Rebuilding a nursery - Copton Ash

[Tim Ingram]

Winter work

Early winter so far has been very mild with just a few frosts over the past week, dropping to -3.5°C or so. The soil at depth must still be relatively warm and the snowdrops are showing themselves more and more. The first picture shows a small grouping beneath a large shrub of Rosa moyesii. These are all excellent and distinctive varieties - 'Kite', 'Ransom's Dwarf', 'Gerard Parker', and 'Mrs Thompson'. The first is slow to increase but an especially elegant and fine snowdrop, marked out also for its particularly blue-glaucous leaves. Hopefully this will now increase over the next few years. 'Mrs Thompson', on the right is one of the most showy of all snowdrops on a warm sunny day when the flowers really open because of its tendency to throw blooms with extra petals. I must remember to show the same picture when they are in flower This area was full of weed until a week or so ago. The second picture shows an area beneath cherries and birch a little lower down the garden which is planted with snowdrops, hellebores, erythroniums, trilliums and anemones and is becoming a real delight through early spring. Unfortunately we have foolishly allowed cow parsley to grow and seed here too (it looks very beautiful in May but there is plenty in local hedgerows!) so some particularly rigorous weeding has been necessary to clear the area and there is still as much again to do. The thinking is to introduce a mix of self-seeding but more ornamental perennials into the centre of this bed such as astrantia and Campanula persicifolia, along with thalictrums, epimediums and persicaria which are already there. The areas alongside the path will be kept for the more choice woodlanders.

[Tim Ingram]

In the front garden, after some deliberation and procrastination, we have decided to dig out rather than cut down the hedge stumps alongside our neighbour's. Two down and nine to go - not so easy but a good way of warming up on a cold winter's day, so we should be able to complete this through January and then the aim is to infill with sand and gravel and use this area for a run of troughs. It should be a good spot for those alpines needing a cooler aspect, especially Kabschia saxifrages and also ericaceous species (and autumn gentians?). The prospect of some interesting and useful plants here, rather than the annoying Leyland Cypress hedge is a notable stimulus

Finally for now I have at last constructed a new set of dutch-light frames for the nursery and learnt how to use a router and chisel all over again. These are made from tanalised wood so should last well and have led to thoughts of constructing a new dutch-light greenhouse below the present nursery area - a project maybe for next winter

[Leena]

It is nice to see how the spring advances in your woodland beds beneath the trees and bushes. I  like it when the snowdrops increase to form large clumps, that is something to look forward to.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

In the front garden, after some deliberation and procrastination, we have decided to dig out rather than cut down the hedge stumps alongside our neighbour's. Two down and nine to go - not so easy but a good way of warming up on a cold winter's day, so we should be able to complete this through January and then the aim is to infill with sand and gravel and use this area for a run of troughs. It should be a good spot for those alpines needing a cooler aspect, especially Kabschia saxifrages and also ericaceous species (and autumn gentians?). The prospect of some interesting and useful plants here, rather than the annoying Leyland Cypress hedge is a notable stimulus

Finally for now I have at last constructed a new set of dutch-light frames for the nursery and learnt how to use a router and chisel all over again. These are made from tanalised wood so should last well and have led to thoughts of constructing a new dutch-light greenhouse below the present nursery area - a project maybe for next winter

Great job, Tim.  As you say, the troughs will be so much more rewarding than the hedge !!  All the best for the rest of the hard work !

[ian mcdonald]

Good to see some of the specialist nurseries keeping going. I search for those hard to find native alpines, usually without success. Most nurserymen think our own native plants are not worth garden space. Best wishes for the new year.

[ichristie]

Hello Tim great to see you can do some work outside we have been frozen solid over Christmas and New Year with minus 8 c  a bit milder the last few days with snowdrops showing well have potted a few for later sales, love the new frames,  cheers Ian the Christie kind

[Tim Ingram]

Thanks Luc, Ian & Ian - we are still mild and wet here so will carry on digging out these Leyland stumps. I have been doing a little 'window' shopping for stone troughs - for the price of one it would be possible to buy maybe 200 or 300 plants! (or more). Who actually buys these and what do they use them for? Perhaps we need to add the skill of stone masonry to the alpine gardener's repertoire We have been promised a couple of large Butler sinks and have two or three smaller troughs that need replanting so will spend rather less on some seed of choice plants and perusing catalogues from specialist alpine nurseries, and looking back over the trough threads on the Forum here. This should be a great project for the spring. Now what I would really like is this trough from Miroslav Staněk's garden which I have just written about in my Diary for the AGS website...

[Yann]

Tim i know an area where they reduce troughs to dust, trust me or not but that's true!
When i was a young boy it was re-used to support fuel tanker but those days intelligent guys clear old farm, garden of aged people of it and then resell the troughs in urban zone.
Lucrative business isn't it

[ian mcdonald]

Farms are a possible source of old stone troughs, providing Drew Pritchard does not get there first!

[astragalus]

Wonderful troughs in Miroslav Stanek's garden.

[Tim Ingram]

Growing snowdrops - and opening the garden in February - puts the oweness on tidying some of the woodland areas in the garden. The basis of this is the large piles of prunings and weed that tend to build up through the growing season, which every now and again we make a concerted effort to shred and turn into mulch. Quite a proportion of this heap is actually nettles and their roots from a part of the garden which has needed attention for some time. Satisfying to produce something useful from clearing an area like this. The second picture shows a planting under a crab apple, full of woodlanders which start with the snowdrops, cyclamen and hellebores and go on into summer with polygonatums and smilacina. Every two or three years it gets a thorough tidying and topdressing like this. The bed on the other side of the path behind is drier with mostly Geranium phaeum and aquilegias and is more self-supporting, just topdressed with autumn leaves and cut back occasionally.

[Tim Ingram]

On the corner of that bed was this rather fine, but very congested, clump of Galanthus 'Galatea'. This has at last been lifted and divided and some bulbs repotted and a good number more replanted in a new spot. Following the advice of Ian and others who grow bulbs in pots these have been planted in small groups of three or four bulbs rather than individually. Damage to the roots is potentially a risk when lifting snowdrops 'in the green' so we lift a whole clump with as much soil as possible and gently wash this off and separate bulbs under water. Working around the garden and dividing different snowdrops each year steadily allows for bigger drifts to be built up and to distribute them in different places so that the risk of disease or pests is moderated.

[astragalus]

What a fantastic trough you showed from Miroslav Stanek's garden!  I hope you will take pictures as you transform the former hedge site into a place for troughs.  Will you have a water source nearby or depend on rain?  Will your troughs be raised on something or sit in the sand/gravel mix?  Lots of questions, sorry.

[Tim Ingram]

Lots of useful questions Anne! I think my model will be these troughs at the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, so slightly raised and fairly widely separated with an underplanting of and maybe a few small shrubby plants in between. We have got water nearby and it is quite a prime position at the entrance to the garden so we need to make them as striking as possible to attract those who visit to the idea of growing alpines. It will probably also mean we shall have to work a bit harder keeping the front garden tidier, so may need to search for a keen young plants-person with an interest in alpines and rock plants. I will certainly show pictures as we go along - it provides something of a discipline to think more carefully.

[astragalus]

Thanks, Tim.  I really look forward to following your progress.