Days shift season…
The Camouflaged Flowers bronze silhouettes and anagrams are given a polish. The surrounding cotoneaster is trimmed back into wave like forms, its berries now bright red and abundant.
A running repair is made to the little curved wooden bridge on the hillside by the Sweet Harmony Grove. This is now being held together more by wishful thinking rather than structural integrity and so moves up the list of pieces in need of being remade.
All the waterways which run the length of the Parkland get a clearance – dams repacked and edges redefined. There is also further work in lochan, but as more potamogeton is dragged out it pops up again where space had been cleared. A Sisyphean task indeed. The Temple pool is cleaned again, its little island cleared of nettles and ground elder.
The Ariel Provider milestone is moved from its long time position at the base of a misshapen overhanging alder. If the tree does now succumb to time and gravity the artwork itself should be safe having been reinstalled a little further down the path.
A pear tree Doyenné du Comice is planted by the Top pond as an echo of the inscription from Hölderlin on the small islet across the water – With yellow Pears & filled with Wild Roses the Land hangs down into the Lake. A short section of variegated euonymous microphyllus is planted as a formal hedge by the gate between the Woodland and Wild gardens, improving and defining the separation of both spaces.
The temple of Baucus and Philomen is cleaned out so that it remains an inviting refuge during inclement weather. Julie’s garden sees more weeding out and planting in – additions include verbascum ‘Snow maiden’, aqualegia ‘Black Barlow’ and (appropriately enough for a lover’s garden) catanache ‘Cupid’s dart’. A pair of shrubby honeysuckles are planted in wooden barrels either side of the back door of the cottage.
The Siegfried line area is cleared of ground elder and more foxgloves planted here for next year; along with some others in front of the lararium of Apollo / Saint Just. This dark area now briefly illuminated with arum lilies (lords-and-ladies) up on their bare stalks with bright clusters of exotic headwear.
Nettles are cleared from the Metamorphic trellis, the Lower pond, and the Little Wood. The Kailyard and Allotment are given another tidy out – it has not been much of a productive season, already at an end, already thinking of next year.
Cuttings are taken of cornus dogwood – this has struggled to establish in the shady area by the Apollo and Daphne silhouette figures – perhaps they will do better repositioned at the front entrance by the flagpole, which is the long term plan.
Bulbs are planted in small clumps by the Diana Artemis pool – Narcissus ‘Sailboat’, erythronium ‘white beauty’, fritillaria “Alba’. At the woodland edge rhizomes of anemone nemerosa are put in place in the hope that they will naturalise there, and underneath the outer yew hedge of the Roman garden a row of saxifrage ‘Monarch’ is set in position – new kings for the Republic.
A trio of firs are planted in and around the front corner by Wood Wind Song – a harmonious long term plan if they settle and establish there. These have been brought on from when they were no more than a few centimetres high in our tree nursery by the Little Wood, so it is pleasing to think that they have now found their permanent place in the garden.…