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.

Salix & Cercis go together like...

Every year I hope that the cream and pink colouring of the Salix 'Hakuro Nishiki' will be on full show before the flowers of our Cercis canadensis fade and die.

this year is coming  pretty close, but no cigar.

I should not complain, as the new leaves of the Cercis give a whole new colour combination with the Salix.

Oh Dear!

We've spent the whole Winter cooped up indoors and now that Spring has finally arrived, we can get out and enjoy the garden, but these critters have beaten us to it.

I'm sure we all swear by our own secret recipe, or a commercial deer repellent. The truth is, if a deer is hungry , it will eat practically anything that is verdant and vegetative.

At this time of year, their favourite snack is the newly emerged leaves of the Daylillies. 

I cover the smaller Rhododendrons with netting, unfortunately the wind uncovered this section which is now devoid of buds and leaves.

Iris are also a favourite of deer

and the lowest branches on the Magnolia are almost always lacking of buds.

I find alternating various deer repellents is the best method of limiting grazing. Spreading milorganite on and around the most vunerable plants like this Sedum, followed by a homemade spray of eggs, garlic, hot peppers, dish washing detergent and water, which is allowed to ferment in the warm greenhouse for a couple of weeks before use, works well. Frequent applications is essential, especially after rain.

There are some plants that deer never graze, one of them being Dicentra spectabilis "Gold Heart"

One of my top five all time favourite plants.

I'll get to some more next time.

Roses for the making

Who wouldn't like more roses? so why not take your own cuttings. Most advice on this subject suggests taking softwood cuttings in early to mid summer, or hardwood cuttings in the fall, and I would not disagree.

But why waste your Spring rose prunings? I have considerable success striking pruned stems like the one below which is pencil thickness and ten inches long.

At the base of the cut stem, you will find a bud, with the leaf scar just below (l) or a bud eye with leaf scar. (r) 

Cut just below, or through the leaf scar

Find a bud six to eight inches above the base

and make a sloping cut just above the bud.

Dip the cutting in rooting powder

and insert into a neutral potting medium, I use a sand and perlite mix.

Label, and keep moist in a warm shady area. Is this method as reliable as softwood cuttings in the summer, or hardwood cuttings in the fall, probably not.

but you have the material from all the Spring prunings, what have you to lose other than a little time, and look what you have to gain.