The rhythm of West Dean Gardens

It has been quite a while since Mr B & myself took a very reasonably priced train trip to Chichester & then onwards to West Dean gardens. As the weather is a bit on the chilly side I thought I might regale you with some travellers tales.

West Dean is known for a number of things; the West Dean College provides studies for conservation, making & visual arts at all levels & lengths, many events, festivals, exhibitions & festivals are held there including the well known Chilli Fiesta & the gardens are home to a fabulous restored walled kitchen garden & an enormous Edwardian pergola designed by Harold Peto. To see everything on offer there do browse their web site.

I have many photos which include the fabulous kitchen garden, greenhouses, trained fruit & borders of colour co-ordinated perennials, but what particularly impressed me was the way so many shrubs in the parkland had been trimmed into undulating humps, hummocks, domes, whatever you might like to call them. I thought it was wonderful. It gave a movement or rhythm throughout the area. Some were very obvious; others only revealed themselves at a distance.

What do you think?

 

By the way, there is a rather odd plastic tree trunk in one of the pictures. Did you spot it?

We have been de-swagged

 

When I designed/re-designed our garden some 12 years ago after some building work I was keen to try out some of the lessons & (possible) skills I had learnt from an  Open College of the Arts Garden Design Course. I had a great time measuring up, producing scale plans & axonometric drawings. What was I trying to do?

One aim was to delineate &  emphasise different areas in the garden in some way despite it being the size of a pocket handkerchief.** A ‘garden of rooms’ was not really feasible but I hoped to do something a little creative. I also wanted  some changes of height within the space for added interest, additional growing space & to increase the feeling of privacy. Based on what we had seen at places like Wisley I decided a few posts at appropriate points round the lawn with swags of rope between was the way to go.

I had visions of the rope swathed in frothy masses of roses with clematis clambering between the stems…..it did work, well sort of, but I can’t find much in the way of photos to demonstrate, in fact I can only find a few pictures that show the posts & ropes. These give a bit of an idea.

 

One problem was the roses; despite some investigation & research 2 of the roses were really far too vigorous for the position they were in, at least they were in a small garden where a pathway went past the posts in question. The journey to the greenhouse or compost bin  was one of much ducking & diving. One was removed a few years ago & replaced with a Trachelospermum jasminoides. We also discovered that the rope shrank or stretched depending upon the weather; more ducking!

Recently the posts began to lean more & more & one post was very obviously rotten at the bottom & the rope was rotting too; replacement was the only way to go, but how to do it without disturbing everything round the bottom of the posts. I am very lucky, MrB, just like my dad, is a very practical person & had soon resolved the problem, ordered the ingredients & away he went.

The posts were replaced by smaller ones so they could go in the original holes without disturbing any plants nearby & the same sized wooden horizontals go between the posts to help keep them rigid & upright. No more sagging ropes!

It’s done. A little harsh at the moment but it will soon be covered in greenery. Not the frothy rope swags I had originally planned, but the end result has the right effect.

 

**Are there other sorts of handkerchief I wonder.

Pyracantha; multi-talented & multi-functional.

Some of the frothy flowers of our pyracantha

We have a huge pyracantha at the bottom of our garden; it is a multi-talented plant. When it flowers it is a boundless fantastically frothy white mass which joins next door’s pyracantha & the one in the house at the back of us. Bees love it. I would share; I have better photos but who knows where they are!

The sparrows love the dense shrub using it as a resting/hiding/look-out point before they use the feeders in the garden. In the summer months it echoes with that tuneless sparrow-song & the air is full of the whirring of wings as they constantly fly back & forth. 3 broods of sparrow babies grow up amongst the branches. We almost had a robin nesting in it last year!

The sparrows are the rather indistinct little brown jobbies in the photo!

The bright red berries don’t last long with the pigeons & blackbirds gobbling most barely before they are ripened leaving only those on the  edges or ends of the tiniest of branches to brighten the winter gloom.

Lastly the shrub gives us lots of privacy from the houses at the back of us. We are all quite close to each other so it is quite nice to feel tucked away from it all whatever the season.

I normally prune the pyracantha every year to try & keep it under a vague semblance of control, quite difficult & indeed dangerous with a long-handled pruner. It does now need drastic hacking back as it over-hangs the planted areas at the back of the garden. I am not bothered about the shade but it does keep the area underneath extra dry. The not so delicate operation hack & slash began a couple of days ago.

You know that the pyracantha flowers in May/June followed by the immature berries gradually ripening to, in our case, bright red. Much has been written about the mild weather causing plants to be rather un-seasonal in their flowering & fruiting habits. As many plants will flower twice if given the opportunity I have not been too astonished but I was quite flabbergasted to see the pyracantha flowering in January. I had seen blobs of white on the plant but had assumed it was sparrow guano.

Then I noticed that not only was it flowering but immature berries were also forming….

……who knows if they would have reached this stage; doubtful I suspect but who knows.

I must be off, more pruning to do.

** I apologise for the dire quality of the photos in this post; for illustration purposes only!

Ham & errr, sausage roll!

It was the first frost of the year on Sunday. The sun rose & everything sparkled beautifully. Just the morning for a walk.

We were slightly encouraged by a craft fair being held in the grounds but Ham House is always a lovely National Trust property to visit. We got there before it opened so started off with a walk along the Thames’ tow path noisily crushing the ice on the puddles. We toyed with but  decided against a visit to Petersham Nurseries so returned to Ham House to be revived by a hot latte* & a really truly excellent sausage roll. The sun had increased the temperature to such a point that we were able to sit outside looking at the vegetable garden. We were almost basking in the sunshine

The garden, although not large is very interesting historically with very contrasting areas. Well worth a visit if you are in the area.

And whilst not wanting to sound like a tourist guide the Palm Centre is just around the corner as well as the already mentioned Petersham Nurseries.

 

* Now I do love a latte but they can be insipid if not made properly. However, the  worst coffee crime is when they are TOO COLD. Frequently they seem to be just warm enough to drink immediately so if you like to sip something hot, or, more importantly, eat a delectable slice of something cakey beforehand they do not retain enough heat & I can then get jolly cross. ‘Make it hot please’ can be frequently heard as I queue for my beverage of choice.

I gracefully declined being judged in the final of the competition.

This probably sounds ever so middle class & even a bit twee but our local resident’s association has a front garden competition every year.

The aim, a very laudable one I am sure you will agree, is to encourage people to contribute towards making the area look nicer by putting a bit of effort into their front garden.

There are no entry qualifications or applications; every garden in the area is judged by a team of enthusiasts before those gardens with the highest scores going through to a ‘grand final’. There are three categories; summer garden, all year garden & container garden; the highest scoring garden of the 3 is awarded the best front garden, receiving a cup & some garden vouchers.

The judge’s gardens are disqualified from judging & the previous year’s winners are usually asked to help with the judging.

We won the competition quite a few years ago, I can’t even begin to work out when it was. Following that triumph I helped with the judging for quite a number of years. It was usually an enjoyable exercise  but in some areas actually quite depressing. Most of the front gardens but many occupiers seem to take no pride in that first impression. It wouldn’t have been too bad if it was just the odd house here & there but in some streets it was difficult to find any garden that could possible be squeezed into the final judging. Concrete & weeds are fairly common & more recently storage sheds have begun to appear which I can see are very practical but take up almost half the available space. At least we have not been forced to deal with the delights of wheelie bins which would have to be kept in front gardens although many people have dustbins & re-cycling bins tucked somewhere.About 5 years ago I decided to both give judging a rest for a while & to give our front garden a re-vamp as it was getting a bit out of hand. I was rather shocked & embarrassed to be awarded the best front garden prize again! It had not occurred to me that it would even be considered as it had only just been completed & some planting needed a bit of time to really get going!  Oooops! Judging beckoned again!

This year the letter about judging was on the doormat when I got back from holiday.I had to deal with some work issues & I quite forgot to get in touch as intended. Imagine my horror on Friday evening to get a letter saying we were to be judged in the final on Sunday! What should I do? Clip the box so it looked it’s best? Not clip the box or the hedge so it might look a bit neglected? Say I didn’t want to win again? (How self-important would that sound) In the end I rang the organiser & muttered I should not be included in the final judging as I should have been involved in it myself & sorry for not getting in touch…….. Phew!

Today I was delighted to do a little emergency judging. There were 2 contenders for the best container garden with the same score. I was asked if I could go & give my opinion to come up with a winner, so I did!