Weather: On Wednesday hard frost, indecisive weather, brief moments of very wet snow/ sleet. Then a magnificient sunset. On Thursday frosty and overcast most of the day, then it rained as we were finishing.
We worked en masse on a big stock bed in the Peacock Garden both days. Certain things had started to take over too much. This meant carving spaces into it. I dug out plants like Senecio tanguticus (which has small jerusalem artichoke like tubers), Eupatorium fortunei 'Pink Elegance', Verbascum, Mysotis (forget-me-nots), Oenothera biennis, various bulbs (tulips and snowdrops) and Myrrhis odoratus (Sweet Cicely). We saved all of the strongest plants and we executed the work as methodically, precisely and cleanly as possible, cleaning the boards & paths as we went and sorting the plants in different crates. The frost actually helped make the clay more dry and crumbly & easier to work with. As Christopher Lloyd says the wet can easily make it too much of a 'mimsy mire'.
 |
| Roots of the Eupatorium fortunei 'Pink Elegance' |
Here is a view of almost the same spot about three months ago:
Maggie Tran was the 2012-13 Christopher Lloyd & Historic Botanical Garden Bursary Scheme (HBGBS) Scholar at Great Dixter. Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Follow her new blog
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.