Birthdays and Beth

I took another trip to Hastings, on the Southern coast of England, and couldn't believe the size of the Agave americana I saw. They looked like they had pretty good drainage, but the English Channel was only 100 ft. away! Could you believe it (Tom!!) !!From this angle I thought the rocky cliffs with Old Town underneath it looked like a model train city........ (Uncle Dan!)On Saturday it was Marks birthday and Aaron organized a trip to Beth Chatto's garden. www.bethchatto.co.uk/ She was a very good friend of Christopher Lloyds and there is a book that is based on their letters to each other called Dear Friend and Gardener. Aaron, who works and lives at Great Dixter, is also a good friend of hers and organized lunch with her too. It was about 2 hours away from Great Dixter, located in Colchester, Sussex. Beth is known for her gravel gardens and has a love of planting with texture and form in mind. Beth told us that since flowers are so fleeting that is why she focuses on texture and form. It is apparent in some of these photos. So we met Beth at her house, which is in the middle of the now public garden, had some coffee and then went out to explore so lunch could finished being made. You can see from a distance, with the shape and form concept being apparent. Here is a closeup of Dicentra formosa and Pachysandra terminalis 'Variegata'. Mark took this photo. A Camelia in bloom with an Azalea.Here is Phormium tenax, Bergenia crassifolia, and Poa labillardieri. Phormium is hardy here and can get to be about 6' or higher.The beds are all irregular circular beds with turf paths winding throughout.
The dark and lovely Fritillaria persica.Another form and shape garden bed on display.
The tree is a Eucalyptus with the most beautiful trunk that looks smooth like driftwood with patches of gray.
This was Fritillaria imperialis and Fritillaria imperialis var. lutea backed by Euphorbias.
This is the largest and most filled out Monkey Puzzle I have ever seen, my favorite thus far anywhere. Cheeky monkey......
More play with shapes and textures..


This cone shape reminded me of the clipped cones on the Brick Walk at Longwood Gardens.

Here are some of the well drained garden beds in the Gravel Garden. There is about 20 (!) inches of average rainfall in Colchester a year. These plants are planted in gravel and must survive the intense heat and weather in order to stay in this part of the garden.

Mark, Beth Chatto and I. Lunch was homemade soup and bread that Beth made herself. She told us all about the history of the garden and how she had a strong love for propagating plants in the beginning of her career. Her design principles were explained too, these being always planting the right plant in the right spot and her laying of the beds out based on Japanese flower arranging rules. Plants are laid out so when viewed the heights represent a triangle. One high to bring the eye up, one medium to have something to focus the eye on and carry to the low plant which should ground the trio together. You'll notice this in the photos above. Alot of kind words and inspiration came from Beth Chatto during our time there. She invited us to sit on the couch next to her as she told stories of her life and advice about being in the horticultural field. One thing Beth said in speaking about different gardens was, "Everyone has the right to tell their own story." This I found to be very exciting to hear. Upon leaving she gave us big hugs, invited us back and said she was so glad to see the future of gardening.. Inspirational! And I leave you with a shot of our dessert at lunch, just an idea of how sweet the visit was........

Three out of four isn't bad....

So on Sunday, after all of the nice warm weather we have been having, there was a snowstorm. I thought I would only get to see 2 out of the 4 seasons here but this helped me see what it would be like in winter, minus some of the flowers. It snowed large flakes all day and turned the garden into a magical place. Seeing topiary forms is always nice after snows, you appreciate the forms alot more. The pots in front of the house looked especially cheerful.Red tulips between the bird topiaries in the Peacock Garden.Pyracantha in bloom.
Narcissus covered in snow looked like a scene out of a dream.All of the ponds looked like dark mirrors .
Mark wanted to show (Joyce) what a palm looked like with snow on it.

Camelia bloom looking a bit garish against the snow.





As the sun was setting it cast a pink glow all over everything.....

The topiary garden in a eery icy state.

It was so wonderful and so many sights to behold, and it all disappeared the next day.

Filling, not minding, the gaps...

The sun was shining and it was warm enough to take some layers off while working.  Mark and I got to replant crocus bulbs in the meadow.  These bulbs were displayed in pots by the front door and once they started to go dormant they were put in places where Fergus wanted the crocus display to be a little more dense.  

These bulbs consisted of Crocus ancyrensis, Crocus 'Snow Bunting' and Crocus 'Firefly'. We used a bulb planter to remove a plug of soil, placed the bulb in the bottom of the hole and placed the soil plug on top.  A fun job, especially since the weather was so nice, and the view, well.... it wasn't too bad. 

 While collecting some more stinging nettles for tea, I looked up and saw the catkins of Salix caprea above my head.  Most people don't notice this stage of bud growth so I thought i needed to do an arrangement with it.   The silvery blue hairs are such an interesting color that i took my pieces around the garden to see what was in bloom to pair it with.

Deep purple tulips seemed the right choice to anchor the airy branches.

A wonderfully colored vase to help bring out the colors of the hairy buds.

My first arrangement for the Great Hall on display for people to see. The purple helps break up the monotony of color while grounding the airy branches. It will be interesting to see the chane as the emerging leaves unfold and the tulips open underneath.

Sustainability in England

Sustainability........ This is one of the subjects that i was interested in seeing and learning about while abroad. So what is it? There a multiple ways to desribe it such as it is a way to make the most of the land but making sure that the land is in good, or better condition in the following years to come. It is a way to think about our own, and others' current and long-term needs and improving our quality of life while leaving the environment as we would hope to find it.
This can be done in many ways such as buying local seasonal food(fruits and vegetables are fresher and tastier at farmers markets) which in turn the money goes back into the local economy, making the home more energy efficient, using fuels from renewable sources and cutting down on the use of cars. So what does this all have to do with England?
Behind Great Dixter you have woodlands called the 4Acre Shore. This an ancient woodland with its forest floor that is covered with the wood anemones (Anemone nemorosa). It is known that it is an undisturbed ancient woodland forest because the wood anemones grow so slowly (only 3cm a year) and the ground is just carpeted with them. So what do these woods have to do with sustainability?
The woods here a full of Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) that normally have a large single trunk and grow up to be handsome and sinewy trees. These trees do not get to mature that way though. They are part of a coppiced woodland which is an important traditional woodland management technique.
Once the Hornbeams become mature, the trees are harvested for their wood- to be burned in the fireplaces of many homes here. The stumps are left in the ground where multiple stems are then allowed to regrow from that one cut tree. You would let this regrow for the traditional 13 years before you are able to cut from the same area of the woods again. Typically you have 13 different sections in the woods to rotate through so you are never depleting the one section of wood before you have to. Above you will see how these thin trees all grow from one area.
This is not only good for the fireplace but it also creates a unique habitat and biodiversity. It is known that alot of British flowering plants, mammals and insects flourish in this rotational system. Some rare species of flora and fauna are only found in woodlands using the rotational coppicing systems. The wood below is what you would use to start your fires and keep them burning. Hornbeam wood burns very bright fires too. Another way to try to be sustainable is to eat seasonally. Mark, Aaron and I decided we would try to do this. We have already had wild garlic soup which Aaron picks in the mornings and cooks up for dinner- delicious and full of vitamins and minerals. So we decided to get a little more daring. After getting a Wild Food Cookbook we thought we would try Stinging Nettle soup and tea. It is a horrible feeling to touch this plant- my hand stung for 3 days after grabbing it unkowingly while weeding. Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) is commonly found throughout the British Isles. These are the proper tools for collecting..... It is best to collect when the shoots are no more than a few centimeters high. These plants contain iron, increase hemoglobin in the blood, improves circulation, purifies the system and has a good general toning effect on the body. It is also known to lower blood pressure and blood sugar levels too. The soup itself consisted of onion, potatoes, 2 gloved handfuls of nettle heads, olive oil, salt/pepper, chicken stock and cream. The soup was very good and think i will be eating it again. The tea on the other hand was not so good......... It tasted like dishwater but if made again i might have a glass.

I find these new ways of thinking about sustainability, for me at least, to be very exciting. I know i may not have the access to woodlands when i get home but will try other ways to continue this way of life.

Meanwhile, back at Great Dixter, the pot displays are beginning to take off. The displays of pots get rotated in and out depending on what is in bloom. The front door always looks like a color bomb went off.......... This weeks star is the vine called Tropaeolum tricolorum.