Fi's growing, gardening and design

Welcome to Viveka Gardens

2011-09-01T07:51:00.000+01:00

Viveka Gardens has arrived! Go to vivekagardens.com and see the blog continue.

Hampton Court - Vestra Wealth’s Gray’s Garden, Paul Martin Designs

2011-07-28T12:09:00.003+01:00

classy, classic, geometric modernism

This garden was inspired by the work of Eileen Gray, pioneer of modernist design and included her Bibendum chair in the pavillion.

plant form, texture, height masterclass

Hampton Court - Enduring Freedom? Designed by Nete Hojlund and Corinne Shar

2011-07-28T11:45:00.002+01:00

bar chart of deaths; step from safety of compound to foot patrol in Afghanistan

'explosion' and smoke effects periodically

double meaning

London South Bank Festival of Britain - Eden Project garden - fruit trees

2011-06-19T06:12:00.004+01:00

Blustery skies bring off this yellow paint bodge

You can really appreciate some of London's landmarks from the South Bank Centre terrraces. It's an exposed site and you feel the beginning of the connection to the sea. June is giving us lots of wind and rain. Apparently it rained as much in the first four days as in the previous three months.

Looking across the Thames to Somerset House

This kind of bedding is non-sustainable and anathema to me. It's also a horticultural no-no here, around these already starving trees. Design-wise it's odd too, as these pots are adjacent to a wildflower area. Anyway, despite all that, I can't say no to these cheery little marguerite faces. I'm hoping the Eden Project, who put together this area, will be repatriating these trees with some TLC once the festival is over, and compost the short-lived flowers.

uninteresting to pollinators and unsustainable, but cheery

London South Bank Festival of Britain - landscape artifacts: The Morisons, Black Pig Lodge

2011-06-19T05:31:00.002+01:00

Made of concrete, this bunker apparently is modelled on a Sami shelter. Inside is a polished coal altar that references defunct Welsh mining. The materials are ingeniously used, and there's definitely an uncomfortable dis-used-cum-not-sure-what-rites-have-gone-on-here feel. As Ben Kelly's Enclosure, though, wrongly plonked.

damp bloom adds to feel of abandonment

coal stained Valleys concrete vs post-industrial brutalism

spooky

Polished coal - durable for outdoors?

Moorish, or farmhouse plastic kitchen flooring?

panels from a mould intsalled on a wooden frame

London South Bank Festival of Britain - landscape artifacts: Ben Kelly Enclosure

2011-06-19T04:52:00.004+01:00

A trio of dry stone walling materials and techniques from around the UK, quite nicely made. I am discomfited by the juxtaposition with the brutalist architecture, probably in a good way. The artist and the curator of this exhibition have had to put up with too many elements though: the attempt to remediate the brutalism with industrial paint and box balls, and yellow banners. Two compromises too far: chaos.

Cordon tomatoes - an experiment

2011-06-05T08:22:00.004+01:00

I've always muddled along with tomatoes, never really focusing enough on pinching out and stopping, and ending up in August with an inadequate support for laden plants. This year I'll do better by my plants!
I saw a programme on heritage varieties growing in the Victorian glasshouses at Audley End where the kitchen garden is managed by Garden Organic. Inspired by seeing cordon tomatoes growing up strings, I've decided to try something similar at the allotment.
To make: timber offered by an allotment neighbour and a lady whose dustbins in Putney I was passing, an extra spike sleeve from the hardware shop in the high street for one of the uprights, baler twine I've had for years, some odd nails and screws. Online I came across a video by an American woman who used a 'spousal unit' in construction. I substituted an etiolated nineteen year old for knocking in of posts and this worked fine.
I think there may be a reason why you don't see this method for out of doors. Maybe wind jars the stems. Anyway, looking forward to lovely tall plants, allowed to grow as indeterminatley long as a London summer allows.

frame and bind-a-twine

string wound around plant

bow knot that can be adjusted

pegged to ground (pinch out side shoots!)

I have 8 varieties:
Tigrella - Mr Stripey in the US, apparently
Ryder's Midday Sun - Garden Organic Heritage Variety, seeds shared by Master Gardener Claire Benson - blog Claire's Crops
F1 Tomatoberry - heart shaped and really rather expensive seeds
Costoluto Fiorentino - bulging beefy type
Golden Sunrise - seedlings shared with the latest cohort of South London Master Gardeners at their training in April to practise pricking out
Roma - a bush, ie determinate, plum variety
Sweet Olive - a 'grape' tomato, also determinate
Gardener's Delight - classic 'ultimate cherry tomato'
Elsewhere in pots I'm growing Minibel and Tumbling Tom Red.

I have some spare plants if you're local and quick off the mark. I will have lots of toms to give away too (fingers crossed!)

Chelsea - hard landscaping design details

2011-05-28T17:03:00.011+01:00

A few of my favourite things...

fragile

cor-ten or terracotta?

brimming

hammered finish

Basildon Bond dimensions

Giubbilei granite

Yorkshire - mac screen

cut slate

edgeing pieces

Chelsea - plants and plant combinations

2011-05-28T16:42:00.003+01:00

A few of my favourite things...

Geum 'Totally Tangerine'

Anenome 'Wild Swan'

Waterside nursery

Briza media

Kangaroo paw

'shredded' foxglove

boragey blue flowers?


with bean stalk railings

Eremurus

Chelsea - Cleve West's Libya Garden

2011-05-28T14:49:00.005+01:00

Inspired by Libyan ruins. The handmade hatched texture of the concrete columns and the plant palette call up 50s textiles

Who wouldn't want to walk to the bench at the end? The uneven floor and the steps would ensure you slowed down and thought about where you're going. A garden's key role is to make you think about where you are going. The whole, aided by a dusty looking mortar and silver-leaved plants, evokes mediterranean heat and having to slow down.
The herbaceous planting focuses on flower head shape: the 'plates' of Achillea taygetea (mustard yellow that fades - very nice and seen a lot this year), globes of allium, domed umbels of Anthriscus and parsnip, spikes of Camassia and Stachys, screens of fennel foliage. Brightest red buttons of Dianthus cruentas sing out (a new plant for Chelsea; Alan Titchmarsh confused it with D. carthusianorum, which is pink, and which has been in fashion of late with Nigel Dunnett's take on prairie planting). You can't have a show garden without a multi-stemmed tree; in this case Sophora japonica, which would have great autumn colour and big sculptural seed pods.

Some of my pictures were used in Landscape magazine’s July edition, pp38 - 39

there are 5 all together

Sphora japonica, Acanthus mollis 'Rue Ledan'

herbaceous planting

Chelsea - Jihae Hwang's Hae-Woo-So Emptying One's Mind Garden

2011-05-28T08:27:00.005+01:00

This garden mesmerises out of all proportion to its size and apparent humbleness. The artist has succeeded in creating a spiritual space with a toilet. Maybe the draw is in its neglected end-of-the-garden-place-to-be-on-your-own feeling. The best in artisan garden award is both annoying (I want this place to be for me alone!) and immensely pleasing (the artist deserves recognition for her talent).
Some of my pictures from Chelsea were used in Landscape magazine’s July edition, pp38 - 39

wash your hands

Jeffersonia diphylla


upturned pot as pillar, rough unglazed base offered to view

Chelsea - Thomas Hoblyn's Cornish Memories Garden

2011-05-28T07:46:00.004+01:00

Rhododendron 'Cunningham's Blush'

Approaching this garden the first impact is the beautiful and perfect oval of the pool, and its generous size. The smooth curved channels thrill with their line and with a fast running flow, even if your health and safety head thinks 'plenty of scope here for twisted ankles'. Pines and rhododendrons (here Pinus sylvestris 'Watereri') are very evocative of my Dorset early years so the planting provokes for me the emotion and retro response that the designer was aiming to capture.

who made these lovely bowls?

The rockpool bowls are gorgeous - oxygenating plants in them were producing lots of fascinating bubbles - and pick up on the artisan theme promoted though the show. The pavillion, however, was a little too B&Q for me. I remain a fan of Hoblyn's Chelsea gardens.

Chelsea - Adam Frost's Frank Lloyd Wright inspired garden

2011-05-28T07:07:00.002+01:00

geometry

The geometry is striking: overlapping slabs of very nice polished concrete, a square of box and bespoke seating. You have to step over the water, and to go up and down the levels to make it to the end: this journey creates space. The trees with their bare stems and 'V' form on top (Zelkova serrata 'Green Vase') are perfectly placed for shade, seclusion and leading on the eye.
Rodgersia is a plant I'd love to use (it needs a moist root run, and borders water) and here its chestnut leaf form perfectly sets off fans of ferns and spikes of foxgloves. The blue geranium at the front of that planting section links to cooling blue and white entrance fronted by more geranium, fine froth of Luzula nivea and upward Iris sibirica.

plant texture

plants for moist condtions

Chelsea - Robert Myers' Cancer Research Surviving Garden

2011-05-27T23:00:00.006+01:00

Planting is key to the concept. The designer has selected plants that survive arid and salty conditions, and graded a progresssion of planting areas that become softer and lusher as shelter is reached. The surviving concept is also explored in incised stone poem panels. Key hard landscaping: irregular seaside gravel, stone walling, rendered wall and limestone steps and paths. Very thoughtful and made with care.

trees: tamarisk, cordyline, trachycarpus; key herbaceous: valerian

masterly finishing

colour of rendered wall - perfect

Chelsea - Diarmuid Gavin's Irish Sky Garden

2011-05-27T22:32:00.006+01:00

Hard to resist those box cushions stepping into the distance contrasting with shaggy hakonechloa and dripping birch

intriguing corten paths but you can't not see the crane


Imperata rubra picking up corten red

It's not easy to enjoy this garden from the viewpoints you're allowed as a visitor. You can't begin to get an idea of the overall shape. Also, I feel uneasy with the extravagant imported topiarised trees and box plants. The key plants are ones that became design staples during the noughties (Miscanthus, Calamagrostis 'Carl Foerster', Hornbeam, Hakonechloa), but they don't feel tired as they make a study in contrasting form and texture. Nice. I really want to go up that path.

Chelsea - Wong and Cubero Malaysian Courtyard Garden

2011-05-27T21:59:00.002+01:00

Geometry, water, lush planting and a beautifully finished limestone - this is a very strong, breath-taking design. The most sophisticated garden in the show, and curiously under the radar, despite its gold medal. Some of my Chelsea pictures were used in Landscape magazine’s July edition, pp38 - 39

Peony

2011-05-26T22:23:00.014+01:00

Kelway's stand at Chelsea

gift bunch - 'Coral Charm' (?)

'granny' peony; likely P. officinalis

P. 'Yachiyo-Tsubaki'

P. 'Bowl of Beauty'

A gorgeous gift bunch from Nicola at Cottington inspired me to review peonies. I nipped into the garden to check on ones I've planted. The dark red one is one I divided when I came here 20 years ago. Who knows, maybe it originates when the garden here was re-made in the Edwardian area, the peony heyday. Its autumn foliage makes a crazy colour clash with granny-inherited Nerine and the last few dahlias in a vase. And 'Bowl of Beauty', which my exquisite taste friend says make her sick (selected by me, admittedly in bud and in haste). By contrast, the delicate-est pink at the original peony nursery, Kelways. I picked up Claire Austin's catalogue at her beautifully presented stand (camera had run out of battery by this time), which usefully supplemented RHS books and a great article in May's Gardener's Illustrated. To be included in planting designs. And here's a completely different take on peonies. It would be amazing to come across this on a mountain trek, Paeonia brownii.

Strawberry underworld

2011-05-26T21:18:00.006+01:00

strawberry underworld in today's storm

25th April

sprinkle sugar for juice

This blog helps me record variations of the seasons (in a casual way). So just as I blogged about the hard frost we had exactly a year ago - May 26th -, here I am recording allotment neighbour Delta's first strawberry on 10th May.
I feel I neglect my strawberries but they are such do-ers and have converted spring 2011's take-it-for-granted endless sunshine to sweetness and tang in a way I am grateful for. Then today purple skies, sweeping showers and hail - slugs ahoy! Weekend jobs: weeding and nemaslug.

Parsnip flowers

2011-05-22T20:33:00.005+01:00

Chrome yellow, and very attractive.

Unwittingly I have aped in a very minor way Cleve West at Chelsea. I missed some parsnips and have let them go on to flower. As many other umbellifers (Apiaceae), they attract hoverflies. Hoverflies are invaluable predators of aphids in the garden. They lay their eggs in them and the larvae then eat up. I was pleased to get these close ups as the 120cm stems were more than swaying in today's winds. Ladybirds seem to like to be on the flowerheads, be they in flower or set seed.


umbel

seed head

nectar feeding

Bolting

2011-05-22T15:08:00.005+01:00

It was the driest April since records began and in London and the southeast the dry has continued into May. This is very serious for farmers (and us all, as food prices will go up further still) and my bolting spinach is hardly a big deal by comparison. Bolting is a plant's response to dryness or a sudden change in temperature. The plant aims to flower and set seed before it dies. A flowering spike shoots up, often in the space of a couple of days, in a pre-programmed last ditch response to drought. Spinach is prone to bolting, even if you think you're watering carefully, and it's worth looking for bolt-resistant varieties. Typically you sow in early spring and again from August to avoid the dry season. Anyway, I've lost this lovely variety (from a seed swap, no label, forgotton the name) which was pretty, unusual with its sagittate leaves and tasty.
Nothing to do but take the remaining leaves and toss with a dressing and baby broad beans. I have sown Florence fennel in its place - also a notorious bolter - but May/June is the time to sow in this case to as cold is the bigger trigger to bolting.

Ladybirds - a good year

2011-05-22T14:50:00.003+01:00

So many ladybirds this spring and now into early summer! I had the 'traditional' seven spot on my peas and encouraged it onto my hand for closer inspection. It didn't want to have anything to do with the broad bean tips where black harlequin ladybirds were tackling juicy looking black fly, and flew off.
My neighbour's plum tree has an aphid infestation and is a veritable ladybird motel. We thought there might be some inter-specific mating going on (see tradtional-looking type on top, top, and black one on top, below!)
Having looked at the ladybird survey I see that they are likely to all be Harlequin ladybirds, the common melanic (black) form and the usual orange one. They can have up to 21 spots which fuse in different ways, so they can look completely different within the species. This is an invasive alien species that outcompetes native types. They still eat aphids, though.

Early May trug shots - pink and green freshness

2011-05-08T08:46:00.008+01:00

mibuna, radishes and retro curly parsley

so cute -and great weed-suppressing mulch/catch crop

flea beetle starting now but leaves still ok for stirfry

beautifully glaucous; nutritious shredded in stirfy

Tulips from the Big bulb plant and a bunch of oregano

a full on blowsy combo that has given great vase value

frilly textures and champagne rhubarb

Mixed leaves including spinach, tatsoi, mustard greens...

Wildflowers in Kent

2011-04-23T10:47:00.000+01:00

An amazing spring and a country walk last weekend was a chance to observe/absorb the pure freshness and vibrancy of wildflowers, though they hardly like to give it up to the camera.

Lady's Smock or Cuckoo Flower Cardamine pratensis

Blubells in woodland Hyacynthoides non-scripta

Bluebells and campion, Silene vulgaris


Lady's smock likes damp meadows

Lesser celandine Ranunculus ficaria

Primrose - Primula veris

Wisteria

2011-04-14T09:39:00.016+01:00

In Japan, China, and Korea Wisteria naturally grows through trees in moist woodland and by streams, the woody stems twining up to the light. I have read of tresses of the lilac flowers being seen all down wooded hillsides in Japan, something I'd like to see for myself in time.
Some wisteria are already in flower in London and now is a good time to visit nurseries to choose the blossom colour you want. There are many lovely varieties - white, pink, lilac, purple - but you can't really rely on a word description to necessarily match your idealised version of the blooms. Neither modernist nor minimalist it's still a classy plant, originating in Asia, that epitomises the English country garden, and seen here on a Georgian townhouse. The greyish gnarled stems imply a long-established history when formally trained on a building. Less often in the UK (due to lack of space, maybe, and because we also like other climbers like clematis and roses) but more common in Japan is to see the plant trained on sturdily built pergolas where the racemes (tresses of flowers) can hang down. At Giverny, Monet's garden in Normandy, a wisteria walk on a bridge means the flowers are reflected in the water to stunning effect. Wisteria can also be allowed to naturally scramble its nine metres or more through a suitably large and strong tree.

Wisteria needs full sun or partial shade. It is a member of the pea family, Papilionaceae - the five petals of its flowers, just as those of peas and beans, resemble the four wings and body of a butterfly when opened flat. As most other members of this family, the roots form nitrogen-fixing bacterial associations, so plants don't really need a lot of fertiliser other than a normal mulch of organic material (one rich in leaf mould - think woodland floor - would be ideal). If you add a high-nitrogen fertiliser, there will be lots of leafy growth at the expense of flowers. However, potash is needed to get those lovely great droops of flowers.
Pruning is essential to maximise floriferousness (that's a real word used by horticulturalists). As other woody plants that flower before July, flowers are produced on the previous season's growth and you prune after flowering. In late July or August, shorten the current season's shoots to 30cm (unless they are to establish framework or replace damaged branches). The flower buds form at the base of these shoots. In late winter, towards the end of the dormant period, cut these shoots back to 5 cm or so (not more) of the older wood. The flowering stems will erupt into growth.


urban - over Leylandii in Lambeth Walk

Oval cricket ground

beautifying a garage

Wisteria floribunda (from Japan - the Japanese for wisteria is 'fuji') twines clockwise; W. sinensis (from China) anticlockwise. Most varieties for horticultural sales are crossings and re-crossings of these two species and also W. brachybotrys. Scions (shoots) are grafted onto rootstock. Do not plant any grown from seed as you are likely to be disappointed. Plant so that the union is the ground (see here for general instructions about planting a wall climber). After planting prune back the leading shoot to 90cm above the ground. In the first growing season tie in lateral shoots and cut back sub-lateral shoots to two or three buds. During the first winter cut back laterals by one third and sub-laterals by two or three buds. Repeat this pattern for new growth.

I'm lookng forward to my Wisteria client getting years of pleasure from the wisteria we choose and plant together!

Espalier and Cordon trees

2011-02-16T09:56:00.007Z

I'm currently doing research for a client who wants a productive garden, especially fruit trees, in a 10 x 5m space behind a small Victorian terrace house. Last September I took these photos at Hampton Court, in the car park, where this beautiful new wall has been planted up maybe one or two years ago, apparently to display wall training methods for fruit trees.

The wall has a pleasing bond, 6 rows of stretcher and a row of headers, which gives a horizontal dynamic. The mortar looks to be traditional lime (no cement) and the bricks themselves not machine-made. The craftsmanship in the brickwork, combined with the expertise required to train the trees creates a reassuring feeling of competence and durability. In a garden, the marriage of this kind of use of materials and choice of planting allows a certain relaxation, as if safe in the hands of a strong father.

My client is a joiner who, because he is so able and obliging, often takes on general building and project management and so works far too hard for his health. I am hoping that the technical aspect of working with trained fruit trees and bushes will appeal to him and he'll use his garden to relax. He's also a great cook, so fruit to the fore.

Single cordon - very productive for size

Fan form (I think) here for cherries

Fan

Double 'U' cordon

Crossing cordons - stems may fuse together

Classic espalier

Zinnnia - looking back, looking forward - August, September

2011-02-13T10:50:00.003Z

Zinnia, fennel and bupleurum - all from annual seed

Zinnia with dahlias

August harvest - looking back, looking forward

2011-02-13T10:35:00.001Z

Blackcurrants - looking back, looking forward

2011-02-13T10:12:00.003Z

Early July. Mmm...sunshine turned purpley black. Can you smell it? Then jam made, job done.

Thrive - ornamental and edible containers

2011-02-10T07:37:00.000Z

Cabbage, poppies (field and Californian), sage

Some great ideas for combining colour last June at the Thrive garden in Battersea Park. Thrive is a charity supporting social and therapeutic horticulture.

Ruby chard and veronica

Rocket, oakleaf, oregano, Russian sage

Tagetes, oakleaf lettuce and beans

Nigella - mid-summer blues

2011-02-10T06:35:00.046Z

Fine texture

Blue...

Complements

Variation

Maybe two or three years ago I'd sown Nigella 'Persian Jewels' a freebie from a Sarah Price Chelsea garden, I think. It has self-sown and fallen out of its selected colours and forms. It's a little wan now but spectacular in its own feathery way. I it allowed to stay last summer as it complemented the glaucous broad bean leaves. It'll be back.

Silver

2011-02-10T05:35:00.010Z

Eryngium bourgatii - stellar


Onopordum acanthium - three thistley ghosts

My (male) neighbours at the allotment find space to grow some striking, spikey ornamentals, pictured here in mid-June.

Eryngium is a clump-forming perennial about 50cm high, so this view of its stellar bracts can be made a point of interest. If you plant it by a path, feel confident your guests will have their gardening trousers on. Hardy, so long as it's on free-draining soil.

The Scotch thistle - a native plant and un-cultivared - being up to 3m tall, is often placed at the back of a traditional herbaceous border. Here it is displayed in all its glory, making full use of the toning mortar and contrasting brick behind it. It's a biennial that successfully self-seeds (such fun for weeding) and does well against this south-ish facing wall on unimproved soil

Late May - looking back, looking forward

2011-02-06T11:54:00.009Z

Crimson flowered broad beans

Chard 'White Silver'

Pea, flower still attached

Beetroot - 'Chioggia', I think.

Viola 'Heartsease' for salads

Stem of bolting sorrel

Early May - looking back, looking forward

2011-02-06T09:05:00.046Z

As the itch for the new growing season becomes almost unbearable, I'm reviewing last year's pictures. May.

Seedlings. New wire baskets with amaranth and coriander seedlings. And the lovely concertina shredded cardboard packaging the baskets came in - perfect for the compost bin.

A brassica seedling under protection.

Strawberries in flower

Blueberries in flower

Berries to be. I had contemplated pulling out the strawberries, as they only give a handful at a time and are a slug magnet. Better to support our Kent growers who always seem to have to discount enormously at the supermarket? But they look so lovely here. Blueberries. Originally I planted three varieties for successional, but this one bush has done best on London clay. I haven't been able to bring myself to add peat for the acid conditions preferred. Would have been handy to leave the labels on...

Honesty - Lunaria annua

May flowers

Cottage garden flowers for wildlife. Honesty, a biennial despite the latin name, had self seeded and provided a gorgeous display for the best part of a month. I grew it because birds are supposed to eat the seeds in the 'moon' pods (not!). I 'allow' myself this section of herbaceous perennials in a section with a wildlife attracting aim. Here, white and violet honesty, with colombines in the foreground. Also, the blue-flowered weeds of forget-me-not and alkanet which persist however much you pull them out - the former by seeding profusely, the latter by having a brittle tap root.