Should Garden Mums Be Sculptured Prior To Bloom?
Garden profile
Style: Natural planting with many annuals and wild flowers
Seasons of interest: Spring and summer
Size: 15 metres x 6 metres
Soil type: Neutral and well-drained
The Admiralty knew what it was doing when it built the Coastguard Cottages at East Prawle in 1904. Sturdily constructed in brick and stone, the properties are positioned with magnificent, unimpeded 180° views of the sea yet protected by the lee of the hill from all but the wildest of storms in this rugged landscape. Prawle Point, just above them, is the most southerly headland in Devon and has served as a coastguard station and Lloyd's signal station (watching and logging the passing ships for Lloyd's of London) since the 1860s.
Mark Bolton
With National Trust grassland and the South West Coast Path at the bottom of the garden and rocky coves just beyond, it is easy to see why Mark and Sarah Bolton fell for this spot. They bought the second cottage in the row three years ago and their small garden tumbles down the hillside in a short series of terraces, shored up by low stone walls and navigated via railway sleeper steps. Crocosmia and tall, diaphanous fennel thrive here, dotted with red valerian, clary sage, corncockle and field poppies. Great mullein (Verbascum thapsus) send velvety spires skywards, preceded by purple foxgloves earlier in the year.
Mark Bolton
The garden is a jumbled, tangled tapestry of flowers and foliage, often just on the edge of untidy, and Mark encourages it to be somewhat wild. "I've been photographing plants and gardens professionally for 20 years, so I have a head full of Latin plant names, but I certainly wouldn't describe myself as an expert gardener," he says. "In my working life, I see so many gardens with manmade features – topiary, statues and fountains and so on. In contrast, this is my effort to keep it simple – to let things grow and do their own thing. Many of the plants find their own way here and I try not to interfere too much."
Mark Bolton
In practice, this means that his main occupation is reining in the more over-enthusiastic – some would say thuggish – elements. When he and Sarah arrived, the previous occupants – who had put in the terracing and steps – had been gone two years, and the garden they had loved and nurtured was neglected. "Fennel had all but taken over – I'm forever digging that out," Mark says, "and the red valerian and crocosmia, much as I love them, constantly need keeping in check, too."
Mark Bolton
This culling and editing left Mark with areas of bare earth in the first spring, so he bought several packets of "cheap and cheerful" seeds from Wilko, scattered them about and then waited to see what came up: "It's very informal – a big mixture of reds, oranges and yellows that just seems to work."
At the bottom of the garden is a small lawn, often subject to attack from local moles, and at the top there's a brick terrace where Mark and Sarah can sit and enjoy the spectacular sunsets or observe the marine traffic on the horizon. Despite its apparently exposed position, East Prawle enjoys a very mild climate and frost is rare. The open aspect means the garden has exceptionally high light levels, so growing conditions are favourable. An escallonia hedge on the south-west boundary helps to break the force of any onshore winds and stop the plants from getting too buffeted about.
Mark Bolton
Agapanthus does well up on the terrace, as do lavender, Hydrangea macrophylla and rosemary. To provide some height and added drama without the invasive tendencies of fennel, Mark has recently planted statuesque, purple-flowered Angelica gigas, recommended to him by Derry Watkins at Special Plants. He has also added a red bistort Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Firetail', bought at Hill House Nursery at Landscove, just south-east of Dartmoor. "It's an amazing place – one of my favourite nurseries in Devon – well worth a detour," Mark says. Both have been tucked in behind the escallonia hedge to give them some protection.
Mark has an eye for wild flowers and welcomes 'volunteers' that spring up in the garden, the seeds of which he presumes drift in from National Trust land between his plot and the sea. These include hedge woundwort (Stachys sylvatica) with whorls of purple-crimson flowers, feathery wild carrot (Daucus carota) and musk thistle (Carduus nutans) with its nodding purple blooms. Bees, ladybirds, butterflies and moths are frequent visitors and, as East Prawle is so southerly, the birdlife is rich, too, with migrants passing through in spring and gathering there for their long flights in the autumn.
Mark Bolton
"There are so many wonderful moths here, including the spectacular humming-bird hawk moth, which migrates from southern Europe," Mark says. "We have a local expert who goes out at night to record them with light traps. We used to wonder what was happening when we first saw his lone light out on the headland after dark."
Over the course of each summer, Mark monitors how the mixture of flowers is working out. Many are self-seeding but he still wants to maintain variety, so further editing and adjusting will be needed to stop any one plant dominating. He is also starting to speculate on whether or not to intervene more by applying fertiliser. "As yet, I haven't played with the soil at all by beefing it up with added compost but all the wild flowers seem to enjoy fairly lean pickings, so actually I'm tempted to leave well alone. Nature seems to be doing a pretty good job here without too much interference from me."
This feature is from Country Living magazine. Subscribe here.
This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io
Should Garden Mums Be Sculptured Prior To Bloom?
Source: https://www.countryliving.com/uk/homes-interiors/gardens/a2035/perched-high-above-the-south-devon-coast-mark-boltons-bright-and-beautiful-garden-is-a-riot-of-hot-colour-in-summertime/
Posted by: hollandwoorkepark.blogspot.com
0 Response to "Should Garden Mums Be Sculptured Prior To Bloom?"
Post a Comment