RESILIENT GARDENS
Julia introduces the fortnightly garden tasks and projects underway
The children are back at school (phew!) and the garden returns to tranquillity. How on earth have we arrived in mid-April so quickly?
As spring progresses, we are gearing up for a season of plant fairs and are even getting ready for a weekend away in Manchester. As a business, we have normally not attended shows further away than a couple of hours’ drive from here. However, being based near Colchester in Essex, that gets us to Cambridge, Suffolk, Norfolk, Kent, East Sussex and London, which means that staff can go for the day and then come home at night. While we are a hardy bunch, we are quite rooted to our creature comforts of home.
But when we were given the opportunity to attend the new RHS Urban Show in Manchester, we couldn’t resist. It’s taking place at Depot Mayfield from April 18-21 and yes, we will be staying over!
We are looking forward to packing up the van and setting off on a real adventure. It will be fantastic for us to meet customers old and new and spread the word of our ‘right plant, right place’ ethos. We will be creating a show garden using containers of all shapes and sizes to demonstrate that plants don’t need to be in the ground to thrive.
If you happen to be visiting the show, please come and say hello, we’d love to see you.
Spring jobs in the garden
With conditions now perfect for plant growth, we have been meticulously weeding and editing in the garden, a time-consuming task that we started a couple of weeks ago, slowly but steadily working our way through the beds to remove unwanted seedlings. The Reservoir Garden has been a particular focus where we have been thinning out self-seeders like poppies and forgetme-nots which, although impressive when their colourful blooms drift through the plantings, can easily take over the allotted space and swamp out neighbouring perennials due to their free-seeding behaviour.
The key stand-out plants which fascinate and wow visitors at this time of year include the majestic crown imperials, Fritillaria imperialis, species tulips, such as Tulipa saxatilis, and the impressive woodland dweller Trillium chloropetalum. The team have been on Amelanchier watch too, waiting patiently for the young bronze leaves to unfurl and delicate star-shaped, white blossoms to appear. Amelanchier lamarckii was Beth’s favourite small tree and so features in every area of the garden, from the Gravel to the Woodland Garden.
Every morning before we begin the tasks of the day, we take turns to do morning chores around the garden and pick flowers for plant identification in the
