Rebuilding a nursery - Copton Ash

[David Nicholson]

You're lucky it's been dry enough to stick your head out of the door Tim, it's been weeks since I did anything meaningful outdoors.

[Tim Ingram]

It is great to see the snowdrops starting to appear through the ground - I have very few early forms and most of these will be flowering in February. The picture shows a clump of 'Gerard Parker', always one of the most striking.

And finally what evey garden thrives on - compost. We make large amounts of this every year (which also implies a great deal of work), but once the ground has been cleared and this is spread liberally around the plants, the job seems quite complete. These examples have not broken down as well as more shredded material, which can reach remarkably high temperatures in a good compost heap, and over quite a long period, but are probably more typical of most gardens. Brown gold!

[Tim Ingram]

Had a bit of trouble posting these so they all came separately. Us gardeners are a tough breed David! Seriously though we have had reasonable weather here - a few days very wet but nothing like over in the west country and elsewhere. Unfortunately we have let the garden slide a little (an alternative view is that it is much too big!) and there is a lot to do by next spring.

[Tim Ingram]

Only on a gardening site would nearly 30 people look at pictures of compost! Priorities definitely in the right place. We have five rows of dwarf apples planted some 30 years ago and because of their fairly small rootsystems and light shade these make an ideal spot to plant woodland perennials. Two rows have been planted, especially with snowdrops, plus an increasing number of ferns. The last three though have been left neglected and become very overgrown with nettles and brambles. So with the relatively mild winter weather we are having so far a concerted effort is being made to get them cleared and ready for planting in the spring. This is one of the best places in the garden for really choice plants like trilliums and podophyllums and much more besides. These are a few examples now - the two sides of gardening; hard work and the joy of plants becoming established.

[Maggi Young]

Oh Tim, over five hundred have looked  at the  compost photos- it's only the maddest 30 that have ENLARGED pictures!!

The garden is looking a bit damp - we can sympathise with that.....

[Tim Ingram]

The snowdrops in our garden don't really get into their stride until a month or so, and then the rows of apples are a carpet of white and quite magical. However, there is still a lot of interest now when you look closely. Hacquetia epipactis 'Thor' is thrusting through the soil, and like so many early plants goes on looking good for several months. Most hellebores are swelling buds now, some almost opening, and the apple-green H. odorus very fresh and distinctive. Geranium x oxonianum 'Spring Fling' could just as well be called 'winter fling' for these rather curiously marked leaves, and G. phaeum 'Margaret Wilson' still shows its white-splashed foliage - this was discovered and named for a member of our Alpine Group and I think has become widely grown. Ferns in general become rather tattered by now but Polypodium x mantaniae 'Cornubiense' is an exception and very nice in dryish shade under a crabapple.

[Tim Ingram]

Maggi that cheers me up even more - nearly 10% love compost as much as I do!

And the last picture...

[Maggi Young]

You are discovering the new Forum attachment limit of 5 per post, Tim.....

Strangely enough, even though most of the plants you show are well ahead of ours, we have found this year that quite a lot of ferns have kept looking smarter than usual through the "winter" so far.

[David Nicholson]

Nice going Tim. As I said on an earlier post you're lucky to live on the "dry-side" of this island, so far this year I've spent just an hour working in the garden and all my exchange seed has been sown (under severe protest!) in the kitchen.

[John85]

Is there a difference between G.pheum Margaret Wilson and G.pheum Margaret Hunt?
How are the seedlings?Some variegated leaves?

[ichristie]

Hello Tim like you a nurserymans work is never finished, we collect all the leaves to compost except the Ash and Sycamore which are very toxic, I am fortunate to get trailer loads of Beech leafmould from Brechin in return for some pruning work it is pure gold any way keep up the good work, cheers Ian the Christie kind

[Tim Ingram]

Thank you Ian! A group of us are getting together to do a display at the Kent Garden Show for the Kent AGS, and I am hoping this might begin to re-engender interest in gardening with alpines, both for viewers and for those of us doing the display, and for the nursery - I shall have to show some pictures of our compost bins! I hope we might show a trough of later flowering rhododendrons - does anyone have any good suggestions? (This will be the late May Bank Holiday weekend).

[Neil]

Tim any reason why there is eggshell in the compost, or are you just disposing it in an environmentally way?

[Tim Ingram]

Ha ha, Neil - no the eggshells just went into the bin with everything else but they never break down. In the past we have shredded material quite thoroughly, and this then heats up wonderfully and makes a friable compost, almost like that out of a bag. This last lot wasn't broken up so much and took much longer to break down and has left various bit and pieces in it like the eggshells. A friend adds so-called biodegradable plastic to his heaps but neither does this break down in the timeline of a compost heap. Over the year we can make very large quantities of compost (using all the grass mowings too, which heat up so rapidly), so it is quite a major activity in the garden.

[Martinr]

I find eggshell breaks down quite well as long as you crush it in your hand before adding it to the heap