Many changes to the garden this year……..I built a small patio……….very small…..

….dug up a large Rhuem palmatum………very large……..as well as an even larger

clump of Lovage……..both gave spectacular early displays but the whole season for
them was over before July even got going ……shame……..I need plants that have a
longer season if they are gonna be so big……I don’t mind smaller plants that come
and go at different times of the year but the large ones have to be around for longer or
I end up with a big patch of bare earth……...and who wants that……...yuk

I attempted to rid myself of Acanthus mollis……..not sure whether I’ve been

successful on that score as it regenerates from any root part left and six months after I
thought I’d got it about twenty shoots came shooting up and I’ve attempted a second
removal…….I’ve left space just in case it comes back again and I might then give in
to it’s persistence and let it do it’s thing after all. I have got two other varieties of
Acanthus that aren’t as invasive as mollis so it looks like I might have to settle for all
three in future……..whether I like it or not………some plants just don’t want to go
away.

I dug up a Fig and a Contorted Hazel and put them both back into pots. A bit of a
backwards move really as I’ve been attempting to get things out of pots and into the
ground ever since I arrived here four years ago………things do grow much better in
the ground but then you suddenly realise that maybe that’s not the right spot for it so
out it comes again……….I’m undecided on another location for these two and if I’m
still struggling by next summer I’ll probably pass them on to someone else. The fig
stands a better chance of being planted than the Contorted Hazel as I already have
another two Contorted Hazels……..one’s in the ground and is red as opposed to green
and the other’s still in a pot at the top of the garden along with the other 50 or so ever
patient perennials……..some have been in the ground and have come back to the pot,
whilst the others have never come out of the pot other than to be potted on to bigger
pots………potty

I eventually got a Echium pinnana through a winter and to 12 foot flower spike status
with a stem the width of an arm….albeit a thin persons arm……..I expected it to fly
up early doors and then quickly die back……..that’s what the text books have to say
about it anyway…….in fact it actually stayed the whole summer and is still flowering
now in December…….the bees are still at it……..amazing……….bees in
December……..that’s mad..…….by all accounts once these monsters flower they set
seed everywhere in the garden and you’re never without Echium ever again………the
strange thing is I’ve seen no sign of any little Echiums as yet…….no a single
Ech…………..perhaps they’ll wait until next year to invade…….hopefully.

Last month saw the immergence of a large flower shoot on the Yucca in the front
garden……….this is my first Yucca flower and it looks absolutely fantastic…….pink
and white and flying skywards………last year saw my first Cordyline flower and that
was pretty spectacular also……..all I need now is for a Phormium to throw one out
and I’ll a have the full set……maybe

Other highlights include an Arundo donax grass that put on six thick shoots to 15 feet
tall in one season and a blue Echium (nervosa I think) that seems to be forming into a
decent size shrub, not too sure whether it’ll come through the winter though. Both
these plants I bought whilst visiting Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens in Dorset on last
years summer holiday………I dragged them around for two weeks camping before
getting them home in one piece……..well worth the effort and looking forward to
seeing how they fare in 2010.

Another success was Colocassia esculenta. I bought three of these as rugby ball sized
bulbs back in the spring. £4.99 each. Nobody seemed to know which way around to
plant them so I tried one the way I thought it should be in a large pot and put it in a
warm spot near the window………...after four weeks nothing…..….so I dug it out of
the pot to realise that it was shooting from the bottom and I’d planted it the wrong
way around………sorted……..turned…….the other two went in as well and before
no time at all huge paddle shaped heavily veined leaves nearly three foot across
emerged on tall fleshy stems…….truly tropical……..they made a wonderful display
all summer and I’ve just lifted them for overwintering indoors……..hopefully they’ll
survive OK and I’ll have a similar display next year……..some plants you do have to
mollycoddle somewhat to get the best out of them…….or even just to keep the
buggers alive………I have an empty greenhouse during the summer but at this time
of year it’s packed full of tender plants like Agaves, Bananas, Aeoniums, strelitzias
and a variety of other cacti, succulents and tender species that I don’t know the name
of anymore and Chris wont let me put in the house because I’ve filled the windowsills
up already and the spare bedroom already looks like the palm house at Kew……..but
at least I didn’t need the loft this year.

For the first time ever I managed to get a Ginger to flower that had been overwintered
in the ground……..I’d only ever managed to get flowers on ones that had sheltered in
the greenhouse before but this year three out of the nine I left in the garden delighted
me with full flowers…….and the other six looked bloody spectacular also even
though they didn’t quite produce that flower in the end………seems like some
varieties just wont make it all the way with such a short growing period we have in
this country……….most only broke the soil surface in late July………by all accounts
a ginger needs 30 days of constantly higher temperatures (above 18 degrees) to even
trigger growth……..I’m surprised they ever get going if truth be told……....I’m sure
I’ll be adding more to the collection next year………most of my specimens are the
variety Hedychium and I’ve been looking to get hold of some Kaempferia………this
is a much lower growing variety with a large oval leaf form……….might be worth a
try as a replacement to Hosta which every year the slugs get to devour.

I added two new beds towards the back of the garden……..one is a bog bed and
involved excavating a three foot deep hole and burying a large circular plastic pond
into the ground and then totally filling it up so you can’t see it anymore…….it’s
planted with a bulrush which I’ve had in a long thin container for the last four years or
so…….hopefully over the next few years it’ll make quite a focal point……I need to
clear more space at the top of the garden and get even more beds dug and
enriched……the three large compost bins I use make copious amounts of fantastically
rich compost that I use to improve the quality of the soil all around the garden………
but especially in newly made beds……….it’s all made from our kitchen and garden
waste and it takes all year to mature and I have to turn the whole lots every three
months or so…….but the results have been incredible…….I’m so goddamn proud of
my homemade compost………how sad is that.

Chris has been complaining that the garden is just too high……..I think she might
have a point and I haven’t even put any trees in yet………..I think my problem is that
if I get a plant and on the label it says ‘plant at the back of a border’………I ignore
the advice and stick it right at the front……plain bloody mindedness really…….I
want to be able see and touch it………get close and all that stuff…….I have a clump
of the perennial Macleaya cordata that did over ten feet this year and it was right next
to the path…….on the path……..across the path…….and even in the path.…….so I
better be a bit more considered on plant placement next year……..I know the
Macleaya needs moving but a new home has yet to be decided upon……..and it does
have a tendency to wander so one has to be very careful………….at least now I’ve
got the whole winter to make my mind up………and then change it again.

I’m thinking that the whole garden should be one big nursery bed. I planted up the
big bed opposite the kitchen in the spring and Chris was convinced that I just threw it
together……..and in some ways she might have a point. I wanted to get some stuff
out of pots so I planted up maybe twenty different specimens…….or thirty……some
have done really well and will stay……some have done really well and will move on
to another location……..some have done shit and will move back to a pot or on to
another location…….it’s the way forward.

Other stuff of note……....or lack of note…..….the Gunneras in the front and back
have just got to do better. The Dalmera peltata started off looking incredible but by
August it was looking pretty sad. Pretty much the same story with the Ligularia ‘The
Rocket’……it came forth at high speed but by the beginning of August it had
flowered and was on it’s way out………I had three and now I only have one
left…….the others are back in pots at the back of the garden with other patient
perennials yet again.

The Alliums impressed so much I bought a couple of hundred more and planted them
out the other week. The Eremurus threatened to come forth and conquer but
disappeared without a trace before the flowers appeared…….so sad. The Vebascums
I dug up from the fields shot to amazing heights but looked grey and mouldy in no
time at all…….and ended up being pulled and thrown. I discovered the vibrant
yellow daisy joys of Telekia and Inula……..and they’ll get bigger by the
year…….hopefully.

The ferns in the front garden in May…….awesome. The tree fern that kept aborting
fronds……not so awesome. Flowers on the Fatsia and Fatshedera.
All in all a good gardening year.