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Why do we garden?

Some people garden for food while other others for flowers. Gardening can be an outlet to escape the busy pace of life or simply an activity we look forward to on our weekends. A garden can be as simple and small as an herb box or as large and complex as your dreams can take you. When trying to answer the question of why we garden, it seems there are so many reasons it would be difficult to limit to just one reason why. However, the passion to watch things grow seems likes a great place to start.
When I try to boil gardening down to its basic form, I can see why it is intriguing. It is a completely fair process. We put effort into the soil, and it gives us a result. There are few things in life where we can say, we are guaranteed a reward if we put in the effort. It is a deal we make with nature – we will nurture nature and nature will in turn nourish. That nourishment can be literal food nutrients, or it can be nourishment for our soul by growing a beautiful flower.
The mystery of it all attracts many different types of gardeners. As humans we are naturally curious. Watching plants develop over time attracts our curiosity. We cannot help but watch in awe. How water, soil, and light come together to produce beautiful gardening results is fascinating to even the most skillful of gardeners.
Gardening is the help that nature needs from us. Especially in urban and sub-urban areas, planting a diverse range of plant types helps to restore balance to environments that would otherwise be barren of the many beneficial insects and animals. As a garden matures oven time and seasons pass, we build our own eco-systems. By having tall grasses and season long vegetative cover we can attract fireflies to our yard. By planting parsley and being willing to share, Swallowtail Butterflies may make your garden their home. We can see nature repairing itself and healing in real time.
Looking forward to future seasons of gardening gives us images of bright colour in our minds through the darkness of winter. We dream of what the season will bring and imagine the different fruits, flowers, and insects our garden will offer. We consider how much more lawn could we live without to expand a garden bed in size just a little bit more. We see the beauty that will become our reality in just a few short months. We will be able to gather with our friends and family to share and enjoy the freshest garden salads with the most colourful centrepieces our flowers have to offer. The fireflies will be putting on their best show as to say thank you for your efforts. There is an excitement when we see an eco-system of our own construct attracting beauty we could have never imagined. Our gardens will always be there waiting to reward us for any attention and nourishment we are willing to give. This is why we garden.

I’ve been part of the garden team at the Eden Project for over 16 years and really enjoy the variety of my role, a mixture of hands on horticulture, research and teaching.

My areas of responsibilities include ‘Plants for a changing climate’ which is positioned in a lovely sunny sheltered South East corner of the garden, full of Southern Hemisphere and Mediterranean climate plants. Thanks to our mild weather, many of these plants thrive here. May is particularly amazing with masses of flowering Cistus, which are always covered in bees and tall spikes from Puya chilensis and Beshoneria yuccoides.

One of my most recent projects has been creating a South African Veld, celebrating the diversity and beauty of it’s flora but also drawing attention to it’s fragility and need of conservation. We did the bulk of the planting around this time last year and lots of the plants have already put on significant growth. During the research phase I had the opportunity to travel around the Western Cape, in particular looking at the vegetation in the higher altitudes, more suited to our climate. I am especially excited about being able growing some of the Protea; we have found P.cynaroides and P.neriifolia do very well here as well as lots of the Cape heathers.

Since last year I manage the Global Gardens exhibit, divided into small allotments representing fruit and vegetables that Chinese, Afro-Caribbean, Eastern European and UK communities grow, as well as UK traditional and Andean crops. It’s fun getting to grow lots of unusual produce such as oca, horned melon and okra. It also takes a huge amount of planning to ensure a bountiful display during our peak season.

You can follow what’s happening in the Garden

On Twitter @edenprojectgardens
On Instagram @edenprojectoutdoorgardens

Spring is the busiest time for Sussex, seaside gardener, Geoff Stonebanks, as he prepares to open his multi-award-winning garden, Driftwood, to the public. It has seen over 21,000 visitors and raised a staggering £137,000 for various charities, notably Macmillan Cancer Support and the National Garden Scheme. Driftwood has become a popular destination for locals and tourists over the last 10 years and featured on BBC Gardeners’ World. With just weeks to go before he was due to open last year, he had a pretty long to do list and couldn’t wait to get started. So, when he missed a step and fell, tearing his Achilles tendon, the timing couldn’t have been worse.

For a few months at least, Geoff was able to experience, first-hand, trying to garden with a temporary disability. The fact that he achieved it, in a garden on many levels, goes to show that if you are determined to do something, you’ll find your own way of overcoming the obstacles before you. Then Covid-19 hit and all openings were cancelled, leaving Geoff and his family to enjoy the garden alone.

Geoff tells us about his love of gardening, which only surfaced after being able to retire early at the age of 51, back in 2004.

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“I knew (and know) absolutely nothing at all about gardening but have still managed to create one that has received much acclaim and publicity since 2012, even appearing on national TV a couple of times and winning a couple of national gardening awards. Trust me, if I am able do this, then anyone reading this who puts their mind to it, can do just the same. The really nice thing most visitors say to me is that they leave the garden totally inspired, so if some of this can rub off on readers that would be wonderful too!”

People often look and are amazed that it has been created in such a relatively short space of time. Competition judges have said that Geoff seems to have the knack of making something look as though it has been long established! When asked, he often describes his style of gardening as “one of being an instant gardener. I don’t have the patience to wait for things to grow I want the finished product now!” Driftwood has no exposed soil or lawn, which makes it difficult to find space to let things grow on and develop. Plants need to have had a head start in life and be established specimens. Geoff has an inquisitive dog too, a mixed breed terrier, so the garden needs to be ‘Chester-proof’ as well.

When he moved to Sussex from London, back in 2004, the garden was simple and his efforts to neaten it up and make it a little more interesting, through 2007 to 2012, have clearly borne fruit. It is listed on TripAdvisor and has had some amazing reviews. Geoff says “as a novice gardener I knew nothing of improving the soil, the garden is on chalk, and I just got on with things as I saw fit and hoped for the best. I do however feed the garden prolifically each season and am confident that this is what helps me achieve such a high standard, with many visitors complementing me on the pristine condition of the blooms.”

Driftwood is planning to open this summer from 21st June through to 12th August on 5 public days and by arrangement on other days. Visit the garden website at http://www.driftwoodbysea.co.uk to check dates times and prices and see this delightful coastal heaven for yourself.

3 Ideas to Enhance Your Garden

While we are all looking forward to Covid restrictions being eased, many of us will probably still be spending a lot of time at home over the coming months. For those of us with gardens, it certainly seems that our outdoor space has become more important to us than ever. Here are 3 ideas aimed at helping you to make even more of your garden this year.

Water Features & Ponds
Water features and ponds are hard to beat for adding a focal point to a garden and enhancing the use of the space. A well-chosen water feature adds sound and light while bringing in beneficial wildlife too. Even a bird bath can make a huge difference. As nearly 70 percent of ponds have been lost from the UK countryside in the last century, water features and ponds are more important to wildlife than ever. Ponds develop fast because many of their inhabitants are highly mobile; within a short time after installation, your garden will attract birds, amphibians, insects, mammals and plenty of ‘mini-beasts’ you might never otherwise see.

Watching a pond attract wildlife is very rewarding

 

Fire Pits
Many of us have good memories of camping trips, with time spent sitting by the fire telling stories, enjoying tasty food and warming drinks. The good news is that if you add a fire pit to your garden, you don’t have to go far to recreate those memories. Possibly one of the best reasons to consider installing a fire pit is that it allows you to enjoy the seasons for longer. Since it offers both warmth and beauty, you will be able to enjoy your garden early in the spring season and later into autumn. There’s something about a fire pit that encourages great conversation too.

Fire pits create a social space for friends and family

Raised Beds and Herb Pots
Over recent years we have had more and more clients ask us about edible gardening. Pottering about in your own orderly set of raised beds before dinner and selecting a few home-grown herbs or vegetables can be a wonderful way to spend time outdoors. If there is no space for raised beds, easy-care herbs are also a natural fit for a vertical garden. All you need is a way to hang containers or contain soil on a vertical surface – for example, a ladder planter fixed against the wall. Even a single large container can be added as an accent piece, or several smaller pots grouped together in an attractive arrangement.

Raised beds can make gardening easier

Good luck with all your garden projects, big or small, this year. For more ideas, do browse our website here http://www.thegardenco.co.uk or follow me on Twitter @gardencomp

Robyn d’Albertanson has been writing her garden blog www.pot-to-pen.co.uk for the past 3 years, accompanied by her own photographs. She spent a career in the garden centre industry, then nipped off for a while to learn all about computers and administration and is now blogging about her plant experiences. Robyn is a Probationary Member of the Garden Media Guild.
Link to Blog: http://www.pot-to-pen.co.uk
Twitter: @pottopen

What’s not to like about Petunias?

I’m singing the praises of these non-stop flowerers

In my view, Petunias are considered like ‘Marmite’ – Love or loathe. But, what’s not to like when they pack a fantastic colour punch, flowering their socks off all summer and there’s such a variety of different types to choose from now? I’m including the smaller, more recently introduced Calibrachoas too, which have mini-Petunia like flowers.

There’s an ever-increasing range of more modern half-hardy bedding alternatives to fill your pots and bedding schemes these days, but Petunias are good old stalwarts. With plant breeding and research, the choice of colours available now is simply astonishing, with single, double and even treble flowers. In some varieties the flower stickiness which was always a gripe when doing the deadheading rounds, has almost gone. The weather resistance has been vastly improved, but thankfully, that familiar Petunia smell has been retained.

From the teeny Trixi Calibrachoa Petticoat Mix,

to the soft coloured Calibrachoa ‘Sunlight’ from the ‘Can Can’ Series,

to the sumptuous ‘Caramel Yellow’ Petunia (pictured at the top of this post), to the ridiculously crazy and brash stripy numbers such as Petunia ‘Crazy Ripple’,

and even to the sweetly fragrant (Yes, really!) elegant double flowered ‘Melissa’ from the #Petunia Scented Falls Series. I planted these with white Bacopa and the two complemented each other beautifully.

I love the way Petunia flowers unfurl and even the back of some have amazing detail, shown is P. ‘Cinnamon’ and P. ‘French Vanilla’.

Interesting the Calibrachoa types, or ‘Callies’ as they’re sometimes affectionately known, seem to ‘hug’ the pot they’re in, creating neat mounds (pictured below are trailing mini-Petunia ‘Callie Mango’). I’ve also noticed the interesting shadows they can make too (This is Calibrachoa ‘Starlight Blue’).

A real star from my recent bedding plant combinations have been the Super Petunias (I used P. ‘French Vanilla’, ‘Cinnamon’ and ‘Caramel Yellow’), which grew into an almost perfect globe of flowers. ‘Supers’ are a new generation of Petunia and Calibrachoa Hybrids producing a ‘Petunia’ that brings together the best qualities of both plants – the flower size of a conventional Petunia, with the continuous flowering quality and weather resistance of the Calibrachoa.

Petunias and their smaller counterparts are excellent companions for other bedding plants. Petunias tend to be more thuggish than the Calibrachoas so choose planting partners with a similar growing habit.

So, you can see just from my small snapshot of varieties, you’ll definitely find one to suit your colour taste, location – whether in a container or border, style – to trail and tumble over your pots and in your baskets, or to make an upright rounded display.

Cultivation notes

• Only plant outside when all risk of frost has passed
• Use a good quality potting compost for container growing
• Planting in odd numbers works best for a balanced display
• Raise pots off the ground using ‘pot-feet’ to aid drainage
• Position in full sun or part shade
• Keep well-watered and feed regularly for that extra bit of flowering umph
• Dead-head where you can – admittedly the tiny ones are near impossible!

You’ll find Petunias in Garden Centres, Nurseries and online as plugs and ready-grown plants. I bought Trixi Calibrachoa Petticoat Mix and the scented Petunia from Mr Fothergills and the Super Petunias from Suttons.

This season I’m looking forward to trying the interesting sounding Petunia Mystical Midnight Gold with ruffled petals, a formal looking Pinstripe Petunia and of course, I can’t resist a Callie, the Chameleon varieties have grabbed my attention this time.

Article and photographs by Robyn d’Albertanson

Create Garden Drama with Black Plants

Throw away the traditional notion that plants need to be bright and colourful. There is an often-overlooked sub-culture of plants that can add some real drama and interest to a garden. They are the black plants, those with brooding dark tones that offer rich blooms and foliage that provide a theatrical contrast to other colours.
These are statement plants that catch the eye and their rich colours warrant attention in a border. And there are options out there now to ensure you can turn to the dark side with perennials, annuals or grasses.
The plant that really started my interest in black plants was Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ and I loved how its dark leaves were such a contrast to other plants around it.

Whereas most traditional images of plants are bright and cheery summer colours, there is a level of deep intrigue that can be offered by mixing darker tones into the palette of a garden.
It is rare to get a pure black bloom in plants, but I have looked to get plants with flowers as dark as possible complimented by various shades of foliage. Such specimens include Poppy ‘Black Peony’, Cornflower ‘Black Ball’, Pansy ‘Black Moon’, Aquilegia vulgaris ‘William Guinness’ and Nemophila menziesii ‘Pennie Black’.
If you look around you can find darker forms of Tulip, Dahlia, Heuchera, Viola, Iris, Sweet William and bamboo among many others. There is a wide range of unique darker plants available that will add some glamour to your garden, including the option of using darker tones of reds and blues where black itself is maybe too dark for your taste.

Try mixing these statement plants in between your brighter blooms and start embracing your darker side. Darker colours go well with oranges, yellows and reds. In these combinations the brighter colours look illuminated against the murkier shades. And there is always the timeless black and white combination.
You don’t need to go all the way and create a ‘Goth Garden’ like those inspired by the brooding Victorian gothic gardens. However, maybe just consider causing a stir among your contemporaries by adding some darkness into your gardening life.

Read more about my gardening and allotment adventures at https://perennialnerd.com/

An introduction

With an BSc Honours Degree in Biochemistry at Bristol University, I joined Accenture as a Management Consultant. I went on to be awarded sponsorship by Aer Lingus to train as a Commercial Airline Pilot. I subsequently flew Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s with easyJet for many years before taking a break to have my 3 children. Whilst studying my diploma at KLC School of Design last year, I was awarded a Bronze Medal at the Moscow Flower Show for my garden ‘The Eye of Providence’. I have now completed my Diploma in Garden Design with Distinction and the coveted awards of ‘KLC Top Student 2020’ and ‘Debbie Roberts Award for Vision and Excellence’. I am now on setting up my own design practice in Wimbledon, London.

Therapeutic Gardens

Our appreciation of life and the living world has been hardwired into our own genetic makeup, giving us an innate emotional and beneficial response to nature, known as Biophilia. Whilst all gardens bring a beneficial improvement in well-being through engaging our senses, gardens for the disabled should provide a focus on how to further improve this experience on a therapeutic level.

The Attention Restoration Theory defines how a therapeutic garden can specifically improve the quality of the experience. There are essentially four main elements:

Being Away: Giving people diversionary, time away from their usual everyday life.
Fascination: This is passive interaction, entered into almost involuntarily, catching and holding one’s attention.
Extent: Providing enough opportunities to capture our fascination, regardless of the number of times the garden is visited.
Compatibility: Enabling the people to view, enter and perhaps work within the garden with ease.

Here are some practical ideas for introducing these elements within your garden:

To instil a sense of ‘Being Away’ we can use different planting palettes from different regions of the world. For example, lush architectural planting could instil a sense of being somewhere tropical, in the same way that a Mediterranean feeling can be instilled in a dry, gravel garden by using plants with aromatic foliage in silvery tones.

‘Fascination’ can be achieved by stimulating all of our senses. For example, it isn’t just the mesmerising quality of watching water, listening to its calming sound, and the feeling of it running through your hands, but it is its attraction to wildlife that enables such a broad level of fascination for us too. Ponds can be raised within a retaining wall for example, to allow those in wheelchairs to get a better view and water features can placed with reach of hands and feet to provide another element to the experience of water.

It is a not only the seasonal changes which will provide the ‘Extent’ to which our fascination is captured over the course of a year, but on a daily basis it is wildlife that offers this in detail. Using plants for pollinators can attract not only insects, but in turn, the birds that feed on them. Using log piles is a great way to provide refuge for over-wintering pollinators as well as considering planting shrubs and trees that provide berries in winter.

Fundamentally, above all, enabling easy access to the garden setting throughout the year is key to any restorative garden. This can be as straight-forward as allowing smooth, step-free access to the site, as well as perhaps having a shelter/conservatory/garden room which allows all weather access to the garden. Facilitating the growing of edibles by building raised beds or using a pergola as a frame for growing, also allows access to plants for those who struggle to reach the ground.

For further ideas and advice, do not hesitate to get in contact to see how I can help you unleash the potential of your garden plot.

http://www.felicityorourkegardendesign.com

Hole park is a family owned and run estate in the Kent Weald covering two and a half thousand acres.
It has been owned by the Barham family since 1911. Essentially the estate is family run and foremost is a family home and the owners Edward and Clare Barham get involved in making the decisions about the running and development of the Gardens, unlike our nearest neighbours Great Dixter and Sissinghurst.

Edward and Clare, Quentin Stark the Head Gardener and Joe Archer the Assistant Head Gardener have meetings in a different part of the garden each week, to discuss how that area currently looks, then make a plan for future short and long term improvements to that area. This can vary from hard landscaping like paths to improve access or perhaps cut down overgrown shrubs to rejuvenate them or under plant with new and interesting plants as we are keen to increase plant diversity.

After a long winter and with spring now well underway, there is an air of excitement about opening the garden for the new season . Our five gardeners, have worked hard over a long winter with the usual routine tasks of preparing the borders, pruning the roses and mulching the beds, amidst which we add a series of projects. These are, if you like, the amusement or the icing on the cake, redoing a bed, adding to a planting scheme or making some new paths. They make sure that the garden evolves and provide interest for our regular visitors who come to see what has changed.

This year the heather bed has been extended, with a tremendous stone that we found on the estate place there to represent a Kentish rockery, adjacent to which we have laid one of several new paths. We use recycled stone as the base and then rock fines above, a semi cemetaceous natural product which goes down tight once dry. It provides better access for the garden machinery and for our visitors, ever mindful of those in wheelchairs and on some occasions the weight of numbers.

As Covid eases, there is great excitement amongst visitors to be able to get out, after a long winter, and in some cases a full year, cooped up in their homes under varying levels of lockdown. Covid has taken its toll on the estate too with two death in our community and many others remaining naturally uneasy about returning to pre-Covid levels of normality. So we welcome several new members of staff on the opening garden opening team which will give a fresh look to the front gate and to the Coach House Cafe.

Last year Hole Park was amongst the most forward gardens in the country, open from the beginning of May and we even managed to get in some of our well-known events. Sadly the Wealden Times Summer Fair was cancelled but it returns in 2021, this time spread over a four day period 1-4 July. And our Napoleonic weekend is also returning 25-26 September.

Very few coach parties are schedule for the year, which has previously been a significant part of our business, so we will adapt to relying more upon individual visitors for whom advance ticketing is available through a new platform, with all its associated technical problems as we learn new skills. But we will always welcome pay on the day ‘walk-ups’, as they are known in the trade.

We very much hope that you will come and see our garden, the result of 99 years of my family’s input into them, since my great grandfather Arthur started planting in a serious way in 1922/23. He first opened to the public in 1928, as a founder member of what has evolved to become the National Garden Scheme. As we approach our garden centenary, I think we have a lot to be proud of and I hope that Arthur will look down for on high and approve that the family are still so actively involved and sharing it with so many.

The Wealden Times Fair 1-4 July marks the end of our regular opening. I might not write these words with such optimism after a hard three-month campaign of being open 24/7. But for now, we are genuinely excited about sharing Hole Park with you. I wish Easter was forecast to be a little warmer.

I’ve been Head gardener at Hole Park for twenty years, I was employed by Edwards Father David, who used it as a family garden with limited opening mainly for the NGS. Over the years I have seen many changes including the longer opening season, this year it will be longer than ever but I relish the opportunity to share this beautiful garden with our paying guests. My role has developed from maintaining a predominantly family garden to one that balances both the needs of the family and public alike. Over the years I have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to redevelop areas of the garden and improve the range of plants we grow to extend our season. We used to be known for our bluebells alone but now I think we are a garden for all seasons. Whether it’s from the first snowdrops in spring, through to the monochrome of the bluebells, closely followed by the riot of colour with the rhododendrons and on to the herbaceous borders in summer, exotic plantings in late summer through to autumn colour in the woodland.
My staff have changed over the years, some like Steve have been there for 20 years and then my trainees from the WRAGS scheme are only placed with us for a year, each of them brings skills and life experiences that are reflected in the gardens and each of them have left their mark. I often look round the garden and have a smile reminiscing about a day we planted up an area in the pouring rain or see a plant the owners insisted on having or a planting scheme one of the team designed. Each of these has made Hole Park Gardens what they are today and I am pleased to be able to take round a group of visitors explaining what the gardens mean to me and I hope I am able to convey the passion I have for gardening. I am proud to be Head Gardener of Hole Park.

Joe Archer is the Assistant Head Gardener who joined the team at the end of March 2020

My horticultural inspiration derived from an uncle who worked as Head Gardener at the Longstock water Gardens in Hampshire. Throughout my life I was treated to private tours of his amazing water gardens and was struck by the idyllic lifestyle he led including his tied thatched cottage. This always resinated with me and it became a career ambition to become a gardener and to have a slice of this rural way of life.

The chance came to me just over a year ago in March 2020. Having lived in London my whole life I seized the opportunity to take up a position of assistant head gardener at Hole Park in the Kent countryside. My role is to support Head Gardener Quentin Stark in maintaining and developing the extensive gardens. Together with the owners we strive to keep the grounds looking at their best and in turn please the many visitors who come and enjoy the gardens.

What I love most about being a gardener is working through the seasons and the variety of tasks this brings. Working at Hole Park epitomises this, it is a garden for all seasons and with just a small gardening team we are all involved whatever the job. It is a pleasure to work in a garden with so many horticultural assets and my skills as a gardener are constantly expanding and improving.

The gardens are a hive of activity right through the year. In the lead up to opening in April the team work hard by pruning, mowing lawns, mulching and preparing beds to get the gardens ready. Visitors are treated to quintessential English woodland walks surrounded by bluebells and a garden packed full of flowering spring bulbs.

During summer the flower borders take centre stage. Many months of work pay off to achieve colourful displays. Plants propagated in the greenhouses and grown on for the herbaceous borders, rose garden and the tropical border fill what were once bare beds with foliage and flowers. The final showpiece in our display is the autumnal colour, none more impressive than our collection of Acers. Different shades of reds, yellows and oranges turn the woodland into a kaleidoscope of colour.

Autumn is also the time when staff from all departments work collectively on the Christmas tree harvest on the wider estate. There is a great sense of camaraderie and a chance to work in the surrounding countryside in the build-up to the festive season. It is hard but rewarding work and a great way to finish the year.

The joy of working in such scenic surroundings is capped off by having my own tied cottage on the estate. Where once I would struggle to work through train delays and grey surroundings, I now have a five-minute cycle whilst listening to the birds sing. I am very pleased to have found what I was looking for.

For more information regarding opening time please visit their website

http://www.holepark.com

My Top 5 Flowering Shrubs

Now that we’re halfway through spring and many of the plants have come up in our gardens, we’re finding ourselves reviewing what’s there and what isn’t. Spring bulbs have been putting on their cheerful show, and we’re looking forward to the summer bulbs and corms. Hardy perennials are emerging into life with all their promise of greenery and colour throughout the coming months. But we may find that some plants haven’t survived and that we have ‘gaps’. Some of these spaces may be best filled with shrubs, giving you that backbone, height and structure that a garden needs.
Difficult though it is because there is so much choice, I’ve come up with my top 5 flowering shrubs that would suit most gardens and very importantly, between them, will provide interest all year round.

1. Viburnum tinus: There are quite a lot of Viburnums but ‘tinus’ is one of the evergreen varieties with mid-deep green glossy leaves (see pictured). Perhaps its main attraction is its flowers which last right through from December to April, and what’s more, bees and hoverflies love them! After flowering it develops bunches of blue-black berries. It’s a medium-sized shrub which would suit the middle of a border, or perhaps to the back if you don’t want large plants, and is happy both in sun and part shade. Its weak spot is, like other Viburnums, Viburnum beetle, so if you notice brown notches or patches on leaves, remove them promptly and get rid of all fallen leaves. Other than that Viburnum tinus is a beautiful, good all-rounder shrub which keeps giving.
2. Lavandula angustifolia: I can’t imagine a garden without some lavender! Within this fully hardy group are the well-known ‘Hidcote’ and ‘Munstead’ varieties much more capable of surviving our UK Climate than the French lavenders – at least that’s true here in the northwest of England. Many of us enjoy the smell of lavender as we brush past, and bees and other pollinating insects enjoy the flowers which can last from July to September.
3. Mahonia x media ‘Charity’: Another evergreen shrub, this time with spiky, holly-like leaves and yellow flower-spikes which attract bees and insects (there’s a theme developing here!). They have a beautiful scent –in fact, this winter on a lockdown walk I smelt a Mahonia in a garden we passed before I saw it. Such a pleasure in the middle of winter, this and some of the other Mahonias flower from November to March. They’re taller than Viburnum tinus and can be grown in shade so they’re great plants for something architectural at the back of a shady border.
4. Weigela ‘Florida Variegata’: I’ve chosen this shrub because it is quite different from the others in my list. It is deciduous with variegated foliage, has pretty pink flowers and has a bushy but fairly tall habit with arching stems. The leaves which are grey-green with white edges can really brighten up a border, as do other variegated plants. The pale pink funnel-shaped flowers are quite profuse and can last from May to June, and sometimes beyond. Weigela grows easily on most soils, and once it has reached the height you want it responds well to pruning after flowering (probably to about half its height).
5. Fothergilla major (Mountain witch alder): I’ve saved this special shrub till last as it’s one of my favourite finds (see pictured)! It is deciduous and very slow-growing but has some wonderful features. As the leaves appear in late spring, so also do the unusual bottle-brush-like white flowers which stay through to mid-summer. The leaves, which in summer resemble the shape and green of Hazel leaves, turn in autumn into a plethora of reds, oranges and yellows which I think are quite unique. We gained so much pleasure last year from watching these changes which lasted at least four to five weeks! Fothergilla thrives on acid soil and its colours are at their best in full sun but partial shade is ok too. If your garden is on alkaline soil, you could plant this shrub in ericaceous soil in a container, as you can with rhododendrons and other acid-loving plants.
   So I hope that my list here of flowering shrubs is helpful and has given you pointers to some beautiful plants that will add structure and interest to your garden all-year round. And I wish you a full and enjoyable growing year!

For more information please visit my website http://jogrowsgardens.com

or visit my Facebook page jonewtongardendesign

I’ve learned many things in this last year and whilst I’m sure I don’t need to highlight the individual challenges we all face to some degree or another. The one thing I do hope we can all take away is that when the way we decide to live our everyday life is no longer our own choice, it affects us as human beings, hugely. Be it by disability, chronic pain, pandemic, illness or the invisible barriers of mental health challenges such as crippling anxiety. Freedom to choose is something we all need control over and because of that, these unique circumstances have forced us to be adaptable and proactive. I think perhaps, as humans we all understand each other a little better and can accept that each individual is unique, with unique ways of dealing with any challenges laid at their feet. I think we are more compassionate. I hope we are more empathetic.

But what if coping is something that is just a hairs breadth from giving up, what if some of us are merely surviving.

I am Keily Rutherford and I have served 12 years in the British Army as A Dog Trainer with 2 tours of Iraq and 1 tour of Afghanistan, I worked as care assistant in a residential nursing home and after becoming a Mum became very addicted to gardening. I now run a Gardening business in beautiful Melton Mowbray which is passionate about creating beautiful individual outdoor spaces and mentoring new gardeners into this rewarding career.

With a military background it is safe to say that almost 20 years ago the focus on mental health wasn’t what it is today, and I saw so many soldiers struggling especially on tour after being injured or involved in major incidents. Anxiety is something that has plagued me all my life and actually the Army pushing me outside of my comfort zone meant my confidence grew and grew. Since leaving service I have to remind myself that doing something that scares me every day is good for me, but often I can choose, and I raise my hand to taking the easy route out at times.

As I prepare to study FdSc degree in Horticulture at Nottingham Trent University this year it compels me tell you about the practical everyday strategies I use to motivate myself to do the thing I love and most of them revolve around gardening, my business and my lifestyle. You don’t need heaps of space and if you really are short on enthusiasm. Start with an idea, creativity is the spark that lights the fire, trust me on this! Just some paper and some cheap pencils will be fine (it’s how I started) and make a list of what you’d like your garden to give you. Let’s keep the simple things in life, they’ll be different for everyone but for me it was;

• Being able to watch the birds
• A shady place to drink a cup of tea
• Borders to plant my beautiful flowers

And to keep things interesting for you, I used my front garden which required two cars to be parked, I had a tight budget of £150 and I wanted to recycle as many things as I could. It turned out to be a free activity for my children to help with during lockdown and it was named The Nature Garden. We are one of only a couple of gardens that have not completely resurfaced with tarmac and it is a hot spot of activity with birds, frogs, hedgehogs, bees, butterflies and in the morning when sometimes the day ahead seems a bit long and a bit unmanageable, the peaking of Galanthus nivalis or Helleborus in depths of winter, the presence of a little robin drinking from the pond and the sweet scent of Sarcococca humilis as I clumsily bustle into my front door all give such unplanned joy. We even pop a little table and chairs out now as a lovely addition to our lockdown garden where I can watch the kids scootering and I think a few of the neighbours wish they had more than just tarmac now!

Good luck with your planning, I hope it gives you focus and fills you with hope as the year progresses.

If you feel inspired to create your own little sanctuary and need any plant advice or help you can find me on instagram @kr_gardendesign.