Beating the Big C, the Mitcheldean Garden 2020
Maturity

This page is part of a series of garden blogs from 2020. Click here for the index.

It's been a summer to forget, we haven't been even 20 miles from home. Not surprisingly, we've spent a lot of time in the garden and of that much has been spent on the bench by the summer house watching the world go by and rehydrating. The work we have done in the last couple of years has shifted the garden's centre of gravity upwards to the area above the house. There's been plenty of sunshine and not a great deal of rain, we've done a lot of watering and, with associated high temperatures, not all plants have thrived, the grass in particular is sulking again. As I write, we've had the two hottest days since we arrived in Mitcheldean 10 years ago and at times it's felt like being in Penang. Talking of which, that is somewhere we are unlikely to see this winter.

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We have placed fewer tubs at the bottom because they are normally hidden by BB but the traditional surfinias have which need daily watering have benefited from our lack of absences. We've had the hebes for almost 8 years, not surprisingly, some have failed but others like this one are rampant and it got a severe haircut a couple of weeks later! The honeysuckles have collapsed exhausted and the supporting cast of potentilllas, fuchsias and now dahlias have played their part.

Yuehong's cottage garden has looked splendid yet again, nothing stops the baby begonias and dwarf snapdragons and this year the hanging baskets have featured trailing geraniums which came through the winter well and aren't troubled by heat. The near rose is 'resting' the yellow one is enjoying a minor second flush.

As usual the Tyacks supplied us with various tomato plants for the greenhouse, I can't photograph the ripe ones as we never get a group of them. As our new pond lining is entirely external to the bank, we lose a lot of water from the cascade and it needs a constant trickle to top it up. Managing that with the tap alternating with this hose and the  watering one means I have to position an overflow container which acts as a trap for unwary frogs. This little one showed its gratitude for being rescued. The water lily has now completely recovered and is growing properly for the first time ever, the leaves growing outwards leaving space in the middle for new growth and flowers. Sadly we lost two fish, I tested the water conditions which came out as 'ideal' so that remains a mystery.

The patio is surrounded by tubs and in the middle is a much needed new table. It came in inadequate packaging and one of the smaller wooden braces had fallen out. I requested a replacement and was sent one the wrong size. I asked again and they sent me four. It seems well engineered and didn't take too long to drill and assemble, we'll know in a few years whether the wood was properly treated. Watering the patio area alone is a significant job and for the whole garden, we have, I believe no less than 5 hoses which often need to be coupled together. If you are wondering how much all this water costs, then we live in an area where water meters are not obligatory, ultimately our supply comes from the rain drenched North Wales mountains.

My life would be incomplete without a summer crop of runner beans. We had our first harvest at the beginning of August and can expect the best part of two month's supply. Unusually some have red and white flowers. 

We have only a few red flowered dark dahlias but they have done very well this year, again the purple and white variety have declared their satisfaction with their regular position but all need 'dead heading' on a near daily basis. One of the legs of the swing has almost completely rusted through and I fear one morning we shall find the surfinias and trailing geraniums scattered on the ground.

At the top of the dark dahlias, this anonymous cluster of white flowers is a refugee from the reorganisation of the lily bed. Necessarily some got left behind and they need to come out before they create new clusters.

This bed was replanted with a mixture of irises and lilies in 2019.and there are a few snapdragons and gladioli near the front. The apparent 'scratch' is string holding back the red crocosmia, a kind of iris which while extremely attractive shows a definite tendency to spread.

The main flush of oriental lilies is now upon us. The flowers are delicate and beautiful and I am told that the scent is exquisite.

This is the year the top bed finally got its makeover. The first picture conceals the truth, the second shows 'work in progress'. I did a lot of clearance last year and installed about 20 extra peonies. All but one survived and I'm hoping for a gradual improvement as they grow over the next 4-5 years. After the bluebells finished, I did another tidy up and a further weeding has followed. I fear the crocosmia - surplus from Yuehong's lily bed - will tend to spread but the main threat is the bind weed which is extremely difficult to eradicate.

This year the dahlias went into their main bed much earlier than last year when they had to wait for the wall to be completed. The first blooms showed in early July and a month later it was a mass of colour. In front, the African marigolds, the fuchsias and now the gladioli appeared rather later.

I need to refine my winter storage and labelling system because things didn't quite turn out as I intended, although when the later flowering yellow varieties started to show things looked much better.

The vegetable patch dahlia bed was in the nature of a lucky dip, made up of unidentified tubers. Ultimately it worked out very well, as starting from the back I put in rows of tubers developing at similar times. Perhaps not surprisingly it turned out these were usually of the same kind as well!. I fear that might not work on a grand scale especially for beds like those at the bottom which are narrow. The more visible half of the bed next to #31 was planted with 'mixed pompoms' and this worked well, the near hidden rest being a dumping ground for the near weed status purple and white variety. The dahlias at the front as usual are a bit of a jumble, it's not just that I can't get the organisation right but that no one but a delusionist would consider their home to be ' top soil'.  

By the title 'maturity' I mean that the garden has reached the stage where I don't see us starting new major projects anytime soon. Just keeping things rolling as they are is time and energy consuming enough. In the garage we have a year's supply of compost stacked at the back and on the left multiple bags of what is known as 'horse manure'. As our 'mine' up the hill has closed for business (the horse concerned was known to be elderly), we collect this on our hikes recycling Lidl banana bags which, unlike the Aldi ones do not have 'safety holes'.  In due course when it has rotted somewhat it will be dug into beds which have multiple crops. We've been doing this for years now and it has greatly improved our soil which is largely clay sitting on a bed of sandstone.

The rockery has had no attention for many years and apart from half a dozen azaleas, it has been home to a colourful collection of odd plants and a less colourful collection of heathers. The latter had been throttled by masses of moss last winter and have been ripped out and when it cools in the autumn I shall consult with Yuehong as to what we shall do with it. Her current thought is to add fuchsias which would both give summer long colour and provide a proper home for some which have spent too long in pots and in odd corners of the garden. There are some other desirable residents which will be left though.

You will maybe have noticed the 'lack of a cat'. Garfield picked a fight with a passing cat a couple of months back and came off second best. He's now got a severe case of PTSD, masses of scabs which he insists on scratching off and has abandoned the back garden and retreated to a corner of the front garden. We're working on him but have to respect his feelings. Fortunately, he's not lost his appetite! We have friendly relations with his official owners up the road who confirm that the hot weather affects him like this most years...