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Order Amongst the Chaos

July 21, 2009

The combination of warmth and moisture that July has offered so far, has provided exactly the type of weather to create the conditions I described in my last blog.

In these, ‘growy’ conditions, the garden can quickly become tatty and overgrown without a little attention here and there. I have spent the last couple of weeks trying to keep up with this summer madness in all of the gardens I have worked in. Cutting back perennials which have finished flowering, such as aquilegias and some of the earlier geraniums, can make a big difference just now. Many hardy geraniums will quickly produce a fresh crown of foliage after being cut down to just a couple of inches or so and may provide another flush of flowers later on. Flowered Euphorbia stems can be removed, but remember that the milky sap which drips from the cut stem is irritating to skin, especially in sunlight.

Dead heading lupins, delphineums and roses amongst others will help to prolong flowering and tidy things up. Remember to leave a few seed heads on the plants you want to seed around the garden, young plants can be moved to another spot later in the year if necessary. Myosotes, Aquilegia, Poppies, Foxgloves, Centauria and Alchemillaare all reliable self seeders. Many herbs such as Lemon Balm, Catmint and Chives amongst others, can look decidedly scruffy and ‘tired’ by now. If they are cut right down to just above ground level, new fresh shoots and leaves will appear in no time.

When many plants seem intent on growing at an alarming rate, (wisteria, for instance looks rather wild before it is summer pruned in August,) and you are struggling to keep the weeds in check, there are a few measures you can take to ensure that whilst the garden may look rather exuberant, it retains a measure of calm and control! 

If you don’t have time to remove every weed and finish every job that needs doing…cheat! Concentrate on restoring a sense of order and do the jobs that give maximum effect.

Mowing the lawn and edging up regularly is always time well spent. It can be tempting to neglect jobs such as the edging up when there is so much to do elsewhere, but it really is worth spending time here. Edging the lawn with a pair of Long handled shears and using a Half moon to keep a sharp clean edge along paved areas really does make a big difference to the garden. You can often get away with a few weeds and wayward plants in a border if the chaos is broken by an ordered lawned area!

In a garden without grass, a few strategically placed topiary balls, spirals, cones or low neatly clipped box hedges, provide the same effect of order amongst the chaos! Keep paths open and weed free and concentrate on these areas first when cutting back or tying climbers to structures etc. If there is so much to do that you are unsure where to start, try and attend to key areas such as pathways and seating areas. 

However lovely it is to see a summer garden full of flowers and masses of foliage, it is always easier to appreciate if you provide contrasting calm! The lawn, neatly clipped topiary and weed free paths are all ways of doing this. Another idea is to create a place within the garden that remains well behaved and relatively neat, throughout the year. This could be an area of formal planting or a hard landscape feature which will provide that calming contrast to balance the more flamboyant areas of the garden.

At Stillingfleet Lodge gardens  http://www.stillingfleetlodgenurseries.co.uk/ in total contrast to the Cottage garden style of planting found throughout much of the 2 acre site, the modern Rill garden allows visitors to sit and enjoy a space which is simple and unfussy, even in July! Enclosed within a clipped hornbeam hedge, the seasonal changes in this space are minimal and consist as much of light quality and it’s effect upon water, stone and gravel as with the minimalistic planting.

As I work in Christine’s garden during the Spring, much of the action seems to be down at ground level! A delightful selection of flowering bulbs, hellebores and primulas amongst others, can be found amongst the shrubs and trees. Gravel paths wind through the garden and around a pond and eventually lead in to the Trellis garden. This formal, enclosed area, is separated from the rest of the garden by trellis covered with Euonymus fortunei, and really comes into it’s own during the summer months, when this tranquil shady seating area, provides a complete contrast to the rest of the garden, now overflowing with flowering perennials and summer bulbs! It is this contrast that you experience when moving from one to the other, that adds balance and makes both areas work.

However difficult it is keeping on top of the weeds and however tired I feel at the end of an eight hour day…gardening is EASY, compared to the technological advances I have personally had to make to bring you this blog. I am not the most computer literate amongst us, (I’m still struggling with the realisation that they seem to be more than a passing fad!) As none of my four children are currently at home just now, I have battled with my demons over the last few days to set up a Flickr account, in order to continue illustrating this blog. Apparently, the storage space on here is now full and in trying to be clever and create more, I have inadvertently removed all of my earlier photos!! I hope that the following link works and will try to remember how I uploaded the photos, in order to continue in the future!!    

Please do have a look at the photos which illustrate the last blog as well as this one. http://www.flickr.com/photos/julieparishruralgardener