Early Rhododendron bloom in the woods

March has seen a continuation of the exceptionally dry weather conditions throughout the month and has meant that there is the very real threat of water shortages across the south of England and the promise of hosepipe bans and drought orders.  Though not effective yet they are due to come into force in April for domestic use but we should still be able to use hosepipes for watering in the Harris Garden.

The Magnolias have been flowering this month having been brought on early by the unusually warm, dry weather and the Camellias in the woodland glade seem to have started flowering early as well.  Many wild flowers have also been in bloom with violets, primroses, wood anemones and lastly cowslips all enjoying the early spring sunshine.

Student volunteers creating dead hedge

Spring bulbs have been providing splashes of colour around the garden with the daffodils and fritillaria under the Crab-apples particularly eye catching.  The Cherry Circle has also been especially pretty this month with more daffodils and the specie Tulips putting on a colourful show beneath the cherry blossom which started to open later in the month.  Other bulb displays included the Chionodoxas under the Prunus amanagowa, the Scilla siberica and the little clumps of Muscari.

We have started another volunteer group which is coming into the garden on Wednesday afternoons and is made up from students who are interested in environmental and ecological issues; many of them work on other local environmental volunteer projects at the weekends.  Their first project in the Harris Garden has been to clear up the area inside the Wilderness Road perimeter fence creating a ‘dead hedge’ using all the cut and fallen timber and brush that was strewn about the area.  After the brambles had been cleared the hedge was made by driving a double row of posts 2ft apart along the edge of the eco-zone and then stacking all the cut timber and brush between the posts to create habitat for small birds, mammals and insects.  We were then able to plant Hazel (Corylus) whips in the cleared area.

Thursday volunteers at work in the Jungle Border

The Thursday volunteer group have also been busy helping to complete our winter and spring planting programmes.  Firstly they spent two weeks in the ‘Jungle border clearing away the winter debris and weeding before planting up the gaps and cleared areas with plants grown from seed, bulbs and bought in exotics like Agave cacti and Hedychiums (Gingers).  The banana plants are still wrapped up and will not be uncovered until the risk of frost is past.  The following two Thursdays saw the group move on to prepare and plant up the Autumn Border with grasses, Chelone, Rudbeckia, Helenium and Aster and others.  The final Thursday of the month was spent tidying and edging the herbaceous border at the back of the lawn at the garden entrance.

The White Garden after its spring make over

I have spent a fair bit of my time this month rescuing Cyclamen, ferns and primroses from the grounds of Bridges Hall which is now closed pending demolition.  These rescued plants have been relocated in the Birch copse near the shed along with donated ferns and other shade loving plants.

The rest of my time has been spent mowing and edging the lawns as we prepare for the first open day on April 15^th also watering, I cannot remember having to use the sprinklers in March before!

Camellia flowers in the woodland

The exceptionally mild winter weather finally ended at the end of January and the start of February saw the country enduring a two week spell of freezing temperatures and some snow.  There were still plenty of jobs that could be done even though the ground was frozen.

I am pleased to be able to tell you that the new gates at the entrance to the Harris Garden have been installed by the guys from our FMD maintenance department and they look very impressive.

Spring bulbs

The spring bulbs have put some colour in the garden this month with the ground under the crab-apple orchard being the main focus.  The snowdrops have lasted really well this year and have been joined by Crocus and daffodils.  Other plants flowering include a couple of Camellias and the two early Rhododendrons in the woodland.

The weather conditions gave me a chance to continue clearing brambles in the woodland glades particularly in the area where the Pittosporum, Daphne and Halesia are situated.  I spent the best part of a week wrestling with the giant climbing rose that sprawled all over that group of plants and cleared the brambles and other tree saplings that had also invaded this space.

Planting wild flower plugs and oak trees in the meadows

Our Thursday volunteers proved to be a hardy bunch continuing to come every week despite the cold snap.  On the first week of the month they replaced the fence along the rear of the new gravel garden area, planted a Magnolia donated by The Friends for Jenny Halstead artist in residence who came in to record the planting and other works being carried out.  The second Thursday was the coldest so the new herbaceous borders were dead-headed and tidied.  With the weather warming up a little the third week was spent completing the herbaceous borders then cutting down and planting in the prairie garden, also rotovating the cleared ground in the autumn border.

The last week of February was Student Volunteer Week so on the Wednesday afternoon it was planned to plant wild flower plugs out in the meadows.  Unfortunately the weather was horrible, wet and windy, and only two turned up so the Thursday group completed this task the following day and planted three little oak trees near to the groups of fruit trees.

Feb 29th first Primula denticulata by the stream

I have spent much of my time this month working on the stream to improve and refurbish it to bring it back to its best as I feel it is one of the main features of the garden.  I have added a mulch of compost to the plantings on either side of the stream after weeding the ground and have built up the banks where necessary.  All the little waterfalls on each pond needed resetting and cementing in so cases I have raised them slightly to improve the level of the pond and I have replaced the pebbles in the stream bed.  I am very pleased with the results now that the water is flowing again and cannot wait to see the stream in all its splendour when the plants have grown in the spring and summer.

Snowdrops-beneath the crab apples

The New Year has started with the weather conditions continuing in much the same vein as they have over the past few months with mild above average temperatures and mainly dry days.  This has enabled us to continue the winter work uninterrupted by breaks for bad weather but the plants are starting to show fattening buds as they prepare for an early spring.

The first snowdrops were beginning to flower in mid December and by mid January the area under the crab-apple orchard was a carpet of white contrasting with the small deep red crab-apples hanging on the Malus above.  The sweet scent of the Sarcococca in the Winter Border nearby hangs in the air of the entrance area, it always surprises me how strong the scent is considering how insignificant the flowers appear.

Flowering Hellebore

There is not a great deal of flowers to see in the garden other than the various Cornus mas shrubs with their clusters of small yellow flowers and the hellebores that are slowly coming into bloom.  It is interesting to note that while most of the plants are looking for an early start to the year the Hellebores appear to have been waiting for some cold weather to trigger them into producing flowers and are starting later than usual.

Preparations have begun for installing a security camera with the concrete base laid at the bottom corner of the long mixed border to support a post and cameras to deter plant thieves and trouble makers.  On a more positive note the new front gates have been hung at the garden entrance and are a vast improvement on the worn out old gates, thank you to The Friends of t Harris Garden for donating them.

Volunteer Group at work in the Autumn border

Our volunteers have had another busy month Monica and Dave have almost completed the mammoth task of moving and dividing plants in the mixed border before mulching the entire border we look forward to seeing the benefits of their efforts this spring and summer.  Next they intend to weed and woodchip the path along the back of the border and the new beech hedge.

The Thursday volunteers spent the first Thursday of the month pruning and tidying the Winter Border and clearing brambles from around the bench near the entrance gates before concentrating their efforts on the Autumn Border.  Three Thursday mornings have been spent in the Autumn Border pruning back overgrown shrubs, removing dead and dying shrubs and self sown tree saplings as well as having a general weed and tidy including bramble and ivy clearance.

Mulching the mixed border on a frosty morning

A second volunteer group is being set up to help in the garden on Wednesday afternoons and will be students interested in ecology and environmental projects.  To start with they will be working in the conservation area inside the perimeter fence along Wilderness Road clearing up the cut timber and creating habitat for local wildlife.

Winter sun across the Harris Garden

The weather has continued to be mild throughout the month with the only cold weather coming in a short spell mid-month when we had a couple of fairly light ground frosts.

The weather forecasters predicted a wet day for the first volunteer Thursday of the month so we arranged to have a morning in the potting shed potting up the bare-rooted plants that had been delivered and to prick out seedling that we had grown ourselves. The day dawned clear and bright with no sign of the rain that had been forecast so we enjoyed the warmth of the potting shed while the sun shone outside.

These plants are mainly intended for the new gravel garden being created behind the old Iris beds between the big Eucalyptus trees and the Parrotia near the shed.  This area of the garden had become one of the most untidy and overgrown in the garden so it was decided to completely clear the border and start again with something different.

Corylus avellana 'Contorta' in the Winter Border

On the following volunteer days the winter border was given a thorough clear through and prune back of untidy shrubs, the Digitalis plantings around the garden were mulched with compost after being weeded and tidied and the brambles etc. were cleared in the vicinity of the bench nearest to the entrance gate.  Thank you to all the volunteers who have helped in the garden this year their time and efforts are making a real difference to how the garden looks.

Coloured winter stems of Cornus

Now the garden has gone into dormancy the winter jobs can be undertaken the main tasks this winter are;

1. Clearing the fallen leaves off the grass areas
   and out of the stream and ponds.
2. Placing a heavy mulch of our own compost on the
   long, herbaceous border.
3. Clearing and levelling the ground in preparation
   for the new gravel garden.
4. Pruning back and removing brambles in the
   woodland.
5. Tidying up the jungle border, extending it and
   preparing for new planting.
6. Refreshing the autumn borders, cutting back,
   removing dead or dying shrubs and preparing for replanting.

I hope everybody enjoyed their Christmas holiday and offer
my best wishes for the New Year.

Late autumn leaf colour

This month has continued to be unusually mild and mainly dry with the average temperatures above average.  This has meant that the autumn leaf colours have lasted nearly all month as some trees have hung onto their foliage and the grass has also continued to grow so the last cut of the season will be in December.

The Dutch company who planted all the bulbs in the meadows last year returned on the 3^rd of the month with their wonderful bulb planting machine to plant species Tulips in and around the cherry circle.  The volunteers then added a selection of wild flower plants in the same area to complement the bulbs the digging was hard in the uncultivated ground but the rain watered them in nicely.

Planting species Tulips and wild flowers in the Stephen Drury Pinetum

The Stephen Drury Pinetum was created next to the fallen chestnut trunk to the south of the cherry bowl with 5 small conifers planted;

1. Athrotaxis selaginoides (Tasmanian cedar).
2. Abies lasiocarpa (Alpine silver fir).
3. Picea rubens (Red spruce).
4. Phyllocladus asplenifolius (Celery-topped pine from Tasmania) and
5. Tsuga a Hemlock we are not sure which one.  More species Tulips and wild flowers were also planted around these young trees with the help of the volunteer group we hope it will be a fitting reminder of the departing Chairman of The Friends of The Harris Garden.

Planting the new Red Borders

The Thursday volunteers continued their hard work by planting up the old Jekyll borders over the last two Thursdays of the month.  The borders had been cleared of the annual flower mix that was such a success this summer then rotovated and mulched with a 4in thick dressing of our own compost to ready them for planting.   The Friends have bought the plants selected to have a red theme with either red foliage, flowers, fruits or autumn foliage or a combination of more than one of these attributes.  The red borders have been created and it is very satisfying to stand and admire them.

Our volunteers have also been at work in other areas of the garden with Monica and Dave working through the long mixed border weeding and tidying ready for mulching and Rosemary continuing to look after the Digitalis collection.  The old Iris borders have also been planted up with perennial Geraniums and the Paeonie border has had a few plants added to replace the failing Paeonies.

Unusual green mushrooms growing in the woodland

Although there is not usually a great deal of interest to see in the garden at this time of year the changes and improvements taking place can be followed by regular visitors to the garden as well as surprising the occasional visitor.

Work continues on creating the gravel garden beyond the mixed border and winter maintenance is ongoing with leaf clearing, weeding and a last cut of the grass all needing to be done.

Parrotia persicum autumn leaf colour

As plant growth slows with the onset of autumn and mowing, edging, hedge trimming, weeding and the other summer maintenance jobs finish it is time to address the planning of the winter’s tasks and then begin the implementation of these plans.

These plans include the continuation of redevelopment of overgrown borders and woodland areas in the garden to bring them back to an acceptable level of maintenance.  The areas to be improved this winter and spring are;

1. The Iris border and the large border behind it which has become completely overgrown.  The Irises have been removed to be used elsewhere in the garden and the borders dug over and cleaned of weeds ready for replanting.  A gravel garden is going to be created in the large border behind the old Iris beds between the mature Eucalyptus trees and the Parrotia near the shed.
2. The old Jekyll borders that have been seeded with an annual flower seed mix this summer have been cleared, rotovated and mulched ready for planting by a work party of Friends of The Harris Garden when the new plants are delivered.  These three borders are to be planted with a mixture of ‘red plants’ i.e. plants that have shades of red in foliage, flowers or fruits.
3.  The woodland area adjacent to the shed with the clump of silver birch and Magnolia stellata at its front edge.  This area runs up to the fence against Pepper Lane and is planted with North American species.

Misty morning in the new herbacious borders

The meadows that have been allowed to grow all season with wild flowers in the long grass have had their annual cut and the mown grass collected and removed to prevent the nutrient levels from getting too high.  Wild flowers thrive in poor soils and find it hard to compete with the grasses if nutrient levels rise.

The autumn leaf displays have been very good this year and the mild temperatures seem to have made them last as well.  Different species of tree and plant have shed their leaves at varying times this autumn leading to a prolonged period of autumn colour that has lasted all through the month and beyond.

Sedum spectabile

The volunteers have been busy again this month involved with the clearing of the Iris borders and in the woodland where Terry continues to dig out a tree stump a week and clear undergrowth.  The main volunteer group have also spent two Thursdays working on the stream and small ponds carrying out autumn maintenance including lifting, dividing and replanting large clumps of pond Iris, Primula and Hostas, general weed, edge and leaf clear, and planting Lychnis, Scabious, Geraniums and other margin plants as well as cutting back all the foliage of the water Irises.

Fly agaric mushrooms

Monica and Dave have also been busy starting to rearrange the mixed border and dividing some of the large clumps of herbaceous plants in preparation for giving the whole border a mulch with compost ready for the winter.

To view more blogs by Pete Tipping please go to the web address below where his pen name is Woody the Tree Man / The Head Gardener.

http://www.yell.com/gardens/blog/author/petetipping/

Rose in the long mixed border

After four wet Thursdays in a row during August leaving the volunteers wet, muddy and wondering what happened to the predicted ‘barbeque summer’ September arrived bringing the glorious sunny days we had hoped for in August.  It was as though someone had turned a tap off with the change of month and September turned out to be the warmest on record with day after day of clear skies and hot sun.

Volunteers lifting, dividing and replanting Primulas along the stream

The volunteer group spent the first two Thursdays working on the stream and small ponds weeding along the stream edges and lifting the self-sown Primula and Iris plants out of the stream bed where they were impeding the flow of water.  The Primula clumps were lifted then divided into individual plants and replanted to fill empty spaces along the stream plantings to give swathes of flower in the spring.  The irises have been lifted, the clumps thinned and weeded to remove ground elder, nettles and docks before replanting the young pieces of rhizome to invigorate the plants to produce more flower next year.  Some of the Astilbes and Hostas planted in the spring were also regrouped while plants grown from seed donated by Kew, Lychnis, Scabious, Geranium and some grasses have also been planted so hopefully the amount of weeding required will be reduced as the groups of plants swell.

A lot of work and time has been put into the stream this year by the volunteers in an effort to improve the planted areas to give interest all season long and to fill the pond surrounds and stream banks with plants to cut down on maintenance.  I think the stream is one of the main attractions of the garden and we must now wait for next spring to see if our efforts will be a success.

Other jobs undertaken by the volunteers include; weeding in the autumn border, weeding and tidying the Digitalis plantings, clearance of undergrowth in the woodland and the continued maintenance of the long mixed border.

Rudbeckia in the mixed herbaceous border

The long mixed herbaceous border is still providing plenty of interest with a second flush of roses after being dead-headed in the early summer.  The late summer herbaceous plants are now coming into their own with Asters, Echinaceas, Japanese anemones and Helianthus flowers amongst others providing the colour.

The new herbaceous border continues to go from strength to strength with a mixture of grasses having done particularly well in this year’s weather conditions and they look stunning in the mornings when laden with dew or frost in the sunshine.

Dew laden grasses in the new herbaceous borders

The old Jekyll borders have been cleared of the annual wild flower mix that was sown this year and have been mulched with compost and rotovated in preparation for a more permanent planting next year.  The plans have not been finalised yet so I’m unable to say what exactly will be planted, watch this space I will let you know when I do.

One or maybe two deer have been seen in the garden in the early mornings a few times over the last couple of months, it is always a joy to spot them but they are so shy they are gone in a flash leaving you wondering if they were ever there.

To view more blogs by Pete Tipping please go to the web address below where his pen name is Woody the Tree Man / The Head Gardener.

http://www.yell.com/gardens/blog/author/petetipping/

Echinacea purpurea ( cone flowers)

The weather has been very changeable during August leaving us wondering where summer went, the plus side has been that the plants have benefitted with the garden looking lush and green instead of the normal for August of scorched lawns and dry borders.

The volunteer group has suffered from four wet Thursdays in a row.  The first Thursday of the month was a complete washout with only two hardy souls braving the weather but they were soaked by the time they reached the garden so after a brief assessment of the conditions we abandoned for the day.

Volunteers and 'Friends' at work in the rain & mud

The following Thursday was planned to drain and clean out the main pond so all volunteers and Friends were called in, the rain got steadily worse as the morning wore on and we called it a day at about 11 o clock by which time we were a very wet and muddy bunch.  By Friday morning there was more water in the pond than before we started pumping it out on the Wednesday afternoon.

The pond was eventually emptied and all the mud, leaves, tree debris and pond weeds cleared over the next two weeks, apparently the first time this has been done since the new liner was installed in 1995.  The pond has been temporarily refilled for the October open day and while the materials are gathered to make repairs and patch the many holes in the liner.  It has been decided to repair rather than replace with a new liner for two reasons, firstly a new butyl rubber liner would be extremely expensive for a pond of that size and secondly the problems of installing it without destroying the Gunneras and other pond-side plants are daunting.  For these reasons we will try the easy option first.

The new herbaceous borders

The new herbaceous borders planted by the Friends of the Harris Garden last November in the re-designed rose garden have really come into their own this month and are looking splendid.  The plants in them have been selected to provide a border of late summer interest when many other parts of the garden are past their best and to coincide with the commencement of the new academic year.  The Echinacea have been a highlight for me along with the Helianthus, Eupatorium, Helenium and Miscanthus and other grasses all of which have combined to give an eye catching display.  Memories of the old rose gardens are fading.

It is approximately a year since the garden management was taken over by FMD and all the redevelopment work commenced.  We have come a long way in these 12 months and I think the gardens are in a far healthier and better looking state now, certainly the comments from people visiting the garden are complimentary and full of praise.

To view more blogs by Pete Tipping please go to the web address below where his pen name is Woody the Tree Man / The Head Gardener.

http://www.yell.com/gardens/blog/author/petetipping/

Phlox paniculata 'Sandringham'

There has been the usual mid-summer lull in the garden when the flush of spring and early summer have passed many of the showy flowering plants have had their moment of glory in the sun.  The garden settles down to the heat of summer and many of the flowers are more muted pastel shades and the garden seems quieter in the afternoon heat.

The long border continues to put on a good display however with the many Phlox in full flower giving off some lovely scents that linger in the air on a hot still day.  They are accompanied by Echinops, Echinacea, Helianthus, Heleniums, a beautiful Agapanthus, a large flowered Aster, various Hemerocallis and some late flowering roses.  The lower end of the border has some particularly good colour combinations at the moment with blues, pinks, mauves and yellows in close proximity.

Lower end of the long, mixed border

The main wild flower meadows were mown at the beginning of the month to prevent the existing wild flowers from setting too much seed to give the newly sown plants a better chance of spreading and getting established.  The wild flower seed mix sown in the old Jekyll borders has been a real success giving a succession of colour from late spring and through the summer with subtle changes in colours over the passing months.

The formal gardens have continued to give interest and the hedges are coming back nicely after the reshaping work carried out on them during the winter.  The white Lupins around the sculpture are still flowering thanks to regular dead-heading by the volunteers and the Echinacea are also in flower now.  The middle garden with the N. American prairie mix is full of Rudbeckia in full flower now and most of the alien self-sown, annual plants have been weeded out as they have finished flowering.

Border in the new herbaceous garden

This leads into the new herbaceous borders planted by the Friends of The Harris Garden back in the autumn last year to replace the old rose garden.  These are intended to be late summer flowering borders giving colour and interest lasting into the autumn and early winter with the dead seed-heads and foliage continuing the display long after the flowers have gone.  The flowering herbaceous plants and grasses are starting to flower having reached up to 6ft in height making this redeveloped corner of the garden a real success.

Visitors to the garden are constantly praising the quality of the garden delighting in the plants, planting schemes and wild flower areas.  The peace and tranquillity of the garden is often commented on there is a lovely restful atmosphere that envelopes the garden as is reflected by the number of people who enjoy a lunchtime nap.

To view more blogs by Pete Tipping please go to the web address below where his pen name is Woody the Tree Man / The Head Gardener.

http://www.yell.com/gardens/blog/author/petetipping/

Wild flower meadows

After two months of exceptionally warm, dry weather which saw us all preparing for drought conditions and water shortages June arrived and with it the rain.  The garden has had frequent and at times prolonged spells of wet weather that has allowed the garden to ‘green’ up, the wild flower sowings are flowering and I have been able to put away the hose-pipes and sprinklers.

Unfortunately the Open Day on June 12th in aid of the Pre-school Group was a casualty of the weather.  It rained from the time we got up until about teatime without a break so very few people visited the garden and apparently only approximately £150 was made.
The wild flower meadows have produced a lovely show of colour in the area nearest the autumn border with groups of ox-eyed daisies, corn flowers, field poppies, willow herb and common cats-ear.

The small formal garden

The N. American prairie mix sown in the middle garden of the three formal gardens has been a partial success but has still had a good show of colour due in part to the self sown annuals from previous years.  In the first formal garden with the sculpture the white Lupins have been in full bloom this month and complement the sculpture very nicely.  The herbaceous borders planted by the Friends of The Harris Garden in the old rose garden during the autumn have come on in leaps and bounds with some rain and now the first flowers starting to show.

There is a delightful display of colour in the old Jekyll border with the mix of annual flower seed producing a continual display which changes through the summer months as the early summer flowers give way to the later flowering varieties.  Hopefully the display will continue until the first frosts of the winter.

Our Thursday morning volunteer group continues to expand with 13 volunteers counted on the second Thursday of the month.  The following Thursday was a washout though which brought us down to earth with only 3 volunteers braving the rain.  We are now welcoming volunteers from around Reading with people seeing the morning session advertised in the local paper and the volunteer centre.  This month we have lifted, divided and replanted some sections of the Iris border, planted out Digitalis seedlings in the collection beds and mulched the beds.  The volunteers have also helped with dead-heading, weeding, edging, pruning and bramble clearance.  Many thanks for all your efforts.

Lychnis coronaria

The long mixed border continues to provide interest and colour with a particularly stunning display of Lychnis coronaria to mention just one of the many plants in flower.

I met a lady in the garden today who studied for her botany degree at Reading under Professor Harris graduating in 1970 before she emigrated to Australia over 40 years ago where she has lived and worked as a botany lecturer since. She was discovering the garden for the first time and was full of praise for the garden and amazement at its existence.

To view more blogs by Pete Tipping please go to the web address below where his pen name is Woody the Tree Man / The Head Gardener.

http://www.yell.com/gardens/blog/author/petetipping/