Best in Show - Andy Sturgeon at Chelsea 2010

This garden splits the Chelsea-going public along the fault lines already present in the show, and in the RHS as a whole:  designers vs plants people. And the whole pretty conservative, anyway.  'Ooh, looks like grave stones','Is it wood?' (it's Cor-ten steel, the oxidised layer protecting it from rust), 'Meet me in the cafe when you've done'.  I love it, though.

The planting evokes a mediterranean climate and would be sustainable. I can imagine strolling through to one end and back on a summer evening, chatting or dreaming on my own.  The structures are strong but not heavy.  The glimpses through are poignant.  It's a restless garden, movement-wise, but spaces for chairs are there. The limestone walls and platforms will hold the heat long into the evening, making it a place to linger.  I followed the whole cork oak saga, video diary.They would have been nice, but the pines are great and stir early memories for me.

For more close ups and to hear the designer talk, andy sturgeon video.

beans, beans, beans, beans

This is a retrospective post, started at the beginning of June and edited on 19th August.  How nice to look back at what has happened in three short months.

Growing runner beans is so rewarding. Here's a seedling (left) with it's seed leaves bright and shiny in the sun, ready to go; and only a few days later, ramping up its pole.  I love the intelligence and tenacity of beans, and the way their twining stems unerringly climb anti-clockwise.

For the first time ever I resisted putting out the French and runner beans 'til the end of May.  In previous years they only got checked (ie stopped growing for a while and made less vigorous plants in the long run). This year there was the unusually late, hard frost on 26th May which would have been the end of them.  Remember, their origin is Mexican!

I'm using birch and cherry bean poles taken from clearing Surrey heathland.  They are a bit sturdy and wonky, with rough bark, so my row may not look the most elegant.  However, I believe studies show beans grow more strongly when they can get a good grip. Compare smooth bamboo poles - which are imported from Asia and sold at a great price in garden centres - you might as well support a UK local coppicer, http://www.beanpoles.org.uk/, http://www.coppice-products.co.uk/.

Left, flowers exactly one month ago, and right, big tall grown up plants this morning, beginning to get tired and go over, even. Lastly, a handful of beans for a minestrone today.

Phoenix Garden - reviving

On the edge of the Covent Garden area, the Phoenix Garden is a haven for workers. Both Centrepoint, a '60s landmark, and St. Giles', a fine but dilapidated Georgian church, are visible through trees.

For a small site, the garden has a wide range of quiet corners.  Intrigue and variation is created by paths and hardstandings for benches in a range of materials. 

There is clearly a design eye at work with plant texture, successional interest and exploitation of aspect considered (see Echium, left, with the back of Shaftesbury Avenue cinema behind).  Also, wildlife is encouraged with this Belfast sink pond and this gabion planter - crevices for invertebrates - and insect friendly planting.  Pigeons aren't the only birds; I saw finches and heard lots of tweeting in between the beep beeps of dustbin lorries reversing. This is a space that delights and calms with subtle art in the centre of the city. http://www.thephoenixgarden.ik.com/home.ikml

Nematode nemesis of slugs

Uh-oh.  It had to happen.  After the rain broke the recent dry spell last week, out came the slugs. My quick growing early pak choi has been ravaged.  An allotment neighbour and I have been using anti-slug nematodes for a couple of years and it really makes the difference between getting in the crops and despair.  

Generally you buy the nematodes in packets sufficient for an area 40 or 100 metres' square.  It's worth shopping around on the internet and always check the postage costs.  Put the package in the fridge when it arrives 'til you are ready.  Ensure it will be sent in a padded envelope that will fit through your letter box.  One supplier once sent it in an oversized box so it went to the post office and I couldn't get there for a few days. Check the use-by date.

The nematodes come as a springy powder.  You need to use the contents of the packet all in one go.  I divide it into eighths, as this corresponds to the square metrage of my raised beds. First I clear the beds of weeds and longer grass growing round the edges of the bed where slugs love to hide. You need to use the product on damp soil.  Although it was quite damp on this occasion, I watered over the top of it as the surface was dry in the wind.  I put an eighth of the nematodes in a watering can with a rose and make sure the coverage of the bed and edges is even.  I try to make sure I water under the 'canopy' of plants.

The producers recommend topping up the soil with nematodes every six weeks.  The slugs seem to die underground so you don't see lots of dead bodies. The nematodes breed in the body, so the more dead slugs the more nematodes.  I tend to keep an eye on whether the slugs are back and then order the next packet.  In the meantime I use a two or three organic slug pellets around each plant.  The nematodes don't kill snails but I can keep an easier eye on them. That's one pest down - anyone know a way of getting rid of flea beetle?

 

Designing on a Grid

A garden design relates to the house by using the house's proportions.  Designers (usually) play with a grid based on the proportions. This contributes to unity, which is key to the feeling of ease you want in a garden.

This private garden in Herne Hill, south London, shows the principle. Here the brick frame in the paving is offset from the house, and you can see the edge of the pond is offset from the back door.

Brick edge sets out other areas in the garden.  Planting softens the edges and provides a range of textures. The square terracotta tiles are used in a grid pattern elsewhere, but in the sun lounger area they are placed to give a false perspective, so it seems longer.  
                                          
Using brick provides unity of detail, as it is the same colour and size as the house brick;  the terracotta colour connects with the lintels.  Just using two hard landscaping materials keeps the design simple and harmonious, a good structure for the riot of plant textures.

This garden was one in a London-wide trail of designed private gardens not otherwise open.  This particular garden was designed by Acres Wild. The trail is becoming a May Day Bank Holiday fixture, http://www.dorlingkindersley-uk.co.uk/static/html/features/gardentrail2010/gardentrail.html.  See one of the very early postings on this blog about a Clapham garden last year.

Green walls, Green Park

Being queue averse, I abandoned Van Gogh at the Royal Academy and went to look at two green walls planted nearby last year, each in a blast of publicity. At Anthropologie, left, an American shop for women's clothes in Regent's Street, the indoor wall is sustained by UV lights.  It spans three storeys. At the Athenaeum hotel, right, in Piccadilly, the wall clothes one corner of the building.

In both cases the modular planting pockets are visible, salt deposits have accumulated (not so attractive) and some species clearly do better than others.

Green walls are expensive to install and intensive to maintain.  These two examples felt to me as sustainable as annual bedding, and a bit sad. Neither shoppers nor tourists looked at them. 

There is something in green walls, and I want them to work, but I think the difficulty of keeping them looking good will mean they are a passing fashion and unlikely to attract many more corporate commissions.

Across the road, un-designer, unfashionable and  really rather vulgar :) narcissi and cheery blossom brought joy to all in Green Park, left in front of Buckingham Palace, and right, behind the Foreign Office.  

some I sowed earlier...

Root trainers is a proprietry brand module system that encourages good downward root growth.  The sides are grooved and there is a hole at the bottom so you can see how far downward growth has progressed.  Also, when the roots reach the bottom and go through the hole, they are 'air pruned', ie they stop growing in the drier environment, and this encourages secondary roots, making the plant stronger for planting out. The cells open like a book and you ease out the whole package into the planting hole. Look at the lovely root system on my first batch of peas!

I love my peasticks too.  They came from a Surrey coppicer last spring, together with some birch bean poles. Once planted they got a light sprinkling of organic slug pellets.  I don't think any slugs have overwintered (not even found any in the compost bin) but the eggs will be hatching and its too cold just yet to be putting out nemaslug, an effective biological control.

Root trainers are quite expensive, but you can easily re-use them lots of times if you are careful.  In addition, they are made of recycled plastic.  Many people say cardboard toilet roll is a good alternative.  However, you do not know what chemicals were in the pulp or what glue has been used.  In addition, you don't get the air pruning effect as the rolls and compost have to sit with their bottoms in a damp tray.  Lastly, the cardboard is prone to going mouldy.

The right kind of quality sticks, compost and tools really are more exciting than new shoes.

Watch this space...

Finally got to the allotment (work and never-ending winter) to have a think about what to do this year.  I focused on last year's cutting border, taking out Cosmos and Zinnia stems I left for overwintering insects and to deflect winter rain from the soil.  The weathered stems are interesting, you can see the strengthening structures, collenchyma ridges.  They are piled on the communal bonfire, which won't get done for a few weeks so plenty of time for insects to hatch. There are bound to be a lot of seedlings coming up, though, and they aren't such good colours a generation down from F1and so will be weeded out.                                                                     I gave the bed a light weeding (I'm trying to do the no-dig method so as not to disturb the soil fauna, just add mulch and keep the soil covered with crops or green manure), a scattering of Calseafeed (calcified seaweed, organic) and mulch with Croypost (amenity compost and not bad). Now I've covered it with a black textile permeable membrane which a) warms the soil, b) smothers weed seeds prompted into growth by disturbance and c) mitigates driving spring rainfall while allowing some water through.  Last year I did something similar and saw that worms had been busy. I've come up with a scheme for a decorative edible border with dark and purple leaves, orange flowers and some lime green through it and at the front and will sow them in modules. I've grown half of these before but the scheme is new and partly inspired by a combination I saw in Westminster Abbey Gardens in the summer.

Red orache or mountain spinach - Atriplex hortenis var. rubra - up to 120cm - edible (RHS Harvested Seed Distribution Scheme) - edible 18cm lance shaped leaves, and a decorative border annual with purple flower spikes.

Hare's Ear - Bupleurum rotundifolium (sourced as above) - to 60cm lime green clusters of flowers, bright green perfoliate leaves and reddish branching stems, purely decorative and insect friendly

Bronze Fennel - Foeniculum vulgae 'Purpureum' - up to 200cm (free with Gardens Illustrated) - feathery, edible leaves and seeds

Black Tuscan Kale Brassica oleracea 'Cavolo Nero' - to 60cm (Growing Old Heritage & Seed Heirloom Seeds from Pennards Plants) - deeply savoyed strap leaves, choc-full of vitamins and minerals

Pot marigold - Calendula officinalis 'Orange Porcupine' - to 60 cm (Johnsons World Botanics range) - a big pompom variety - petals in salads

Zinnia 'Fireworks Mix' - to 75cm (Suttons Seeds) - for the vase, long-lasting flowers (seeds have some bottom heat in a propagator)

Frisee and escarole mix - Cichorium endivia var. crispum and var. latifolia - to 20 cm (Franchi sementi)

Yellow Pak Choi - Brassica rapa 'Santoh Round Leaved' - to 20cm (The Real Seed Catalogue) - really quick to be ready and possible to sow this early and hopefully it'll avoid flea beetle.

Seed compost, vermiculite, modular seed tray, labels.

Garden and Cosmos

An exhibition combining my two endeavours, plants and yoga.  The fine detail of plants in these paintings is a joy, and also the contrary impenetrability of the more mystical paintings (eg no. 4 in this slide show, 

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/all_current_exhibitions/indian_summer/garden_and_cosmos.aspx)
The exhibition shows paintings comissioned by three generations of a dynasty.  The first king wanted to immortalise the wealth and luxuriance of his court; the second had scenes from Hindu scripture stories depicted (eg Ramayana). The last followed his yogi guru and this room has paintings of yogis floating in metallic seas of immortal bliss...no wonder he was the last in the dynasty.

Cornus stems

After the show was over (below) an exhibitor had left these dogwood stems.  With their brightly coloured stems they have a lot of winter value.  They are often planted in big stands by water where their colour can be reflected, and in parks - and car parks! Amenity planting uses them a lot as they are robust. 

I was delighted to see them come into leaf, especially as early glimmers of spring were soon swamped by cold grey earlier this month.  The baby leaves really are the fresh green of spring.

The varieties are: Cornus alba 'Sibirica' (red stems), and Cornus sericea 'Flaviramea' (chartreuse). These suckering shrubs also provide pleasant greenery, white flowers and small fruits the rest of the year, c 3m x 3m.  Another favourite is Cornus sanguinea 'Winter Beauty' (stems gradated red through orange and yellow), and Cornus sericea 'Kelseyi' (green and red at the top).