Notes from a Head Gardener ~ Chapter 2 ~ Topiary Trials and Triumphs ~ 19/6/2017

Topiary is my number one and longest standing skill. It is my party trick and if it were an Olympic sport I would hope to represent Great Britain (probably to be edged out of the Gold medal winning position by Jake Hobson but trouncing the boys at Warner Trees to ultimately take silver 🥈). 

This is a daydream caused by extreme heat but I am very experienced and pride myself on being a confident topiary artist. 

 

So, last week, when faced with the twice-yearly trim of the yew pyramids pictured above I had two choices: spend eight hours trimming them by hand with my excellent Niwake hand shears or fire up the brand new Stihl lighter-than-air (for five minutes or so and then it gets a bit weightier) hedge trimmer and save four hours of precious June gardening time. I chose the hedge trimmer for the very first time. I was nervous. What if I sneezed and took the end of my nose off or, worse still, the top of a pyramid? I need not have worried. By pyramid number 6 I had my technique almost perfected and after I had completed the final one, number 7, I wanted to go straight back to number 1 so that I could iron out any slightly less than perfect bits. 

I thought better of this almost immediately. The beauty of topiary is that (barring aforementioned sneezing incidents) the foliage will start to grow back very shortly after the trim. These yew pyramids will be needing their second trim at the far end of the summer so that they stay looking sharp throughout Autumn and Winter. This is when I can get them looking spot-on perfect. In theory there will be more time at the end of the summer. In practice I seem to be fairly flat out for much of the year. I wouldn't have it any other way.....it keeps me out of mischief! 

Wildflower Walks with my Girls ~ 11/6/2017

Leaving the house after an evening meal is not easy nowadays. I would much rather collapse in a heap on a sofa and wait for a cat to come and sit on me but when my sister suggested that we go for a family wildflower walk to see what we could see in the fields that surround Malmesbury, I called upon my emergency energy reserves and off we went. 

 

What a good idea it turned out to be and what beauties we found! My eight and five year old daughters kept records of the flowers that we saw and by the end of our walk we had filled pages and pages. We found over 40 different species of flowering plants. Favourites included flag irises, campion, rose bay willow herb, geraniums, clovers, hemlock but the star flower that lit up a overcast evening was the sighting of several stunning bee orchids (Orphys apifera) in the nature reserve. 

The girls enjoyed the competition of writing down plants before the other one. The grown 

-up girls enjoyed the evening leg stretch and the chance to swot-up on our wild flower knowledge. My mother found a pretty burgundy flowered plant that she recognised but couldn't name. After much googling we hit the target and identified Hedge Woundwort. Quite possibly my new favourite wild flower and one that I hope I will never forget.....until next years wildflower walk with my favourite females. 

 

Notes from a Head Gardener ~ Chapter 1 ~ Know your Space ~ 5/6/2017

Know your space

You are embarking upon an exciting project. There is no end to this project and that is something that you must realise. A garden is a living, breathing, ever-evolving outside space. Even the lowest maintenance garden will require some sprucing up a few times a year. The sooner that this is viewed as an exciting opportunity to change the garden onto which you look or walk through the better. The role of Head Gardener is pretty awesome. 

 

Being the Head Gardener of your own garden gives you the creative freedom to have the garden of your dreams. Whether you crave a productive and beautifully symmetrical vegetable garden like the one above at the stunning Yeo Valley Organic Garden in Somerset or a more informal but wonderfully scented and colourful garden to encourage bees and other pollinating insects, rather like my own here......

 

......as Head Gardener you must first go out and visit other gardens for inspiration. Join The Royal Horticultural Society and you can visit hundreds of gorgeous gardens for free. Whilst you are taking time to visit gardens and collecting ideas, keep a scrapbook or online pin board with photographs of scrumptious plants and clever landscaping. Make notes detailing exactly why you liked these gardens, how and where they would fit into your own garden and all the while keep dreaming. 

 

I was utterly bowled over by the plant combinations in the Bronze Garden at The Yeo Valley Organic Garden (can you tell that it was my favourite garden visit of the Spring?!) and I am already forming an image of how I can have a bronze area in my own garden or suggest it to one of my clients. 

 

During your allocated garden visiting time - and I would suggest that this period lasts for one year because you will see plants that flower or hold some form of interest (colour/texture/form/scent) in every season - you must observe your own space. Take a cane  with a brightly coloured string bow tied to it and thrust it into the ground next to all of the plants that you want to keep - you may think that you will remember that clump of pheasant-eye narcissi but it is easy to forget once they have died back completely. Likewise, the shrub that lights up midwinter when everything else looks miserable.....give it a cane. This is another reason why I suggest that a year of dreaming, planning and visiting should be the first stage of your Head Gardenership. 

 

A wonderful pot of tulips at Dyrham Park near Bath, Spring 2017. 

Lavender's Location ~ Cotswold Hare Trail 2017

I am delighted to announce that Lavender the Hare, the 5ft leporine that I have decorated for The Cotswold Hare Trail 2017, will be spending the summer at Fosseway Garden Centre in Moreton-in-Marsh. 

Fosseway Garden Centre

Cotswold Hare Trail 2017

 

I believe that she is there already although I won't be able to visit for another few days. Please, if anyone is in the area, pay her a visit and email me a photograph. I am so excited that she is at her summer residence! 

 

There are many wonderful, colourful, clever hares dotted around the Cotswolds until September ~ so what are you waiting for? Get on out there and start finding them! My personal favourite is right here in Malmesbury at the Town Hall. Sue Steel has made the most extraordinary mosaic hare with a very local theme. It is a complete stunner! 

Lavender takes a great deal of inspiration from the classic Cotswold garden at Hidcote Manor near Chipping Campden. You may recognise some of the topiary and the famous Lavender variety about her person (.....hare!). 

 

There are also swathes of wisteria and a trained apple complete with blossom and the all-important pollinating insects, without which we would have no food. The subtle message that I would like Lavender the Hare to convey is that without a variety of flowering plants in our gardens and public spaces we, as people, would fail to produce enough food to feed ourselves. 

Please visit your local nursery or garden centre and ask the staff to point you towards the bee/insect friendly plants and get planting ~ now is the ideal time 🐝🦋🐞

Sneaky Peeks ~ 27th February 2017

The 5ft hare is almost ready to play her part in The 2017 Cotswold Hare Trail. One more coat of varnish is all she requires. 

I hope that she takes to life in the public eye just as well as she has coped with being a part of our busy kitchen. I am going to miss her.....chef, on the other hand, most definitely will not! 

Here are a few glimpses ~ 

 

 

 

That's all folks! It will not be long before the full reveal. 

 

 

Cotswold Hare Trail 2017

There is a giant hare in my greenhouse! 

 

 

I've been chosen as one of the artists selected to decorate a giant hare for the Cotswold Hare Trail 2017! 

I am thrilled and honoured and.....I've got my work cut out. 

 

Follow my progress @nicolahopegardener on Instagram. I will be posting photographs regularly as I attempt to make this fine looking fellow colourfully fit to grace the smartest of Cotswold locations. (Location to be confirmed but, if all goes to plan, it's going to be a goodie!)

Gardening as Therapy ~ 5th December 2016

A series of really rather unfortunate and pretty horrible stuff happened to me over the summer. 

I am sure I will be able to write about it all in greater detail sometime but now is not that time. 

 

I can confidently write that if I were not a gardener, outside in all weather, connecting with the earth and its various moods, I would not have coped nearly so well. 

The Autumn of 2016 has been so exceptionally gorgeous and it has been a pleasure to be out in it. 

 

The fundamental actions of pruning, digging and turning compost have proved even more invigorating than in previous Autumns. I have survived, physically and mentally, and the leaf colours have been all the sweeter for it. 

There is a school of thought that suggests that maybe I have kept even busier than usual so that I can successfully ignore the events of the summer. On the contrary, I feel that I have been able to work through the happenings in my mind whilst really getting stuck in to a particularly overgrown viburnum (the latest unsuspecting victim of my insatiable pruning) and returning said viburnum to a less congested and aesthetically pleasing state.

There is no photo of the viburnum to hand so here is some scrumptious homemade compost in its place. 

 

I think that I will write about the summer one day but in the meantime I will continued to regain my strength the very best way I know. 

Gardening ~ the only therapy for me.