Wildflower bed pt1

Cornflower Centaurea cyanus

A couple of years ago we proud to become the temporary home for some moles, I first realised this when the wheel of the lawnmower disappeared into one of their runs. This gave me the excuse to get rid of half the lawn (I hate lawns) and sow it as a wildflower bed. The total area I put aside is about 500sq feet (46 sq M) over the winter i removed as much of the grass as possible and roughly dug it over, I then applied a wildflower mix and left it......... big mistake! I ended up with a huge bed of thistles and nettles. So this year I reapplied a (better) seed mix and have been carefully removing most of the thistles as they appear.

Red Campion Silene diocia

So this year I have got a far better mix of flowers and these will self seed which will generate more flowers each year. I thing that I have learnt is that a small wild flower area needs to be managed, that might seem to be an oxymoron but in the wild certain wild flowers will dominate an area due to slight changes in environment, soil type etc, in a small area there isn't a balance, for instance if there is a high phosphate level in the soil this will encourage nettles.

So the bed is very much a work in progress, but already it is looking great with lots of colour and it is encouraging lots of insects and other wildlife into the garden, the moles however seem to have moved on.

These are pictures of a few of the flowers and grasses in bloom at the moment.

White Campion Silene latifolia

Oxeye Daisy Leucanthemum vulgare

Timothy Phleum pratense

Creeping Buttercup Ranunculus repens

Festuca sp

Our Walnut

 

Walnut Juglans regia

This is our Walnut I say ours but we are just its current owners and protectors. Its a symbiotic relationship really, we look after it and it repays us with nuts ( if the squirrels don't get them first), Wood for carving when we prune it and leaves for leaf mould for the rest of the garden. 

The tree towers over the house and must be about 80ft high and we know it is about 120 years old. In this photo of the house from about 1903 you can see a shrub growing at the side of the house, the young tree.

 

In fact if the Walnut wasn't growing where it is we wouldn't be living here. The previous owners of the house wanted to fell it so they could extend the house, luckily there is a Tree preservation order  (TPO) on the tree so it was saved and they moved. 

One thing has always puzzled me which is as you can see from the old photo this house was called Rose Cottage, at some point in the last 100 years it was changed not to Walnut cottage but to The Willows. We do have a small pollarded Weeping Willow at the end of the garden but the Walnut is the dominant tree.

 

We try and encourage wildlife into the tree, there is a bat box on the trunk and birds nest in the canopy every year. I think however my highlight was when this fledgling Tawny owl chick used it   a couple of years ago.

This is part of Lucy Corrander's monthly Tree Following meme. See more at Loose and Leafy.

Monday morning

 After the wind and storms of last week all seems peaceful in the garden today. Everything is growing fast now as you can see from my wild flower bed (above) which has shot up from nothing in the last few weeks. At some point I will post a list of some of the species in the bed with photo's but I need to spend a few hours working out whats there. I also need to start recording some of the insects visiting the flowers. I am so pleased with the decision to create it partly driven by our unwillingness to do anything to tackle the moles that were ruining the tatty bit of lawn we had, not to forget the damage the dogs were doing trying to dig them up :-)


The climbing rose (Bobby James)has taken over my potting shed, if you look closely below you can just make out the side window through the foliage. This monster was planted about 8 yrs ago and is massive, it does however look  amazing once it breaks into flower which should be in the next few weeks.

 

Meanwhile in the Alpine house this stunning carnation (Duchess of Roxburgh) is in flower. I grow several old greenhouse carnations but this is one of my favourites.

 

This lovely rose ' That's Jazz' is also in bloom, I planted this one in memory of one of our cats, Jazz who we lost a while back. I am really pleased with it and I think of him every time I see it.

 

Blow the wind southerly

Well yesterday was exciting we had a strong southerly wind sweeping across the garden with the occasional very strong gust (or gussock as they are known in these parts) realy moving the trees around.

Elsewhere in the garden this clematis is in flower hiding under a huge climbing rose (Bobby James) which has completely engulfed my potting shed. I can't remember which clematis it is, in fact I don't actually remember planting it.

Although it was windy it was quite mild with the occasional smither of rain, so I planted out 5 tomato plants I had bought for 20p each from a stall outside a house in the next village. I have given up growing them under glass as we have been plagued by blight for the last few years. I have put these in the herb garden quite spaced out so hopefully a good airflow around them will keep the fungus at bay.

  

And in the alpine house this alpine aster Aster alpinus 'Golith'
is in flower.

 

It's a lovely little plant only a couple of inches high.

 

June is upon us

 Today is is the first day of summer according to the Met Office which is why we needed hot water bottles last night. Luckily my greenhouse heater is permanently set to kick in at 10 c to keep my orchids happy.

Rose 'Darcy Bussell'

 One of my favourite roses is in bloom 'Darcy Bussell' not only is it stunning looking but also has a lovely scent.

The herb garden has taken off in the last couple of weeks. Yes I know there is a leek in the foreground going into seed but I like the flowers and I also collect the seed for this years crop.

 I realised after some prompting from a fellow blogger that it has been an awfully long time since last updated this blog, no excuses I am just lazy. Anyway it does mean I have lots to talk about.

 

over the last couple of years I have been remodeling the garden to become more wildlife friendly and a more relaxing place to sit and relax.

 To achieve this I have created a wildflower area of approximately 100 sq feet. This has taken a lot of management (ironic that!) as in the first year it was dominated by thistles which in turn self seeded, this has resulted in a lot of weeding this spring to reduce the number.

 

As you can see I have placed various benches an seats around the garden, as the bed grows up these become more isolated in their own little spaces.

The aim is that if sit on a bench you will be almost hidden from the others, this worked last year with the 8 ft high thistles but hopefully the effect will be more gentle this year.

I'm back

Well its been a while, but I am back thanks to a prod from Lucy C on one of my other blogs. Anyway I thought a quick post to show you a little of what I have been up to in the garden. I got fed up last year with growing the usual stuff in the greenhouse so I decided to convert it into an alpine house the photos below some of the highlights so far. I will post more details soon...promise!

View of alpine bed