also add a mix of early flowering spring bulbs this autumn to help early pollinators such as solitary bees, and to add further interest and beauty.

Martin Crawford's book, Creating a Forest Garden, was pivotal in helping me understand what should go where and why. I highly recommend it, and because it's been around for some years, it can be found in libraries too.

Back garden - the first six months

Back in June I introduced the interim design for the back garden, but I haven't yet got around to showing you how it looked during the rest of the year. Now it's the end of the year, it seems like a good time to have a look at how the garden grew.

First, here is a reminder of the garden I inherited when we moved in.

We gave the sheds away on Freegle, as we have a large garage that is now my garden shed. The conifers, which seem to drain away all light around them, were also removed.

This was the garden on completion of the landscaping work.

My new raised beds!

I then got a little extra work done, creating what I'm calling the Wisteria border, using keyhole gardens as an inspiration, along with my simplified version of a bug hotel (logs on the right).

The bug hotel is made up of the trunks and thick branches of the conifers that were removed.  Eventually I'll be adding a pergola to this area, allowing the wisteria (which you cannot really see yet) to grow up the fence and over the pergola, with seating underneath so you can enjoy summer shade and fragrance. The tree in the left keyhole bed is Amelanchier x grandiflora 'Ballerina', which is meant to be one of the best Amelanchiers for Spring flowering and edible fruit.

And an overview of the new garden at the height of the growing season.

I had the height of the L-shaped bed (on the left, behind the concrete area) reduced by one level. I realised it was too high to comfortably access and weed, so I had the sleepers re-purposed for the new Wisteria Border. The plum tree, in the top left corner, was sadly chocked with black rot, and based on experience, I knew it was unlikely to recover. So it's been removed and a new Greengage will be added in it's place in shortly.

I also added a temporary bed where eventually another raised bed will be added.

First we (my gardener Andrea and I) put down black plastic to kill off the grass and perennial weeds, then we added some of the paving stones that were left behind by the previous owners as a border. This will filled in with a range of pots, a mini pond, and some left over stones from the front garden. We added the stones in such a way that it gives a gradual climb up to the mini pond so that creatures like hedgehogs can access the water. And there are stones in the pond to allow easy access in and out for frogs and other pond inhabitants.

We installed a couple of water butts next to the house. Eventually I want to put in a couple of large rainwater tanks, to make the most of the large roof and water resource to capture and store.

 

And here is the garden now, at the end of the year.

I've moved the bird feeder closer to the hedge. I've observed that birds seem to use feeders that are either close to trees or hedges, and this worked as it's now attracted a lot more birds.

The concrete shaped blocks on the fence will soon be painted a sage green, and wire shall be added all along the fence so that I can train various plants including clematis, a rambling rose, some ivy and/or other evergreen climbers, along it. This should be more attractive than the grey that currently dominates.

Next to the seat to the right I've had some of the hedge cut into, so that when you sit down it will be in a little alcove from which you'll have some shade and be able to view the whole garden.

This is the end of the major work for at least a year, whilst I think about how to plan the next part and save up to afford the new landscaping! I do know that the temporary bed will become another raised bed, the pergola will be built, and between these a proper pond added. I also need to work out my plan for the grassy area in the top left, which will become more raised beds for a kitchen garden area. And I'll also be adding in a mini forest garden. In the meantime, I am Am really pleased with my design, and the work of the landscapers and gardener.

Greenfinches and Goldfinches on the bird feeders.

The garden is a little bare at this time of year. But already the first garlic shoots have come up, the broad beans are growing well and I should have some salad and herbs to harvest throughout winter. The first of the ornamental bulbs are coming up, and the garden will soon be bountiful in beauty and food, and as a calm and happy place to be. Not bad for a six month old garden.

An interim design for the new back garden

Work has completed on the back garden and I thought I should introduce the design and how it all looks now. The design for the back garden is not yet fully formed, but like with the front garden, I'd really like to get plants out of pots and into the ground to reduce the amount of watering I'm doing, which has been taking a toll on my very limited energy. So here's what the garden looked like when we moved in:

We got rid of the sheds immediately on Freegle, as we have a large garage that is basically my garden shed, so didn't need these. They were taking up growing space. Of course, once they were removed, this is what was behind them:

Ignore the beehive shaped items, they are my compost bins, but otherwise, quite the mess*, and you can see how much the conifers were trying to take over. Even as all this was being done, I was thinking about my interim new layout, which I now present:

Note that the three trees in the top right are the conifers which have been removed.

Originally I was going to have one long bed on the right-hand side, next to the beech hedge. But then we realised it would make trimming the hedge very difficult. So I changed this to the three beds you now see. The spacing allows you to both access the hedge more easily, but also walk around the beds to view the plants from different positions. It's a much better and more interesting layout too. These beds are north-facing, but still get a lot of sun. So they will be for ornamentals only, including some that like a shadier spot. The shade will develop over time as the Acers I'm planting** grow and provide dappled light.

Alongside the hard standing on the left are two beds with my arch in the middle. Because I have acid soil, I'm unable to plant my clematis direct to the soil, so I will be putting them on each side of the arch. These two beds get sun all year around, and will be a mix of herbs, some vegetables and some ornamentals.

The L-shaped bed will be for vegetables. I'm not growing a lot of vegetables at the moment, as they require more attention and energy than I can give nor have. So it will be for easy to grow veg, like my garlic, sorrel and salads.

Finally, the old dilapidated fencing has been replaced. I'm still trying to work out exactly what I'm going to do with this area. There will be a border along the fence, and probably where the pergola is going, but ideas are still whirling around in my head.

All this, along with the Raspberry border, completes the work for now. I have plans for the rest of the garden, including a pond and the pergola, but they are for next year. I also know that there is an issue with some standing water over parts of the grass, when we get lots of rain, and I need to work out how to manage that.

This interim design allows me to get plants into the ground, and the raised beds will make things easier on my back and my energy levels. I can now start gardening whilst I still work out what to do with the rest of the garden. Plus, time to save for the next round of work.

Now that the landscaping has been completed, next up is the planting - the best bit!

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My landscaper was Mark Spence, John and Jordan, of Spences Landscapes, Sheffield. They did a fine job and I definitely recommend them.


*I blogged about this in my original new garden blogpost, so I'll not repeat myself here.
**I'll talk about the actual plants once they start going in the ground.

The new garden

At the end of March, Kevin & I finally moved into our new, and hopefully long-term, home and garden. Yay!

So this is a bit of an introduction to the new garden. It isn't much now, but it has potential. Lots of potential. I'm rather excited!

The house/garden follows an East-West layout, with the front garden being predominantly West-facing, and the back garden being in part East-facing, but with the left hand side getting quite a lot of Southerly sun throughout the year.

Front garden

Currently this is an approximate square, with mixed hedging, lawn, a driveway and concrete next to the house. I share a deciduous beech hedge with my neighbour, of which I'm hoping to reduce the height, but being deciduous, it still allows light through even in the winter months.

I'm going to reduce the height of the mixed hedge, by at least half, if not more, to let in lots more light. Part of me wants to take the whole thing out, because hedges need maintaining. But I'm not going to make any quick decisions just yet. Following permaculture principles, I'm going to observe the space for up to a year before I make that kind of decision.

Being West-facing, the front garden should get quite a lot of light all year around. I've decided to make the front garden my 'hot garden'. By that I mean, I'm going to go with hot colours, reds, yellows and oranges, with some blues and purples, including grasses, to contrast. So lots of bright coloured bulbs in Spring, hardy perennials such as Heleniums and Rudbeckias in summer and autumn, with grasses to give structure all year around. I will also be including a Quince tree in the layout, and possible a bin store.

I'll be getting rid of the grass and having either gravel or shale paths. All plants will need to be hardy and needing limited attention from me.

Back garden

The back garden is approximately 9m x 14 metres. Although the ground it looks flat, it is on a bit of a slope, from the top North-West down to the bottom South-East. I've discovered that the ground near the beech hedge and up to the current path gets quite saturated, so I need add working out drainage into my plan.

I have what looks like a plum tree. I'm going to wait until I taste the fruit before deciding whether it gets to stay. I also have a couple of rhubarb patches. More than I need, so one is going to go. There also seem to be raspberry canes, so again, I'm going to wait to see how they taste before deciding whether to keep them or not.

And then there is the weird vertical apple tree (right), which I've blogged about separately.

The previous people had rabbits and hamsters and have left a pile of straw and droppings under the conifers and on top of what looks like tomato grow bags and interspersed with some tree branches. Ugh. I've looked up rabbit & hamster droppings online and thankfully I can compost them. So though it's a pain to have to sort through this, there will be some upsides. There are also a stack of bricks and  paving stones that, whilst looking messy now, will, I'm sure, come in use in the future, such as building the base for the bin store. There is also a pile of wood (not in picture) that needs sorting. Some of it is useless, but others might be useful for raised beds.

As for the conifers. I'm not madly keen on conifers. There are some I like, but these trees aren't it. They block out lots of light and even the birds don't seem to go into them. So these are going. Yes, a big decision before I even have spent much time observing the garden, but some things you just know. I'm going to re-purpose the trunks into what I'm going to call my 'Acer-Fernery-Stumpery'. Say what, you say? More on that in another blog post :) And though I'll be removing the conifers, I'll be putting in new trees, one I love, such as Acers, and Amelanchier and a couple more fruit trees, as well as adding shrubs and hardy perennials.

The area that might stand out most is the hard standing concrete area on the left, South-facing area of the garden. What might look like a nightmare to some is actually a blessing to me. It's perfect for my eventual greenhouse! Until then, it's going to be filled with pots.

I have lots of ideas for the back garden. Not just the greenhouse, but getting rid of all grass and have a gravel garden and paths, putting in a pergola upon which to grow wisteria and other climbers, putting in raised beds for growing some veg. The soil is good old Sheffield acid-clay. Hence the need for raised beds for growing any vegetables. I'm also going to look at growing more perennial vegetables, sorrel, asparagus, soft fruits, which require less energy to manage.

I also want the garden to be wildlife-friendly, and definitely will be putting in a pond. As the theme in the front will be a 'hot garden', the ornamentals in the back garden will run on a chilling-out pink-purple theme.

Musings
The most important thing for both the front and back garden, is designing around my chronic illness (ME, myalgic encephalomyelitis), and the fact it might even get worse. This means I need to make it as low maintenance as possible (hence gravel garden/paths), but at the same time making an attractive space to be in, to relax, as well as potter when I'm well enough.

Managing my illness has to come first, and this was a mistake I made in the last garden. I designed that around assuming I would get well, soonish. As I now better understand the 'chronic' in chronic illness, and seeing how in the last few years the ME has got progressively worse, the garden must be designed with ongoing ill health front and centre.

I think the gardens have lots of potential. I'm quite excited about the ideas I currently have (I have a long list). But I'm tempering my excitement by going back to basic permaculture principles, such as: use small and slow solutions, use edges and value the margins, observe and interact, and of course, design from patterns to details. These should help ground my design around my health, as well as being a smart way to design.

So, excitement and so much potential. Welcome to my new garden.