Rain or shine - let us lead you up our garden path this Sunday!!

Don't let the weather put you off - homemade teas served in the conservatory & summerhouse.
Warm welcome guaranteed!

Lower Broadheath & Rushwick WI Visit PTC

After all yesterday's work on the new potting shed and with a couple of visiting parties expected, it was time for major clean up! Years of cobwebs were brushed away and all the nooks and crannies where dead leaves hide and monster spiders lurk were all swept out and unused materials hidden along ' Reclamation Row' behind the garage waiting for Chris's next escape!! The lawn edges were finished just before the thunder storm started. This morning it was lawn mowing at 7.30am followed by the usual preparations for serving home made teas. At 10.30am the Lower Broadheath & Rushwick WI ladies arrived bringing with them glorious sunshine. The roses are at their very best and everything was looking pretty spic and span for their visit. Anyway, they seemed to enjoy themselves and wrote very flattering comments in the visitors' book. One lady had even been twice before. I think it was definitely the cakes that nailed it!!

Potting Bench Changes

Gutter installation

Having replaced an entire greenhouse due to head injuries caused by low door ways, it was unfortunate to find further injuries being caused by the canopy over the potting bench next to said greenhouse!! Chris to the rescue! The offending canopy was removed and decisions made to enclose the roofed area behind the garden tool shed and transform it into a miniscule potting shed. Yesterday, we replaced the clear corrugated roof panels which should stay free from algae as Chris kindly rushed off and returned with guttering which fitted exactly and will prevent rain water draining down th corrugations. He used fencing panels for the back wall and cut them down to fit. The plan is to cover them in ply and put a window one end and a door the other. Because it's so very VERY narrow, I'm undecided where to place the actual bench but, for now, it's been temporarily placed along the side. The trouble is, there's been talk of a triangular oriel window which is super appealing but impractical with a bench beneath it. Al's come up with an idea of going asymmetrically across the corner. Dare we tell Chris?

Chris replacing the roofing panels

Smyrnium Success

It's taken me about 5 years to get any of these going but look what I found down in the Woodland Border. My very first Smyrniums! There are only 3 and they have the loveliest acid yellow foliage.  Now - here's a thing. These plants are unusual in that they're a triennial and here's what Sarah Raven has to say about them:

In their dominant, acid-green moment the miraculous triennial Smyrnium perfoliatum! I love this airy-flowered Mediterranean native. In its first spring, months after germination, it produces a tiny seedling, with perhaps only three pairs of leaves. At this stage, it has a small tuber, about the size of the top of my little finger.

The leaves die down by midsummer, but the tuber continues to grow.

 

By year two the plants are bigger, with perhaps seven or eight leaves, but are still not large. It’s often at this stage that they’re weeded out, confused with ground elder, but the tubers are now the size of a small new potato. The foliage again dies back, but in the third year they come up to flower and will look magnificent in sun or shade for eight to 10 weeks before fading. Even then, the delicacy and longevity of its skeleton make this one of the classiest dried stems to bring inside for the winter. It will have self-sown, so you’ll have a gap of one year, but then you’re on a smyrnium roll. Now, in June, is the moment to find a friend to let you dig up a small clump, which should contain one and two-year-old seedlings. They can then begin their life cycle in your garden.

Now you can see why it's taken me so long to establish my 3 plants!!

Meadow Magic

Two years ago on the 1st June 2014, this wild Heath Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata.........I think!) was planted in our wild meadow. Last June we searched high and low in the long grasses, Buttercups and Moon Daisies for flowers or indeed any signs of life but found nothing at all. Today, 2 years and 3 days later.............BINGO!!  In the fading evening light - there it was!!

Our very own wild orchid!

Secret Steps Project

Now you see them..

...now you don't!

Today saw completion of 'The Secret Steps Project!'  Last year we cut a gap in a Yew hedge with the idea of building steps up through to the terrace on the other side.  It means a discreet short cut from the barbecue to the pond and beyond with no need to make detours. The steps are a continuation of the stone steps by the culvert but they narrow and wind as they disappear through a door in the hedge which has a window mirror attached.  The window mirror was a present from Malc & Sue Wilkes.

It goes without saying that Chris did a fab job despite the usual lack of plans!  If only he could read minds, he'd know all PTC creations would turn out perfectly! We finished off by re-recycling some recycled bricks to build the threshold at the top! Some of which still bore traces of old lime mortar. Talking of mortar:it was dry enough for me to rub the mortar down before (a late) dinner. In time the Yew will grow new shoots and make them even more secretive. In the meantime, we can't wait to christen them!

Pond Pump Probs

Retrieving the failed pump

Locating the failed pump

The pond pump started to sound suspiciously noisy before it just stopped a few days ago.  Fearing it had silted up, Chris came to the rescue and with a ladder and plank across the pond, he retrieved the failed pump and installed a replacement. We were keen to see why a year old pump should fail and it was pleasing to see that there was no evidence of silt whatsoever.  Instead, we found that the screw securing the impeller had become detached and dropped off! A ladder over the pond was an ideal opportunity to tip toe out and get a closer than usual shot of a water lily without falling in. Even the filter was dismantled and cleaned. After lunch work commenced on the Secret Steps Project.

The first lily of the year.

'Queenhouse' Finale

Now unveiled!

Surrounded by red, white & blue!

It was lovely to have the Lyte-Masons over from Australia to open the new greenhouse. We were very honoured to have them as 11 years have elapsed since they were over for the opening of our Hartley Botanic predecessor! It was warm and sunny and we were able to have a barbecue and even eat the first course outside. We celebrated with Chris G who gave up most of his Easter to build the base and his wife: Sal and Chris P who dismantled the old greenhouse and dug out all the footings. For the occasion, Chris G managed to find the time to finish grouting all the floor tiles and also do an amazing job of tiling the threshold. We're looking forward to Hartley Botanic replacing the corrugated bases for the staging and all will be completed. In the meantime, the vine is thriving as are the tomatoes and cucumbers.

Chris's amazing threshold.

We all have our favourites!

LOST & FOUND

Two years ago my favourite shovel was lost after accidentally being left in Chris's wood. Now this was not any old shovel.  This was a special shovel given to me by my Daddy!! During this time it lay forgotten and neglected beneath a pile of wood. Having found it earlier this week, today, Chris returned it all polished, oiled and as good as new. It now hangs safely back in its place in the tool shed - never to be lost again!

A gleaming  F.M.J shovel comes home!

     

         Thanks Chris!

Wisteria History

KING OF CLIMBERS!

...can even take my weight!

The main trunk of the Witley Court Wisteria ....

An HDR shot I took of Witley Court 2016

The humungus and very ancient Wisteria still growing today at  the famous Witley Court . Yes! This very climber is the Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather of one of our Wisterias - the one which grows over the Studio. Witley Court was a forgotten ruin when I knew it and so this beast of a climber suffered many years of neglect. In 1926 a cutting was propagated and planted against the The Dog at Dunley  where it continues to thrive to this day.

The Dog at Dunley

Horse drawn timber wagons outside the Dog at Dunley in 1926

At my last house near Worcester, I bought a plant from (RHS gold medal winning) Cook's Nurseries which they had propagated from the specimen growing against the Dog at Dunley a few miles away. Some years after planting mine, I propagated a cutting (using the layering method and a rubber door mat to encourage rooting!) This is the Wisteria which now festoons the Studio!! In 2019 it celebrates its 15th birthday!

Zermatt Close Wisteria

Maybe, one day, the owners will take pity on the grandiose old specimen and allow it to roam over something more elegant than a scrubby old conifer which isn't shown! After all, Witley Court is the most palacial ruin!! Having said that, ours is on the loose in the fig tree having already romped around the corner and over its arch in 2 years! If you check out the map, you'll see that it's done a bit of a circle and is growing remarkably close to its still living ancestor!

The Studio

The Studio & Wisteria Arch