Friday
28Nov

Italian Garden Notes : Gary Gardenhire

DateFriday, November 28, 2008 at 06:52AM

It’s ironic to talk about death and gardening. It seems contradictory. You break ass to get the most robust plants, maintain their good health and sustain overall vigorous planting so, death isn’t part of the deal. I just recently lost one of my best friends and I was walking around the garden with him yesterday. I know he’s dead but we were talking about replacing stuff we’d lost through a dry summer. Seeing death inspires change. At least with me. I will rip out a leafless osmathus. Trash the brown arbutus and replace it with something hardier, something more likely to survive.

Trite:death is part of life. I miss him and can’t just dig him out and replace him with another as much as I’d like to. So. Death. Unfortunately, we know what it looks like in the garden.

We were also talking about the terrific damage done by a porcupine. The little bastard is digging up my tulip bulbs and finds the sternbergia tasty.

Alliums are a fine snack. Foxtail lilies finish off a mighty fine meal. See the photograph above for destroyed year-old wisteria and uprooted dwarf pomegranate. See the quills in the wake of the damage. Tim wants to stay up at night and shoot the culprit. We don’t want to put out poison as I’ve got a dog. Maybe a trap.

 

Tim's drawing poetically describes Porky’s route around the garden. We’ve tapped the holes under the fence.

After the snow we’re able to follow the tracks. It’s days are numbered. 

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Wednesday
26Nov

Dwarf Pomegranate

DateWednesday, November 26, 2008 at 06:02AM

 

The dwarf pomegranate is a beautiful and unusual small shrub. As summer fades into autumn the small delicate leaves become a pale yellow backdrop for the miniature fruits and scarlet coloured flowers. This happens together in one sizzling display mixing fruit, flowers and foliage.

It is the dainty fruit that stand out the most.They sit on the branches like little cherubs with trumpets held aloft. The fruits do bare (no pun intended) a resemblance to a rosy cheeked cherub’s bottom with the elongated calyx playing the part of the trumpet.There are a quite a number of cultivars of both the species and the dwarf. Named cultivars of the species vary depending on the countries with such evocative names as Mangulati (Saudi Arabian), Aswad (Iraqi), Red Loufani (Israeli), Kandhari, Bedana and Dholka. (India). American cultivar names are more pragmatic e.g Wonderful and Sweet Fruited. The dwarf pomegranate cultivar names are more botanical eg Multiplex (double creamy white)  or Variegata (double, scarlet bordered with streaked yellowish-white).

Both the species (see above) and the dwarf form develop into dense multi stemmed twiggy shrubs. A mature specimen of the former will reach as high as thirty foot in the Mediterranean and fifteen foot on a warm wall in England. Great Dixter has good specimen growing on a sheltered wall against the house. The dwarf shrub reaches approximately four foot in height. It is possible to purchase mature specimens of both. They make striking pot plants (and being drought resistant are particularly suited to containers). Good specimens of the species will have three to four thick branches at least ten centimetres in diameter at about five foot in height. These are often old orchard plants dug up and sold onto the nursery trade.

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Tuesday
28Oct

Corfu !

DateTuesday, October 28, 2008 at 02:49PM

More text will follow on this garden but since Corfu is so topical at the moment I decided to bring forward the deadline. The olives above were planted under Venetian rule......farmers were given a cash subsidy to plant them. It is one reason why the Island is so green. These same plantings now form thick groves around the house.

A  framed view to Albania with part of the main house on the left and the Bracken House on the right......it has taken five or so years to get to this stage...a lot of building work. The Greek myths still live ........Pericles was the Architect, Hercules the Builder and the clients stayed in Adonis's House. Just regular island names.

This classic "before" photograph was taken from the Agapanthus borders looking towards the Bracken House.

Completion of the extensive top soiling and re-grading works (Spring 07 I think) has made a considerable difference......there is nothing as calming as an area of graded soil to the landscapers eye.

The interior of the Bracken House, the scene of many early evening cocktails. This open sided breeze house was built on the ruins of the original house. It gives wonderful views over the Corfu Straights to Albania.

Agapanthus praecox......in their second year of planting bloom their hearts out. I sowed an annual flower mix in the grassy area around them which germinated but never flowered.  Next time I will do my own mixture of annual, biennial and perennial seeds that will include Clary, Queens Anne Lace and Chicory. When we made our own mixture for a Provencal garden Salvia sclarea (Clary) flowered particularly well in the dry continuous sun.

The steps from the entrance curve up past the Bracken House.

Wintery view to Albania from Corfu.

 

 

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Tuesday
21Oct

North Cotswold Garden

DateTuesday, October 21, 2008 at 05:10PM

Some pictures from a garden near Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire. We have been working on this site for about six years. 

A quincunx of Betula jacquemontii in front of the house. These are tricky to establish but well worth it.

Winter 2007 in the fountain garden. 

The lake looks perfect in this picture. In fact it was almost a marsh with over 1.2m of silt and no depth of water to support any type of flora or fauna.

We decided to dredge it. The dirty undertaking released tons of liquid silt that was removed from the lake and stored in the nearby field to dry. The planning process was detailed and long winded but the finished result is a lake with deep clear water stocked with brown trout, roach, bream and other fish and native plants. It was a wonderful sight to see the fish jumping in the summer. The swans came back in October.

The vegetable garden was constructed before we started work on the lake.

John, Head Gardener, produces a fine crop of Dahlias.

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Sunday
28Sep

Walls

DateSunday, September 28, 2008 at 03:33PM

I am not quite sure were I am going with this entry on walls but no doubt it will emerge. They are a reflection of the surrounding landscape. For the moment suffice to say that this collection of photos were taken whilst out and about visiting gardens.

This nineteenth century wall in Ireland near Cork. It is a lovely weathered granite grey colour with the rusty back fern (Ceterach officinarum) growing on it. It is quite a mixture of sizes and shapes. When the client asked how this wall was to be included in the master plan it set me thinking. As a consequence I now have a good stock of wall photography. 

This grey stone wall in the photo above was taken in the Yorkshire Dales about five years ago. It was built at Throstles Nest a project I have been involved in for a few years now. It is quite new and there has been no time yet for any rusty back ferns to establish. It is pretty typical in terms of style and construction for the Dales. It seems amazingly even in its colouring and I love the way it builds up in scale from the large stones at the base to the smaller ones at the top.


 I went to the island of Chios, a Greek  Island,  in the spring of 2007 for a prospective job. Chios was once a wealthy Genovese colony in the Middle Ages. As a consequence it has these amazing old merchant houses dotted around the landscape. Nothing came of the project but whilst there I noticed that a number of the older walls used this decorative motif in the mortar. This wall was on a lane near the site of the prospective garden. On the other side of the wall was one of the old merchant houses I just mentioned. I am not quite sure how it is constructed. It looks like they stuck maltezers into  the lime mortar.

Another Greek Wall. This one on Corfu where I have been working on for about ten years. I think the owner of this wall was inventive but clearly short on the readies. 

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