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| Go greener |
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| With a growing number of gardeners eschewing chemicals in favour of natural alternatives, we can suggest some effective products from our organic gardening selection |
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| Relax and refresh |
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| Good food freshly prepared daily, aromatic coffee, chilled wine and a grassy play area for the children. What more could you need? |
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| Food heaven |
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| Our Farm Shop is heaven for food lovers! Delicious handmade food, top quality groceries, fresh fruit and vegetables and stylish cookware and gifts. |
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| The Discovery Walk |
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| As thousands of daffodils herald the spring, stroll or stride around our Walk while the youngsters enjoy the Nature Trail |
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Don’t make a mockery of your rockery!
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| Thursday, 31st July 2008 |
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IN THE GARDEN WITH PETA MARSHALL
If you have a lovely rockery – either built yourself, or perhaps it was already there when you moved in – you owe it to yourself to make it look good. And once you start looking for a few choice plants…there is a good chance you’ll get hooked!
The world of ‘alpine’ plants is a fascinating one and because of their small size these plants, unlike almost any other plant group, will fit comfortably in any garden.
What is the definition of an alpine plant? Well, ‘alpine’ suggests ‘mountainous’, and indeed most alpine plants do come from high altitudes where very cold temperatures exist. However, the term alpine plant can also refer to a plant that likes to grow in a rock situation, even if it is at sea level! Plants that survive in dry stone walls, for example, usually make great rock garden plants.
The thing that confuses a lot of people is that, as alpines can endure cold conditions it is thought that they also survive happily in our British winters. But anyone who has lumbered into rockery gardening unprepared will know that these plants can also die off very rapidly.
This is usually because they have become over-wet through rain, and for a prolonged period throughout autumn and winter. And it is this long period of cold, wet inactivity that does for many of them; the cold itself wouldn’t be a problem.
For this reason you often see experienced alpine gardeners placing panes of glass supported by bricks over certain precious alpine plants. This isn’t to warm them up like a cloche would, but simply to keep off the worst of the rain.
But I’m jumping ahead of myself, for now is not winter…it’s summer.
Yippee! Summer colour in the garden. Flower beds, roses, flowering trees and shrubs…you can’t move for vibrant summer flower colour. Except for the rock garden!
You would be surprised at the number of rockeries I’ve seen that come alive in spring, and which by the end of May everything has faded and died back, leaving a very green and grey lifeless part of the garden throughout summer.
But you can change that by planting some summer-flowering alpines. Here is my top 10:
• Convolvulus sabatius forms a lovely mat of shining violet-shaded blue trumpets looking upwards and just clear of the leaves. It flowers all summer and well into autumn. Just 6in. high.
• Satin Flower (Sisyrinchium idahoense ‘Album’) starts flowering in late spring and carries on until mid-summer. White flowers are carried on 5-12in. high stems.
• Fleabane (Erigeron aureus ‘Canary Bird’) has large pale yellow daisy flowers each with a central bronze disc. The silky, purplish flower buds are also attractive. The plant is just 2-5in. high.
• Mount Atlas daisy (Anacyclus pyrethrum depressus) is another daisy plant. Purple-red buds open to wide, white daisies with central yellow discs on stems 6in. high.
• Penstemon hirsutus ‘Pygmaeus’ is unlike most other penstemons, being ideal for a neat rock garden, or even a small container. The typical tubular flowers are white usually with blue or purple tints. A procession of blooms are produced throughout summer, on stems up to 4in. tall.
• Flower of the Job is the strange common name for Lychnis flos-jovis. Clusters of flat, shocking pink blooms appear in mid-summer on stems for 8-18in. tall.
• Gentiana sino-ornata is known as the autumn gentian, although it can start to show its bright blue flowers from mid-summer onwards; it certainly carries on into October. Each flower takes the form of a huge, upward-facing trumpet of brilliant deep sky-blue. The plant is just 1in. high for most of the year, extending to a massive 3in. when the blooms come!
• Dwarf campion (Silene schafta) produces bright magenta flowers, each with five petals. Blooms are supported on long ‘tubes’ meaning that they are held well proud of the foliage. There is a continual supply of flowers from late spring to late autumn on stems 4-5in. high.
• Evening primrose (Oenothera missouriensis) is a miniature form of the larger ‘evening primrose’ often found growing wild in gardens and on verges. It is neat and, as the name suggests, greets us as we come home from work by opening its flowers in the evening. Golden yellow blooms, sometimes marked with a few red spots are held on stems 4in. high.
• Dittany (Origanum amanum) has pink and light green flowers on 4-8in. high stems through mid- and late summer.
There are many others of course, and if I had the space I could write a similar article for autumn and winter alpines…and half a dozen similar articles for spring-flowering types. As I say, if you’re not careful you could get hooked!
The encouraging thing is that these plants are not difficult to grow…just follow my six point-plan:
1. Feed once-a-year in spring with a general fertiliser
2. Water in dry, hot weather (preferably in early morning) during summer
3. Remove flowers when they fade; this may involve going over the tops of the plants with a pair of shears
4. Cut plants back if they get too large (after flowering), but don’t cut into very old wood
5. Remove fallen leaves from rockeries in autumn as they can choke alpines and cause them to rot
6. As mentioned earlier, protect your favourites from excessive winter wet by supporting a pane of glass over them
And there you have it…rock on! Happy gardening!
This week in your garden
Prepare strawberry beds for new plants. Remove weeds, dig over and add some well-rotted manure or compost. Plants put in now will produce a few fruits next year, with their best crops in the second and third years.
Pot up hardy herbs so that you can have some fresh shoots to use in winter. Chives, oregano, thyme and various mints are all suitable.
Maximise sunlight falling upon shaded ripening marrows or tomatoes by removing any leaves shading them.
Peta Marshall is the plant centre manager at Priory Farm in Nutfield. Website: www.prioryfarm.co.uk
NEXT WEEK: The fragrant garden
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