composting and excavating

My compost bin is part of the fence dividing my 'garden' garden from my 'allotment' garden. In the limited space of a town garden these are the decisions you have to make - compost bins attract slugs and snails, which is not what you want near your tender veg plants. The advantage is that when the material is well rotted, it's near the veg plot. The one metre square bin is split in two, and household and garden waste (no weeds) goes into one side, then the other.

The bin provides a good backdrop to plants on the flowerbed side, and setting some bricks into the soil makes a nice path, favoured by all neighbourhood cats. I hope they enjoy hunting any rats that may be lurking. In fact our most recent ex-cat is enjoying it too, since I had to inter Pepper under the bricks, as other unbricked locations attracted too much attention.

In summer months the compost gives off a mild odour, which is only noticeable when you stand very near it. The nearest you get to it in passing is about a metre, or three feet in old money. Inevitably, it attracts insects to do vital work, but these are kept down by scattering straw over the top of the active compost every few weeks.

Experts talk about well rotted compost being like used tea leaves. This seems very unlikely, when you're chucking slops of this and that into the void, and inhaling that acrid smell. Still, the compost I dug out at the weekend was just like dense, fine used tea leaves. Within the solid tea leaf-y mass were egg shells, wine corks, avocado skins like thin brittle leather and dessicated but unrotted split avocado pips. And teaspoons. No babies have been thrown out with the bathwater so far in this house, but teaspoons are at constant risk. They survive better than the wooden pestle I discovered in the last batch of compost I made, which looks gently scalloped, as though made out of driftwood.

Some of the compost has been dug into a trench, awaiting the French beans. The rest will be used over the summer.

looking after your lawn

Lawns can become an obsession. Not for me. I have reduced my lawn to around 3mx3m, in a paisley shape, which is just enough for me. It has led my daughter to refer to the garden as a 'show garden', because there are more plants than lawn, which, even at 15 she thinks is unreasonable, even though the only things she now does in the garden is sit. Despite it's reduced size, I neglect my lawn. For those of you who want an ever improving lawn, here are some tips.

Grass needs good drainage, regular mowing and raking, water and some feeding, once a year should be enough.

Pampering your lawn, such as by watering it regularly, will make it more vulnerable when there is any shortage of water.

Get rid of moss by improving drainage and light - rake regularly and aerate once or twice a year. Instructions below. Aerating improves drainage in the lawn, and gives the grass roots more space to grow. Over time, as people walk about your garden, the soil gets packed more and more tightly, and when it is compacted like that, it's harder for water to drain away, and harder for plant roots to get the nutrients they need out of the soil.

Aerating
There are lots of fancy machines for aerating grassed areas, mechanical ones that cost a fortune down to strap on spiked soles, for walking about in. The purpose is to make holes in the soil, to about two inches/five centimetres, then in order to keep the holes open, sand is swept into the holes. Over time the sand will get distributed through the soil, as worms come and go, and the drainage will be improved, even when the holes close, or appear closed.

Horticultural or washed sand is usually used. There are many debates about which kind of sand is best. Horticultural sand is very fine. Sharp sand can be used, although some think it has salt and other minerals in it, which can interfere with the way plants grow. My objection to sharp sand is that if it gets tracked into the house it may stain.

Aerating is usually done once a year, either in the autumn or in the spring. The soil needs to be moist, not wet or dry, for it to be effective.

Broad beans and burying frogs

I planted my first broad beans at dusk. It wasn't a carefully timed thing, tuning in to the phases of the moon, or whatever. I'd forgotten to do it, and noticed the light was going, and since the seeds had got a bit damp from when I left the packet in the rain overnight it seemed urgent.

I carefully read the packet (I'm fully trained) and cleared the bit of the raised beds newly designated broad bean worthy. The tomatoes will have to go elsewhere this year. I created the 25cm/9 inch wide flat trench 5cm/2" deep and spaced my seeds in trench 1, 25cm/9" apart. I'd watered it already. I then covered the beans in soil, so there they were, planted at the correct distance and depth, according to the packet. I put some chicken wire over the trench, so the cat didn't imagine I'd kindly made him a new loo.

I moved on to trench 2. I had to shuffle around some shallots, which seemed to have been put in the wrong place. I must talk to the help. I shovelled the soil to create another trench, working from one side, and then the other. The light was failing and I thought I'd come across an indication that the cat had been there before me. I poked the indication, and noticed it was a strange shape. And had a foot. I picked up the indication. It was a frog. I thought I was holding evidence that I'd just decapitated a frog. Perhaps the cat had played with it. I decided that once I'd finished the bean planting, I would go all CSI on the frog, within the limitations of my general ignorance, the lack of light and the fact that it was covered in soil, and put it to one side while completing the task. Five minutes later I reentered the house with the floppy frog and looked at it under electric light. It seemed complete, and what I'd thought was spade work on a fragile amphibian body turned out to be a pocket of soil on a loose-skinned hibernating frog. I hoped. I held it out to show my daughter, who asked why are you showing me a dead bird? I waved a frog foot at her and she said a frog was even more disgusting and asked me to take it elsewhere. Since I'd discovered that frogs do bury themselves in soil to hibernate, I went and dug a shallow hole and popped the floppy frog in it, topped it with around 5cm/2" soil, scattered some leaves around and left it, planted like a broad bean, where I hope it is unlikely to be discovered by the cat.

I wanted frogs in the garden. They eat slugs.

wraparound deck and pergola with raised beds

Steve installed this deck a few years ago, in local  London garden. It's been well used and fits very well with the garden.

Decks are very adaptable, and can be any shape you fancy. Here the deck replace a sunken terrace with broken tiling and uneven steps. Running the deck along the side made sense, and continuing it up the side made the whole thing seem of a piece.
 

The deck platform was made to fit the round table and chairs - very nice for an al fresco breakfast. The deck offered a walkway that was much more comfy than the original rough concrete path, and evened out the levels, since the side doors had originally had steps down from he house too.

The far end of this garden is always sunny, so the owners decided to make that a lounging area, and divide it off from the rest of the garden. Setting up a pergola gave the established plants somewhere to climb. A Wisteria and roses were put in to increase the lush feel. Trellis allowed the light to shine through, and the raised beds made it easier to garden.

last year's peonies

black dragon, first year, just one bloom

it starts off like this, then the edges of the petals darken

Last year the tree peonies took my breath away, providing three massive blooms on the black dragon and six on the yachiyotsubaki (pink). Both sets of flowers lasted almost a month, through heavy rain and gusting wind. Planting them on the east side of the garden stops the cold chills of morning damaging the plants and bruising the flowers, in bud or bloom. The width of the garden and the height of the fences stops most winds, and the hard blowing southwesterly prevalent in London doesn't get much purchase with the cabin and compost breaking the flow. It doesn't protect the back doors, still they are about two feet above the tree peonies.
Perhaps the hard winter made the tree peonies happy. The herbaceous bunch gave a mixed result in terms of blooms. I think that was due to mulching rather than weather.

Common wisdom is that peonies don't like being moved. I don't know why - I find they move very successfully, in addition every time I move one of the herbaceous peonies I find I've left some of the root  in the ground, so I get extras. I am more cautious when I move tree peonies, and move them with a lot of soil, but they have been happy and kept blooming too.

the pink one - eternal camellias, or Yachiyo Tsubaki

small city garden

This garden in Tufnell Park needed cheering up. The brief was to make a family garden that was easy to care for, on a very limited budget, and to give a greater sense of privacy.


With small children around, lawn was a must. To keep clutter and smoke away from the house, a small paved area was set out next to the shed, for barbeques. All the fences and the shed were painted the same colour, to bring everything together. The single flowerbed was tapered, like a slice of cake with the end cut off. This made the garden seem longer, and left more lawn to roll around on.

 

Preparation
The garden had become a bit neglected, and a nearby sycamore tree had successfully spread its seed, so the garden was completely cleared and dug over. Soil conditioner was dug into the flowerbed and bonemeal added to help the lawn get established.


Planting

Planting was simple and low maintenance, to fit in with family life. The trellis on one side gave a the sense of privacy, without shutting out the neighbours, who are friends. Climbers will grow up the trellis, greening up the garden, without taking up space, and will give some winter colour.

 

Easy formal family garden

This Kensal Rise garden fell victim to the freak tornado. Most of the plants were destroyed, and the informal layout had been trampled by builders working on the house. Materials had compressed the soil, which had also been contaminated by burst bags of concrete.

The garden had a decked play area at the far end, which was undamaged, and the owners wanted something that went with the modern twist that was being given to the back of the house, but still gave a nod to informality. It was important to make the garden child friendly, but stylish.

The result was a deceptively simple design, with some rich planting. It gave a couple of nice deep stretches of flowerbed, and defined the space. There was plenty of lawn, space for a swing set and seating.  

There were already a number of handsome stones in the garden, spread amongst the remnants of flowerbeds. Gathering them together at the front of the garden gave them greater impact, and this large stone, warmed by the sun, makes a great seat.

Thyme was planted through some of the smaller stones, and other culinary scented herbs were planted nearby, all two steps from the kitchen door.

Rosemary, sage and thyme are evergreen, and give a nice touch of colour, especially in winter.

Preparation involved removing a skipload of waste, saving plants that still had some life in them. The soil was then dug over with a rotovator, including manure and sand, to balance out the alkalinity of the cement that had leached into it. Then three highly experienced horticulturalists trampled it with great expertise, to eliminate air pockets, and the lawn was laid.