Acer Corner

Autumn

2009-10-29T15:04:00.009Z

Autumn has come suddenly this year, about two weeks ago.

We had a warm and dry autumn followed by a short cold spell, which makes for particularly good autumn colour.

This morning looking out from our dining romm window, the whole garden had a golden hue about it. I hope I managed to capture it.

It's interesting to see that not all trees turn colours at the same time. While the Liquidambar started showing signs of autumn right after the cold spell.

Some of the acers for example Acer Palmatum 'Seiryu' only just started showing their autumn colour. Perhaps because it is growing near the north wall of the house.

And then, there are those just at their peak.

Acer palmatum 'Sunset'

I suspect the leaves will mostly be gone with the next windy day we have, so I try to enjoy them while they last.

Glorious September

2009-09-12T21:31:00.005+01:00

August was a fairly dull month, the roses were between flushes and the dahlias were eaten by slugs so many times, that there were hardly any flowers on them.

But, with the warm September came a new flush of flowers, most roses are again in full bloom and looking great.

Rosa 'Raphsody in Blue'

I guess cutting the roses back quite hard when dead-heading them keeps the shrubs neat and tidy, just the way I like them, but delays somewhat the next flush of flowers.

Unknown white rose saved from the original garden

Unusually the spring flowering viburnum also flowered, though it's already showing the beginning of autumn colour.

Viburnum 'Watanabe'

Global Warming?

2009-09-01T21:21:00.004+01:00

This year was not particularly warm, with the exception of one hot week temperatures have been pleasant or below.

True, we had no spring frosts this year but could this explain the phenomenon?

Clematis Armandii

Clematis Armandii, which normaly flowers in March, in flower at the end of August. It is growing on a warm garage wall, but then it's been there for 5 years and it never flowered in August before.

First Signs of Autumn

2009-08-25T19:06:00.012+01:00

It's August and the weather has been great in the last few weeks, but the first signs of Autumn can be seen in the garden already.

The Katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) is showing it's first colours.

While in the wild, in it's native Japan, this tree can reach 45m, keeping it in a pot reduced it's size considerably. It's been living in this pot for 3 years and looks happy. I will be cutting back the roots next spring and repotting it with new compost.

Out of Date Green Shoots

2009-07-27T21:02:00.006+01:00

It's been a while since last post, but life got in the way.

I had a post all ready in my mind as soon as the first Dahlia shoots appeared in May, green shoots being such a popular phrase ....

My very first post almost two year ago was about Dahlias. I reported then that I do not dig them up in autumn. With the borders bursting with plants it would be quite difficult. After the freezing winter we had this year, I had my doubts, but, I am happy to report there were no casualties in the garden. While I missed the green shoots, some of the Dahlias are now in full bloom.

Dahlia 'White Perfection'

This year is the first we opened for the NGS, and we had excellent response. We had a total of 330 vistors, some coming from far away such as Devon and ... Sweden. The weather was good on both weekends and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

I look forward to next year's opening.

Dahlia 'Penelope'

Best in April

2009-05-17T18:40:00.010+01:00

One of the highlights of the garden during the last month has been our flowering cherry (Prunus 'Shirofugen'). I always wanted a flowering cherry in the front garden, where the Japanese theme is stronger*, but was always unsure which one to chose.

Two years ago while in Malvern for the spring flower show we visited a tree nursery in the area. (Ornamental Tree Nursery in Herefordshire, they also have a good collection of Acer palmatum).

After a long drive we arrived to what seemed a fairly modest establishmnet, only to be surprised by the size of the place, and the huge selection of trees. We spent the afternoon walking between the rows, as we came upon the perfect flowering cherry, in full flower.
In the following years the display was not nearly as spectacular. Probably because of the late frosts.

This year was different, April was mild, and it hardly rained. The tree was full of flowers for almost a month, starting white, then turning pink before blowing away in the wind.

While the flowers are the main feature, this tree also has redish new growth, good autumn colour and an elegant form in winter.

* The Japanese tradition of 'Hanami' or Flower viewing is centruries old, and almost always means viewing of cherry blossom or 'sakura'.

Spring is Here to Stay

2009-04-29T21:21:00.008+01:00

It looks like after a proper winter comes a proper spring. It came gently this year, in March, and unlike previous couple of years it did not go away again.
This means that we managed to complete Vi's garden at a leisurely pace, in preparation for our open garden in June.

The deck is comlete and the area between the deck and the border is covered in gravel over a layer of sand covered with weed suppressing fabric.
Most of the planting is also complete. The only major job left is completing the pergola over the deck.

Spring was generally warm and not too rainy so compared to previous years plants have put on good growth. The tips of the hostas are already showing and there are already buds on some of the roses. All acers are covered in beatiful spring leaves.
But the highlight in the garden in the last couple of weeks have been the tulips:

A mixture of orange (Tulipa 'Ballerina'), dark orange (Tulipa 'Abu Hasan'), white (Tulipa 'Spring Green' and lilac (can't remember the name ...).
The tulips were planted quite late last year (early December), and because of the mild spring they started flowering earlier then previous year, and lasted longer.
I don't intend to dig up the tulips after flowering. They are planted quite deep and if we have a relativley dry summer I am hopefull they will come back next year.

Is it spring yet….

2009-03-27T20:28:00.004Z

Not much has happened in the garden during February. It snowed a few times and the garden was covered in snow for most of the month.

It was also colder then usual, and I feared some casualties. But there was surprisingly little damage to deal with. The greenhouse came out of the cold unscathed (which is probably reflected in our electricity bill). And in the garden the only casualties were a couple of Hebe. While most are hardy, it seems there are a few varieties which are not, which is not always clear from their labels.

As soon as the snow subsided we resumed work on Vi’s garden, starting by digging the electricity trenches. So we have proper sockets in the greenhouse and by the new deck.

A New Year

2009-01-24T19:14:00.012Z

I did not write a post since October, because winter came quite suddenly and early this year, and not much happened in the garden in the last months. We had our first snow when the leaves were still on the trees

as well as spectacular autumn colours, probably as a result of the frosty nights.

December was very cold, dipping down to -6C on some nights, and staying bellow freezing during the day as well on some days. Not really gardening weather. The frequent frost did lend itself to some beautiful photographs.

I can count on one hand the number of days when we could actually work outside, and we used those to setup the frame for the new deck in Vi's garden. I will post some images on our progress in my next post. Meanwhile I wish you all a happy new year, cross your fingers for a real summer in 2009.

A New Greenhouse is Born

2008-10-15T09:54:00.005+01:00

The new greenhouse is now up, though the mess around it is unfortunatley still there.

The greenhouse was a breeze to put up. It only took 2 hours to put up the frame which comes in only 6 pieces. Sliding in the glass took a bit longer, but everything was up in two days. We were lucky with the weather as some wind would have cause some dificulty with the roof panes which are quite large.

To avoid the weeds we had in the old greenhouse , we built a raised bed, which will be used for tomatoes. and paved the rest. We used recycled slabs from an old patio near the house and, to avoid cutting the slabs, gravel at the edges.

The old green house is relocated to the allotment, but this is another story ....

New Greenhouse Almost There

2008-10-06T11:19:00.010+01:00

The new greenhouse arrives this weekend, and we managed to beat the wather this weekend and clear the area, looks rather empty know.

The old greenouse moved to the allotment, but the base is still there and needs to go by Wednesday when the building of the new base starts (no we will not do it ourselves, I am still a bit scared of concrete ..., so a local contractor will do the job).

As you may have noticed the shed is missing from it's usual place by the fence. We managed to move it to it's permanent place on the new patio.

We managed this by sliding the shed on deck planks using furniture wheels, we happened to have in the garage, and which we never used before.
It's hard work to get all four corners on the wheels, but once they were on it's almost plain sailing.

Vi's Garden - Progress

2008-09-17T11:10:00.004+01:00

The first stage building this part of the garden is complete. We have a new patio area to house the shed, the BBQ, compost bin and the rest of the mess, which should be hidden from view by the shed. The shed will stand on the left side of the pation and hide the corner from view.

The entrance to the shed will be camouflaged by a strategically placed acer.
The next step will be moving the shed and preparing the space for the new greenhouse.
Watch this space ...

Levens Hall - Cumbria

2008-09-04T11:39:00.011+01:00

While we are very fond of exotic places where good wheather is virtually guaranteed, this year we desided to spend our vacation closer to home - a week in the Lake District and a week in Cornwall.

In the Lake District, the weathther was mostly miserrable so instead of hiking in the fels we used the bad wather as an opportunity to visit some gardens.

Levens hall is by far the best of them (there is some family debate about this, with Sizergh castle coming close second - but it is my blog after all).

Levens hall garden dates from 1694, and some of the larger topiary structure are over 300 years old, mostly yew. (a few of them sport round benches underneath, and are very effective when it rains).

The structure of the garden remains unchanged through the seasons, the enclosed areas between the structures are planted with anuals, providing seasonal interest.
There are other interesting areas in the garden including a perennial border, a kitchen garden and orchard all enclosed by hedges, and featuring topiary and formal elements, but it's the topiary garden which is the most impresive. A true inspiration.

Vi's Garden - The Master Plan

2008-09-03T14:45:00.008+01:00

Finaly we managed to agree on the layout for this part of the garden, after some serious shuffling of features i.e. movin the shed into at least 3 different positions (metaphorically speaking), before the final layout took shape.

So here is the plan:

The tiled patio is the first step, after which we will dissmantle the old greenhouse and and move the shed to it's new position.
The new greenhouse will arrive at the begining of October just in time for my birthday, putting it together should keep us busy for a few weekends.

The tree in the corner is already in place, it's an Acer platanoides 'Crimson King' (Norway maple). It's a lovley beetroot color, and should be fast growing, so should shade the storage area prety quickly. What the autum colour will be like remains to be seen. (picture to follow)

The Last Project - Vi's Garden

2008-07-30T13:39:00.007+01:00

A couple of years ago we purchased the end of our neighbour Vi's garden, which makes our garden L-shaped. While we were working on other parts of the garden, we turned this part into a dumping ground for soil dug up elsewhere, prunings and other bits and pieces for which we couldn't find immediate use.
We still call it Vi's garden.

Now that the rest of the garden is more or less complete, it's time to tackle this part. So I will report on how the work is progressing.

This part of the garden is trapeze shaped:

And here's a picture illustrating the mess (the pile of soil mentioned is hiding behind the BBQ):

The first task will be to level the soil so we can start moving stuff around. The shed will be moving to the far right side corner to hide behind it a mess area. We also bought a new greenhouse which will replace the shed.
On the new design next time .....

P.S We have been accepted to the National Garden Scheme and will open the garden regularly from 2009; dates to be confirmed.

A Very Interesting Rose

2008-07-12T21:37:00.006+01:00

I have many roses in the garden, and now they are at their best.
Most are fragrant English roses, but the one that stands out is a modest Floribunda - Rosa 'Irish Eyes'. I bought it at Hampton Court flower show because of the orange colour (all roses in this part of the garden, which I didn't map yet ... are orange, apricot or white), but it turned out much more interesting.
It starts a beautiful orange ....

Turns into a deep orange red ....

And then turns pale yellow before it needs to be dead-headed ....

And the best part is it flowers continuously between July and the first frost. Any downsides you ask, well there is always one, it has no scent. But the wonderful flowers certainly make up for it.

Back Patio Plan

2008-06-23T19:09:00.004+01:00

Finally I managed to map another part of the garden - the back patio immediately adjacent to the house. This is the part of the garden where I kept many of the mature shrubs, so I am unable to precisely identify them.
This part of the garden is visible from the kitchen as well as the dining room.
The entrance to the garden is on the left side marked with an arrow. There is a redwood deck just outside the house. We built a stone patio in the center of the area where we keep our table and chairs in summer, the patio is surrounded by gravel.

I have been unable to post a larger image, so if you are interested in the planting details please e-mail me at jo@acercorner.com for a more legible version.

(Not) Resting on the Laurels

2008-06-11T14:56:00.016+01:00

Since I mentioned laurels in my last post, I already implemented some changes.
You can see in the pictures below there are 3 large ferns in the front garden which have overgrown their space, and hide everything behind them (all 3 have been split from a fern which I found in the garden when we moved in, and I believed for a long time to be dead).

All 3 now moved to new homes. 2 of them in the back garden and the right hand one in the right hand picture further back to the edge of the box.

I filled the other spaces with a selection of smaller ferns and grasses, and realised I now have space for a new acer!

The acer I am after is Acer Palmatum 'Little Princess', which is a small tree with red edged green leaves. I have seen it at garden shows (as large specimen), but so far I was not able to hunt one down. Hopefully my coming visit at Hampton Court flower show, will help.

And, there is another, less planned changed. As you can see in the top picture, there is a wooden seat between the boxes, which provides a good view of the garden (not that I used it that much). Unfortunately the seat was rather uncomfortable.
Last week I finally found the time to visit our local architectural salvage cum antique shop (which is just opposite the garden centre, so really I sould have visited before), and spotted a bench which fits in the small space. Hopeful, I sat on it and it turned out to be comfortable, so now it graces the front garden and gone are the excuses not to sit there ...
(It does need a lick of paint, and we do need to hide the water pipe behind it, but that's no excuse ... )

Open Garden

2008-06-03T09:13:00.003+01:00

We had an open garden day on the bank holiday weekend in aid of Iain Rennie. The weather was not too promissing and indeed the day started with pouring rain.

But, while I was showing a lady around wearing my waterproofs (which only come out about once a year) the rain suddenly stopped and it stayed dry until 5PM when we closed.
Since I don't have a close relationship with any powers, I will have to assume this was pure luck. We had very good comments so if you thought we are resting on our laurels, think again, while I was showing visitors around, I identified quite a few changes....

Here are some figures from Acer Corner's resident statistician:

We had 154 counted visitors, there probably were a few more we are not aware of, since we had a bit of an influx after lunch.
We took in £235.5 of which £145.5 (~62%) was for refreshments (most bought their tickets in other gardens), but we think most came to see our garden.

Bedfordshire 4
Berkshire 2
Buckinghamshire 116
Hertfordshire 28
Middlesex 1
Oxfordshire 2
West Sussex 1 (wander how they got here)

Meanwhile you can enjoy a sunny view of the garden (I am trying to establisha camomile lawn around the apple tree)

More gardens will be open for Ian Rennie in the Chiltern area during June and July, you can check them out here

New Decks

2008-05-06T12:19:00.005+01:00

We had a very fine bank holiday weekend, just the way Easter should have been.

The great weather has provided the opportunity to finally finish the planned decks. We opted for wide un-grooved redwood we bought from the timber decking company.

This bit of deck which will house our deckchairs is located behind the garage. A deciduous honeysuckle is already climbing on the garage wall. On the other side a climbing rose will climb around the front pole and onto the pergola.

We may not notice from the pictures but the top of the deck is devoid of any screw, thanks to a nice little device called a deck board tie.

The deck at the back of the house is covered by a pergola which in turn be covered in acrilyc as soon as we can spare the time for a trip to B&Q.
Nothing like sitting outside in the rain reading a book....

Tulip Follow Up

2008-04-11T16:35:00.012+01:00

After being away for 10 days on vacation I promissed myself (again...) not to go on holiday in April. I came back to some flowering tulips so I can follwo up on my previous post on the subject

While the species tulips I planted in the ground show no signs of flowering yet, which is quite dissapointing at they are suppose to be early.The ones planted in pots last November have come out niceley. Tulipa 'Fly Away' is already in flower and looks quite spectacular.

In another pot I planted a mix of tulips and Muscari armeniacum, which I thought will flower in succession, but the muscari are still there and the tulips already started flowering. It might be related to the fact that the pot is standing near a sheltered east facing wall? Will have to move the pot around next year to establish this ....

This pot contains in addition to Muscari armeniacum, Tulipa 'Cool Crystal' which didn't flower just yet and Tulipa 'Flaming Spring Green' which just started flowering.

And finally, some tulips I planted three years ago, which I considered lost flowered again! While the first year was great the second was very dissapointing with very sporadic flowers on short stems. Naturally after all the rain we had in the last year, I wasn't expecting any at all, and yet they flowered again.... though not at their very best.

Tulipa 'Abu Hassan'

Perhaps I should resign myself to planting tulips every year ...

Front Garden

2008-03-16T18:08:00.007Z

Today is a big day, since I managed to partially reach an important target I set myself - mapping out the garden.
While there are some gaps of unidentified plans which I hope to identify in the future the information is fairly complete.

The map below is of the front garden. This part of the front garden is surrounded by a willow fence and can be viewed from the living room window which is the at the bottom of the image, just above the seat.
The entrance to the garden is on the right side marked with an arrow. The center area is covered in gravel as can be seen in previous posts.

I have been unable to post a larger image, so if you are interested in the planting details please e-mail me at jo@acercorner.com for a more legible version.

Common Gardening Wizdom

2008-02-14T08:30:00.005Z

Still not much happening in the garden, but the house is starting to fill with seadlings. Unfortunatly, my attempt at establishing seadlings for my new Camomile lawn under the apple tree have failed misserably, I think sawing in January must have caused the problem - not enough light.

But this is not at all what I wanted to talk about, its the all too common phrase you find on most plant lables and in books and magazines 'requires fertile well drained soil'.
Since I am gardening on heavy clay actually worrying about this would have left me with a rose garden bare of all other plants.

But, I don't worry about it too much and guess what, plants are far more resiliant then given credit for. Ok, they grow somewhat slower then they would otherwise, but since I pack them in quite close, I think that's an advantage rather then a problem.
So the conclution is that you need to experiment, if there's a plant you like, buy a small one and try it out, in most cases it will succeeed rather well. Yes, even the notorious Japanese Maple does very well in clay soil.

Below is an image of one of my favourites - Acer Palmatum 'Kamagata' growing in, yes, heavy clay soil, in it's third year.

Thoughts on Far-away Places

2008-01-16T12:43:00.000Z

We are finally back to normal after our holiday, and time to think about the coming gardening season. Unfortunately it has been raining since we came back and today was the first opportunity to go out, have a look around the garden, decide where to put my new acquired lanterns and consider the empty spaces where more plants can be squeezed in (quite a few of those still ...)

Garden lanterns bring me nicely to the gardens of Bali, where we spent our long Christmas holiday. Bali being a tropical island is full of amazing lush gardens which are full of interest year around.

Hotels, temples and private living compounds are all surrounded by plants. For example this temple garden on the left featuring day lilies or on the right a water garden in the Botanical Garden of Bali.
Typical planting would include Bougainvillea, bananas, fragrant jasmines, Pulmeria (Frangipani red and white)and other plants which would often be sold here as house plants, but reach huge proportions in Balinese gardens, such as crotons.

In addition to the planting the typical Balinese garden is full of stone and wood decorations - lanterns, mythical creatures, large pots etc. For example the stone lantern below, I photographed in our hotel garden.
Of course with the variety available, it would be very tempting to fill the garden with a selection of decoration but alas, shipping charges of small items make this option far too expensive, and a whole container seemed to be rather excessive.
A stone lantern of this size could have caused us problems with the airline, so the only option was to bring home two typical wooden lanterns, which were packed in a cardboard box and were light enough to handle.

The lamps are typical in shape, though the most common designs feature a grass roof. However it does not cope so well with the weather so we opted for this version instead.
Now I only have to decide where to put them, I am already regreting not bringing a couple more ....

Happy New Year !

Closing Down for Winter

2007-11-27T20:24:00.000Z

We already had a few frosty nights which prompted me to tidy up the last of the shabby perennials and bulbs. The crocosmias have become particularly slimy. (Not sure what variety they are since I inherited them with the garden but they spread like wildfire, it looks like I will have to split them again next year).

All leaves from the trees are now gone, so it was also time to remove the leaves from the path. I don't bother with leaf mould, I spread the leaves among the plants in the borders and let the weather do the rest. A pile of leaves makes a particularly good blanket for a sleeping Daliah. They will be gone by next summer (the leaves not the Dahlias ..ha ha).

Last leaves (The name of the particular Acer escapes me at the moment)

I reported on my Tulip purchases in an earlier post in September unfortunatley not all Tulips were available but those that arrived (Tulipa 'Cyntia' and Tulipa Tarda) were planted in the ground.

I planted the rest of the tulips I bought mainly dark reds purples and whites in pots topped with Muscari armeniacum in the top layer.

Some polystyrene at the bottom

The bulbs go in

With all the tasks completed and our holiday getting closer and closer, this is probably the last post for this year. Next year's task is a map of the garden, so I can report on development in the different areas, and my very own domain, hopefully follwed by proper website....

Hope 2008 will be a great gardening year