Bank Holiday Planting

Crowds

With a long weekend thanks to the Easter Bank Holidays, it could only mean one thing – time in the garden to get it ready for the summer. I know it’s not that exciting and seems to be what the masses do for the Eater weekend, but sometimes you just have to go with the crowd.

First things first though and that was to close the front gates so as to keep the hoards of tourists at bay! With a sunny few days forecast it was bound to get busy and it’s always something of a shock to the system after months of peace and quiet at Ynyslas. With that done I was able to head into the back garden where no-one would see me.

Hiding Away

Our front garden is just a lawn really. The back garden is where the fun is at! It’s split into several areas, the first is lawn with some borders around it. You then go through the pergola into a different world.

It’s never going to be a lush cottage garden as conditions here just don’t allow it. We have however managed to transform it into quite a nice garden with plenty of interest. It does take some work to get on top of it in the Spring, but it pretty much looks after itself from there on.

The harsh winter with a couple of really cold (-10ºC) snaps meant we lost a few plants this year. The Phormiums and Cordylines were hit especially hard, as were the hebes. Some of these might recover but look a little worse for wear at the moment. I don’t think the hebes will make it at all. In some ways this is a shame, but in others, it gives me space for something new.

Divide and Conquer

One of the jobs over the weekend was to hack back the pampas grass and get it under control. Once I’d done so, and removed a dead hebe there was quite a bit of space around it so I decided to fill it with some new plants. The pots that are full of hostas and day lilies needed attention too. They all needed a good clean and to be repotted with new compost. Whilst doing so I divided most of them and planted half of each into the space by the pampas grass. It’s quite sunny there at the moment but will be shady in the summer thanks to the oak tree. Hopefully, that will be fine for the Hostas if they can survive the slugs and snails. If not, then they were free so it doesn’t really matter.

I also have a nice Persicaria that has been doing well but is hidden by the garden bench. Its crimson flower spikes sometimes poke out above the back of the bench but it’s not quite tall enough to make a spectacle of itself. So, I divided that into a few clumps and added some of those to the area beneath the oak tree too. Again, it’s something of an experiment, but it looks quite happy there so far.

Similarly, the very bottom of the garden has a large swathe of comfrey. It looks nice at this time of year with its pink flowers and is always covered in bees. It has some spikes of yellow-flag Iris poking up through it too and some Crocosmia as well. The spiky leaves of these contrast well with the more rounded leaves of the comfrey and it looks semi-wild and naturalised. Just the way I like it. There was plenty of it to take a couple of clumps to fill a gap in the borders elsewhere in the garden.

Lots of new plants for free. What’s not to like about that? On top of which, whilst digging up clumps of the comfrey I discovered the sprouting leaves of a Gunnera that I had planted there last year. Good news, as I thought it had probably died over the winter. The large gunnera that I had divided it from certainly seems to have succumbed to the weather, so maybe this one will help it live on.

Raised Bed

Talking of Gunnera, which is often called Giant Rhubarb, the actual rhubarb is doing well and we’ve already had one dessert from it. The raised bed that it’s in doesn’t really do much. There are some strawberries in it and also a large juniper that I rescued from the front garden, but nothing else. I’ve dug it over though, weeded it and now have to decide what to do with it.

I did plenty of other jobs in the garden too, trimming and cutting shrubs back, repotting and wiring the bonsai trees, digging, weeding and generally tidying up.

All in all, other than sorting out the water feature I think I’m now on top of the chores in the garden and now just have to keep it looking tidy.

Tags: Garden