The importance of water.

This is a good comparison between two Nasturtium plants.

the first has a constant supply of moisture.

 The second has rain only.

Yet the two plants are only a few feet apart.

A pleasure garden.

Our dear friend/client suggested we come visit her gardens, which we designed and installed three years ago, because she felt they were looking more spectacular than usual. A committed Anglophile, she wanted a garden that felt like an English cottage garden and we were happy to make her garden fantasy a reality.

An initial site analysis to determine soil structure, texture, pH and nutrients will go some way to determining which plants are chosen.  We are sticklers for garden preparation, amending the soil with copious amounts of composted horse manure, and organic fertilizer. 

 This year, we fertilized the gardens again, before replacing the mulch, and the results surprised even us. Hosta leaves the size of a tennis court (slight exaggeration) do not grow by simply throwing in a few plants.

We create colour combinations that will maintain visual interest even when some of the plants are past flowering. This chartreuse leaved hosta, plays well against the darker foliage of the peony and will remain interesting long after the peonies have stopped flowering. Colour combinations that transform throughout the year,

Colour combinations that transform throughout the year, from the pastel shades of spring,

to the more vibrant colours of summer

 keep the garden interesting throughout the seasons.

We succeeded in mitigating the starkness of the white vinyl fence by planting a selection of climbing and shrub roses and clematis so that they would grow up, over and through the enclosure.

 We restricted the floral colour palette to white, pinks, blues, purples; combinations that create harmony, and added plants with chartreuse and silver foliage for contrast of color and texture.

For those of you with green fingers, we offer online garden design.

Garden consultation for a more hands on approach

and full service design and installation.

Bees, bees and more bees

Once again our strong hive swarmed and this time rather than settling low to the ground as the first swarm did, they went high into this oak tree, here seen through my binoculars.

I threw a weighted rope over the highest branch I could reach and hoisted a box (circled blue) with swarm lure inside, but it was a good 15 ft below the swarm (circled blue) and I went indoors for lunch without much hope of success.

After lunch, I fully expected the swarm to have flown to pastures new.

What I did not expect was the new pasture would be our garden fence, 

Easily within reach for recapture.

I held a cardboard box below the swarm and shook the fence,

Then I emptied the box into the hive. 

This was a substantial swarm and it took considerable time for the swarm to follow the queen into the hive.

But eventually the bees left the fence

 and are now safely back in a new hive.

Now we have the original hive (center R) which is still very strong, the early Spring split (center L) The first swarm (Left) and the second swarm (Right)