We've been attracting quite a bit of attention during the past month because of our fifth birthday celebrations. Visitors are now seeing a dramatic development and change since we opened. It is amazing how much has been achieved in such a relatively short period for a botanic garden, although, the gardeners sometimes feel like we have been beavering away here for a lifetime! There is always masses to do and we have still got acres to develop, arboreta to plant, glasshouses to build........
But first we have to finish the Double Walled Garden.
We've gradually planted a few more beds over the last month but we will probably wait until the Autumn to do the bulk of the planting. A number of the beds that were double-dug last winter seem to have bind weed appearing. I can only imagine that sections of roots must have come in unnoticed with the manure. We need to get rid of this before we start planting or it will be ten times more difficult to deal with. As bindweed is virtually impossible to get rid of by digging it out(if anything, this usually makes the problem worse) we will be using a glyphosate-based weed-killer. A good way of getting rid of bind weed from your favourite borders is to get it to grow up a bamboo cane. You can then either place a plastic bag over the top and slide the foliage off the cane into the bag where you can then safely spray the leaves without damaging your plants, or paint the leaves with a weed-killer. One of our volunteers swears by adding a bit of glyphosate to wall-paper paste which helps it to stick.
On the subject on weed infestations, has anyone got a solution to horsetails?!
Of course, gardening isn't all doom and gloom and this is the time of year when we are all rewarded for those months spent working in the cold and rain!!
It seems like there is a different plant flowering every day.In the kitchen garden, Malcolm is flat out taking crops up to the restaurant. We are continually trialling different varieties. So far this year he's particularly pleased with an exceptional red 'cos' lettuce called 'Rusty' which he will definitely be growing next year.
We have just finished planting the half-hardy cut-flower border. We have gone for an exuberant range of colours. I can't understand why some people have such a dislike of orange flowers, the more the merrier. There are slight drawbacks to mixing masses of flowers amongst the vegetables, the main one being the never ending supply of Nasturtium and Marigold seedlings that germinate every time the soil is disturbed, destroying the order. We probably need only sow them once every ten years to keep ourselves well supplied.
Within the family beds of the Double Walled Garden, Martin has just finished replanting all the Cannas and gingers in the Banana Bed. Despite their many costume changes, the Bananas, which we left in the ground, sailed through the winter unscathed and look set to be enormous by the end of the summer. If it's hot enough we might get them to fruit.
The plants I'm most impressed by currently are our range of hardy orchids. They look so exotic, yet they have required no special treatment and make excellent garden plants. Also in the family beds we have Puya alpestris from Chile flowering. The plant sends up a four-foot flower spike from a rosette of viciously armoured leaves. The flowers are an amazing metallic jade-green colour and this is the first time this plant has flowered at the garden which is a bit galling for the team who work in the Great Glasshouse who have been growing theirs for several more years without success. Not that we have been rubbing it in, of course!!
The Great Glasshouse is at its best at this time of year. The colours and fragrances there are quite amazing-a real friendly assault on the senses. Come along and you'll see (and smell) for yourself...
