I was wasting time on the computer the other day because house painters have invaded my outdoor space.\u00a0 Most of the garden is under siege and won\u2019t be available for serious work until the painters leave.\u00a0 I am happy about the fresh paint, but dread putting everything back together.<\/p>\n
What is the best way for a gardener to waste time on the computer?\u00a0 Looking at gardens, of course.\u00a0 I amused myself by reading a description of a garden renovation at a historic property called Parham House in West Sussex, England.\u00a0 The pictures of the finished landscape show a symphony in blues, purples and whites.\u00a0 As the ladders clanged on the side of my house, I drooled with envy.<\/p>\n
The Parham renovation started with a mature garden that had done what mature gardens always do\u2014gotten a little out of hand.\u00a0 It still looked wonderful, but vigorous perennials had expanded beyond their allotted spaces and were crowding out weaker plants.\u00a0 Blue-flowered varieties, which predominated in the original design, had either reverted to the less desirable colors of the ancestor plants from which they were bred, or produced self-down offspring that were not always blue.\u00a0 Bindweed or Convolvulus arvensis, that noxious garden invader of the morning glory family, had elbowed its way into the beds and taken hold.\u00a0 Since established bindweed is nearly impossible to get rid of, radical remedies were in order.<\/p>\n
So Parham\u2019s professional gardeners did something that most of us would be afraid to undertake.\u00a0 Separating the garden into quadrants, they dug out everything from the first and second quadrants except for a few mature trees and shrubs.\u00a0 The newly-dug plants went on a big<\/p>\n
pile that was promptly burned to ashes to eradicated bindweed and other weed seeds.\u00a0 With plant disposal\/destruction taken care of, the gardeners brought in heavy equipment to dig up the two quadrants to eliminate any leftover bindweed or invasive species.\u00a0 Once the big dig was over, the ground was left to lie fallow for several weeks, so that any untoward sprouts could be eradicated.<\/p>\n
Even before the scorched earth treatment began, the gardeners had gone to the property\u2019s owners with a bucket full of mixed blue, purple and white flowers to get approval for the new color scheme and plant selections.\u00a0 The owners gave the thumbs up, and when the quadrants were ready, the gardeners started replanting.<\/p>\n
Of all the ideas in the article\u2014throwing out a whole border\u2019s worth of plants, not to mention clearing weeds by burning, massive earth turning, and fallow periods\u2014the one I like the best involved the bucket of flowers.\u00a0 Imagine approaching an outdoor planting scheme by doing what you probably do when you want a beautiful indoor arrangement–filling a container with the colors and flower types that you like best.\u00a0 It is a good way to start, but takes a bit more thought on the part of the average gardener than the article suggests.<\/p>\n
Judging by the photos, the renovated beds at Parham are mostly sunny, maximizing the number of flowering plant choices.\u00a0 The soil is extremely good, especially after being amended during the renovation process.\u00a0 It\u2019s likely that a stick planted in such a situation which take root and flourish immediately.<\/p>\n
Home gardeners may not be so lucky.\u00a0 We can all amend our soil, but most of us cannot chop down trees to provide a completely sunny situation.\u00a0 Plant choices should be about what you love, but reality should enter the decision-making process as well.\u00a0 If you are planning a small or large garden renovation, be realistic about the conditions on your own property.\u00a0 There is nothing worse than watching a well-loved species or variety fail miserably because it is in the wrong place.<\/p>\n
The Parham beds, which are open to the public several days a week, went from blank canvas to blooming splendor in an amazing two months.\u00a0 This was because the new plants arrived in two-liter pots, well on the way to maturity.\u00a0 Three weeks after the perennials were installed, the gardeners filled in the gaps with annuals in the same shades of blue, purple and white.\u00a0 Presumably all of this was done in the late spring and the weather cooperated to speed both annuals and perennials on the way to glory.<\/p>\n
Would most of us take these kinds of radical steps with our home gardens?\u00a0 Probably not, but there are certainly times and places when a thorough overhaul is very necessary.\u00a0 In my own garden, I have decided to take a hard look at the beautiful but voracious Shasta daisies, which are encroaching on their neighbors and depriving of them of light and nourishment.\u00a0 Once bloom time is over and the painters departed, some of the daisies will have to go.\u00a0 There won\u2019t be a bonfire, but the light of inspiration provided by the Parham garden article may mean that a few of my gardening friends will suddenly find themselves blessed with bountiful pots of freshly dug Shastas.<\/p>\n
For more on Parham House and its gardens, go to https:\/\/www.parhaminsussex.co.uk\/the-gardens\/<\/p>\n
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I was wasting time on the computer the other day because house painters have invaded my outdoor space.\u00a0 Most of the garden is under siege and won\u2019t be available for serious work until the painters leave.\u00a0 I am happy about the fresh paint, but dread putting everything back together. What is the best way for … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[1914,1913,234,1915,1916,1912],"class_list":["post-2474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-blue-gardens","tag-garden-renovations","tag-historic-gardens","tag-landscape-design","tag-mature-gardens","tag-parham-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2475,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2474\/revisions\/2475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}