Monthly Archives: May 2012

Herb garden in May

22 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by in Gardening, Herbs

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At last some warm sunshine for the plants to enjoy, not to mention me. Most herbs put on a good spurt in the spring and are good value when other plants are just getting going. Sweet Cicely is up early and flowering prettily in May.

Sweet Cicely in May

The scent and flavour of the plant are aniseedy. The leaves are beautifully soft and fern-like. You can use the herb to reduce the amount of sugar needed in stewed fruit such as rhubarb and gooseberries. Unfortunately once it has gone to seed it is not so attractive but by then other herbaceous plants take over in the border and you could chop it down and allow new leaves to develop. It is easy to grow provided the soil has moisture and there is some shade. The seeds seem to germinate better if they have a period of very cold/frosty weather in the ground, so sow them in autumn.

Another star at present is comfrey. This is the dwarf comfrey and it is covering the ground very fast but is also looking pretty.

Dwarf comfrey May 2012

Last, but definitely not least as it is my favourite herb, the rosemary is looking very good. Here is Rosemary ‘McConnell’s Blue’.

Rosemary ‘McConnell’s Blue’

This is a lovely prostrate rosemary with quite bright blue flowers and it seems to be very hardy. Rosemary excels in the qualities of aromatic herbs, wonderful, healing scent, fantastic culinary qualities and its beauty during the flowering period.

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On churchyards

20 Sunday May 2012

Posted by in Churches and churchyards, Wildlife

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Last week we had a very pleasant day visiting churches in the south of Buckinghamshire and Slough.  It was interesting to see what havens of peace, flora and fauna churchyards can be, especially in urban settings. They must play an important role in our perception of the quality of our towns. At St Mary’s in Slough the churchyard is still filled with graves but it is a large and peaceful place, as is the ancient St Laurence’s just down the road at Upton-cum-Chalvey.

St Mary’s Church, Slough

There is an interesting project called Living Churchyards where the participants maintain their areas as oases for wildlife. http://www.arcworld.org/projects.asp?projectID=271

At Langley Marish Church as we entered the churchyard we heard chirping from the wall and realised that birds were nesting in the wall itself.

We also visited rural churches including the beautifully renovated Hitcham, quaint Dorney and Stoke Poges, where we ate our lunch and visited the Thomas Gray memorial. Thomas Gray stayed nearby and may have written his ‘Elegy written in a country churchyard’ here, although there are other contenders.

Thomas Gray memorial at Stoke Poges

An unusual but delightful day in lovely warm weather.

Evenley Wood Garden

14 Monday May 2012

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This weekend we visited Evenley Wood Garden again (near Brackley, Northants). We first went there in early spring 2009 and were very impressed. It is a delightful woodland area that is sheltered on a windy day. The daffodils and hellebores were on display and so was the wonderful ‘river of scilla’.

The river of Scilla at Evenley Wood Garden

Last year we thought that it had improved and this year everything is looking very good.   In April the magnolias look impressive and in May the rhododendrons and azaleas are a picture. Yesterday it was very quiet and we felt that we had the wood to ourselves. The garden is open weekends until June and again in mid-July for the lilies. The garden is unusual in this area for its acid soil. More information can be found on its website http://www.evenleywoodgarden.co.uk/ It is well worth a visit.

The wild garden

07 Monday May 2012

Posted by in Wildlife

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March being pleasantly warm there were quite a few butterflies around. The brimstone is always the first about in the spring and a very welcome sight. This year we also saw quite a few peacock butterflies. I hope the cold weather in April has not been too bad for them.

Peacock butterfly sunning itself on the path

The frogs had their usual sex fest (it always seems a little later in this garden than others) and left masses of frogspawn. About two weeks ago there was still mostly a squirming mass of hatched tadpoles on top of the water lily but now they have all gone, and looking yesterday I couldn’t see a single one swimming about.  Something similar happened last year and I can’t tell where they are going. In previous years there have been tadpoles and small frogs galore. There are various predators in the pond, of course, including newts and dragonfly larva but I can’t believe they could have taken all of the tadpoles by now. Are they hiding or has something else happened to them, I wonder?  

Happy frogs, I hope!

The larger pond has probably given me more pleasure than any other part of the garden. Particularly when new here, I spent hours watching pond life. It is so charming to see what seems like a whole other world. It looks delightful but it is a nasty world of predations. One year I spent some time catching water boatmen and flinging them into the undergrowth, believing that they were too numerous and fearful for my tadpoles. I found out later they could fly. Now I leave well alone. To protect the aquatic wildlife I never use chemicals anywhere near the pond.

Herb plans

07 Monday May 2012

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I am trying out growing on plug plants with a view to selling them, somehow, when they are large enough.  I bought 90 plug plants from Norfolk Herbs and they are fine, sturdy little things. This is an experiment as I have no idea how quickly they will grow to a reasonable size.

Herb plugs growing on

 I am aiming to produce 18 large pots with 5 herbs in each and will do a couple of assortments:

basic i.e. rosemary, thyme, curled parsley, sage, mint;

type 2 – Prostate rosemary, golden marjoram, french parsley, thyme ‘Silver Posie’, lemon verbena;

type 3 – Apple mint, purple sage, french parsley, tarragon, lemon thyme.

I am hoping it won’t be too difficult to sell just 18 although I also have some of my own cuttings and divisions to sell to add a bit of variety. It may well be that they won’t grow large enough this year and I will have to keep them for next year, which is not really a problem.

Any tips on selling plants locally would be gratefully received. I get the impression from talking to some people that selling in a small way is not any easier than a larger scale operation and that if I really want to do it I should think bigger but as I said this year is very  much experimental. Having mentioned my plans to a few people I already have a few potential customers.

Visit to Batsford Arboretum

01 Tuesday May 2012

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We visited Batsford Arboretum a week ago. It is a charming arboretum with something interesting in every month.  There is also now a very nice tearoom and shop. The cherry blossom was looking spectacular. There are so  many species but I think my favourite is Prunus incisa, the Fuji Cherry. The blossom looks very delicate and in the pink varieties there are a number of shades (I suppose dark buds and lighter open flowers) on the tree at one time. The blossom seems to last quite a while as an extra bonus and there is good autumn leaf colour too. This is a rather newly planted cultivar.

Prunus incisa ‘Mikinori’ at Batsford Arboretum

Pear blossom can be stunning. Here is Pyrus nivalis.

Pyrus nivalis at Batsford Arboretum

This is the charming Cornus ‘Ascona’. It looks a bit like something a child would draw.

Cornus 'Ascona'