Gardeners Tips

You can just make out the wall behind this flowering Kerria Japonica. There are other plants to screen walls but the soil is likely to be dry and impoverished so chose with care.

Kerria Japonica
Planted towards the back of the border this shrubs habit can be scruffy looking and the serrated foliage is rather un-interesting. Kerria loves sun but is drought, heavy clay soil and exposed location tolerant.
Kerria is a tough plant suitable for problem areas that makes it ideal for fast growing screening.

Arbutus unedo
Wonderful all-rounder with reddish stems and good bark, glossy leaves, Lily-of-the-Valley flowers and unusual strawberry-like fruits.

Hippophae rhamnoides, Sea Buckthorn
Lovely silvery leaves and bright orange berries.

Mahonia x media Charity
Vigorous architectural shrub with glossy pinnate leaves and scented yellow flowers in winter.

Daphniphyllum macropodum
Seldom grown evergreen, best grown in shade. Large, handsome leaves and scented greenish flowers.

Fatsia japonica
Often sold as a houseplant but perfectly hardy. Huge palmate leaves give a jungly effect. Does well in shade.

Buddleja davidii ‘Dartmoor’
Fast growing shrub with gorgeous magenta-pink flowers in branching panicles. Great for butterflies and sometimes retains its leaves through winter.

Clematis montana Tetrarosa.
Useful for larger areas that need covering. This Clematis montana provides a spectacular burst of colour in late spring with large flowers an a delicate scent.

Ligustrum ovalifolium ‘Aureum’ or golden privet
Common, but very undervalued — the ‘sunshine’ shrub.

Aucuba japonica ‘Crotonifolia’ or spotted laurel
Tough but handsome with gold splashed leaves and large red berries.

Tomorrows post will discuss Pyracantha

Blue is not the colour you associate with foliage but if you can bend your eyes just a little around the silver – grey through to green spectrum there may be some surprises.

In Praise of Blue Foliage

• A very distinctive colour attracts the eye in a uniformly green garden
• Blue works very well with dark coloured leaves such as purples
• Blue tends to increase the perceived depth of view making blue recede.
• A fine blue line separates glaucous leaves and silver foliage.
• Perception of colour is best left to the beholder

Blue Leaved Primulas

• The bloom or farina on may primulas can look blue. See the Primula kewensis at the foot of the page.
• Auriculas often display the blue dust.
• Primrose ‘Arctic Blue’ has deep green leaves but on a frosty morning their foliage turns to shades of icy blue

Perennial Plant selection from The Oregon

• Acaena ‘Blue Haze’ …

  Read More Read More

If you want a cheap and easy water feature bury half a plastic dustbin in your garden. Fill it with rain water from your butt. If you use tap water it will have to stand for a week or more before introducing wild life and will probably go green with algae.

There is still plenty of frog spawn about in local ponds. You can make an escape bridge for the frogs by laying an old log over a corner of the pond. Natural rainfall will replace most of the evaporation except in summer when I let it reduce in depth but you can top it up from the hosepipe. The depth of the old bin makes a safe environment for aquatics but be careful with babies and young children.

We have used our pond as a home for goldfish that the children no longer want. They  lasted several years until they reached a size that the Heron liked. Similarly with golden Orfe they lasted many years and enjoyed basking in the sun on late summer evenings. The pond was mainly sheltered from the direct sun and is a feature in a wooded are of the garden.

Tips for Ponds

• I find most of the recommended tips are of marginal benefit
• A floating ball has never prevented a freeze up – but I was lucky not too loose any fish due to ice
• Netting to stop leaves was also more trouble that it was worth – every couple of years I fish out the ‘sludge’ from the bottom and leave it very close by for creatures to return to the pond.
• Marginal plants and moisture lovers need more water than the overflow from this type of pond provides.
• Oxygenating plants work best if they grow below the surface. One of the most vigorous and recommended is Elodea crispa (Lagarosiphon major)

Charlie Dimmock may not approve but as a pond starter kit this is a cheap and quick option. I see you can now buy a Charlie Dimmock Gnome but I think that would end up in my pond

In a well known water feature a Gnome was placed on a rock in the center of a pond – The feature was called ‘Gnomeman is an Island’

Two Garden Gnomes walk into a bar. The third one ducks.

Gnomes grow a vegetable that helps brush your teeth – ‘Bristle Sprouts’