How Does Your Garden Grow

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My Garden in the Highlands of Scotland

The Winters here can get to a seriously low temperature and, unless you have a walled garden, an array of plants is ruled out.

Of course, I know of an old walled garden not a mile from here which has (well, it was there about six years ago) a massive and very old peach tree in a south facing greenhouse and certainly when I was familiar with the place it was always an excellent bearer of fruit.

It is unusual in our part of Scotland to find exotic species.

On the West Coast, where the gulf stream meets the Scottish shore, exotic garden species abound and thrive.

If you're ever in that neighbourhood you should check out Inverewe Gardens, near Poolewe on the West Coast of Scotland.

But back to my modest patch.

This lens is to share my garden in all weathers.

I'm disabled so most of my gardening is done with a bottle of weedkiller spray, preferably once the bees have gone to bed.

Sadly there are years when the Spring is too wet and windy for my type of gardening and I'm still trying to get rid of a lot of weeds in August.

Oh my, where to begin ...

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How Does Your Garden Grow by Katherine Carington Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 UK: Scotland License.
Based on a work at www.squidoo.com.

In the beginning ... 

I live in a beautiful place which I moved to about 12 years ago. There was really no garden when I arrived, the garden had been cleared of a heap of rubbish and broken down sheds which had been left behind, so it was a blank, very blank canvas.

I wasn't 100% convinced I could get anything to grow in what looked like the most awful soil but ...

The first thing which was obvious was that all the soil sloped towards the house, on all sides.

To one side, it was partly due to my neighbour's garden being several feet above mine in places, simply the lie of the land, and the only solution was to dig out the soil, put in a retaining wall where needed and stack the spare soil behind it.

Back then I was fitter though arthritis was beginning to kick in and I knew my garden would have to be easy to look after.

It took a year of digging and gathering stones to make raised beds but, in the end (though I sometimes wonder if it will ever be completely finished) it has definitely been worthwhile. Now, eleven years later, the garden is maturing and where once it was barren, now there is an abundance of wildlife.

The dry stone walls are a marvellous habitat for small birds, spiders, mice and voles and because I always leave the dead vegetation over the winter, toads also thrive here among all the small insects which attract many birds to the garden.

The Lens Photo Sage and Alchemilla Mollis 



Sage bush and Alchemilla Mollis.

These two provide an astonishing contrast in the garden. As you can see, the Alchemilla Mollis is a vibrant yellow and perfect foil for the purple of the Sage.

The contrasting shapes of their leaves and general habit add to the effectiveness of these two together.

The only problem is that Alchemilla mollis, which is a hardy perennial, self seeds at an alarming rate and is difficult to keep up with. Given half a chance, it would take over the entire garden.

The small garden. 



This is the small area of garden in front of my house.

I made a central "ring cairn" in miniature with a flower bed in the centre and surrounded it with eight miniature standing stones (which you can't see in this picture). I like the contrast between soft foliage and natural stone.

Ring Cairn and Standing Stones 

This is also in my small front garden, looking towards where the last picture was taken. Above, the centre of the "ring cairn" in which there are numerous Spring bulbs which have died back by this time of year.

The three main plants in the centre are a dwarf rhododendron, a spreading juniper and a beautiful 'tree' heather. All three of these plants were given to me by my daughter and they seem perfectly happy where they are.

When you can't have grass in your garden (and I couldn't possibly cut grass) it can be difficult to come up with a plan which will be decorative.

Again, in this part of the garden, when I first moved here I found the garden ground sloped towards the house and therefore rather a lot of soil had to be shifted.

The logical solution was to have a raised bed in the middle of the front garden but either this would have to have been quite large - and therefore require a fair bit of maintenance or I had to come up with something different.

In actual fact, this garden design represents The Map of the Tarot. Around the 'ring cairn' are 36 large stones (36 decans), the main standing stones represent the Aces and Princesses and there are stones set into the gravel in a circle around the 'cairn' which represent all the other cards in the Tarot deck.



The construction of the ring cairn certainly doesn't follow historical guidelines ... the wall of the middle (planted) part is several courses of bricks - which happened to be discovered in the garden in fairly large numbers - with drainage gaps left between them. This was then filled with the excess soil.

The ground around the central 'pot' created is close to the top of the outer stones of this cairn, the covering of fist sized river-tumbled stones is not very deep but does keep the weeds at bay ... apart from the odd rogue.

This was a simple solution for a garden which requires very little maintenance once established.

Ring Cairn and Standing Stones

The Garden Path 



Connecting the front and back gardens is a walkway along the side of my house.

When I first moved into this house in 1996, the soil had all collapsed towards the wall of the house. Here in this narrow space between the houses is where the difference between my neighbour's garden and mine is greatest and therefore the only option was to build a retaining wall and pile all the collapsed soil back up behind it.

Astonishingly, when digging this path out we found the original brick bordered red stone chip path underneath it all but I prefer my pebbles.

Gardeners' Garters 



There is supposed to be no grass in my garden (nowhere to keep a lawnmower and I couldn't use one anyway) but I make an exception for ornamental grasses, of course.

This particular grass is called Gardeners' Garters and has a delicately variegated leaf. The 'flower' spikes can be up to six feet tall. You may be able to make out the top of the spike on the accompanying photo, just about where the wording begins in this module.

I've added a close up of the leaves - which look a little indistinct in the main pic - and will add more pictures through the year of this plant but as a tall, stately individual, it is perfect in a mixed border.





















A close up of the leaves shows how beautifully and delicately striped they are.

The Undergrowth

Under a Laburnum tree I grew from seed 

Many of the hardy perennials which are growing around the base of this tree have self-seeded in my garden and therefore I have no idea what their specific names are.

In fact, I think there was more than one Laburnum seed which germinated but they grew together.

The tree looks fabulous in flower but you must always remember that the seed pods and seeds on a laburnum are poisonous.

The tree is underplanted with hardy perennials.

Changing undergrowth 



Under the Laburnum tree is an ever changing scene.

The two self seeded flowers shown in the module above have finished flowering and their show is taken over by the large daisies and Monkshood, both of which were growing in part of the garden when I took it on.

In several places in my garden you'll find one or other of these plants, there were a couple of very large clumps of each originally in the front garden but as I completed areas I was building, I split up the large clumps and spread the plants around.

The trees (which are not in my garden) in the background below are still catching the evening sun while the garden is largely in shade.

Beside the Laburnum tree 



Beside or perhaps it's more like behind, the Laburnum tree is a large Mock Orange (Philadelphus) which showers the whole area white its delicate white petals.

I particularly like the way this shady corner has encouraged the growth of moss on the stones.

A word of warning about Laburnum seeds 



It's important to realise that the seeds and seed pods on a laburnum tree are highly poisonous.

Every so often you hear of people dying because thay have picked and eaten these as if they were small runner beans or mange tout peas.

Never leave children unsupervised around laburnum trees when they have seed pods, better still, if the tree is in your garden, remove the flower heads as soon as the petals drop. If you wish to collect seed please make sure that the pods you leave to ripen are well out of the reach of any child.

They are highly poisonous.

Beyond the Philadelphus 



A group of pine trees were planted close together and, although they will be a bit spindly, I'm hoping their growth will be stunted. If not, I can always get the tops lopped off to keep the height down.

This shady corner seems to be suiting the Hosta Variegata.

A Shady Seat 



Of course, knowing my arthritis would eventually get the better of me, I decided that I didn't want to be lugging garden furniture around - besides, I have nowhere to store it - so when the opportunity arose to place good, solid flat stones into the dry stone walls as seats, it seemed the obvious answer.

There are several of these seats around my garden, all you need to bring is a cushion.

The Corner Under the Cherry Trees 



This is the other perfect spot in my garden for a Hosta, under a group of three wild cherry trees and, again, this shady spot has encouraged the moss to grow on the wall.

None of these trees will grow particularly large because the little hill on which they are built contains all the rubbish and rubble from excavations in the garden during its making.

The wall here started off straight and somewhere I think I have pictures of the beautiful newly finished construction. I always knew that the tree roots would reshape the dry stone walls into something much more natural.

The long path you can see at the right of picture runs from this spot all the way down the neighbouring property's fence, about two thirds of the length of the garden. Eventually it should be almost like a tunnel under the trees and shrubs.

Cherry, Birch and Pine self seed in my garden to an alarming extent. There will be a photo coming up at some point of a tree which chose such a cheeky place to grow, I left it to do its thing.

Making the best use ... 



... of what's around.

The large evergreen at the back of this picture is actually in my neighbour's garden ... I would be most upset if they decided to get rid of it as my potentilla (shrub with white flowers) and the Monkshood beside it (which will flower a dark blue soon) look really good set against that tree. The wild cherry trees at either side of the picture are in my garden.

You can perhaps see some of the problem self-seeded Alchemilla Mollis at the foot of this picture, it will take ages to rid the garden of this plant's seedlings, it became far too successful.

The Birch in the Wall 



I promised you a look at this.

I wasn't really able to do very much in the garden for a couple of years - it turned almost into a jungle out there - and when I was able to get back to it I found this birch tree had grown out of the middle of the low retaining wall on the flower bed to the left of that potentilla above.

Admiring its audacity, I decided to leave it ... it had little to do with the fact it was already thicker in the trunk than I could comfortably cut ... honest LOL

I really don't mind it at all as I expect this sort of thing to happen in what is essentially a wild garden.

How wild? Well, since my gardening is mainly done with weedkiller, I'm not out there disturbing the creatures by working in my garden and this brings interesting results. There's a blackbird living in the trees to the side of the garden who can get quite uppity with me for being in his garden ... until I start gathering up the moss and exposing grubs and insects.

The birds in particular are responsible for many of the self-seeded garden plants so I guess he has a point.

Another path. 



At the very back of my garden is an area I haven't quite got to yet and this path leads to it. Beyond this path it's weedy and although I can kill off the weeds I will have to get in more gravel to tidy it all up afterwards.

The Standing Stone beside the Birch Tree 



I have a number of impressively sized "standing stones" dotted around the garden, this one is on the other side of the birch with hosta above.

Dried flowers growing 



This plant was brought as a cutting from another garden and I'm not sure what it's called. Years ago I helped out cleaning up a very weedy formal border at a large manor house and, of course, when a herbaceous border has been neglected for years, inevitably some bits of the plants come out along with the weeds.

I gathered up many of these and amongst them was this delightful border plant. It has a pale, grey-green leaf and flowerhead covered with these small white, yellow centred flowers which, even as they grow, feel very like tissue paper.

They dry very well and I've just picked a few heads to dry for use on art cards and I managed to extract a couple of roots from the soggy ground while doing that so ... there will be another patch of this delightful flower growing in my garden next year.

Busy Bees 



I get a vast number of bees in the garden, even at this time of year (mid September) they are still trying to gather in the last nectar from the flowers.

Industrious little chaps really, I love honey :-)

The "weed" problem 



Alchemilla Mollis is a very dramatic plant with a wonderful show of bright yellow flowers in Summer BUT it is a fiend for self-seeding, as you can see in this picture.

Unfortunately it casts thousands of tiny seeds and the birds, which there are in abundance in my garden, just don't manage to find them all.

As A.Mollis tends to grow rather too vigorously in my garden anyway, it's imperative to get rid of all these little blighters and their millions of brothers and sisters throughout my garden or they will take over completely.

Being disabled, all my weeding is done with the help of Monsanto's Roundup. I would not recommend this for the amateur gardener but I have been involved in a type of farming and have used it for a long time. The gardener's equivalent is ready watered down and goes by the name of Tumbleweed last time I looked.

Basically, it is glyphosate and NOT to be left anywhere that a child might get hold of it.

Still to be done ... 



This is the real messy area, a strip along the back fence of my garden which, more than ten years ago, I did make start on but never got finished.

Under all this weed growth there is gravel ... or there was last time you could see it.

A couple of days ago I managed to get the weather to spray all this area with weedkiller so I'm hoping it will get rid of most of this growth, although I know already there will be smaller weeds etc underneath which will have been sheltered by their larger neighbours from the spray.

It's also too late in the year for weedkilling really but it should give me a head start in the Spring.

I'll update this module with photos of the results.

The corrugated iron there is the wall of my neighbour's shed ... I would like to get honeysuckle growing in that corner on a bit of framework to hide the unblendable shed.

Well, the weedkilling worked but, as I knew would be the case, there are some lower growing weeds which managed to hide under the longer grasses and these will still require treatment.



Of course, it's far too late now to weedkill so this will have to wait until Spring now.

Autumn begins 



I hadn't realised that we'd had a night cool enough to set off the Autumn colours but it's clear they are beginning.

It seems early enough in the year for this, I hope it isn't an indication of a hard Winter to come, not with electricity costs the way they are now.

Autumn colours 


Laburnum



Birch

Autumn Crocuses 

Autumn Crocuses, also known as Naked Boys because they flower without leaves in October time, provide a splash of colour and lfe at this time of year when everything else around is going into decay.

The Garden Birds 



I have so many birds in my garden but they're darn difficult to capture on film.

I'm hoping that as the Winter comes along I'll be able to get some good pictures of some of the wildlife (not only birds) which frequents my garden.



Winter - 21st November 2008 



Winter has arrived this morning and is looking very pretty (but cold).



And we can't see the mountains at all, they're completely hidden by low snowclouds.

Snowdrops - 1st March 2009

Spring is Sprung 

The first day of March and the snowdrops are well and truly in flower. They're not the only plants flowering, the Helleborus Niger below has been flowering through the Winter, this flowerhead was bent over by the weight of snow we had.

It hasn't been a horrendous Winter but there were a few weeks when the temperature didn't get above freezing and we were also treated to a couple of heavy periods of snow. It was freezing to the branches of trees and brought down a few old branches, it also forced a couple of young birches to bend to the ground. The damage won't be clear for a few weeks yet, as many of the plants are still recovering.

There has been a noticeable increase in the number and variety of birds in the garden and their behaviour is definitely a signal that Spring is in the air.

They're attracted to my garden because I leave all the old growth alone over the Winter so it harbours huge numbers of insects and grubs. Best Spring restaurant in the area ;)

Helleborus Niger

Daphne Mezeron 

The Daphne flowers start to show colour around the end of February. This shrub makes a fabulous display and will root quite easily.

Pin down any branch long enough simply by placing a bit of soil over the branch once it is in contact with the ground and weight it down with a stone. Come back in a year and you should find you have a new plant rooted. Simply cut the portion of the branch which leads to the original shrub and transplant your new one to wherever you would like it to be.

I have three of these shrubs in my garden, all originally from one rather spindly plant near the gate. The one pictured here is the largest of the three.



Pictures of Daphne taken 9th March 2009

Daphne

Even more Spring flowers 

Isn't it just amazing how Spring suddenly erupts, the first very few flowers are soon followed by many more until there's a riot of colour in the undergrowth.

Even though the Winters here can last clear through March when they feel like it, we still have a range of very early flowering plants.

Below are a few more, hyacinth, crocus and anemone.

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