The Rural Gardener - As Summer ends..

Well, it’s official!  The much publicised BBQ Summer that was forecast earlier in the year, turned out to be  rather more of a traditional summer here in the UK…bringing a mixture of sunshine and showers which didn’t always come along at the correct intervals! Baking sunshine or drying winds one moment followed by prolonged and heavy showers resulting in waterlogged lawns and drooping foliage the next!

As today is officially the first day of Autumn, this seems to be a good opportunity to reflect on the last few weeks of Summer before finally embracing John Keats’ Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.

For many years now, as a farmer’s wife and mum, September has been a breathing space between those last precious but hectic days of the school holidays and the inevitable new term routine which seems to gradually build until reaching frenzy pitch by mid December. The long summer holiday never drags on a farm, family outings are squeezed in as often as possible between leading hay and straw along with all of the usual jobs on a livestock farm. In the summer garden, (as I have mentioned before,) keeping on top of the weeds, lawn and harvesting of fruit and vegetables is a challenge in itself.

Then a brief September lull, before the days seem too short to get everything done, even without the added pressure of Christmas preparations! On a good day in September, there seems to be something special about the light quality. The warmth from the sun on a hot day is now something to appreciate rather than to endure! The speed of growth in the garden is slowing down again and flowers, fruit and hips tend to remain for longer than a blink of an eye! 

This September has been a personal milestone for me as our youngest daughter has just started University. Although John and I have now driven to four separate universities, with four different children squashed in the back of various vehicles, packed with assorted boxes and bags, it is not something that ever becomes routine or boring! Of Course Annie is already making new friends and settling into her new routine, whilst I am also gradually adjusting to mine!

Apart from only a couple of days of rain, (one of which I spent clipping topiary until I was completely covered in tiny green spots of Box leaves!) we seem to have had a good share of sunshine this September, with the promise of High pressure building over the next few days too. Butterflies and bees have been making the most of the late summer sunshine and I haven’t had the heart to cut back some of the later flowering lavender yet. 

Please click on the link to see the photos to illustrate this blog  http://www.flickr.com/photos/julieparishruralgardener 

 

Whilst working at Stillingfleet Lodge   http://www.stillingfleetlodgenurseries.co.uk   recently on a day when no other staff were there, rather than eat in an empty staff hut I took my lunch down to the pond and wild flower meadow. Though the grass pathways through the meadow are kept short, the long grass and wild flower areas are only cut once a year in late summer, allowing flowers and grasses to seed and die down. Even though this annual operation had only recently been carried out in some areas, the newly cut grass was studded with several species of Colchicum. The first tinges of autumn colour were just showing on shrubs such as Viburnum plicatum ‘Mariesii’, Stewartia and Parrotia persica and many of the species roses were still giving a fine display of hips. Whilst sitting by the pond, I watched dragonflies and butterflies and returned to work in the stock beds feeling fully recharged!

There is still so much flowering in September, it’s difficult to pick favourites. Roses are still producing flowers and if you are looking for a good red rose with a good scent, William Shakespeare is hard to beat! The rose shown on the flickr link is taken at Stillingfleet where a row of William Shakespeare are trained along a metal framework at the far end of the Avenue. Anybody who walks along the Avenue and sits on the bench at the bottom to look back towards the house and the long borders, cannot fail to notice the wonderful scent. I have included a picture of the pot stand which greets visitors as they enter the Courtyard, bedding in pots always looks so cheerful at this time of year!

Whilst on this subject, I visited my daughter Claire in Ludlow a couple of weekends ago, where we were most impressed by the number of containers and hanging baskets sited around the town. Although some were supplied by the local council, a large number were planted and looked after by local residents. I would just like to say a big thank you to people like David Knapp and others like him, who take the time and effort to create such pretty container gardens that we can all enjoy. Even the smallest of gardens, or houses with no gardens at all, can provide all year round colour with imagination and a little care and attention!

The Rural Gardener - Wonderful Willow…Part 2!

My last blog featured willow in it’s living state, (as a gardener, I find that’s usually a pretty basic requirement in a plant!)  However, to ignore the possibilities which arise from the use of dried willow in a garden setting, would be only telling half the story! 

A couple of years ago, my mum treated me to a weekend course on making willow garden structures. We arrived at Higham Hall, Bassenthwaite Lake near Cockermouth in the Lake District with no previous knowledge of the place and no idea what to expect. Higham Hall turned out to be a 19C Gothic mansion within pleasant grounds and with views of Skiddaw and the Northern Fells. The staff are friendly and helpful and the accommodation and food are good. The college runs a variety of courses which leads to an interesting and varied dynamic mix of people to chat with over an evening meal or in the bar.

The tutor for the willow garden structures course was Phil Bradley, a local basket maker and willow grower, who also travels further afield for teaching and commission work. My expectation during my original willow weaving experience, was to produce something attractive and useful for in my own garden, with the added satisfaction of having made it myself.  

That first insight into willow weaving was fascinating! Phil now grows over 40 varieties of willow, giving him a choice of colours, lengths and subtle differences of texture and pliability, which I had previously never even considered. He explained that he originally purchased his bolts of willow from commercial growers in Somerset and had the choice of one variety which was variable in quality. This reliance on a supplier at the other end of the country, together with concerns over the chemicals used during production, eventually led him to grow his own.

There seems to be something comfortingly straightforward about producing a beautiful, serviceable item such as a basket from a natural, renewable plant material you have grown, harvested and carried home on your back - all with only a few basic tools!  Ofcourse, almost 20 years experience and a natural flair for your craft must help!! Anyway, we all learnt some basic weaves and produced a couple of amazingly strong and attractive plant supports and a small sample hurdle each. I have since made a support at home, but would have struggled to remember how to do it without my notes to refer to! I think willow weaving is one of those skills that is best learnt by, ‘doing’ alongside a good teacher!

During my recent visit to Higham Hall, I was accompanied by my youngest daughter Annie, also keen to learn the secrets of willow animal making!

To check out the photos, please see:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/julieparishruralgardener 

There were 12 of us in the group and our first task was to decide what animal to make. Patricia finally had second thoughts about her grizzly bear and opted for a heron to stand in her garden near the river. Perhaps more in keeping with a Keswick garden than a grizzly?! Chris, (a willow animal regular!) made a giraffe and Kathryn, despite the sheer volume of her chosen subject, stuck to her guns and produced a most wonderful elephant!  Along with the above, we produced deers, dogs, butterflies, a hen and a goose! Initially we managed to kink our rods, (that’s not a good thing!) and maybe our heads weren’t quite as we had intended, but with the guidance of a good teacher and fuelled by Higham Hall food….we all managed to produce animals that were recognisable!!  

For more information about Higham Hall and details of courses , please see the following link. As I can’t get this link to open in a new window, you will have to click your back arrow to return to the blog!  http://www.highamhall.com

Phil Bradley, basket maker and willow grower can be contacted by email: philbradley248@btinternet.com 

Anybody who feels the need to delve deeper into the wonderful world of willow, may be interested to know that there is a National Collection of Willow at Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire. The National collection was originally set up at Long Ashton Research Station in 1920, to act as a repository for disappearing basket willows and was transferred to Rothamsted in 2002. Apparently it is now the most comprehensive willow collection in the UK. It looks as though much of the current research being done there is willow breeding for biomass fuel.

So along with providing material for the traditional art of basket making, maybe willow also holds the key to  providing an energy solution for the future?!

The Rural Gardener - Wonderful Willow!

Having just spent a very enjoyable weekend on a course learning to make willow animal sculptures, (Please see Wonderful Willow Part 2!) this seems to be as good a time as any to explain why I am so fond of willow!

Please click on the link below as usual, to see the photos to illustrate this blog:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/julieparishruralgardener 

Before I start, I would like to thank everybody who sent me recent e-mails about the blog. I appreciate the comments and will certainly continue writing for as long as I can think of anything to say….which could be quite a while, considering we are talking about gardens! A few people have asked me how they post comments on this site. Simply go to the bottom of the page and write your comment in the box. If the comment box is not visible, click on the title of the blog you wish to comment on and the page should reload with the comment box.

The genus Salix, includes a wide variety of deciduous plants which range in size from tiny ground hugging shrubs to large trees. As there are somewhere in the region of 250 true species along with many naturally occuring hybrids, plus quite a few varieties, I am not going to write about them all!

As a gardener, my primary interest in willow is in it’s ornamental value; both as a garden plant and also when used as a material for making garden structures.

Of course willow has long been valued for the toughness and suppleness of it’s shoots which make it ideally suited for wicker work and basket making. Whereas I think of S. daphnoides as having attractive purple young shoots and stems which are white bloomed in the winter, to a basket maker it is one of the osier willows and produces, ‘violets.’  Other osier willows include  S. purpurea, the purple osier, S. viminalis, the common osier and S. amygdalina which has varieties known in the trade by wonderful names such as Black Italian, Black Maul, French, Glibskins, Jelstiver, Mottled Spaniards and Pomeranians!  Salix coerulea is the willow used in cricket bats and white willow bark, containing Salicin, has been used as pain relief since the days of Hippocrates. Today, aspirin is made from acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), a synthetic variation of Salicin…..But back to gardening!

Most people recognise a weeping willow. S. x sepulcralis ‘ Chrysocoma’  syn. S. alba ‘Tristis’ (Please don’t get me started on the subject of botanical name changes. I had enough of a job learning 20 plants a week at college without somebody periodically changing them! The Golden weeping willow is a beautiful tree, sadly planted all too often in gardens which are far too small to accommodate this graceful giant. It is a fast growing and wide spreading tree reaching 50 feet or more, best viewed on a river bank or in rolling park land - not squashed between the garage and next door’s fence!

The Kilmarnock willow S. caprea ‘ Kilmarnock’ syn. S. caprea ‘Pendula’ seems to be a popular small garden weeping willow alternative. This little tree is grafted on to a 5 - 6 feet stem and has grey catkins with yellow anthers before the leaves appear. One small plea here…if you choose a grafted weeping standard, please let it weep! If you feel the need to chop off the bottom 2 feet for ease of mowing or because it looks tidier, consider an alternative such as a standard rose.

For pure silvery elegance, the Coyote willow S. exigua makes a lovely backdrop or screening shrub even on sandy soils. It has grey leaves covered in silky silver hairs, but this is a thicket forming, suckering shrub which reaches 12 feet and needs space.

I love S. lanata, the wooly willow, which is a compact shrub with dark green leaves covered in silvery grey wool. Smaller still is S. reticulata. This dwarf prostrate shrub forms a mat of attractive rounded green and deeply veined leaves which have white hairs beneath. It only grows a few inches high and has pretty yellow catkins with pink tips in the Spring. Willow such as S. alba vitellina ‘Britzensis’ is grown for it’s bright orange and red winter shoots.

The sight of Pussy willow S. caprea  growing in hedgerows, scrub and along river banks in early Spring, is always a welcome sight and it is probably through collecting stems of pussy willow catkins for in a jam jar on the school Nature table, that I first observed how easily willow roots. Many willows have attractive catkins, I put some photos of S. gracilistyla and S. gracilistyla ’ Melanostachys’ up to illustrate an earlier blog, ‘What’s good about gardening in February?’  These photos can be viewed by clicking on the link at the top of the blog. 

Willow as a material to make garden structures can be used either dried or green. Green, or living willow rods, cut in late February or March and pushed into the soil will root and produce new fresh growth very quickly. Choose unbranched rods from the previous season which are approximately the width of a finger at the base and space them 6 to 10 inches apart. By bending some of the rods one way and others in the opposite direction, it is not difficult to form a simple weave. Structures such as screens, arches, tunnels and arbours can all be made in this way. The only help the willow needs to become established is to avoid competition from weeds and grass and a drink during periods of drought in the first year.

Actually, establishing a living willow structure is the easy part, but to keep the structure in check needs ongoing maintenance. Weaving in new shoots that you decide you want to keep and cutting off those you don’t, is what makes the difference between a willow screen and an unwanted tree!  For anybody who is prepared to spend a little time on it, a living willow structure can be a very rewarding project!

The Gardening Author - What next?

Hello again - I’m sorry for being away so long. It’s been a busy few weeks for us and the time has passed so quickly that the weeks have flown. My son Chris’s fledgling business making web “info-mercials” is going from strength to strength and one website (www.gardeningdirect.co.uk) is already showing 7 of these short films, illustrating their products/plants and how to get the best out of them.

The only problem from my side is that I have to keep all the projects alive and healthy while they are being filmed. Not as easy as it sounds! We’ve had to invest in stands to keep the hanging baskets looking good and I have found myself watching weather forecasts with trepidation in case high winds mean everything has to move inside the already-full greenhouse. The upside is that our garden has looked beautiful all summer and the scent when I walk outside is wonderful!

Steve and I have been to seed company open days through the summer and visited various flower shows around the country. It seems that, in general, it was a good spring and summer for the plant sellers at the shows, tailing off in July. Some are worried that the economic downturn means that sales will be low next year and that it may not be worth their while doing the Shows circuit. It’s quite costly travelling to each of the main shows and unless the sales cover the costs, many can’t afford it. Losing this access to the grower (the person most qualified to help with a specific plant) would be such a shame - not to mention the loss of part of our gardening heritage.

The seed and young plant companies are turning their attention to next spring and trying to anticipate the sales trends. This year was very strong on vegetables for the home grower and they see this as continuing. Seed sales were around 70:30 in favour of vegetables over flowersthis year. It’s only 3 or 4 years since the balance tipped that way, so the change has been rapid.

The breeders are looking at smaller veg that will crop well in containers. The idea is to make it attractive for the novice gardener to have a few plants in containers that will provide a decent crop without too much effort on their part. I stress that this is “proper” breeding, too, not GM. Many plants are being sourced from the old Soviet Union countries that were closed to the West for so long and some exciting new varieties are being brought along for future years. Plants are trialled for as long as 10 years before the breeders are happy to release them onto the market, because the performance has got to be reliable. 

Grafted vegetables like tomatoes have been around for a long time, but the range is now being expanded to cover aubergines, peppers, cucumbers and melons. Why? Well, grafted plants (where the desired fruiting variety is grafted onto a really strong rootstock) offer disease resistance, vigour and increased fruiting. They are initially more expensive, but you need less plants to get the same crop and you should be able to keep them cropping for longer. One company is developing plants with 2 tomato varieties on a single rootstock. Definitely something to look out for if you’re tight for space.

Finally, Steve and I were asked along to be judges at the annual Retail Awards recently. No, I can’t give you a sneak preview of the winners, because they will be announced in November and we’ll find out when they do. Various garden retailers enter the many different categories and it’s fascinating to see what initiatives are being devised to attract customers. This is the 3rd consecutive year we’ve been asked and it was actually sad to see how the entries are tailing off. If times are hard, it’s important to make more effort, not less, and good performance needs to be rewarded.

So, it seems that everyone is after the green pound in your pocket. My advice? It’s all common sense:

• don’t go for trendy plants that may not live long
• be selective, do a bit of research before you choose and buy quality plants whenever you can
• don’t buy more than you need unless you can do swaps with family, friends or neighbours - and if you can do this, buy offers that give good discounts for quantity
• if you want a particular plant, go to a specialist who will be able to help you select the right one
• support your local growers (too many plants are brought hundreds of miles from abroad when local growers are struggling).

I hope your plants are looking terrific and I’ll see you again soon!