Now is the time of year when one starts to longingly look forward to those warmer days of spring. It is also the time of year to start preparing. When the sun does finally arrive, those of us lucky enough to be living in the South are in the best place to enjoy it. You may be ready and waiting for the warmth of spring, but is your outside space ready? Read the rest of this article »
At this time of year Latest Interiors – along with everyone else – has had enough of the office and is just itching to step out of our work wear, crack open a bottle of Pimms, and get outside into the sultry afternoon heat. And if, while out there, you find yourself thinking this really should be the year you do something more interesting with your patio/balcony/garden, we’ve got some splendid summer ideas for your outside space.
Read the rest of this article »
Dressing your outside room
The most important spot in your garden is the place where you sit. Even if your garden is small, you can create a dining table and chairs and another space elsewhere to just sit and relax.
Garden furniture still needs to come a long way to match the scale and scope of choice that we have indoors. It’s very easy to create a ‘look’ in the garden with very little in the way of additional staging. A few cushions, some pots arranged on the table, pretty crockery. You’ll soon have it looking like the cover of Country Living magazine.
Keep the dining furniture on a hard landscaped area. You can’t keep moving tables and chairs every time you cut the grass. It’s not so important with sun loungers – especially if they’ve got wheels. If your garden is completely paved, we like to build a little overhead structure, or enclose you in some way, to make it feel like a separate area of the garden. This need not be a heavy or fenced in area. Even some square picture frames around you can make all the difference. If you have a hot and sunny garden, it’s nice to grow scented climbers to provide shade and a heavenly place to sit.
Building beauty
There are so many different materials available to use indoors, they are not subject to weather, dirt and the wear and tear of outdoor life; so light colours, soft fabrics and different flooring materials can look wonderful. Outdoors we have to stick to stone and hard landscaping but there are still some different and quite wonderful things available.
The usual materials for paving are different types and colours of manmade concrete, and limestone, sandstone and other natural stone elements like travertine and granite. These can also be cut in different ways with riven edges or diamond cut edges for a more modern finish with clean lines.
Some stone is still very expensive and quite difficult to work with and lay. I do think that inexpensive materials, combined with a few more expensive details, can look great. It’s a bit like buying an Ikea sofa in cream and then adding a really expensive throw and wonderful cushions that cost a fortune. It keeps the overall price of sofa and cushions down, but still looks the part. I like the outdoor furniture you can buy now – the ‘rattan style‘ sofas and armchairs. Instead of the cream cushions that come with this furniture, I have bought more expensive fabrics that are waterproof and outdoor proof with stripes or spots – it lifts the whole thing into another category.
Small spaces
We like small spaces. Outdoor small spaces are actually good sized rooms and there is so much we can do with them. Just think of the bathroom in your house and how wonderful that can look. Small spaces are often attached to apartments or terraced houses where access is all through the property. Over the years we have amassed a great assortment of protective equipment for work through the house.
We put down hardboard, carpet underlay, polythene sheets and cover everything. We clear up at the end of each day, and then have a good clean and hoover on Fridays to get you all tidy for the weekend. There’s no doubt that limited access is difficult for us and you but the overall benefit of turning that horrible space outside into something wonderful and useable soon outweighs a couple of weeks of upheaval.
You have to think practically about the amount of material that‘s going to come out of the garden or courtyard. Bringing materials in is relatively simple as new materials will be clean, packaged and can be organised in small component parts. Taking things out will be the thing that causes the problem. If you have large overgrown shrubs these will need to be cut up into small bits as you can’t drag huge branches of things through your hallway. Everything that comes out needs to go into a clean bag or bucket and be carried through.
If there are level changes to implement, then we may need to remove part of your garden or even bring in more. Walls may come down, fences may need replacing and all of these things will have to be removed. Sometimes it’s less expensive to build a much bigger garden simply because they have a back gate, a drive where we can site a skip and wide pathways for diggers and wheelbarrows. Labour time is always the most expensive element of any project and if you pay for good labour too, then your costs will go up.
We just completed a roof terrace in Brighton, (it’s in 25 Beautiful Homes this month. Did I sound modest – cause I’m really quite excited!) and that cost over £14,000. The problem was that their apartment was absolutely gorgeous and we didn’t want to bring a single thing in through the building. We rented a scissor lift and took everything up the side of the building (and took everything out down the side of the building too). The massive standard magnolia tree that stands in a pot on the terrace was the scariest thing we’ve ever moved. There was a gale force wind blowing. The tree needed three people to lift it, the scissor lift was extended to its maximum height and we still had to lift the tree up five feet and over a parapet wall. I stood on the terrace and watched the thing swing backwards and forwards in the wind as the guys strained and heaved the pot up onto the wall. We did it of course, but how on earth do you cost in something like that?!
No grass
Have you ever thought of life without grass? I mean, of course, the wet, green stuff out in your garden at the moment. It’s a hard call, and one that men, more than women, are loathe to take. Perhaps the guys still think back to their footballing days and feel that they need a green space to practise their dribbling skills (no comment!) or they’d feel redundant if they didn’t have to complain about cutting the grass on a Sunday after washing the car. Girls seem much more realistic about grass – it’s high maintenance and grass cuttings can cause problems. I know we’re supposed to have equality but I bet another reason is that we girls generally hang out the washing and often the line has been put up by a man in the middle of the lawn. We know about getting our slippers wet.
I honestly think that with a big garden, a lawn is still essential. From a construction point of view, a lawn covering a large area will cost far less than hard landscaping the same space. If you have a growing family, a lawn is also great for cricket and ball games. However, once the family have grown up, the lawn does take a lot of work and effort each week. So, what’s the alternative? How does life work without a lawn? The garden can look really wonderful with the right mix of just hard landscaping and planting. It will be less maintenance than cutting the grass each week and you’ll have a useable surface, whatever the weather. The key thing is not to replace the grass with a hard landscaped area that’s the same size and shape as the old lawn. If the lawn is coming up, something – clearly – has to take its place – but replace it with hard landscaping that has an irregular shape, or use interlocking circles. One circle can be paving, the other can be planting, or planting interspersed with random paving too. Alternatively, interlock other shapes and use the same pave and plant system. In the planted area you could choose all the same plants or shrubs, or put in small fruit trees planted through a membrane and surrounded with cobbles. Plan a garden with a single colour theme using clipped topiary and white plants, or herbs. In a circle garden you could plant white multi stemmed silver birch trees underplanted with spring bulbs and shade tolerant perennials during the summer.
In a small garden, do think about losing the lawn altogether. By keeping the lawn you need additional space for the shed to store the flippin’ lawn mower! A double negative. Children will thrive without a lawn. Paths that lead somewhere and create a circular route in the garden can send them off on small bikes and trikes quite happily. Big shrubs for hide and seek, different places to sit and draw, a safe water feature to observe wildlife – all of these are of more benefit than a spread of grass that’s a no go area in the winter months.
If you would like help designing your garden without a lawn, then do give me a call. Just think – no more grass to cut on a Sunday afternoon but just a seat and somewhere to relax with the paper.
Primroses
My first primroses have started to flower underneath the willow tree. They’re right by the front gate, and always look so welcoming. The Primrose is native to Britain and Europe. The small plants prefer damp places and good rich soil, just like the leaf mould underneath trees. They grow on banks – I love seeing them along the railway embankments – and in woodland areas. They grow especially well in the warm damp climate of the South West, and Devon is known for its Primrose display in the Spring. Primroses are from the Primula family which also include Cowslips and Oxlips.
The petals of the Primrose are joined together to form a tube and this contains the anthers, style and stigma for reproduction. The nectar is located at the bottom of the flower tube. You can buy Primroses outside greengrocers and at all the nurseries at this time of the year. I prefer the yellow or cream colours (although I did succumb to some double pale pink ones the other day). I keep mine indoors at first – putting six into baskets or round bowls. When they’ve had enough of my centrally heated regime, I plant them outside in the garden, first of all taking them out of the pot and cutting the plant in half with a sharp knife. Plant the two new plants into a shady spot underneath a deciduous shrub or tree and they’ll keep spreading over the years.
Sort out the shed
This is the perfect time to get the shed ready for the year ahead. The last time the shed was opened was probably last year when the chair cushions got chucked in there during a thunderstorm, and the barbecue got added after it had got wet.
Wellingtons are covered in cobwebs and gardening gloves are stiff from last year’s gardening. I really don’t like spiders, but I’m not terrified of them. Even so, I do take everything out quite gingerly. Why are shed spiders so HUGE?
Have someone handy who doesn’t mind going to the dump if you can’t have a bonfire. It took us all of last Sunday to sort out our garden shed and I’m quite a tidy person too. One of the problems is that I have to share this space with a man. It doesn’t matter when it comes to things like sock drawers. He can have his untidy drawer and I can have my neat, pristine space. However, the shed is a common area and I havenow put my own little trug – with my gardening accoutrements – safely in one corner. I have found the perfect way to make sure the guys don’t borrow my gardening things and take them onto site, never to be seen again. It was simple. I bought them all in pink.
City & Country Gardens
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Speedy gravel
Gravel is quite often used in a low cost situation. It’s a good, inexpensive ground cover and if you use a membrane underneath it, then weeds won’t push through. This doesn’t stop them seeding into the gravel itself, but they’re easily removed with a good rake now and again. I don’t like using gravel on its own as a complete cover, but used in conjunction with other paving and planting it can look really quite attractive. If you plant special plants that will sprawl across the paving and choose the position of the paving carefully, a new patio can be created quite inexpensively. Gravel also helps if you already have an existing concrete courtyard or patio and can’t afford to dig all of this out. You need to be careful not to go above the damp proof course on your house (this is the line you can often see around the base of the walls) but if you make sure that the gravel is near the house, you haven’t created an impermeable surface that rain cannot pass through. You can then place any paving away from the house adjoining the gravel. If you’ve got the strength, you can break up some of the old paving where you’re going to put the gravel, and that’s where the lovely sprawling plants can go. A small courtyard garden can be transformed with a small amount of paving, planting and gravel.
The other good thing about gravel is that it’s instant. You can buy a bulk bag from Travis Perkins, delivered, for about £45 and that will go a long way. If you prefer, you can choose a Cotswold stone type chipping and that will cost around £110. It looks more expensive too. If you go over to your local builders’ merchants, they will be able to show you different types of stone and different sizes too. A normal gravel will come in a 20mm size. Cobbles are larger at 40mm. There is also a 10mm pea shingle, which is self explanatory.
Gravel is also sold in smaller bags if you find you can’t handle the large bulk bags. Again, most builders’ merchants will deliver out to you – often free of charge and small quantities too. These bags are often grubby to handle, but not too heavy. I base most things on whether I can lift them or not, and usually buy my potting compost in the smaller bags just because I can then carry them from the car to the garden. Smaller bags are, of course, a bit more expensive but weighed up against the osteopaths charge it usually makes sense. It’s not just the builders merchants that will deliver out to you nowadays. As well as buying your shopping online, you can order pretty much anything from the nursery and have it delivered. If you know that you want bags of soil and trays of plants you can ring through an order and have it delivered in a couple of days. With the joy of shopping completely taken away now that nurseries sell too many remaindered books, jars of jam and candles, delivery is the way to pretend that things are just the way they used to be. Oh, am I getting old?!
Clever Ivy
What a bad name this little plant can get. It’s so clever, and can cover such a huge expanse of stonework or tree trunk, we’re all a bit paranoid about cutting it down. True, its roots can work their way into brickwork or crumbling masonry and cause problems but generally in the garden it can cover unsightly sheds, garages and fences quite quickly. Also, it provides the perfect habitat for nesting birds. In the winter it’s a great plant to put into pots. Most people forget about their pots in the winter. They spend hours, and pounds, potting them all up in the summer. Bedding plants, potting compost, miracle grow and hours watering. Yet in the summer they’re just left with brown straggly plants and dead geraniums looking awful in the garden. I clear all my pots out at the end of the season and plant some up with tulip bulbs. The rest get planted with trailing ivy, pansies or violas and hyacinths. For bigger pots you can add small conifers and heathers for colour.
Place a couple of pots by the main doors in and out of the house. Add cyclamen and flowering primroses as you see them in the shops – just popping them into a space in the pot and then replacing them as they die off. I have different types of trailing ivies in my old terracotta pots that I keep on the table outside my window. I move different pots of bulbs and primroses to add to the display throughout the winter, but the ivy is there constantly. It also looks wonderful in the summer combined with white roses. If you keep it cut back hard to a framework it can grace any building. For a good hard-working climber, evergreen and lovely for cutting and adding to an indoor vase of flowers, you can’t really go wrong.
Busy, busy and climate change
It’s suddenly getting busy! Well, it is for an anorak gardener like me. According to my wonderful old Readers Digest Book it’s time to plant rhubarb, chit my potatoes and plant my sweet peas. Early potatoes can be started off in trays to sprout and if you don’t have much room you can grow them in a big old pot or dustbin once they’re ready to go out. The first early potatoes have the most wonderful taste. Chitting them means encouraging the first little sprouts to appear. Once they have sprouted you can put them into the earth and as the sprouted part pushes up out of the earth, you cover them back over again. This encourages lots of little potatoes to form on the shoots. When you dig them up, the skins just wash off. They only take ten minutes to cook. Add melted butter and a poached egg on top. It’s food fit for a king.
City & Country Gardens
For all the things in your garden – talk to us!
01273 202115 / 01903 892285
www.city-gardens.net
Stone ethics
For once I am pleased to hear that prices are going up. Indian sandstone has been used within the construction industry for some years now. Sandstone is a good, durable and attractive paving material. It comes in many colours – some called sandstone, but actually limestone. However, it’s often chosen by contractors not because of its aesthetic appearance, but because it can be bought cheaply. Many small, independent importers jumped on the sandstone bandwagon and imported crates of stone to sell on to garden centres, builders’ merchants and landscape companies. However, sandstone was cheap for only one reason. Women and children are used to quarry the stone in India, earning 60p per day.
Because of pressure from concerned parties, and contractors who insist on sandstone from ethical sources, the price of sandstone will rise this year – in some cases by 38 per cent. How can it be that stone, all the way from India, which is quarried and transported thousands of miles and involving many people in the supply chain, can be cheaper than a locally bought and quarried stone? It’s quite simple when you don’t pay any of that supply chain properly or decently.
Many builders’ merchants, including Travis Perkins, Marshalls and Benton Weatherstone, make absolutely sure that their sandstone is ethically sourced. Their entire Indian supply chain, right back to the quarries themselves, is audited to ensure compliance with the International Labour Organisation. Sandstone comes in a number of paving sizes, but the smaller ‘setts’ are often made by children. Marshalls import larger pieces of stone and make the setts themselves at their processing plant.
A well-run and legislated quarry will not employ women and children and will use proper protective equipment. They will also provide welfare and sick-pay for their workers. Quite often the workers live on site too, so the constant dust at the quarry can cause breathing issues – similar to ‘miner’s lung’. Sandstone will be used for 20 per cent of the UK domestic paving in the next ten years and I believe it is extremely important to be aware of the impact of irresponsible quarrying – both in human and environmental terms.
As a company, we only use suppliers of Indian sandstone whom we know to adhere to the strict code of practice for the manufacture and supply. If you use a contractor to build a patio or steps for you, please check the authenticity of the products they supply to you. The same strict code of practice applies to wood products too. The difference between checking and not caring could mean a world of difference to a child worker.
Pussy willow and catkins
These are the first signs of Spring in the hedgerows. I love seeing the trees coming back to life after their winter dormancy. On a blowy March day, when the sun starts to shine with more strength and light than the pale wintery imposter we’ve had to put up with, the catkins jump about on the end of branches like a live thing. They’re also known as lamb’s tails. They do look a bit like them when they wriggle about. Catkins appear on the trees before the leaves because they’re the wind-pollinated way for the tree to reproduce. The wind blows the catkins about and they’re covered in pollen. The pollen has a chance to blow onto the stigmas of the female flowers and fertilise them.
If there were leaves on the tree, the pollen would get stuck on the leaves. Nature is being brilliant as always. Pussy Willow is also a pollen-covered way of reproduction. It’s said that a Willow tree once bent down and fished some drowning kittens out of a fast flowing river and ever since, the willow tree has had tiny kittens on the end of its branches each Spring, though this story does make mefeel a bit queasy. I like the straightforward pollen-without-the-leaves bit myself. If you cut the branches, they last for ages (but please don’t cut them in the wild). In some areas they are carried on Palm Sunday. I like to buy a few branches to mix with daffodils in a big jug on the hall table. It makes me feel that Spring is just around the corner.
Pea sticks
Carefully keep removing the dead leaves and debris from the flower beds. I say carefully, because bulbs and special things are certainly starting to come through now. Keep the soil forked gently around the emerging bulbs and herbaceous leaves. Treat new shoots and shrubs (not paeonies – they don’t like it) to a bucketful of well rotted manure, or a handful of fish blood and bone (sounds delightful). Keep an eye on wind-blown branches and shrubs and cut back any broken or dead wood. At this time of the year, when the leaves are all off the trees and shrubs, you can really see the infrastructure and work out what needs removing. Be careful not to prune Spring-flowering shrubs because you’ll probably prune off all the flowers that have been growing on the branches since last year. As a rule of thumb, prune Spring-flowering things after they’ve flowered, not before. Keep tying-in your roses. Somehow they still seem to be putting on growth.
If your garden’s not too frosty you can start to prune your roses back too into the framework you want. It’s all about tidiness and order at this time of year. Putting in supports for herbaceous plants now will be much better than wading in there with bamboo canes and bits of string in June. A border that looks like a trussed chicken is no border at all! If you shop around, you can still buy things called Pea Sticks to placeall around your taller herbaceous plants – like lupins, delphiniums and paeonies. Push the sticks gently in a circle around the new leaves and the sticks will support the growth throughout the season. By the time June arrives, you won’t be able to see the sticks at all, just a lovely display of plants. And no trussed-up chicken borders.
Stone ethics
For once I am pleased to hear that prices are going up. Indian sandstone has been used within the construction industry for some years now. Sandstone is a good, durable and attractive paving material. It comes in many colours – some called sandstone, but actually limestone. However, it’s often chosen by contractors not because of its aesthetic appearance, but because it can be bought cheaply. Many small, independent importers jumped on the sandstone bandwagon and imported crates of stone to sell on to garden centres, builders’ merchants and landscape companies. However, sandstone was cheap for only one reason. Women and children are used to quarry the stone in India, earning 60p per day.
Because of pressure from concerned parties, and contractors who insist on sandstone from ethical sources, the price of sandstone will rise this year – in some cases by 38 per cent. How can it be that stone, all the way from India, which is quarried and transported thousands of miles and involving many people in the supply chain, can be cheaper than a locally bought and quarried stone? It’s quite simple when you don’t pay any of that supply chain properly or decently.
Many builders’ merchants, including Travis Perkins, Marshalls and Benton Weatherstone, make absolutely sure that their sandstone is ethically sourced. Their entire Indian supply chain, right back to the quarries themselves, is audited to ensure compliance with the International Labour Organisation. Sandstone comes in a number of paving sizes, but the smaller ‘setts’ are often made by children. Marshalls import larger pieces of stone and make the setts themselves at their processing plant.
A well-run and legislated quarry will not employ women and children and will use proper protective equipment. They will also provide welfare and sick-pay for their workers. Quite often the workers live on site too, so the constant dust at the quarry can cause breathing issues – similar to ‘miner’s lung’. Sandstone will be used for 20 per cent of the UK domestic paving in the next ten years and I believe it is extremely important to be aware of the impact of irresponsible quarrying – both in human and environmental terms.
As a company, we only use suppliers of Indian sandstone whom we know to adhere to the strict code of practice for the manufacture and supply. If you use a contractor to build a patio or steps for you, please check the authenticity of the products they supply to you. The same strict code of practice applies to wood products too. The difference between checking and not caring could mean a world of difference to a child worker.
Pussy willow and catkins
These are the first signs of Spring in the hedgerows. I love seeing the trees coming back to life after their winter dormancy. On a blowy March day, when the sun starts to shine with more strength and light than the pale wintery imposter we’ve had to put up with, the catkins jump about on the end of branches like a live thing. They’re also known as lamb’s tails. They do look a bit like them when they wriggle about. Catkins appear on the trees before the leaves because they’re the wind-pollinated way for the tree to reproduce. The wind blows the catkins about and they’re covered in pollen. The pollen has a chance to blow onto the stigmas of the female flowers and fertilise them.
If there were leaves on the tree, the pollen would get stuck on the leaves. Nature is being brilliant as always. Pussy Willow is also a pollen-covered way of reproduction. It’s said that a Willow tree once bent down and fished some drowning kittens out of a fast flowing river and ever since, the willow tree has had tiny kittens on the end of its branches each Spring, though this story does make mefeel a bit queasy. I like the straightforward pollen-without-the-leaves bit myself. If you cut the branches, they last for ages (but please don’t cut them in the wild). In some areas they are carried on Palm Sunday. I like to buy a few branches to mix with daffodils in a big jug on the hall table. It makes me feel that Spring is just around the corner.
Pea sticks
Carefully keep removing the dead leaves and debris from the flower beds. I say carefully, because bulbs and special things are certainly starting to come through now. Keep the soil forked gently around the emerging bulbs and herbaceous leaves. Treat new shoots and shrubs (not paeonies – they don’t like it) to a bucketful of well rotted manure, or a handful of fish blood and bone (sounds delightful). Keep an eye on wind-blown branches and shrubs and cut back any broken or dead wood. At this time of the year, when the leaves are all off the trees and shrubs, you can really see the infrastructure and work out what needs removing. Be careful not to prune Spring-flowering shrubs because you’ll probably prune off all the flowers that have been growing on the branches since last year. As a rule of thumb, prune Spring-flowering things after they’ve flowered, not before. Keep tying-in your roses. Somehow they still seem to be putting on growth.
If your garden’s not too frosty you can start to prune your roses back too into the framework you want. It’s all about tidiness and order at this time of year. Putting in supports for herbaceous plants now will be much better than wading in there with bamboo canes and bits of string in June. A border that looks like a trussed chicken is no border at all! If you shop around, you can still buy things called Pea Sticks to placeall around your taller herbaceous plants – like lupins, delphiniums and paeonies. Push the sticks gently in a circle around the new leaves and the sticks will support the growth throughout the season. By the time June arrives, you won’t be able to see the sticks at all, just a lovely display of plants. And no trussed-up chicken borders.
Bricks and mortar Bricks are wonderful things. I remember first learning about them at college, and becoming a complete anorak later, looking at walls to see how they had been built at every opportunity. If you look at a wall, you can see that the bricks are laid in different ways. A ‘stretcher’ is the long side of the brick and the ‘header’ is the short end of the brick. If a brick is laid with the stretcher edge, side by side, and then one over the top – laid in the middle of the gap – this is called a stretcher bond. An old brick wall may be laid with English Bond. This is where there is a row of stretchers followed by a row of headers. This makes the wall very strong, and thick too. There are walls with alternate headers and stretchers, and other patterns too. Once you start looking, it’s really interesting to see how walls have been built (honestly!). Our house was built with alternating headers and stretchers which is called Flemish Bond.
Bricks enabled buildings to be more permanent. The original mud bricks were far more susceptible to weather conditions, so clay bricks started to be used across Europe from around 1200AD. The ancient Egyptians used mudbrick extensively, and the ratio for the dimensions of their bricks was 4:2:1, the same ratio used today! Those Egyptians were a clever lot. The Roman legions operated mobile kilns and introduced bricks to many parts of their empire.
During the Renaissance, visible brick walls were unpopular so the brickwork was often covered in plaster. It wasn’t until the mid 18th century that brick walls regained their popularity.
Before the age of transport – canals, railways and trucks – it was difficult to transport bricks from region to region so local bricks were made using local clay. Transporting bricks by horse and cart doubled their price. Pink coloured bricks show more iron content, and white or more yellow bricks have more lime. Most bricks burn to a red hue, but if the temperature is increased the colour moves through dark red, purple and then to brown or grey at around 1300°C.
Bricks can also be made from stone – granite, limestone and sandstone – but these need far greater foundations due to their enormous comparative mass. Skilled labour is needed for construction, but they look wonderful and are incredibly durable.
Bricks are used today for low-rise buildings as other materials are far better for taller buildings. Bricks are slow to lay and labour intensive. Huge sheets of steel and glass can create wall and division far more quickly.
A brick wall will last for many years. It is frost proof and will age slowly and beautifully. Lichens will grow and the brick will hold warmth from the sun, providing a popular environment for climbers or peach trees. Old or new bricks can be used and the old Victorian walled kitchen garden was often the warmest place in the garden to sit. I can just imagine how lovely that must have been on a warm spring day.
Ferns
This is a huge family of plants with thousands and thousands of species. The fern dates back to the dinosaur age, and the coal that we mine today is made up of many prehistoric plants including ferns. It’s no surprise that the Jurassic Park monsters lumbered around the forest floor through huge groups of ferns. Someone in the film crew had clearly done their homework. Ferns are actually far more exciting than you would think. They look really wonderful planted near or around statues, water features and old fashioned bird paths or pedestals. They like a shady spot and, apparently, a more alkaline soil than I have ever given my specimens. If you have an especially damp and dull spot, then think about buying something special to go there – some artefact. Visit a salvage yard and look for something made of stone – an old plinth, a gargoyle – and plant some ferns around the base. It works really well in any garden – modern or traditional.
The Victorians loved ferns and created special glass cases for them called wardian cases. They decorated glass, china and jewellery with fern images. Ferns don’t have flowers and for many years it wasn’t understood how they could reproduce. It was even believed that they produced invisible flowers on Midsummers Eve! Now their spores and reproductive life is no longer a mystery, just a marvel. I love watching the new fronds unfurl from their spiral home.
Seeds of wisdom
This is a good time to order your plant and seed catalogues. When it’s too wet to get outside – or even dry, but too cold – you can sit by the window with a mug of tea, and the last of the Christmas cake, while looking at seeds and plants that you intend growing this year. Now this is a bit like going shopping when you’re starving. The pictures look wonderful, the descriptions are irresistible but the ‘serving suggestion’ shown in the photograph is not necessarily what you’ll see, so don’t get carried away!
If you’re new to gardening, stick to hardy annuals and just a couple of perennials. If you want to grow vegetables, think carefully about the space that’s available and don’t be tempted to try and grow more veg than space. Things like cabbages and cauliflowers take up a lot of space and time for the yield. Tomatoes and potatoes are great value for money, and even the smallest garden can have space for a tomato plant. I love growing plants from seed. There’s such a sense of achievement as they germinate and start to grow into healthy little plants. You’ll grow far more than you need but it’s lovely to give a friend some plants to take home. When the window sills are full of seed trays, all with their own little labels, I can believe that spring is on the way again. Seed catalogues are free and my favourite company is Thompson and Morgan. I read a report recently that also said their seeds were among the best for germination success.
Happy seeding!
City & Country Gardens
For all the things in your garden – talk to us!
01273 202115 / 01903 892285
www.city-gardens.net
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