Friday 15th November 2013

Clematis cirrhosa 'Freckles' growing over willow arch

A lovely bright cold day at the Garden House - just right for planting bulbs. The grasses are still looking beautiful so we focused our discussion this week on grasses.Bridge has written a piece on Garden House website on pampas grass so check that out for more information.

Pennisetum

Miscanthus

• Cortaderia selloana ‘Pumila’is a more compact variety of pampas grass.
• Pennisetum can be annuals or perennials but are easy to grow and the annuals self seed easily
• Hakonechloa macro 'Aureola' is a deciduous perennial grass which forms dense low growing clumps
• Stipa gigantea- (golden oat grass) is a lovely autumn grass which can be almost transparent in the border.It is a robust grass that can grow to 2m

Deciduous grasses don't need to be cut back until Mar/April and provide structural quality in winter. Be careful not to damage any new growth when cutting back in the spring. You can just comb through evergreen grasses to remove old dead thatch.

Book recommendation: Grasses by Roger Grounds

Highdown Nursery in Henfield has a very good selection of grasses.

Activities in the garden this week:

• Planting  the cut flower beds with red wallflowers and tulip bulbs 
• Clearing out alpine sinks/ refreshing compost ready for planting
• Edging of large border and more tulip/narcissi bulb planting
• Clearing a veg bed and planting onion sets and garlic cloves
• Trimming back willow arch
• Weeding and preparing beds by willow arch for planting
• Pruning climbing and rambling roses
• Sowing salad seeds in greenhouse- giant red mustard/mizuna
• Sorting out/weeding yellow bed by the shed





Planting tulip bulbs and wallflower

Make sure all those tulips are red!

Nanette on bottle planting duties

Susan quality checking

Ann planting even more bulbs in border

Unwelcome occupants of the alpine sink

Clearing out alpine sink

Weevil grubs were found in the alpine sinks - so grubs need to be destroyed and sinks cleaned out carefully as they will munch through anything that is planted. There are nematodes that can be used for this or just scour out with boiling water.