From Planning to Planting

It has been a wet and windy November. For the first time in quite a while I have lain awake in the small hours of the night, listening to the wind and wondering how many trees have fallen in the gardens. Actually, we have been very lucky, with no damage apart from the odd, small branch.

This has been an exciting month in the development of the garden, with new plantings both developed and planned. Debbie is full of creative ideas and we are always really pleased when we get the go ahead from Mr Berkeley to develop one of her plans.

The first has been the removal and replanting of the bamboo area at the bottom of the East Border, right next to the Fountain beds. The big, old hollow bamboo that had been a favourite for children (and my old Head Gardener) to hide in for many years, had died. It was removed, thankfully for us with a JCB, and the area replanted with 3 well behaved black bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra), and over 60 black grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus nigrescens), interspersed with 30 large flowered purple crocus. We are also intending to plant tall, purple flowered alliums. When fully mature it will be a dramatic point to two of the main borders. See picture, which incidentally also includes my two dogs: Daisy and Holly!

The second area that has been marked for redevelopment is the far end of the moat leading to the garden pool. This has always been a difficult area to keep tidy so the intention is to plant it up with two varieties of gunnera, which is a very large leafed architectural plant that likes damp soil. To help with the view of the area a section of yew branches have been removed from the South Border, overlooking the moat. This exposed a drop of about 8 feet into the moat from the wall at the back of the South Border which needed to be fenced off. The Forester rescued some very old, wooden fencing from the deer park and re built it at the top of the wall. Debbie had originally envisaged an elegant, wrought iron fence, like a ’Juliet balcony’, but costs have dictated that the wooden structure was created instead. I must say that I did have misgivings about the fence as it was being constructed, but the finished article is very much in keeping with the style of the gardens.

One of the problems we are having with the warmer than usual weather is that the dahlias have not been frosted. It is usual to wait for the first frosts before lifting dahlias, but if this doesn’t happen in the next couple of weeks we will be lifting them unfrosted as they are more at risk of rotting in the ground.

The sad news is that there will be no Illuminated Trail this year. Although many have asked about this year’s Trail, the vaguaries of the weather, and low attendance last year have both meant that it was decided not to stage the Trail this year.