Autumn Cottage Diarist

How CAN It Already Be August?!

Lilies and Agapanthus on the terrace last week

And there was I, intending to run, with all banners blazing, into a return to this blog on 1st August…I've missed you all, my friends. But as with so many of my good intentions these days, it just didn't happen. At least, nowadays, I can be kinder to myself and not feel either guilty, lazy or a total waste of space - I just shrug and say 'so be it' and get on with things anyway. Life is so much easier as a result.

The Great Oil Tank Adventure (for which read 'pain in the backside') dominated far more of the first part of this year than I could ever have imagined. Not so much the leak - which was pretty well contained by standing in the rain, in December, in the dark, pushing a series of buckets, bowls and bins under the offending part…but more the environmental clean-up - which was very necessary but also vast.

 Mid February - water, water everywhere -

- and pots all over the place...

Add to that torrential rain, broken water pipes, and an overflowing septic tank as a result of both and I am sure you can imagine what merriment ensued over two months in spring when the actual work was being carried out - but also many weeks since when the garden has been slowly put back to order. Hundreds of pots and garden equipment had to be moved to allow the clean-up to take place - and hundreds of pots (and wrecked plants) have had to slowly be moved back again. It's taken a long, long time - but the flowers do finally come back - the sun shines once more and we are catapulted into spring and summertime.

Sunshine and snowdrops in February

The upheavals have also allowed me to make changes to the siting of the potting shed and other layouts in the garden; major weeding has been carried out by A - heroically dealing with the worst of ground elder infestations - so that we now feel we are now almost 'on top' of the maintenance, and as we approach autumn (very much too soon if you could see the miserable weather here today) are able to turn our minds to actually planning and enjoying planting and redesigning.

June - Roses in abundance (Paul's Himalayan Musk)

...and Paeonies

The old Victorian loo

I'll leave you with just a brief 'catch-up' in this post, of some of the vagaries of the spring but also some images of the garden in its much happier summer incarnation. A Blessed Lammas to you all - and I won't leave it so long until next time!

The Tree Lily 'Luisa' in bloom today

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Bitterly Cold, Beautifully Bright

The most intense coloured Dogwoods in the Winter Garden - Cornus sanguinea 'Anny's Winter Orange'

It's a hard-frost winter here at Autumn Cottage; no snow, but two weeks of bitter cold and sparkling white hoary nights. The watery sun - when it does come out -thaws where it touches, but parts of the garden here and in the countryside that don't see the sun have stayed frozen for days. Not a time to be digging in the garden here, doing the over-winter work that needs to be done before the rampaging spring shoots forth.

But it is still a good time to visit other gardens to gather ideas for 'Winter interest' - and also so clear the cobwebs from the soul, escaping that 'cabin fever' which drugs my mind at this point in January. So it was that we 'togged up' in thick winter coats, thin winter gloves (all the better to press the camera button, my dears!) and abundant winter scarves and set off, a couple of days ago, for yet another visit to our Happy Place - the Sir Harold Hillier Arboretum and Gardens. Their award winning Winter Garden is worth a visit in itself - particularly at this time of year, but actually at any time as the planting has been so skilful that there is always something of interest to see and be inspired by.

But the rest of the gardens are also exceptionally beautiful in their pared back winter state, the only time when the skeletons of the trees are visible, with their filigrees of branches each species with its own distinctive silhouette, and when the gnarled, peeling or brightly coloured barks of different trees come into their own. Oh, yes, the bark - an essay in itself.

Take a short walk around the gardens with me and join me in the appreciation of the variety of species and forms that we often do not notice when nature is clothed all in green-o!

Hellebores - always one of the first flowers to emerge

The birds were busily out and about...here a blackbird...

...there a Magpie

all sorts of beautiful barks - in all hues and textures... the contrasting rough and shiny surface of Prunus...

The white bark of Betula jacquemontii as a background to Cornus serica

(Not strictly bark!) - The vivid yellow shoots of the bamboo Phyllostachys vivax 'Aureocaulis'

Stupendous Metasequoia with minute yellow Aconites just pushing through at its base

Important winter protection - here Delphiniums are protected (from slugs) when they emerge, by four inches of grit...

 ...while tender Cannas are cosy under a foot of bark

The frost in shaded corners can still create beauty - here, a memorial seat to a murdered girl -

surrounded by ethereal, rustling grasses and looking down to...

...the Pond - which, down in the valley  has clearly seen little sun for days...

but looking  out and looking  up - there is always some blue sky to to be found

on this bitterly cold but beautifully bright winter's day

 

'Twas a Misty, Moisty Morning...

... outside my office window today; the vine leaves are turning…pale yellow, gold, rusting red; I couldn't see the fields to either side of the house - an almost impenetrable grey blanketing shrouded them, hanging in the air, hiding the originators of the birdsong which floated through, ethereally, disembodied. Closer to the house, near to the bird table, a Magpie was waiting on the pergola…waiting to dive down to eat the left-over cat food that I had put out from last night - nothing wasted here!…

Two Robins were shouting at each other, while an insignificant little Dunnock sat in the arch branches, waiting for this morning's offerings of breadcrumbs, grated cheese and sunflower seed. (Oh dear...I have run out of sunflower seed. ) The pervading atmosphere was of a stillness, a waiting between two seasons, though the direction is inevitable. The year turns, we move on towards the darker days, longer nights and falling leaves. All is as it should be.

…but inside Autumn Cottage, all has changed. Semi retirement has arrived for one of the inhabitants - and with it, a new pattern to my days. Surprisingly, with more leisure time has come much more activity - more 'getting out and about' - more living life, more seen, more done, more created, more recorded. I don't think I'm alone in realising that there is not enough time in one lifetime to squeeze in all that one begins to appreciate as we age - but that does not stop me trying!

Over just the last two weeks, here are some of the places that have been 'on the menu' for me - and I'm looking forward to sharing many more tasty bites to come!

Two flaming trees at the entrance to The Sir Harold Hillier Gardens & Arboretum

Pampas grass planted to great effect, with the sunlight streaming through them in the Winter Garden

The Lower Pool

Nerines outside Jermyn's House

Red leaved Banana (Musa) with Buddleia

Spectacular autumn colour in the Centennial Border

Even more spectacular bark on a Tilia (Lime) tree in the Education garden - wonderful inspiration for textile (and other) artists

Virginia creeper + ? on the end wall of the Education Centre

 

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Life in Leaps and Bounds - and a 'Stay-cation'

2016 leaps and bounds forward - after a wet spring, we have had some beautiful summer days during the last couple of months. My health has not been 100%, (nothing serious) so what energy I have had has been spent in making further progress in the garden, and in working on development of the therapeutic writing workshops that I provide in the community and to other health-based organisations.

But there was also time for a holiday - this year in the form of a 'stay-cation', when we enjoyed visits to some of the most beautiful gardens and other places of interest within 90 minute drive from Autumn Cottage. Maybe not the adventure of visiting far-flung places, but with the definite bonus of being able to sleep in your own bed and feed the cat every evening! (Pip very much approved of that part of the plan...)

We also chose to take the week here in the UK that saw the arrival of a heatwave (they usually occur the week before or after our vacation times!) - so I was also blessed with the brightest of conditions in which to take some photographs. Here are just a few from some of our visits, starting with a wander around Hidcote Manor and garden in the Cotswolds

Hidcote Manor - home, from 1907, of the independently wealthy American gentleman gardener and plant collector Lawrence Johnston

The White Garden - one of the many 'garden rooms' at Hidcote

 

The Gazebo (one of a pair) at the end of the Hot Border

Pot arrangement of Mediterranean plants outside the second gazebo

The 'Fuschia Garden' - at this point without any fuschias. This was the bathing pool for the house, used during social gatherings of the 1920's & 30's

The Yellow Garden, provided by Johnston for his daunting Mother, Mrs. Gertrude Winthrop

A Trio of bums, contemplating the Yellow Garden!

A simple arrangement of terracotta pots, foliage and one brilliant colour - works so well, I think.

One of the beautiful gateways at Hidcote

Silver-leaved plants for dry conditions at the base of the Alpine Walk

The lovely Lily Pond, surrounded by Mediterranean planting

No garden without water!

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In the Garden Today - 09 June 2016

No more bemoaning the cold and dark weather that we were 'enjoying' right up to the beginning of June - the last few days have been everything that June should be in England; hot days and balmy evenings filled with birdsong.

Working down by the pond - digging out clumps of variegated bamboo is tough!

I've been using the good weather to get a lot of jobs done - most of which have entailed getting filthy dirty down by the pond, since there is at least some shade down there. The plan is to fill the area around and behind the pond nearest to the summerhouse with all things white, to lend a lightness to the dark and hopefully look particularly lovely in the evenings. Unfortunately, the earth down there is still feeling the after effect of the flood here last month, so is still very damp, along with its usual intransigent stoniness and poor texture.

Rubbishy soil in more than one way - but the answer to that is just improve it! The first stages are to remove weeds, (creeping buttercup, ground elder and cow parsley) - the texture and nutrients will then be boosted with soil improver, manure and leafmould in good quantities.

In temperatures of up to 28C, you can understand why this has been hot, heavy and sticky work; fortunately, the summerhouse has been at hand for 'recovery' purposes - recovery helped considerably by harp, Spanish guitar and Bach on the CD player, many large glasses of chilled Indian Tonic Water and John Stefanidis' entrancing book 'An Island Sanctuary' about his home on the Greek island of Patmos.

The nearest Autumn Cottage comes to Patmos this week is the Mediterranean Terrace, where everything is filling out and flourishing; there is even the promise of a flower on my bargain Magnolia grandiflora bought last year - a fat bud has appeared, watch this space for future developments!

A 'lodger' - the pretty 'sea-pink' Thrift in a seashell pot, on holiday here while a friend moves house

Fat buds, flowers and seed heads already on the Terrace

Allium 'Purple Sensation' still looking wonderful, starting to set seed...

I hope you are all enjoying clement weather, wherever you are - further dispatches from the Home Front when I am not (happily) covered in dirt with a spade and fork in my hand!

Foxgloves peeping over the fence in the evening light - a balmy 'bonne nuit' from Autumn Cottage

 

 

 

Teas at the Lock Keepers Cottage

Another visit to another garden in the National Gardens Scheme on Sunday last. You never know quite what you are going to get, as the gardens range from those belonging to grand mansions, to more modest gardens who may well have teamed up with another one close by to give the NGS stipulated 'Three quarters of an hour of interest'. We had some idea of what the location may be like this time - the name gives it away! The venue was an old canal lock keepers cottage on the Kennet and Avon Canal, (close to the Crofton Pumping Station and Wilton Windmill), where the owners live a self sufficient life 'off the grid'.

On the towpath to the Lock Keepers cottage

We entered the gate in the high hedge (useful to stop passers-by on the canal boats peering into windows nowadays I guess - they would probably not have been there when the lock-keeper was active in operating the locks on the working canal). Walking to our right we found a very pretty and colourful cottage garden - which we did, however, walk around in about ten minutes.

A tumble of Hollyhocks, Clematis, daisies and sunflowers in the cottage garden

Teas under the trees

Cardoons and Cow-parsley - looking out to the surrounding fields

I surmised there must have been more - and indeed there was, at the other side of the house, where we found veggie beds, a tinkling pond (fountain solar powered), water butts, huge solar panels, a shepherd's hut, piles of 'useful stuff' stacked up 'around the back' (who could not live without a carved wooden mermaid in their life?).

Practicality - compost bins and solar panels tucked away at the top of the garden

'Useful stuff' stacked up, along with a dear old rocking horse that had seen better days

A wanton Mermaid, basking in the sun

Toys, puppets and seedheads - inspirational items in the Artists studio

Clematis on the studio wall

We also discovered the gallery of the artist owner (I love how many NGS gardens have artist-owners, who come complete with a gallery for me to browse) and the most delightful and happy bunch of chickens; we spent the rest of our visit drinking tea, eating cake (a most important 'NGS afternoon out' tradition) and talking to the hens - who were far too busy drinking, scratching and pecking to talk to us.

At the shepherd's hut; drink tea - eat cake - watch hens - (check iPhone!)

Happy hens scratching about - stacked logs forming ledges for chooky-apples in the background

We're used to watching but being ignored by the local creatures, though; with flowers, paintings tea and cake to also occupy us, it's still a blissfully happy way to spend an afternoon.

 

Here Comes the Orange Label Lady

This is the refined form of notoriety which I have gained at the local DIY store, which also happens to sell a wide range of plants for - initially - prohibitively high prices; for which you may read 'prices that I am not prepared to pay'.

But from the very beginning of the year, and right up to the very end, my weekly visits inevitably provide me with at least one or two (and sometimes nine or ten) plants that have been marked down for one reason or another; this reduction in price is signified by a bright orange label, which can be seen across the store and attracts me like a butterfly to a buddleia!

The plants themselves might have finished flowering; may be bone dry from languishing at the back of a stand, missing out on watering, or may have suffered a particularly harsh fate - as had the Acer palmatum dissectum 'Atropurpurea' below, which I bought a few weeks ago. It was reduced to one fifth of its original price after being burned in a heatwave and losing all its leaves. But all the new leaf buds are there again - waiting to shoot; perhaps not this year, but they will be back in seven or eight months time. Just a bit of waiting to be done... gardening's good for training me that way!

(It says '£6.99' :-) )

Its always something of a risk to buy 'less than perfect' plants - but it's a risk worth taking. They all go to 'hospital' when they arrive here, placed on the patio under the vine, so in cool shade - and are fairly quickly watered, dead headed or cut back as necessary. Give them a few days and - mostly - leaves begin to sprout again, flowers begin to appear, and/or they are ready to be divided up into many more plants and left to root up again for planting out in the autumn or spring.

With the size of garden that I have, there is no way that I could fill it with full price plants; but with the help of Orange Label days, plus a bit of work dividing and taking cuttings, the gardens are slowly filling up, and its always better to plant out three or five bargain plants rather than one acquired at full price. I am saving plants from the store rubbish bins and my miserly streak is given full rein to come out and play.

It’s a win-win-win situation, isn't it?

Hydrangea 'Black Steel' - a previous 'Orange Label' purchase

Refuge from the Rain

'Come inside...' - the inviting interior of the potting shed at Mottisfont

In the middle of summer, this is the sort of day that holidaymakers hate and gardeners love. It is pouring down with rain, has been since 8 am and is well settled in to go on for the rest of the day.

It can be miserable to be away from home and all that is familiar in this sort of weather, trying to find something to do with the children - or without - that is under cover. But if you are a gardener, you can always retire - to the greenhouse, the potting shed or the summerhouse!

Here are some images - from home and away - of the cosy pleasures that can be gained when taking shelter from the rain. The first are from the walled garden at Mottisfont Abbey, where the National Trust have called in theatrical designers to reconstruct a potting shed; it is part of their 'Storyscape Project' and  many of the articles in there allude to the accomplished horticulturalist and rose-grower Graham Stuart Thomas, who set up the collection of Old Roses in the walled garden at Mottisfont in the 1970's.

Notebooks and illustrations of Old Roses

Terracotta pots and tins for seeds...essential minutiae in old gardens

The second are much closer to home - the latest incarnation of the summerhouse here at the cottage - also, in its own way, a Storyscape; a place where my friends sit with me, tell me their own stories and conjure up new ones from the inspiration they (and I) get there, surrounded by peace, quiet, harp music, wildlife and books.

Some new pictures added to the wildlife collection

'Spring Spirit' - Hares by Jane Keay - a two pound greeting card in a one pound frame...

A place for fairies and fancy - but don't be late for a very important date!

Twinkly lights and candleholders - (new ones bought for pennies, bearing images of my favoured dragonflies)

It's just a tiny space, but I do have such fun creating a place for pondering and creativity. If you also have a much loved little refuge - do tell me something about it!

The most important furnishings in any room...

 

 

 

 

Bees, Beans and Bergamot

A shady spot under the Viburnum, from where the scent of the burgeoning fennel is divine

 I should have been cleaning up my office this morning, but summer and the herb garden waits for no (wo)man; all is buzzing with activity there, as the herbs are all flowering, the bees are thanking them for it - and the beans are turning from flower to food before my eyes. Here are just a few images from today's abundance - oh, and a brain teaser as well - do you think we can squeeze in one last project this summer? The last photograph shows my first ponderings on the possibilities of…well, can you guess what it might be??

Bergamot 'Gardenview Scarlet'

The bean teepees, covered in beany blossom...

...and the first fruits of beany bliss!

A bee supping nectar from the Stachys

A hoverfly doing likewise from the Oregano (which also smells wonderful)

An interim cleanup of the area which will home more alpine sinks in due course...

Hmm...I wonder what this will be??

 

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Roses! - Paul's Himalayan Musk winding through the Weeping Pear; Gertrude Jekyll in the flowerbed

...I ask myself this on a daily basis as I ponder writing another post here; how can I possibly cover all the 'stuff' that has passed by - that's fit to print! - and not feel that I am serving up a trivial and superficial skim that will be of no interest to anyone. But I miss writing - and one or two of you have contacted me to say that you miss reading - so here I go again - and if you *do* find this superficial, I hope you will forgive me.

Unsurprisingly, when I look back over the last couple of months, time spent in the garden - my own and other people's - seems to head the top of the list. Just trying to take advantage of the good weather and long evenings while we can!

In the garden here at Autumn Cottage, I'm still doing a lot of heavier, harder landscaping jobs - harder for me, anyway. Still much digging and planting to be done in different areas, though I have had the assistance of a local handyman and his team for the bigger jobs of reinstating the pond in the herb garden (the one that cracked, emptied and then 'rose up like the sun' out of the ground after 24 hours continuous rain in a high water table area)...

The dire state of the old herb garden pond

The new liner going in - using the old shell underneath for protection

Raw and 'unsettled' - but the new pond is finally a friendly place to sit again

 ...and - biggest of all for this year, the new pergola along the back of the house. We've become rose enthusiasts after the glorious showing of Paul's Himalayan Musk along the trellis and over the loo this year (must have been 20 feet of growth from a little cutting given to me three years ago by my friend Shelley - since when it is informally known as 'Shel's rose'), so decided to give ourselves and the house a present, (we've been here for 30 years in October), and also provide a proper support for the wisteria, which was Alec's 60th birthday present this time last year. (We sure are good at finding excuses when we want something new for the house!).

Before the pergola arrived...

...and after - now all we need are roses, roses, roses! (and more plants where the new bed has been cut, where at the moment only those two pots stand)

In other people's gardens - we have decided to heed the words of UK gardening guru Monty Don and get out more - to see other gardens for inspiration, and to stop us doing nothing else but working on our own. It can otherwise become obsessive, exhausting and introverted if you don't watch out. Many gardens each week open here in the UK under the National Gardens Scheme - all so different - humble and grand, big and small, expensive and created on a shoestring (though all adhering to some strict criteria for safety and interest). Each visit offers opportunities to build a library of inspirational ideas which might be incorporated at some time into one's own garden, and at the same time raises millions of pounds for charity.

The pigeonnier and terracotta pot collection in the herb garden at Dipley Mill

A dazzling corner at Wickham House

A quiet little corner in a local village garden

But more than just creating a garden for our own pleasure, however, I have a very strong desire to create a therapeutic space here; I'm very conscious of the healing power of being in nature - of just sitting by a pond, or inhaling the scents in the herb garden…watching a bee fossicking for nectar or a kite gliding and swooping overhead. They are all such restorative experiences for me and I want to be able to share these experiences with others, through the writing and expressive arts workshops that I have run over the years. I've taken a break from those recently - but as the new academic year approaches in the distance, they will be back on the agenda again. Meanwhile, it's back to the spade, fork and hoe for me - to make the place even more welcoming for visitors.

Now where could I squeeze in another statue, I wonder? 

The 'Mediterranean' Terrace - hot and protected from the wind, a happy home for the orange trees, wisteria and fig