Creating a New Garden

CREATING A NEW GARDEN      

It is always sad to leave behind a mature garden that has taken ten years to create and is now fully functional, i.e. shelter and privacy are in place, we have flowers all year round, the fruit trees give us more fruit than we can use and our two patios mean we can follow the sun around in those rare moments of relaxation.

However life does not stand still. Our needs are changing, as we approach retirement, (its only ever going to be a pleasant thought.) We no longer need a large house as family grow up and travel to the other end of the world, so a nice wee cottage somewhere but with a decent garden would be just right. I then have the task of bringing together a lifetime of growing my favourite plants and starting it all over again. The new garden must be functional so I will take time to design all the features so everything is in the right place from the beginning.

Everybody at some time or another has to confront the new garden and where you begin, whether it is a new build on a new estate with a nice turfed lawn but nothing else, or whether it is a garden left by a previous owner.

When I find my wee plot of potential paradise and start the landscape works I will keep my readers up to date with progress and hopefully pass on a few ideas. There will always be a few success stories mixed with a few disasters. I will try and keep the latter at a low level, but when the brains creativity kicks in anything can happen.

Function

It is a good idea to make a list of all the things a garden must do. Include security around the perimeter if necessary, especially if you are next to a field full of cows or sheep. Shelter from winds from the south west is high on my list and a patio is an absolute essential as I do not want to be grafting in the garden on a hot sunny afternoon, and I will need somewhere to park my sun lounger.

On the practical side find a suitable spot for the outdoor rotary drier, the compost heap and a vegetable patch for some fresh greens and a few home grown chemical free spuds. A fruit garden is a must with room for an apple, pear and plum, and all the soft fruits. Then of course we must integrate space for a year round display of flowers with special emphasis around the entrance and patio areas.

I also like to create a winter garden to be seen from the comfort of the house during the cold dull days and usually fit in a bird table and water bath. Our blackie likes to shower every morning.

This all sounds very ambitious but with careful planning it is very surprising what you can fit into a small garden.

Favourite plants

Every one has their own favourites from scented lilies, flag iris, climbing roses, delphiniums, rhododendrons, flowering cherry, tulips, crocus, daffodils and snowdrops and many more. Give a lot of thought as to where to plant them for their best position.

Colour and Impact

Spring and summer bedding plants can give a huge splash of colour and be very impressive when grouped together at entrances and around the patio. Wallflower and tulips in spring and geraniums and tuberous begonias in summer are hard to beat for impact.

Many border plants, shrubs, roses and trees can all be very special in bloom, though they are all seasonal. Make use of this feature and group together those at their best at different times of year. In March when the Forsythia is in full flower plant some early flowering Red Emperor fosteriana tulips underneath them to give impact and create a contrast of colour.

Shelter and Privacy

There is always a need for shelter from winds in our country and privacy is important today as houses are often built very close together. Open plan frontages may be the modern idea to improve the appearance of a whole estate, but people have to live in the houses and open plan is not to everyone’s taste. A house integrates better into the landscape when the edges and perimeters are softened with trees, shrubs, roses and ground cover. The size and selection of the planting will relate to the surrounding area. If there is a good view to preserve then lower ground cover is best, but if there are busy roads, shops or any eyesores to screen then trees and taller evergreens may be a better bet. However unless you live in the country with your nearest neighbour a couple of fields away do not entertain planting Leyland cypress. It is very vigorous, very tall, its roots rob the ground of all moisture and nutrients and is responsible for feuding neighbours all over the country as their is always somebody unable to control its rampant growth.

Relaxation

The patio is essential and should be sited close to the house for privacy and shelter and built as large as possible. This is where you can indulge in brightening it up with scented climbers, summer bedding, scented lilies, tubs and hanging baskets. This is where you dine outdoors at every opportunity, socialise in the evenings and weekends and relax on that sun lounger after a bit of garden graft enjoying a small glass of Saskatoon wine.

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Exotic Fruit

EXOTIC FRUIT  

I am constantly amazed at just how far life has changed in my short lifetime. My grandfather had spent a lot of his childhood in India as his father was in the British army posted abroad. I had always loved fresh fruit, but that was mostly an apple or a pear if you felt like going upmarket. He really missed his guavas and mangoes. There was not many of them around Dundee at that time, though they were starting to appear on supermarket shelves in tins. However as a kid I did get spoiled a wee bit when he produced these exotic fruits called bananas. Now that was special, then later in life my older sister discovered pomegranates and went in for them in a big way.

My path in life was being determined for me. After a spell as a gardener, then learning the value of experimentation with new crops while at the Scottish Crops Research Institute, followed by a period working on commercial fruit farms, I developed a strong interest in fruits to grow and eat.

Raspberries, strawberries and blackcurrants were easy, and delicious, but common. An apple tree was a must have plant, but getting the right variety for this area took a bit of research. Similarly pears and plums got purchased just as soon as I had a big enough garden. In these early times my exotic tastes only embraced a slight venture into the less common, such as blueberries, gooseberries, brambles and red currants.

Nowadays cheap travel, television and the internet have opened our eyes and taste buds to the huge range of exotic fruit to sample and where ever our climate and soils are favourable we can try growing them.

Gardening is about having a bit of fun, trying the unusual in the hope for a bit of success, and if it doesn’t work, then move onto another plant worthy of a trial.

Over the years, I have tried figs, peaches, outdoor grapes and autumn raspberries and strawberries and now it is the turn of cherries, saskatoons, aronias and goji.

Some fruit has been tried but discarded as the fruit was just not very pleasant, such as Lingonberries and Cranberries.

Let us look at some of the better ones.

Grapes

These have always been considered a greenhouse plant in Scotland with Black Hamburg being the most popular and successful variety. It is very easy to grow provided you keep it pruned properly throughout its growing period. It does not need any heat so is perfect for the cold greenhouse, but make sure you give it plenty ventilation to prevent any build up of mildew or botrytis. The grapes are large, sweet, juicy and picking continues from September till December, but they do have pips in them. If you prefer a seedless grape try the variety Flame which has red grapes, is very sweet and although the grape is smaller than Black Hamburg, the bunches are bigger. Another seedless variety is Perlette, a white grape. The vine is quite vigorous so keep it well pruned.

I had hoped that global warming would have given the Scots a warmer climate so I can try some outdoor grapes, but all we seem to get is a lot of warm rain all summer. I have tried several grapes outdoors, but with no success so far. After five years they get grubbed out.

However I don’t give up too easily, so this year I am planting the outdoor variety Solaris against a south facing fence.

I grow the ornamental variety Brant on my south facing house wall. It is very successful with a regular one hundred bunches every year. They are small, but the black grapes are very sweet and juicy. These get used for a delicious sweet grape juice for immediate use or it can be frozen.

Figs

This is another plant that really needs a warm spot to ripen its fruits, so a south facing location is advisable. It can grow large so is best planted in a prepared pit lined with slabs to restrict root growth. It will then concentrate on producing fruit. Brown Turkey is the usual variety. There may be a bit of botrytis if the summer is very wet, as the fig prefers a hot dry ripening period.

Peaches

Another plant for the south wall as it needs a lot of sun and warmth to ripen up the fruits. Our last two hard winters are good for the peach as it has delayed the normally very early flowers, thus they are less liable to get caught by a late frost. They need hand pollination with a sable brush, and two sprays of fungicide to control peach leaf curl. Summer pruning helps to remove excessive foliage and allow the sun onto the fruits. I grow the variety Peregrine very successfully, so far.

Cherries and Goji

These can grow very well in Scotland, but it is too soon to report on them. My Goji is in its third year, so may fruit this year. My cherry is the variety Cherokee grafted onto a new very dwarfing rootstock called Gisela 5 which I will train as a fan on a south facing fence.

Saskatoons

I have been growing these now for seven years and the Scottish Crops Research Institute has had them for about forty years so it is well established that they can grow very well in our climate. They will grow in almost any soil. The fruit is very similar to a blueberry but the Saskatoon grows faster and crops a lot heavier. The black berries which are very high in antioxidants, are ready in July, and can be eaten fresh or used for jams, pies, compote, summer puddings, or even used for wine making. Although relatively unknown in the UK, their popularity is spreading and ten years from now they will be as common as the blueberry.

Chokeberry

This is said to be the healthiest plant on the planet because of the extremely high levels of antioxidants in the fresh fruit. However it is a bit astringent if eaten raw, so the fruit is best used in jams, compote, pies and smoothies. It just loves the Scottish climate, so there are several growers already growing them in this area. They are not troubled by any pests or diseases and our soils seem to suit them perfectly. They can be grown as a single bush or even as a hedge.

Autumn fruiting raspberries and strawberries

Raspberries and strawberries may not really be exotic, but by growing them early and late it is pure bliss to get that first strawberry in May, then keep enjoying the perpetual varieties that fruit up to October. Autumn rasps are also a luxury that is well worth the effort.

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Garden Trees

GARDEN TREES

I think I first became aware of the beauty and majesty of mature trees when I worked at Camperdown Park during my gardening apprentice days. There was a wide range of  broad leaved trees all now mature and a great mix of huge conifers, (Wellingtonias and Cedars) around the park, the big house and in the pinetum, which runs alongside the golf course first tee. There was a great pride by gardeners, groundsmen and foresters in their heritage and we younger apprentices were always being challenged to, “Name that tree” to see if we were learning anything. We would be in deep trouble if we did not know about our own Dundee weeping elm, the Ulmus glabra camperdownii and know the exact spot of the original tree now protected with a wee bit fence.

Dundee has a fantastic collection of trees of every kind inherited from the days of the Jute Barons, Scottish plant explorers, wealthy private estates and especially Camperdown Park awarded to Admiral Adam Duncan for defeating the Dutch Navy in 1797. The estate forester at the time, David Taylor found the Camperdown elm growing wild and now it is planted all over the world.

There are beautiful examples of mature specimens of oak, lime, beech, walnut, sweet chestnut, cedars, Douglas fir and even the more exotic Monkey Puzzle, Incense cedar and eucalyptus found all over Dundee, as well as those unusual forms of weeping ash, weeping oaks and upright oaks and hornbeam.

As much as I loved all of these trees, I was never going to have enough room in my small garden for even one of them, so my arboricultural plantings needed to be of a more modest nature.

Small Garden Trees

My first garden could only take a very small tree so I wanted one that would flower. At this time there was an avenue in Camperdown Park known as the Laburnum Walk which was very impressive in spring. So that was my choice, a Laburnum.

Everything was fine for a couple of years till the main stem got girdled with canker. I was about to lose my first tree, but a journeyman gardener suggested I remove some of the healthy branches and use them to perform a bridge graft over the cankered area. My first lesson in grafting worked a treat and saved my tree. I was now ready for another small tree.

I just love cherry blossom and if you can get one that is scented what more can you want. Prunus Amanogawa has these attributes and grows upright so is easily accommodated in most gardens. Gaining confidence I had an urge to go evergreen.

The huge Camperdown conifers were very stately but I just did not have room for a cedar, monkey puzzle or Wellingtonia, but I could manage a small upright golden yew, Taxus baccata fastigiata aurea. Later on I would acquire a whole range of conifers all of modest proportions suited to both small and medium sized gardens.

My favourites at this moment are Thuja occidentalis Rheingold and the dwarf form of Weymouth pine, Pinus strobus nana, and every garden can find room for at least one dwarf Pinus mugo.

Planting trees is for the long term so it is very advisable to do some research with gardening books in your library, or at a local garden centre or for the more modern gardener with a computer go onto Google. You will soon come across those trees you really like and of a size to suit your own garden.

In the past too many people just went for the cheapest available and ended up with a Leyland cypress and globally creating such a nuisance that laws needed to be introduced to tackle the problem.

Many of my garden trees started off as dot plants in a flower bed designed to add height and contrast to the flat, but bold colour display of Begonias and geraniums. Eucalyptus,  Cordylines and the date palm, Phoenix canariensis are perfect in summer flower beds, but in autumn when the summer flowers are past what do you do with these dot plants.

I always find a home for them somewhere, but remember with global warming they may survive our milder winters and put on a fair bit of growth.

Every ten to twenty years we get a bad winter, like last year, which really tests the hardiness of garden plants. My eucalyptus tree, now over 50 foot tall, got quite a fright and shed a few leaves, but it has survived. The young Cordyline just a ten foot baby survived unscathed, but my exotic date palm got cut down to ground level. It is still alive, just, so time will tell if the crown will yet again grow into another brilliant specimen. Never be too quick to give up on plants that have been frosted. Often they can grow again from the base.

If there is room in the small garden find space for a lilac which will be covered in white or lilac scented flowers in early summer. They do not grow too big.

It is sometimes difficult to distinguish a small tree from a large bush. Cotoneaster frigidus grows the same height as the lilac, but is more of a tall shrub. Then another very tall shrub or small tree is the Eucryphia Rostrevor. There is an absolute beauty in Camperdown Park near the pinetum covered in white flowers in late summer. It has a broadly columnar habit and can reach 30 feet or so depending on soil, shelter and climate.

Specimen trees

Sometimes the small garden can get a boost with a particularly good form of tree planted centrally in a lawn or other conspicuous spot.

The small garden can use the graceful silver grey willow leaved pear, Pyrus salicifolia pendula, or if there is more space the dazzling white stemmed birch, Betula jacquemontii. Then for a bright golden splash of colour all summer plant a Robinia frisia, but remember it needs good drainage.

Another good specimen tree is the weeping birch, Betula pendula youngii. It is very graceful and quite small but extra height can be encouraged in its young growing stages. Buy a young specimen and train the main growing stem up a very tall cane for a few years. I got mine over twelve feet before I let it grow as a weeping tree.

An excellent flowering specimen tree with an architectural shape is the Japanese Mount Fuji cherry, Prunus Shirotae. It is outstanding in full blossom.

Some tree species have columnar growing forms that do not take up too much space, at least in the early years. The upright Cypress oak, Quercus robur fastigiata , (several along Riverside Drive), is very majestic and quite similar to the upright form of hornbeam, Carpinus betulus fastigiata.

It is the larger gardens that have the space to indulge in the finest tree specimens from the modest Liquidambers to the weeping silver lime, Tilia petiolaris. Now that will make a statement, but then, so will a perfect specimen of the blue Atlas cedar, Cedrus atlantica glauca allowed to retain its branches down to ground level.

Apologies for all the inclusion of the boring bits, (botanical names), but if you want to make sure you get the correct plant you will need its proper botanical name. Plants usually only have one botanical name but numerous common names that differ depending on where you live.

Tree Care

It is very important that you are aware of just how big your tree will grow to on maturity so you can plant it with due regard to any future problem.

If trees are planted for shelter or screening around boundaries keep them well away from your neighbours property, and make sure they cannot block street lighting columns, road signs, and site lines at road junctions.

There is healthy debate on how close trees should be planted to property and different bodies give different views. Some say the distance should be from one to one and a half times the trees ultimate height from the base of the property. However trees all vary, and some are very little problem, whereas others such as willow and poplar should be kept at least twice the ultimate tree height and not near any known land drains as they have strong root systems that will seek out any available water.

Trees planted too close to buildings can be a big problem in dry spells as they will extract moisture from an already dry soil. On a shrinkable clay this can cause the ground to heave once the rains return. If any foundations are not up to scratch building walls can crack.

Now you know the pitfalls you can select your specimens with more confidence.

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Tayside Top Fruit

TAYSIDE TOP FRUIT

Very few pleasures in the garden can match the delight in late summer of picking that first bright red apple from your own home grown tree. Very few adults let alone children can resist the temptation to pick an apple once it has turned ripe. Nothing from any supermarket can touch the home grown apple for taste.

They are not difficult to grow once you have a grasp of some basics practises.

Apples are the starting point and once you have your first crop harvested, (usually about three apples) you are now ready to take on the next top fruit tree on the list. This will either be a plum or pear, and once they start to crop why not accept global warming will happen and try those more exotic fruits previously only grown in warmer locations.

Lets look out an early variety of cherry and peach tree.

It is always a good move to do a wee bit of background research to find out where it all started, how top fruit growing has developed over the years and how that affects us today.

History and culture

Apples have been grown in Scotland for hundreds of years. They were an important food source in monasteries or private estates, then more recently, grown commercially to supply local markets. Every area would have its own varieties peculiar to its needs and history.

However the world today is a very different place and top fruit culture has seen massive changes. People now prefer to shop at supermarkets and they demand a product that looks good, has a long shelf life, is cheap to produce, handles and travels well, and is evenly sized with a blemish free skin. Growers in turn require a variety with a heavy yield producing apples that don't bruise when bulk handled and can resist or tolerate the majority of pests and diseases..

In the past apple trees were sprayed with chemicals every ten days throughout the whole growing period, but this is now frowned upon, so they prefer to grow strong vigorous varieties resistant to scab, mildew and canker.

To keep costs down the trees are grafted onto dwarfing rootstocks and the apples grown on a hedge row system so all pruning and picking can be done from the ground. It is too slow and costly to send pickers up ladders to harvest the fruit.

Thus today, there is a very limited range of varieties grown commercially as few of our older heritage range would pass the stringent criteria demanded by the supermarkets. Unfortunately good flavour does not seem to be a high priority.

Plums and pears were also once a major crop in Scotland, but economics has wiped them out commercially.

Life however, moves on and there could be a return on a smaller scale to some of our older varieties grown to supply local farmers markets as demand increases for quality fruit with flavour and ripened on the tree before harvesting.

Many older fruit varieties are being found in old derelict orchards and are now being propagated and promoted as interest grows in our past history.

The Bloody Ploughman, Scotch Dumpling, and Tower of Glamis may yet emerge from the mists of time, and my Arbroath Pippin, also known as the Oslin, may be very old and non commercial but is hard to beat for a very early apple.

For the home gardener this is the time of year to be looking out the wide range of varieties in nurseries and garden centres while many have fruit on the young trees and selecting those you wish to try out.

For more information on our heritage fruits visit the Carse of Gowrie Orchard Festival starting at Glendoick Garden Centre on Saturday 9^th October and Sunday 10^th then continuing all week to Sunday 17^th October with events all over the Carse of Gowrie.

Apples

If you only have room for one tree then go for an apple. They come in all shapes to suit every ones needs. You can have a bush, tree, espalier, fan, low step over form or even a slender minarette. They also come with one, two or even three different varieties all on the same tree.

In a later article I will cover grafting so you can learn how to add additional varieties to your tree or even rejuvenate an old tree. There is no limit on how many varieties you can have on one tree. My James Grieve apple has now been grafted with Discovery, Red Devil and the Oslin and I will add a few more varieties next April. I am afraid I was just not impressed with James Grieve, though it is still very popular.

Other good varieties for Tayside are Scrumptious, Katy, Red Falstaff and Fiesta. However the latter has a tendency towards biennial bearing.

The best cooking apple has to be Bramley as it is very prolific, has huge apples, is quite disease resistant and the fruit store for a long time.

Plums

My favourite has to be Victoria which crops well and has a fantastic flavour. It freezes well and ends up in jams, stewed for a mixed compote and crumbles. It is very reliable. I assist pollination with a Berberis darwinnii planted below it. It's bright orange flowers come out at the same time as the plum and attract the bees who cannot resist it.

Pears

In the past I would have said a Comice and Conference combination would be best for good cross pollination and when we get a good summer Comice is outstanding. However as the last four years have been very wet my Comice has suffered badly from scab and the crop has been lost. Conference resists scab but is not as good as Comice.

I will be looking out for a better variety to graft over some of my Comice branches early next year. Pear trees can grow quite big so if space is limited go for a minarette, cordon or espalier trained tree.
Scab in a tree is hard to control as there is very few chemicals available now and anyway a large tree is hard to spray.

Peaches

I grow Peregrine on a south facing tall fence and now that I have peach leaf curl under control I am getting a decent crop. The fruit is quite large, well coloured, very juicy and sweet. As my small tree is fan trained, the pruning, which can be quite complicated at first, has to be carried out thoroughly. This allows light into the tree, restricts excessive growth and ripens up young shoots which will replace this summers fruiting wood.

I control peach leaf curl with two sprays of Dithane at leaf fall and just before bud burst.

Cherries

I will try out a bush sized trees grafted on the very dwarfing Gisela 5 rootstock so I can net the tree for birds. My favourite at the moment is the self fertile Cherokee, but by winter I may change my mind after a wee bit more research.

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