Bedding-up for the winter

Whilst people are getting their borders ready for bed in preparation for winter dormancy, it's a good time too to be moving those fruit and veg for next year.  In this little album, taken early last week, Robert and his team prepare new beds for asparagus and strawberries in the walled garden using an excellent load of manure from the estate's stableyard.

 The ground, marked out and aerated, is covered in manure.

Topsoil from alongside the bed is heaped over the manure to leave a clean, fertile bed.

Into this were planted asparagus plants - they always look so weedy like this, don't they?  But what a vegetable, especially the first young sprigs of the year, briefly fried off in olive oil and peppercorns, with a squeeze of lemon and slithers of parmesan... mmm.

With the final dressing of manure over the top, and it's done.

Planted next door, the strawberries will of course become next year's jam for the tearoom, and after Susan's triumph at the fête this year, who knows what heights next year's bottled delights will bring!  But you can only get it at Iford with a warm, just-from-the-oven scone or inside a Victoria Sponge.

Path reconstruction and lawn preparation

With the main frosts gone, which lift one’s paths whether they be flagstones, gravel or tarmac, a review of paths has been necessary.

One path in particular, from Peto’s first Oriental garden to the Cloister, has got out of alignment with where it should be in terms of garden design.  Since Iford is all about design, we’re re-cutting the edge with a simple half-moon tool, and re-levelling it using Cerney “as-raised” gravel.  It is crucial for us to get a particular level of clay in the gravel to allow surface binding and drainage, and a Cotswoldy colour to the particles.  It goes down now, because whilst rollers won’t squash it down properly, the feet of 10000-or-so visitors in a year will do so nicely and we open to the public in a fortnight.

The other challenge is grass: the lawns are not looking terribly happy after a rather wet and very cold winter.  Anywhere where the drainage is poor the grass has taken on a jaundiced, chlorotic colour, with a very high moss level.  The historic lawns are difficult to drain properly because of the adjacent tree and shrub roots and so we have to make do with spiking, scarifying and new grass seed.  This year we’re using one of the golf green mixes which is hard wearing but which can be cut very short – not very bouncy, but good for the footfall and picnics in the summer for the Arts Events.

Planting the pear trees

Robert, Gardener in Charge at Iford, reports that his team had a successful time planting the new pear trees in the orchard car park.  These pears had been toughened up over a couple of winters, and needed lifting carefully to preserve the rootball as much as possible, before their transplanting into the holes in the orchard.

Baring the roots needed mechanical muscle as well:

Riverside planting involves potentially saturated ground: the crown of the root should be just above ground therefore:

To protect against deer (and dogs!) a mesh guard is needed as well as a high wall.  Flat cap essential safety wear for spade management:

Post winter. How did we fare?

A post-winter situation report:

March is with us and as the weather is still chilly we have been taking the opportunity to check the garden over to look for damage following one of the hardest winters we've known for thirty years or so.  We were very fortunate not to have suffered from the harsh East winds that we had in the 1980s.

Structure

We have frost damage to many of Peto's rockery stones (pictured: japanese garden rock).  The damage will very likely be hidden by dwarf juniper, periwinkle, or whatever nature provides, but sooner or later the softer Bath stones need to be replaced with something more durable from the Mendip series of rocks which are, after all, just the other side of the river Frome.

Plants

The continued cold necessitates protecting the early buds of 'two star' shrubs (that is to say surviving down to -5C), especially cistus, choisya and rosemary in our case, using fleece and, where needed, netting as well.  Be very vigilant for the fleece covering pittosporums, which are particularly sensitive to sudden cold snaps.  We always remove fleece if it gets saturated because the frost will damage the tender shoots, particularly of the choisya ternata.

The cold has caught the leaves of the Mahonia (pictured), which has turned its explosive lateral sprays to gloriously autumnal colours.

However, [touch wood!] we have not had substantial damage to any Italian cypresses as yet.  Last year we had our second season of Seridium die-back.  It will be interesting to see which, if any, of our seven forms of sempervirens stricta survives this mediterranean plague.


Our ceanothus impressus has beaten the cold winter, but sadly all of our larger leaved forms appear to be dead, some of which were around 25 years old.

For anyone who has suffered plant damage, as we have, even though spring is running late, this is probably the last safe opportunity to plant many replacement shrubs and trees - preparing the hole whilst the weather is chilly is harder work, but it allows the freezing temperatures to break down the soil.  At Iford we will be replacing some of the Perry pears in the river car park with old varieties which have spent the last three years in a nursery bed, and pruning of the older trees is currently underway (pictured).

A solution: Frozen Fatballs

Our avian friends are having a really desperate time of it with the weather so cold and I'm sure that a lot of people are putting out fat balls, nuts and other high-fat foods to keep the smaller birds alive.  I love the way that robins in particular will come and ask you for more when they have finished.  This bold little fellow (pictured sitting on a tree peony), alerted us to a problem with "his" (they are very territorial!) fatball: it was frozen solid.

It seems that the food we put out, if at all moist, simply goes completely solid after an hour or so, fat balls in particular; the solution we have found is to pass them through a cheese grater, and put out the resulting pile of fat-soaked nuts.  Taking them in once in a while allows them to thaw quickly, and the grains seem easier for the birds to eat.

I'm sure that the great- and blue-tits were grateful too, but our plucky young robin thanked us personally, sitting on his peony branch bobbing his head, and flying over to say hello when any of the family comes past the box tree in which he lives.

Tilting at snowmen

It's a common enough question: do I bash the snow off my plants or not? Generally speaking, yes, if it can be done without damaging the plants, because the weight of snow can disfigure and even break off delicate branches.

Rather like the railways, however, with the air so exceptionally and consistently cold, we are experiencing the wrong kind of snow.  The sub-zero (sub-minus-ten last night) temperatures have caused the snow to freeze solid, leaving the leaves and branches encrusted with ice. Whilst there may be a risk that that branches will snap with the weight of the snow, the process of its removal may bring greater risk.  Accordingly one must assess the need and risk for each individual plant.

There are of course plants that are unlikely to take the weight of snow at all, and at Iford these are dealt with delicately and soon after snowfall ends whilst the snow is still 'warm'.  The horizontal junipers on the terrace (see photo), and trees which overhang high terraced walls often grow in an uneven fashion, and the snow-load can put undue strain on the roots. 

A mediaeval pikestaff might do the trick, or in our case a piece of 2x1 baton, using a gentle poking action from a distance to avoid getting the snow in one's boots.