Carol Klein THIS WEEK AT GLEBE COTTAGE
We take them for granted but they are so important in our gardens
Carol's beautiful cottage garden... plus her diary for the week!
I’ve been in the house more lately, finishing my book, so I’ve been seeing the garden through the window a lot. Our cercis tree is still loaded with seedpods despite storms and winds and our native hedge stretches right down the side of the garden.
Despite its lack of foliage – it’s mainly deciduous trees and shrubs – it has been a boon, mainly for wildlife (birds love it, with many small ones using it as a shelter and roosting place for the night) but also for us, as an ever-changing backdrop to beds and borders through the year.
We planted it years ago after a couple of unsuccessful attempts at other ways of making a boundary between field and garden. My first attempt was to plant an evergreen hedge using Lawson’s Cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana). I thought this might give the garden some protection and would look good. I was wrong on both counts!
Strong winds often go up, over and down such hedges, creating damaging conditions. Solid evergreen hedges don’t filter the wind, as an effective windbreak should do. Secondly, it was healthy enough but it looked totally out of keeping both with our garden and the surrounding countryside. All the fields are separated by native hedges, some cut regularly, others left to their own devices. The biggest no-no is that such a hedge supports very little wildlife. Eventually we took out the Lawson’s. By that time they were well-established so it was no mean feat, involving tractors and winches.
They were replaced by beech but I didn’t give the saplings enough care and rough grasses overtook them. Also, we didn’t own the field on the other side of the would-be hedge, so maintenance was difficult.
After much thought and research, we planted a native hedge. We bought about 300 trees made up of 10 or so native species; the broader the range, the more diverse its future inhabitants and visitors will be.
Our hedge doesn’t need to be too high so we can l ay or trim it more traditionally, incorporating broadleaf trees like oak and beech as well as shrubs such as spindle (Euonymus europaeus), Viburnum opulus and Cornus sanguinea.
