St Clement's

Today it's a tale of oranges and lemons... well, an update on progress since June. The orange tree looked healthy then and continues to do so, but the lemon tree looks much better! A little attention works wonders.

From this in June....

... to this by September!

All three citrus have now been cleared of weeds/other plants, fertilised and top-dressed with fresh compost. Whether the kumquat will survive its move remains to be seen - if it doesn't I'll buy another next spring to replace it.

Still looking healthy - but no flowers

Kumquat move

After its treatment a couple of months ago, the kumquat has shown some signs of improvement, but still hasn't produced much new growth. I decided that the time had come to give it a different position - to where it will get much more sunlight. It's now been dug out of its original bed and put in a large pot against a wall, where it will get both more light and less wind.

In its old position

Re-planted

Conservatory coming soon

Conservatory building is due to start next week, so lots of preparatory work has been done. It meant saying a sad farewell to the myrtle, loganberry, pyracantha and bay tree. The composter has been moved, the paths lifted (retaining the paving blocks to re-lay later), and we've begun breaking up the footings for the old ponds.

Avocado surviving, weeds thriving

29th July - after the chop!

11th August - the new shoot

After being left to its own devices for a while, my sprouting avocado pip had shot up to over a foot high, and produced some healthy looking leaves at the top - really quite attractive - but online advice was to cut it back to 6" high. I did this with trepidation, fearing that the loss of all its leaves would be such a shock that it would die... however, less than a fortnight later it has sprouted again.

Soaker hose installed

After a week of fairly frenzied gardening in mid-July - mainly to change parts of the automatic watering system (which had suffered from our neighbour's young cats knocking over sprays as they jumped up on to the garden walls) - there has been little done recently, as the weather has been far too hot for the expenditure of much energy. In two places - the bed against the front wall, and the extreme end of the long border (with the rhubarb and loganberry) - the drip and spray watering has been replaced by soaker hose. I hope the cats can't destroy that! The rest of that long border remains to be done in a similar fashion; it is showing the effects of lack of water.

Both blackberry and mulberry have been fruiting prolifically for several weeks; I'm currently straining mulberries (5 kg) to make jelly. The apples are fruiting well - particularly the one in the centre, which was actually planted a year later than the other two - despite the reappearance of the bugs which wrecked the leaves last season. Obviously the winter tar oil treatment wasn't enough to prevent their return. It will need to be applied more frequently in the coming winter. We've also had our first crop of blueberries!  - just one bowlful, but it's a start.

I've tried to encourage the citrus fruits more this year, by removing all the parts killed off by winter frost or wind, and applying specific fertilisers. The orange and lemon seem to be responding fairly well (although no fruit has yet appeared) but the kumquat, though looking quite healthy, has hardly grown at all. I fear it is badly positioned in the front garden, where it only gets sun in the mornings, and plan to move it in the autumn into the large pot at the back which formerly held a young lime tree.

Discoloured leaves

The patch under our bedroom water needs a lot of work at some point. It was a mistake to plant tansy in there some years ago - it spreads underground and can't be contained! The soaker hose doesn't seem to be letting water out, and several plants are looking quite parched. My main worry is the wisteria. We've lost most of it once before - after a lovely spring display it just died away, but new shoots appeared so I hoped it was recovering. Now the  shoots which came up in the last couple of years are showing similar symptoms - yellowing and patchy leaves, though there is also new growth which looks healthy. It may be because the watering hasn't been working well - other possibilities are lack of nutrients or viral infection. I'm hoping it's water or nutrients, as these can be addressed. I've treated it with a fertiliser specifically for climbing plants, and will continue to apply this until the autumn.

"Ungardening" continues

Back in London I'm now seriously into garden removal rather than creation... to make space for the conservatory we plan to build in the autumn. As I'll be spending five weeks in France this summer, time is short for the preparation I need to do in London. Despite being told about the bad weather here whilst I was away, I returned to find quite a few of my plants - particularly the strawberries I'd grown from runners - had expired, by the look of them from lack of water!

This week I've laid my first bit of paving - just a small area, but a lot of work involved! The objective was to make room for a storage box which used to be kept where one of the conservatory walls will go. The task involved first cleaning and clearing the area, then levelling, tamping down, laying sand - before the paviors could be laid. Clearing the area meant sacrificing one of my three redcurrant bushes, and another will have to go later. I've had to start lifting paviors too from the paths which will disappear into the conservatory, in order to build the new areas. Instead of two storage boxes at opposite ends of the garden, I now have them next to each other on the newly-extended piece of paving. Clearing them out and cleaning them revealed a lot of duplicated garden chemicals, and a huge store of seed trays and plant pots, very few of which I ever use. So ... to freecycle they went! I am pleased that they have gone to a local community garden project. They've also had (for repair) my old garden fork - the handle of which snapped in two while I was digging out the redcurrant bush!

Before and after - looking west

Before and after - looking east

The attempt to layer the loganberry to produce a new plant has failed; while I was away it grew very rapidly and got top-heavy, then pulled out of the compost so has failed to root. It's too late in the season to do anything about it now, so I've decided not to waste time trying any more transplanting or rooting existing stock - I will buy new plants instead. This applies to the loganberry and bay tree; potentially also the blackberry, although there is one blackberry plant which may be rooted far enough outside the planned building to survive. I think the myrtle will just have to go; it's too big a plant for what will be left of the garden. Perhaps I'll replace it with a dwarf variety which could go in the high planter.

Here's how the back garden looks at the moment:

Still a long way to go!

Agrumes

Very sad lemon

Kumquat

Before returning to London I wanted to give my citrus trees - all badly damaged a few years ago by exceptionally cold weather - a bit of a chance. The lime tree had been completely lost but all the others (orange, lemon and kumquat) had sprouted again after the affected wood had been cut out. Sadly only the orange had shown any serious signs of recovery. Both the lemon (in a large terracotta pot) and the kumquat (in open ground) had very spindly growth and few leaves. They are being given another chance but if they don't perk up this year they may be completely replaced. To start with the weeds have been cleared away, specific fertiliser applied (instructions say it should be given weekly; this can't be done in view of the time spent away, but it will be applied as often as possible), and - for the kumquat only so far - top dressing with compost from our compost maker has been added.

At least the orange tree looks healthy

Last year for my 60th birthday I was given a garden centre voucher, and one of the plants I bought with it was a blue hydrangea. This year it is once again covered with flowers, but they are beginning to look slightly more purple than blue, so I've bought a product specifically for blue hydrangeas, and begun to apply it. It's a bit late in the season really, though - should have been applied earlier. The recommendation is to stop the application in July and August then start again in September - I'll try to remember to do that!

Not-quite-so-blue hydrangea

RIP Punica granatum?

Just before I returned to France this month I received a sad email from my neighbour, telling me that my pomegranate tree had been destroyed in exceptionally high winds. It wasn't the first time that wind had damaged it, so I was hopeful that it might be possible to once more pull it back into position and strengthen its support. Unfortunately that was out of the question, as it had not been bent but completely broken off, and the supporting stake too. After under five years the tree had established itself as a beauty in spring (covered in bright orange/red flowers) and an excellent fruit source in autumn - kilos of fruit were processed last year. So it was very disappointing that the first garden task this June was to chop up and remove the old tree then see what could be done about replacing it.

My RHS "bible" tells me that a sucker can be trained on as a replacement for a main shoot... so that's what I will try. There are several suckers coming up so the roots are still active. This time it will get more support than it originally had! I've also removed all the bulbs which were planted around it, and replanted them in tubs instead. Let's give it as much chance as we can... soon I'll select the best shoot and remove the others, then get some fertiliser on it.

London again

We got back to London to find the garden suffering from drought! While we'd been in France, very little rain seemed to have fallen on London, which was not good news for the plants I'd moved before we left. Some of the transplanted strawberry plants looked very sad, other plants had died completely - and the water level in the fishpond was down by several inches.

My first tasks were to give everything a thorough watering (usually the precursor to a downpour!), clean the pond UV filter and top up the water level. After that I continued the task begun last month - preparing the area where the new conservatory will go. The composter will need to be moved, so I've added compost accelerator and thoroughly mixed the contents. We'll not add any new material now until after it's moved.

The loganberry will be lost completely, so although it's really too early in the season, I've started to layer new shoots to propagate a replacement plant. I'll try several at different times in the hope that at least one will "take". The original plant will be left where it is until after this year's crop has been picked. It might be possible then to lift and replant but I doubt it.



One week on from watering the dried-out strawberry plants which had been moved under the pergola, most seem to have recovered. Others remained in the ground but most have now been moved into temporary homes - containers - until the autumn. Earlier in the season I rooted several runners into small pots; they have almost all survived and may go into a strawberry barrel in the autumn. There will be so little garden area left once the conservatory goes up that many more things will have to grow in containers in future.

The corner of the garden next to the workshop was planted with mint, and had become invaded by lemon balm. The mint (two different types) has been moved into containers, and I've now cleared the area which will house the composter currently in an area destined to be part of the conservatory. We will level the area first and pave it before moving the box - there will be plenty of paviors which we can lift and re-use. In fact the pathway next to it has dropped so we will re-lay that at the same time. There were some self-set shrubs (possibly mahonia - I'm not sure!) growing in this patch too, and I've moved them into the front garden, into the area which looks bare, where the tree used to be. In time they may mask the view of the bike shed from the road.

The recent transplants looked very sick for a while after being moved, despite being given plenty of water, but they have now started to recover, so I'm hopeful that they will survive. Still wondering what to do about the bay tree though... RHS recommends semi-ripe cuttings but it's too early to do that; perhaps in August.

Spring cleaning

The last couple of weeks - since the torrential rain stopped! - have been an extremely busy time in the garden.

Last year our escallonia plants - both in the front garden - suffered severely from black spot. The RHS online information was that this is something quite new, and so exact treatment has not yet been identified. I settled for cutting them back hard, removing as many of the spotted leaves as I could from on and around the plants, then treating them with a fungicide. I've used the one I bought for the roses, which is myclobutanil. One of the bushes was cut back much earlier than the other, and is already beginning to sprout new leaves, thankfully showing no sign of the fungus.

With the help of a borrowed pressure washer, the crazy paving has been given a thorough clean - the first pressure wash since it was first laid - between four and seven years ago! Mike was doubtful it would make a difference - but once it was all dried out the difference was quite noticeable. Two afternoons of work, but worthwhile, I think!

Before

After

The biggest single difference - and the longest to achieve! - has been the weeding of the long border along the east side of the garden. This was so overgrown that the weeds were higher than many of the plants. Now it's tidy once again, and our neighbour Véronique has given me cuttings of several ground cover plants which may help to prevent a recurrence of the problem.

Cleared east border

At the front of the house I made a planting error a while ago - I planted an ivy against the front wall of the house. It looks great framing our bedroom window, but would have been more practical against a garden wall instead. Unfortunately its rapid growth threatens the gutter and downpipe so requires annual cutting back to avoid problems. Two long sessions up and down a ladder, broken fingernails and scraped fingers - and this is how it looks now.

We were sad to find that our wonderful wisteria at the front of the house had been killed by bad winter weather a couple of years ago, but new shoots have taken hold and these have now been trained up to the wires originally installed over the front porch.

In the back garden the blackberry border has been cleared, as well as the pots in the poolhouse corner. The oleander has been looking quite sad for a year or two; I hope with some fertiliser and a regular check on the watering we may be able to improve this. The other pots contained a tree peony (now dead), lavender, and a blue hyacinth (bought using a gift voucher from my neighbour Jocelyne for my 60th birthday). All the pots have had fertiliser and top-dressing applied.

The composter has been reactivated using the screw mixing device and a chemical accelerator from Lidl. After some rainfall I collected a bumper crop of snails and consigned them all to the drainage system!

I've also sown a few annual seeds here and there: marigolds (orange flame), zinnia, sweet williams, and eschscholzia. The last named were sown first and have already germinated.

Terrace renewed

Autumn 2012 - before the cut-back

The decking terrace is built of wood, and so it needs to be preserved against the elements from time to time. Last year we decided the time had come for it to be completely re-varnished ("lasure" is what is used in this area, to protect against the effects of sun, wind and rain). We'd grown scented and flowering plants over the balustrade, so all that had to be cut back in order to get at the wood. Most of this was done last autumn, but we didn't have enough good dry weather during that season to get the lasure applied.

Hard pruning effected - not for the benefit of the plants!

This week the forecast is excellent, and the wood was dry so that it could be rubbed down and have the lasure applied. I cut back the remaining plants so that Mike could get at the balustrade, and over two days he applied a good coat of lasure to both the balustrade and the deck itself. This is the first time the whole job has been re-done since it was originally built (it was finished in spring 2005). The steps were replaced last year after some of the supporting timbers were discovered to be rotting, but the remainder has needed no maintenance.

Once the lasure was thoroughly dry, I was able to begin training some of the plants back up on to the woodwork. With luck it won't be too long before we have a good display again.

Beginning to re-clothe the woodwork with greenery

Overgrown!

Back in France now after a month away, and indoors I was pleased to discover that one of my two avocado seeds had produced a root. Outdoors we've discovered just how fast weeds can appear and develop when there's no-one here to take control! The border down the east side of the garden in particular has not looked this overgrown since we first created it. Mostly it seems to have become the home for some very fast-growing vetch - so fast growing that most of the roses and shrubs in the border have disappeared under a carpet of green.

Only the rhubarb stands out from the weeds!

On the positive side, the fruit trees are beginning to show promise; the quince is covered in blossom, as is the central apple tree; the other apple trees have some blossom too, and the medlar is covered with buds. The mulberry is just coming in to leaf, and the citrus fruits have survived the winter. I still worry about the pomegranate, which has already suffered serious wind damage and really needs a stronger support, but we're not sure how to provide one.

I have more or less given up on my hopes of creating an asparagus bed. Of the ten crowns planted in 2010 some never grew at all, and now only two remain alive - and those very weedy shoots are not going to feed anyone! It's my own fault; I didn't check what soil conditions are needed for success, and our old vineyard clay is definitely not what they require. So I've decided that corner will have shrubs planted instead. I've cleared out the weeds and transplanted a single choisya shoot from the front garden; the rest awaits inspiration at the garden centre.

One task which has been needed for a while is the lounger cushions. These were bought some time ago, were quite cheap and backed with a fabric which is beginning to disintegrate. Instead of replacing them I decided to recover them - after all, the foam padding is OK. Now they are resplendent in new striped slip covers which can be removed in the winter for washing. Now we need some time and good weather to relax on them!

Removals begin

So instead of being a "vague notion", the conservatory has become a definite plan for later this year. This means losing or moving some of my garden features, and a lot of its plants. Being reluctant to lose any, I'm now beginning to work out how to save as many as possible. The weather was kind to me this weekend, so a start has been made. The large area which used to be my herb garden (and strawberry patch) has been left to its own devices while we worked on the house, though I did make a start on clearing it in the autumn. Work has now been started in earnest - though as I'm off to France in three days' time there will be another three week hiatus!

The former herb garden after being left to its own devices!

The same view after this weekend's clearance work

Strawberries relocated

Only time will tell whether the moves have been successful, but so far I have "rescued" the following in addition to the rhubarb: crocus bulbs (moved into a planter in front of the kitchen window); two pelargonium plants which I thought had been killed by the bad weather, but which turned out to have signs of life at the base after all; my bergamot (moved into a large pot for now); about two-thirds of the plants from the strawberry patch (moved beneath the pergola); golden marjoram (moved into the low planter on the left of the garden, in turn necessitating the move of some "tumbling Ted" to the back of the garden); two wallflowers; two primulas (badly snail damaged)... but the old herb garden still has some way to go before it is cleared.

Demolition

Finally some good weather has arrived and I've been able to get out into the neglected London garden. We have tentative plans to have a conservatory built - way in the future probably - but I've started thinking about planning what will be left of our garden, which is only small to begin with! Today I moved a rhubarb crown from its original position into the raised bed which runs down the side of the garden. One crown had already been moved (a couple of years ago) and has settled in well to its new position, so I have hopes that the second will also take. Probably it should have been done when they were dormant - but the weather wasn't conducive to digging!

Originally we built three ponds in this garden, each overflowing into the next. However, over the years subsidence has had an effect, and the brickwork has suffered from leaks. A while ago we took the top pond in hand, removing the liner and rebuilding the inside in concrete. Although there's been some slippage since so it's not quite as level as it used to be, the sealed concrete has been successful. The lowest pond had moved substantially and we removed it a couple of years ago - but still haven't done anything with the space! Meanwhile the middle pond had deteriorated further, with the west wall bowing out so that it looked as if it were about to burst. Last year I stopped the water circulating in that pond, keeping the water flowing only in the big pond, which now holds all the fish. Today I drained the middle one and began to demolish the brickwork. The plan is to rebuild it - but on a smaller scale - this time lining it with concrete as we've done with the upper one. The foundations are firm but the rest of the brickwork can be taken apart by hand, without even swinging a hammer at it!

A touch of colour

A couple of days ago I paid a visit to the garden centre - mainly to get some treatment for the black spot, but also so that I could add a little quick colour to the border just cleared. Since then, however, we've had almost constant rain, so it was only this morning that I managed to get the new plants - ranunculus, dahlia, pansies, violas and primulas, plus a few small narcissi which were a gift - into the ground. The weather is still looking pretty unsettled though, so the fungicide and tar oil haven't been applied - I don't want to spray and then have it immediately washed off by yet another downpour.

Gardening weather at last

Overgrown and very weedy!

We've been in France for a week and a half, but the weather has kept us out of the garden until now - freezing cold, high winds, then downpours... but finally today was perfect gardening weather. I decided to concentrate on one area at a time - so much of the garden needs attention, but I can make the biggest noticeable difference if I do this. Today's work was on the front (north) border where escallonia and cotoneaster were rampant. 

Unfortunately I have had to cut both of them hard back - the escallonia because it had black spot, and the cotoneaster because it harbours the "tigers"  (Stephanitis pyri) on the underside of its leaves, where I can't spray the insecticide. At least cutting them right back meant there was a chance to get at the persistent weeds (reminders that this land was once a vineyard). I still haven't been able to remove all of the roots, so they will return - but I hope not too soon!

After a day's hard work

The border also contains one remaining dianthus plant (there were three originally) and some summer flowering bulbs but for now looks rather bare - just the Japanese quince and the dwarf myrtle with a few tulips coming through... some spring colour is needed! 

February in France

We're back in France - have been for two days - but although it's mainly dry and sunny the winds are so strong that we've not faced doing any work outdoors. Even a little work in the garage with the door open is difficult...

Yesterday - our wedding anniversary - we had some avocados with lunch, and I decided to try the old trick of soaking the seeds to see if I can get them to germinate. We'll see! I somehow doubt that they'll germinate before we go back to the UK in under three weeks' time, but you never know.

No 10 in January

Last year we succeeded in stripping most of the overgrown ivy and honeysuckle off the back wall, but didn't have time to do any work on the rotting built-in garden furniture.

Progress on the garden is hampered by the continuing presence of the tile cutter and pieces of floor tile, which will not be removed until we have finished the floors indoors.

We removed the lowest pond - which was subsiding - a few years ago but haven't yet worked out what its replacement will be. Meanwhile, the former middle pond is now in danger of collapsing as the west wall is bulging...

The former dustbin park which we replaced with a planter

In the autumn we removed the plant bed dividers - they were wooden and had rotted badly; also, persistent roots had grown underneath them and could not be removed with the boards in place. Replacements haven't yet been decided on.

I did manage to get the badly overgrown hedge cut right back last year, but wait to see if it will thicken up in future - will need regular trimming anyway.

The back garden from the upstairs window