Baby lawn
Last year I prepared the ground to make a tiny camomile lawn under the fruit trees - but I didn't get it finished before the end of the planting season. Consequently the area has been under a tarpaulin recently - to inhibit weed growth. Finally this week the new planting season has begun and our baby, bare-rooted plants arrived and have been planted. I have never grown camomile before so have been dependent on the growers' advice regarding planting and care. If all goes well, next year we will be walking on a sweet-scented lawn to pick our plums, damsons, gooseberries and redcurrants! The two fruit bushes are being tied in to a fan structure as the new shoots develop - something I've tried before but didn't continue, so I'm hoping to have the time to get them right this time. The plum and damson trees have flowered - but as they fruited heavily last year there may not be such a good crop this time. We tend to get good crops in alternate years.
There were a few camomile plants left over - I've planted a few in another part of the garden to use to replace any which don't "take" in the new lawn. With another few, though, I'm trying something different. I have two blueberry bushes in pots, and have had trouble with squirrels digging in the compost. My first solution was to cover the compost with pebbles to stop the digging - but in one of the pots I've now planted the leftover camomile plants to cover the ground (after checking with the growers that camomile like acid conditions, as the blueberries grow in ericaceous compost). To stop the digging while the plants get established, I've used an idea I spotted on the internet - sticking plastic forks in the soil around the baby plants! I wouldn't be surprised if the squirrels don't chew the forks too - they seem to gnaw on just about anything... we'll see.
Last year I prepared the ground to make a tiny camomile lawn under the fruit trees - but I didn't get it finished before the end of the planting season. Consequently the area has been under a tarpaulin recently - to inhibit weed growth. Finally this week the new planting season has begun and our baby, bare-rooted plants arrived and have been planted. I have never grown camomile before so have been dependent on the growers' advice regarding planting and care. If all goes well, next year we will be walking on a sweet-scented lawn to pick our plums, damsons, gooseberries and redcurrants! The two fruit bushes are being tied in to a fan structure as the new shoots develop - something I've tried before but didn't continue, so I'm hoping to have the time to get them right this time. The plum and damson trees have flowered - but as they fruited heavily last year there may not be such a good crop this time. We tend to get good crops in alternate years.
There were a few camomile plants left over - I've planted a few in another part of the garden to use to replace any which don't "take" in the new lawn. With another few, though, I'm trying something different. I have two blueberry bushes in pots, and have had trouble with squirrels digging in the compost. My first solution was to cover the compost with pebbles to stop the digging - but in one of the pots I've now planted the leftover camomile plants to cover the ground (after checking with the growers that camomile like acid conditions, as the blueberries grow in ericaceous compost). To stop the digging while the plants get established, I've used an idea I spotted on the internet - sticking plastic forks in the soil around the baby plants! I wouldn't be surprised if the squirrels don't chew the forks too - they seem to gnaw on just about anything... we'll see.
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