HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?

Mike Burks, Managing Director, The Gardens Group

The purpose of every garden is different. It depends, I’m sure, on who owns it, who works in it and who uses it.

Some gardens are look-upon areas that are rarely ventured into. The first image that leaps into my mind is a neat garden in pristine condition with a manicured lawn and perfect blooms but in fact, some look-upon gardens are so because they are wild, overgrown and impenetrable. Sometimes this might be deliberate even!

My own garden has performed many functions in its time – I say mine, and this is my first mistake – our garden! But by ‘our’ I don’t just include myself and my wife Louise but also our dogs Myla and Joey who are very keen users of the garden. Myla tends not to do any work as such but knows the best spots for lounging. Joey though, is a very keen gardener and is really pleased to help in every possible way especially during pruning when he hauls away the debris. Sure, that creates more work for me but he loves it.

Should there be the hint of a mouse the pair show little respect and will enthusiastically dig away, no matter whether lawn, wild meadow or border, almost always with no results. But the chase is good fun!

We were emptying pots the other day with one very large container that Joey found he could perch on. This was a good help when I was wanting it emptied but I have been less appreciative now that it’s replanted, but he still enjoys digging the soil out.

Joey also uses the garden as his place to hide stufflose a slipper and you almost certainly will find it in the garden. He will quite often take a titbit and carefully bury it only to be surprised when we find it together as I’m digging a border.

When younger, our children used the garden for football, cricket, rugby and netball initially. It was also a campsite from time to time including the essential campfire but now it’s more a place to sunbathe or to read. thegardensgroup.co.uk

Wildlife also assumes the garden is theirs. We are lucky to have a family of slow worms – I presume they are a family as it’s tricky to work out their relationships. However, the grandad is on good form as I discovered to my surprise as I moved a collection of wicker baskets and there he was dozing below. He looked at me bleary-eyed wondering why it was necessary to be disturbed and why I had leapt back in such an alarmed way. I am a fan of their presence and know they are harmless and good news for the garden but I’m not so keen on being that close. Grandad sloped off eventually in his own time… Or was it Grandma?

We are also lucky to have a lovely community of birds too including sparrows, goldfinches, tree creepers, thrushes, blackbirds, wrens, flycatchers, wagtails, robins, blue tits, great tits, dunnocks… in fact, it’s a wonder there is any space for us!

As June progresses the wild areas of the lawn are starting to flower. It is amazing the scent that comes from ordinary clover and the bees and insects spot this before we do. A few minutes of quiet studying the area reveals a huge number of insects including bees moving from flower to flower.

I have also been keeping an eye on the ragwort, which starts growing every year. We don’t allow it to flower of course and so the seed must either have blown in or has been dormant for years. I try to leave it for as long as possible (until just before it flowers) as a food source for someone we call Mr Stripy – a yellow and black caterpillar that turns into a cinnabar moth. Mr Stripy and his mates devour ragwort at an incredible rate and will prevent it from flowering. I saw him for the first time a few days ago so am confident that he will solve the problem.

But the scent from the clover, my own plantings of Nicotiana, Night Scented Phlox, Choisya Aztec Pearl, Nemesia Vanilla Girl and Heliotrope plus the honeysuckle Hall’s Prolific and a wonderful Rambling Rector rose all attract wildlife and are useful food sources as well as providing a beautiful fragrance. In fact, our washing line (another role for the garden) nestles against the rose and the honeysuckle giving our fresh clean clothes a superb aroma – or maybe it’s the fabric conditioner!