Rebuilding a nursery - Copton Ash

[ichristie]

Hello again Tim I follow your posts with interest good to see you can progress without snow or frost?, weather Baltic here hard frost snow high winds just a normal winter, cheers Ian the Christie kind

[Tim Ingram]

A cold night is forecast (clearing skies) but we have been very mild up to now. It has meant we have been able to continue digging out the conifer stumps - only three more to do! Useful in a way because there has been a lot of weeding to do as well before the snowdrop days in February but we have had those freezing winds and snow and frost regularly through January and February in the past so there is a good chance it will return before long! (Enjoyed seeing the Cruickshank gardeners visiting your nursery Ian and that marvellous tunnel full of Meconopsis! Hope we can organise a long awaited Scottish Tour of Gardens before too long - my daughters are also keen to climb Ben Nevis, and that would be a first for me too).

[astragalus]

A Scottish Garden Tour - sounds like a dream.

[Tim Ingram]

We have plans in our small Alpine group down in Kent of organising a trip to Scottish gardens having had many wonderful talks from Scottish gardeners over the years. Any keen Kentish/south-east gardeners looking in... !

Surprisingly with a burst of activity, mostly from Gillian, we have cleared the rest of the Leyland stumps from this narrow strip in the front garden and the prospect of actually using this for troughs and growing more choice plants has really come into focus. We are lucky to have friends who have given us these four old Butler sinks for a start, which will need recovering with a cement/hypertufa mix... and there are Alpine Shows coming up before long ... This strip next to the wall is quite shaded by the neighbour's house for about half its length and then much more open at the top (not really visible from the foreshortened photo), so the plan at the moment is to have two groups of troughs separated by a small fastigiate tree against the pillar in the middle of the picture, and with small choice shrubs planted between the troughs. The lower part should be a good spot for small ericaceous species, perhaps autumn gentians, and similar plants which we haven't grown before, and the upper part for saxifrages and cushion plants. These two troughs pictured at an exhibit put on by the local AGS Groups at the Hillside Centre at Wisley in 2012, organised by Jon Evans and others, are a really good inspiration.

[ichristie]

Hello again Tim love the troughs so many uses and easy to move around we hope you do manage a visit to the far north do plan when weather is warmer still more snow last night, cheers Ian The Christie kind

[Matt T]

Following with anticipation, Tim. Those troughs will look great. Have you developed your thinking on what you will use as under/inter-planting a la RBGE? I like the trough you picture with a more 'woodsy' mix of plants, but they both look good. Although the proportions of the trough look a little too deep (aesthetically, I'm sure the plants love the cool root run), Sax's in crevices are always a winner in my book. Respect due to Gillian for shifting those stumps!

[Maggi Young]

A reminder that Tim and Gillian's garden is open on various dates under the NGS banner - first opening is 15th February - don't miss it!   

National Garden Scheme
Open dates for 2015:
Sunday 15th February 12-4 pm
Sunday 15th March 2-5.30 pm
Sunday 5th April 2-5.30 pm
Monday 6th April 2-5.30 pm
Sunday 26th April 2-5.30 pm
Monday 4th May 2-5.30 pm
Sunday 24th May 2-5.30 pm
Monday 25th May 2-5.30 pm
Sunday 14th June 2-5.30 pm
Sunday 19th July 2-5.30 pm

2016:
Sunday 14th February 12-4 pm

More details here : http://www.coptonash.plus.com/coptonash/Home_Page.html

Directions HERE

[Tim Ingram]

Maggi - you are very kind. This is a display we made down in the town today trying to show people that there is more about snowdrops than they might think. I should show some more pictures of the other market stalls because there are many impressive people involved and times are not so easy. The second picture is one of a series our daughter has made for an art project which I would like to share as the year progresses. A lot of interest in the snowdrops Quite a few people of course wanted to buy the plants on display, but a surprising number did buy the smaller plants for sale despite being a little quizzical about the prices. Snowdrops I think do reflect the 'value' of plants especially because, as a neighbouring stall-holder said, they bring a smile to the face . The third picture, for all those chocaholics out there, is an example from 'Kate makes Chocolates' - really a bit special!

[Tim Ingram]

Here are the pictures...

[Chris Johnson]

Love Robyn's 'Winter Scene' - 'Less is More' works for me.

Chris

[Tim Ingram]

Kind of 'Art Nouveau' I think. The other seasons use the same design, but filled in with foliage and flowers and fruits. She made it by cutting the design out from black card and using coloured tissue paper behind, so the picture was taken 'backlit' like coloured glass. Yes less is more - I have asked her if I can use them as introductions to writing about the garden in different seasons.

[Maggi Young]

Kind of 'Art Nouveau' I think.

Robyn's image is super. Not  'Art Nouveau' though, which is characterised by sinuous  lines. This style is more 'Art Deco' in feel  with the more stark lines of the  1930s- 40s.
Think Eric Ravilious, who died in 1942  ....






and it also reminds me of one of my favourite paintings from the Aberdeen Art Gallery collection - Paul Nash, "Wood on the Downs"  painted in 1930 (- which I always manage to think of as "Wind on the Downs"  )

[Tim Ingram]

A few pictures from the Kent HPS Snowdrop day held at Goodnestone Garden near Canterbury last weekend. Most of the small nurseries involved have been long part of the Kent Specialist Nursery scene and have helped run the local AGS and HPS Groups and we have now come together more under the 'Plant Fairs Roadshow'. A good day for gardeners in East Kent (a few people came along from the Cottage Garden Society too from the previous day) and Val Bourne gave a good talk on the history of growing snowdrops with personal recollections of people and plants.

Hardly comparable with the magnificent displays from nurseries at the February RHS Show that Jon Evans and others have shown but a lot of good garden plants available and many enthusiastic gardeners. We hope that we can grow this following more in the local region with a more imaginative and personal expression of the value we gain from growing and learning about plants. The first 'Roadshow' is at Hall Place, Bexley, close to the A2 in south-east London on Sunday 19th April. Admission FREE. See www.plant-fairs.co.uk or follow on Facebook and Twitter. (Future Shows are at Telegraph Hill, New Cross, London; Hall Place again in summer; and at the Salutation Garden, Sandwich in autumn)... interesting plants grown by dedicated growers...

[Alan_b]

It's a pity there was a clash between this Snowdrop Day and the 'Snowdrop Sensation' held at Great Comp Gardens.  Obviously everyone is free to do their own thing but two snowdrop events on the same day in the same county seems unfortunate.  Do you think there is a way this can be avoided in future?  The same consideration applies to other events and events celebrating other flowers but there isn't much going on in February so one would think it should be easier to avoid clashes than at other times of year

[Brian Ellis]

It's a pity there was a clash between this Snowdrop Day and the 'Snowdrop Sensation' held at Great Comp Gardens.  Obviously everyone is free to do their own thing but two snowdrop events on the same day in the same county seems unfortunate.  Do you think there is a way this can be avoided in future?  The same consideration applies to other events and events celebrating other flowers but there isn't much going on in February so one would think it should be easier to avoid clashes than at other times of year

These clashes cannot be helped, the snowdrop season is short and to fit things in it is inevitable that there will be some events that you cannot attend, you did do quite well this year!


That is a lovely idea to show the different snowdrop varities in the basket - easily transportable too!