The green and rolling countryside of Worcestershire, England, is home to the cider apple orchards which surround the gardens of Pear Tree Cottage. They enjoy a sunny south westerly aspect with sweeping views across to Martley Hillside, Woodbury and Abberley clock tower. The Teme Valley lies just over the hill and, not far away, is the Herefordshire border. Although our climate is temperate, our seasons are often uncertain and always a challenge to a gardener! This began in 2010 & follows the weekly ups and downs of garden work chronicling both successes and failures but, above all, demonstrates the fun enjoyed by three people who regularly garden in all weathers

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14 April 2013

Terrace Tidying & Fern Planting

Despite having rubbed much of the mortar used to point the flag stones on Saturday, it still took me ages to finish it on Sunday!  Having done that we had a massive clear up of all the accumulated rubble - the world's dustiest job.  Having done that I filled the small trig at the base of the wall and steps with fine gravel -  the idea being to aid drainage and to have somewhere for small alpines or ferns to thrive.  We now feel as if we have our terrace back again - even more than there was before!  Al had decided to sort out all the scrap/leftover pieces of wood and then moved on to flower pots and before he knew it had old plastic drain pipes, pieces of trellis and concrete blocks etc everywhere!  With a new tidy terrace one end of the house, I could hardly leave him with such a mess.  Having started at 10am, I returned to the house at 6:40pm.......wood chopped and everything, eventually in its place - YAWN!

The large plants at the base of the wall
Spot the ferns!
A whole week has passed since I started this post.  Ferns have been ordered, delivered and planted!  I sourced 2 batches from different fern specialists.  It was no good going to a garden centre for what I was looking for.  I needed Asplenium Trichomanes and the smaller the better.  I really needed plug sized plants to squeeze in Chris's trigs between the steps whilst, at the base of the wall, larger specimens were accommodated.  It's an idea I pinched from Stockton Bury.  There, they have them thriving in full sun growing at the back of the stone step treads.  I'm keeping my fingers very tightly crossed that I can achieve the same effects.



http://www.shadyplants.net/ & http://www.fernnursery.co.uk were very helpful The plants arrived promptly, carefully packed and in perfect condition!  The tiny plugs from The Fern Nursery and the larger plants from Shady Plants.

A single tiny fern plug
It was a pleasure dealing with both and a WORLD apart from Vernon Specialist Geraniums -  I shudder at the memory of the rubbish they sent me last year in the name of specialists!

As usual, a little imagination is required when looking at the photos!  We need to imagine large numbers of tiny delicate fronds proliferating and spilling out over the edges thereby softening the hard edges!!

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