15 minute read
August Meticulous attention
from caszsd
THE HANNAH PESCHAR SCULPTURE GARDEN Broadleaved plants and mature trees support, frame and enhance an ever-changing collection of contemporary sculpture in this stunning garden. Heralded as one of the first of its kind in the UK,
The Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden has been proudly exhibiting and selling contemporary sculpture in a truly unique and magical environment for 35 years.
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Please see website for opening times www.hannahpescharsculpture.com hannahpescharsculpture@gmail.com T: 01306 627269 | Ockley | Surrey
Plants of the Month AUGUST
Create a summer spectacle with zinnias, the intensely colourful annual that effortlessly peps up borders and cut-flower displays
Zinnias have steadily been gaining popularity for a while now, thanks to the favour they’ve found with cut-flower growers. Of course, for many gardeners, this confirmed what we already knew: of all the annual plants, nothing is quite as vibrant, cheerful or long-lasting in late summer as a gloriously colourful patch of well-grown zinnias, showcased here by the bright tones of popular ‘Purple Prince’. For decades zinnias have been lumbered with a reputation for being tricky to grow, but they are in fact straightforward as long as you follow a few rules. Sowing time is key: they hate the cold, so a late sowing, in the first or second week of May, suits them well. Then they are ready to go from greenhouse to garden in the first week of June, after the risk of frosts and cold nights has passed.
One of the best things about zinnias is their zingy colour – and ‘Queen Lime’ delivers exactly that. In a trial at Parham Gardens in Sussex a couple of summers ago, this variety did particularly well, eortlessly demonstrating that it had vigour, excellent flower colour and good stem length, all of which are ideal if you’re growing for cutting. The limegreen varieties are the perfect complement to other flower colours, setting o zesty tangerine or vivid pinks and purples to make flower arrangements with real impact. Look forward to gathering bunches of blooms from midJuly right through to the end of September. If you keep cutting the flowers, the zinnias will continue to produce more blooms, but they always perform at their best in a warm and sunny summer.
This variety, and its sister, ‘Queen Lime Red’, are just gorgeous, with ombré flowers blending from deep orange to soft lime-green, or dusky-pink to green in the case of ‘Queen Lime Red’. Both performed exceptionally well in the trial at Parham, as did all the dierent coloured zinnias in the ‘Benary’s Giant’ range – if you see these in a seed catalogue, don’t hesitate to order. Eminent bedding plant breeder Benary was founded in Germany by Ernst Benary in 1843, the same year he introduced Zinnia ‘Benary’s Giant’ to the market. It speaks volumes for the quality of this strain that they are still available today, and continue to perform so brilliantly. For late colour and sheer floral spectacle, this annual is hard to beat.
ARE PESTS A PROBLEM?
One of the joys of having a garden is sharing it with wildlife, but occasionally that wildlife can cause problems. Many gardeners are all too familiar with the heartbreak of planting new trees only to find the bark gnawed or stripped away by rabbits and grey squirrels. And what could be more annoying than standing back to admire an immaculate lawn, only to discover that it’s peppered with molehills just a few days later?
The Lady Mole Catcher is fully registered and licensed to treat all mammal, rodent and insect problems which are nuisance pests across Norfolk. From common grey squirrels to troublesome species like American mink, which has a deleterious eect on native wildlife, Louise Chapman can help. Pest-proof fencing is another speciality, as are problems with rats and mice, the safe removal of bee swarms or wasp and hornet nests, plus other tricky pests such as ants or carpet moths in the home.
Find out more about Louise’s safe, professional, trusted and swift service by visiting ladymolecatcher.co.uk or calling 07876 141153 .
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Things to Do AUGUST
Keep up to date in the garden with our monthly guide to key gardening tasks
PLANT UP succulents Play around with gorgeous colour combinations and surreal shapes to create an exciting container packed with succulents for a sunny spot
With their fl eshy leaves, jewellike fl owers and pleasingly symmetrical shapes, there’s something incredibly tempting about succulents. Because most are so small they are eminently suitable for containers and even the tiniest garden can benefi t from their intricate rosettes. Sempervivums and echeveria are easily found in most garden centres, but you could also try aloes, low-growing sedums and glossy aeoniums.
You will need
General-purpose compost Perlite, grit or sand A fun collection of succulents with plump, tender leaves A wide, shallow container with drainage hole
Method:
1 Mix the compost and perlite, grit or sand (or a combination of all three) at a ratio of 7:3 to ensure excellent drainage. 2 Pour in the mixture until your container is three-quarters full, mounding the soil slightly higher in the centre. 3 Arrange the succulents on top of the soil until you fi nd an arrangement you like. Don’t be afraid of bare soil – succulents like to spread out. 4 Fill the space around the plants with more soil and gently press it down. Finish by covering the soil surface with small pebbles or gravel. 5 Place the container in indirect sunshine and water it sparingly – about twice a month if there has been no rain.
Checklist
O Prune wisteria’s whippy sideshoots to fi ve buds from the main stems to encourage fl ower buds next year.
O On a dry day, collect seeds from hardy annuals into paper bags and sieve away the debris. Store seed in a cool dry place.
O Water and feed plants in hanging baskets and containers.
O Sow salad crops such as spinach, radish, lettuce and red chicory to keep the supply of leaves coming.
O Remove greenhouse shading at the end of the month as days begin to shorten.
O Harvest early apples and pears if they come o easily with a gentle twist of the hand.
O Harvest runner and French beans. If you have a glut, blanch and freeze them for winter.
M A LT H O U S E FARM
Last But Not Least
Taking blue clay soil and strong south-westerly winds in her stride, Helen Keys has created a multi-faceted garden in the South Downs, whose finest hour comes with a glorious blast of late-summer colour
WORDS STEPHANIE DONALDSON PHOTOGRAPHS MIMI CONNOLLY
Above Persicaria and eryngium prettily frame the expansive views out over the South Downs. Left In the front garden, a path flanked by box, teucrium and Bupleurum fruticosum leads to a sculptural, slatted hornbeam hedge.
Helen Keys has a penchant for latebloomers. Indeed, of the many flowers she grows at Malthouse Farm they are among her favourites. She has designed her garden to be full of interest all year round, but it is now that it excites her the most, when the colours in the hot borders are at their vibrant best and vivid plants compete with one another to be the most eyecatching. Dahlias, salvias and tithonias stand almost as tall as the sunflowers at the backs of the borders, while lowergrowing plants in the foreground, including penstemons, sedums and nepetas, are interwoven with grasses and follow the curves of the lawn.
But, as glorious as the hot borders are, there is far more to this five-anda-half acre garden. Surrounding the house is a series of intensively planted rooms including cottage and kitchen gardens and a box parterre. As you move further away, the detail and the bright colours gradually diminish as the garden progressively links to the wider landscape. A small orchard leads on to meadows featuring strong structural elements that include a pair of curving hornbeam hedges, a willow tunnel, a birch maze and a snail mound. It is a garden full of considered design and great planting that is a credit to the creative force behind it.
When Helen and her husband
Richard moved to Malthouse Farm outside Hassocks in West Sussex 20 years ago, it was the view of the South Downs that was the clincher: Helen knew it would make the perfect backdrop for the garden she planned to create. At the time there was hardly any garden in evidence, just some small borders close to the house, a lot of concrete and a huge paddock that was a legacy of the space’s previous use as a stud farm, where the owner raised Arabian horses.
“We did a huge amount to the house and when that was done, I made a start on the garden, working outwards,” says Helen. “We put up all of the garden walls and planted all of the hedges except for the one between the old and new parts of the house. It came right up to the building, so I removed the section closest to it, reduced it in height, and cut an archway through from the one garden to the other – we just changed everything.”
“I took a series of garden design classes run by a friend. That opened my eyes to a lot of things and
I have also been working with garden designer Alex Bell for the past 15 years. He and I have sort of grown-up together as gardeners and garden designers. Alex is now very busy with his design practice, but he still gardens with me – he says he loves coming out and getting his hands dirty. We bounce ideas o each other, although much of the structural work is my own design. I had done most of it before he came to work for me.” The garden is immaculately maintained, so as well as Alex and his assistant, Leila, there’s Nathan who looks after the lawns and someone who comes in to do the hedges. “We have quite a lot of help,” Helen admits, “but then this garden needs it.”
Although it faces due south with no lack of sunshine, the garden is very vulnerable to hardhitting south-westerlies, so Helen has planted protective shelterbelts to filter the wind. As for the soil, she says: “It is terrible blue clay. We could make bricks! We have improved it hugely over the years by mulching with mushroom compost, but I am concerned that the long-term use of such an alkaline mulch could a ect the current neutral pH.” It has to be said that the entire garden is a picture of health, but Helen is sensible to keep an eye on this.
In the hot borders, the virtual absence of any structural shrubs and a minimum of evergreen planting is striking. In such a large garden there isn’t
Top Helen’s brother, David Jackson, made the glass water feature at the arched entrance to the cottage garden. Middle Natural willow sculpture in the orchard. Bottom Helen Keys took classes in garden design to assist with her transformation of the Malthouse Farm garden.
the usual pressure for ‘year-round interest’ and because the borders are concealed from the house by the pleached hornbeam hedge, they can be cut back in late autumn and early winter, mulched and left dormant during the winter months. Plant supports are essential because of the strong winds, and Helen uses a combination of home-grown willow, together with pea sticks and metal supports and string. Her intention is that by the end of July the supporting structures will no longer be seen and that there will be no bare soil.
Tucked into a corner of the late-summer garden is a striking, louvred building painted chestnutbrown and ochre. “Originally it housed a Jacuzzi that Richard bought for me to sit in, in the garden” explains Helen. “Of course I never have time for that, so now it has been turned into a summerhouse with lovely views through the garden to the Downs.”
There is much more to admire as you move from room to room. In the cottage garden, mixed borders feature roses, shrubs, perennials and herbs in a soft palette of colours, punctuated by box topiary. Box is widely used throughout, and Helen keeps it healthy by spraying with Topbuxus four or five times a year between April and September. “I thought I was going to have to take out the box parterres behind
the house because they were so badly a ected by blight, but it has made a huge di erence.” All the box does look healthy and it’s hard to believe blight has ever been a problem here.
Through the arch in the hedge and conveniently close to the kitchen, four large raised beds provide an abundance of vegetables and flowers for cutting. A central path leads between them to a gravel garden designed by Alex that was originally planned as another cutting garden. Helen, however, is increasingly filling it with salvias that thrive in this hot spot. “We’ve done an experiment with Salvia ‘Amistad’ this year,” says Helen. “We leave it in all year and it gets so tall, so this year we have given it the Chelsea chop to see if that works better.”
Beyond the formal planting, the orchard is where Helen grows apples, plums and pears, as well as a quince, a medlar, an apricot and an almond. “Years ago I did a fruit-growing course with Monty Don and he said I would never get fruit trees to grow here because it’s too windy – yet here they are.” A white metal gate leads through to the field planted with sinuous hedges of hornbeam that are designed to echo the distant Downs. O to one side is the Jardin Plume-inspired meadow with its grid of grasses, which incorporates a variety of garden landforms, including the Birch Maze and the Snail Mound, from which you can look down on the meadow.
Top left The box parterre features glass sculpture by David Jackson. Top right Towering sunflowers and Tithonia rotundifolia add a sense of colourful height at the back of the border. Above Orange ‘Autumn Lustre’ is one of Alex Bell’s favourite dahlias.
Working in a garden with so many di erent areas that demand such a lot of attention, how does Helen prioritise? Is she very disciplined about the tasks she intends to do? Helen’s response is a very definite no… “And I’m also very naughty because I have a bad habit of going out in my good clothes and shoes and before I know it I find myself in the middle of a border!” True gardeners will recognise a worthwhile sacrifice. n
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