Been busy up at the Manor !

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Two days hard graft, in the heat, 80 new photos uploaded on to my laptop, might be a longish blog so make yourself a nice cup of tea first and sit down in your favourite chair (lol).

Where shall i begin… First i shall apease the Bog garden fans who wanted to see what it looks like now into comparison with BEFORE! My favourite plant in here has to be the “Zantedeschia aethiopica”, which stand steadfast at the back, and have been prolific for the last few months On the wane now though sadly!

As you can see there is quite a lot going on and I couldnt believe the size of the leaves on the Gunnera (Manticata ?) I had never seen this plant before till i came here, in fact, there are a lot of wonderful plants not just here, but in the whole garden that leave me astounded and curious both at the same time !!

The Waterfall runs into the bog garden if allowed to, so whenever i top up the waterfall, i leave it on for a short while just to run over and give the plants a little extra. I have spent most of the day in the cut flower garden, and while digging out several HUGE weeds discovered a row of Dianthus, which are to be transplanted into the waterfall. Seems to be more colour on the waterfall in Winter and Spring in comparison to Summer ???

The Grapes

Something else thats new to me GRAPES! The vineyard has been in place for a few years or so and i have a feeling that may have not been pruned properly from the start, however have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of grapes that have appeared over the last 6 weeks. There are four varieties here, and we also have some outdoor (not sure if edible/wine) vines in the CutFlowerGarden(CFG).

Sadly not big enough to taste but looking forward to it nonetheless !

Have also harvested some of the apples that were being over-run with feeding wasps the last few days. Little blighters not happy with eating a whole apple, they want to have a little piece of each. So far the plums, well most of them, have been harvested, leaving the cooking apples, the pears, the figs, oh, and the greengages… yep, thats right GREENGAGES!, oh and the damsens if we can get to them, oh and the sloes on the other side of the ditch that goes down the left side of the garden. This place really is a grocers paradise, however underneath all the fun and excitement are some issues regarding the condition of the trees. The peaches havent happened, 2 fig trees not looking good, pear and apple trees have suffered from severe pruning by way of previous gardener and blossom wilt, as have the plum trees. Hoping to rescue most of them but the trees (especially plum)have been suffering from severe gumming which in turn has displayed itself on the fruit, then at night seeping through the fruit to leave nasty damage on the lovely plums!!!(I assume.) Luckily, my gardening partner whom we share this contract, owns a nursery so at least if any trees do need replacing they can be sourced easily enough, and passed on at trade prices to our customer. Small consilation, i know ?!

So let me know what you think… any advice is warmly received

• 18 Aug, 2009
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