Blog 661 - Starting a New Garden Life

[Lesley Cox]

I know his name Gerry but little about him. I don't think I've any recording with him as Conductor. How long of his contract did he fill?

[Lesley Cox]

While in the shower this morning I had a brainwave. I was washing my hair so maybe the cobwebs, bits of twig and assorted wildlife were washed out and my brain could work again! I have been wondering how to build up the triangular garden which I want to make into a rock garden, maybe even a crevice garden though having seen the Czech gardens I don't know if I'll dare try to emulate those. At present the area is bare earth and even slightly below the level of the surrounding lawn and there just isn't the money to bring in the quantities needed to build up and make a rock garden from scratch, but we have areas of native grasses, not sure which but so boring that I want them gone. They have been used to fill spaces with no regard to how dull and ugly they are. I believe I could keep takehe (Porphyrio hochstetteri) or kiwi among them with no-one any the wiser and there are hundreds, interplanted in some places with dahlia seedlings for some reason.

Anyway, it occurred to me that if I were to dig the grasses and lay them up-side-down on the to-be-a-rock-garden area, I could build it up and shape it with the grass clumps and then when it was the right height and shape, add a much smaller quantity of soil/grit and whatever else I wanted to include in the compost, on top, then add the rocks to suit.

I expect the grasses would shrink and slump as they rotted down so some waiting will be needed but even if it happens over quite a period, it won't really matter as more gravel/grit can be applied to keep a satisfactory height and shape. I can pretend it's a moving scree.

This will solve two problems; how to build up the area and how to dispose of the grasses. I may need to Roundup the edges if the grasses start to sprout out the lower parts. I dug a few this morning and it was quite easy as the ground is so wet at present.

[Tim Ingram]

My first thought was - 'a moving scree', what a novel and intriguing idea! My second though - what's wrong with a compost heap? Mind you Bob and Rannveig Wallis grew incredible bulbs in a bulb frame filled with old televisions and goodness else what that they wanted to find a place to get rid of (look back at one of their articles in the Bulletin). I think the grasses may build up the area initially but very rapidly the effect will be lost as they break down and you will probably end up having to spend as much on gravel and grit as you would have done to get the effect you wanted in the first place! On the other hand, what's wrong with a subterranean compost heap?

[Gerry Webster]

I know his name Gerry but little about him. I don't think I've any recording with him as Conductor. How long of his contract did he fill?

He died at the age of 89. His final recordings (of Debussy & Ravel) with the LSO are very fine. The Wikipaedia entry is informative.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Anyway, it occurred to me that if I were to dig the grasses and lay them up-side-down on the to-be-a-rock-garden area, I could build it up and shape it with the grass clumps and then when it was the right height and shape, add a much smaller quantity of soil/grit and whatever else I wanted to include in the compost, on top, then add the rocks to suit.

I expect the grasses would shinik and slump as they rotted down so some waiting will be needed but even if it happens over quite a period, it won't really matter as more gravel/grit can be applied to keep a satisfactory height and shape. I can pretend it's a moving scree.

This will solve two problems; how to build up the area and how to dispose of the grasses. I may need to Roundup the edges if the grasses start to sprout out the lower parts. I dug a few this morning and it was quite easy as the ground is so wet at present.

That's exactly the strategy I used when building my small tufa mound a couple of years ago.  The grass clumps turned upside down worked a treat ! (even without being treated with Roundup) !

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks for that note Gerry (ha ha! I'll be joining the ranks of David N and Cliff B if I'm not careful. ) I'll try to find those recordings.

Tim I was thinking of the screes in our own east coast mountains which do indeed, move. They move to such an extent that the roots of some plants such as Ranunculus haastii or the scree Leptinellas can be found growing at a higher altitude than the plants themselves. The roots are well dug in but the surfaces of the plants move along as rock shifts with rain and snow action. These plants tend to have very rubbery, almost elastic root systems. However, I don't really see that for my "scree" just that plants may have to grow up through grit and gravel as more and more material is added to keep up the height of the structure. It will depend on what rock I can use and how much I can get hold of. There's a little here but I['ll need a lot more.

I did think maybe a sand bed would be possible but today I started to dig a line of Armeria maritima which had been used along one side and with all the rain we have had over recent weeks, they were sitting in a bog. I think sand would not be suitable for this area, or not a whole bed of it, maybe just incorporated into parts which are not too low lying, or they would be like quicksand. In fact even in the soil, my gumboots were sinking to my ankles.

I unearthed literally hundreds of grass grubs in the digging process, to the benefit of Boris, Tat and Tam, who has laid her first egg this morning. Maybe there are more somewhere about because Roger hadn't been shutting them in at night and from very early morn they've been out and about. Now they'll have to be shut in until the nestbox has an offering.

So far as the TV sets are concerned, I hadn't thought of those but we do have a couple of ancient ones for disposal and also a couple of old PC monitiors so maybe they can be put to good use as landfill in this new garden. What's good enough for Bob and Rannveig.......

Not so sure about a compost heap as this area will, I hope, house the more precious and scree-like inhabitants that are available to me, things such as Kabschia saxes, Physoplexis, Gent depressa etc and many more. So I want a gritty, humusy soil that isn't too rich.

[ranunculus]

Quote: Thanks for that note Gerry (ha ha! I'll be joining the ranks of David N and Cliff B if I'm not careful. )

With the connoisseurs, eh Lesley?

I remember Pierre Monteux when he gigged with The Damned, The Best Beloved and The Little Squeezy Pimples ... he was COOL!!!

[David Nicholson]

Doesn't he have an annual Jazz festival as well?

[ranunculus]

Doesn't he have an annual Jazz festival as well?

No, I've never heard of the Pierre Jazz festival, David ... though I did see the FABULOUS Richard Hawley in Sheffield last week and Lesley would have LOVED him!!!!

[Gerry Webster]

Thanks for that note Gerry ......... I'll try to find those recordings.

Lesley - Try the Australian Eloquence label; they have republished many of the classic 60s recordings & are relatively inexpensive:

http://www.buywell.com/cgi-bin/buywellic2/eloqoverview.html

[Lesley Cox]

Thank you Gerry, I'll try it now. And also for a return to sanity in the posts. Not sure how I'll cope with the buttercup man actually in the house.

I was thrilled yesterday to find a dozen or so small tufts of Eranthis hiemalis arranged round a rotting and ancient tree trunk. They'll need to be rescued as that's where the little polytunnels will go when we've chopped out the trunk. There is also a single small clump, the only one I've found so far of Galanthus nivalis. Then there's a mass of the bulb below. I thought to start with it could be  large-flowered Dutch crocuses but the foliage is staying small and tight and the partially exposed bulbs are wrong, not corms at all. Maybe a Scilla or something? And does anyone know what my winter flowering cherry is please?

[fermi de Sousa]

...there's a mass of the bulb below. I thought to start with it could be  large-flowered Dutch crocuses but the foliage is staying small and tight and the partially exposed bulbs are wrong, not corms at all. Maybe a Scilla or something?

Maybe Muscari or Ornithogalum?
cheers
fermi

[arilnut]

Hi Lesley.  I'm afraid that bulb may be the weedy ornithogalum that's called
wild onion around here, also called Star of Bethlehem.  Impossible to get rid of.

John B

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks John, or perhaps not. Fermi in Australia has already suggested it may be an Ornithogalum or Muscari and I'm pretty sure it's not the latter. So far as I can tell it's just in the one place, with the Eranthis but winning the battle there. I'll try Roundup on it or, having lifted the Eranthis and the small clump of snowdrops, might drop half a ton of salt onto it. Round about there are various other clumps of bulby things and I'm terrified some may be bluebells, magnificent in an English woodland but a major menace in a New Zealand garden.

[fermi de Sousa]

As they say I the classics "give it a chance", Lesley!
If it's only in one place then it probably isn't too weedy - unless the previous owners were particularly vigilant against it spreading. Some of the ornithogalums can be quite floriferous when it's quiet amongst the other bulbs.
cheers
fermi