Choosing landscape plants

CHOOSING LANDSCAPE PLANTS

Last week we looked at Fiona and Scott’s new garden project beside Lumphinnans Farm in need of ideas and planting. The site was analysed their needs discussed and a programme to implement a landscape plan was suggested.

Plans can always be flexible as it is usually to have some parts ready for planting while other parts are still under construction for paths, patio, hard standing and garage.

It is a good idea to use a planted border around the base of the house to soften the structure into the surrounding landscape. Even when builders leave the area packed down with hardcore a narrow one foot wide border is not hard to dig out and refill with good soil about ten to twelve inches deep. Plants will be very happy to grow in this environment, though a two foot border would give more impact.

The landscape design will be based on an attractive range of plants that will not need much maintenance, but be very effective in function and appearance.

Ground preparation

Although farm land usually means good soil, it may well be hard packed after building works and have a lot of old bricks and other debris buried in it. These need removing from the top soil, but they are not usually a problem in subsoil, unless this is very hard packed. Sometimes it is just as quick to excavate the planting areas and bring in fresh top soil. It is beneficial to mix in some peat, compost, well rotted manure, old grow bags or planting compost into the top soil. Always add some fertiliser to new areas to get plants off to a good start.

Around the house

The south and west facing borders will allow a wide choice of flowering plants enjoying a sheltered sunny position. Good ground cover plants include heathers, lavender, cistus, genista, senecio, mahonia and helianthemum. To add some height where ever there is space at the side of doors and windows add the New Zealand Flax, cytisus, (brooms), ceanothus, fuchsia Mrs Popple, Rosemary or Kerria. Some herbaceous plants can be very reliable and easy to look after such as flag iris, Shasta daisies and phlox.

A climbing rose trained up part of the chimney would add colour, scent and height.

Specimen plants

A large expanse of lawn in front of a house deserves a very special specimen tree to add class. My favourites are the white stemmed birch Betula jacquemontii and the blue Atlas cedar Cedrus atlantica glauca. You only need one specimen planted well back from the house but visible from the windows.

Screening

Outbuildings, parking areas, storage space for materials and fence lines can all be screened with a mixture of trees and shrubs. The trees can include pines, spruce, rowan, birch and taller oaks, beech and even the more exotic walnut and sweet chestnuts. Shrubs are better if views are not to be impeded so include philadelphus, shrub roses, lilac, and magnolias and where evergreens are needed for screening all year round include rhododendrons, ceanothus, pyracantha, camellias and yew.

The steep bank at the back of the house is overgrown with gorse and is not particularly attractive. It could be improved by cutting back the gorse and planting a mixture of woodland edge trees such as rowan, alder, elderberry, birch, sloes, and field maple. Plant young bare root plants direct into the soil spaced about two metres apart or closer together then thin out a couple of years later transplanting spares around field perimeters.

Spare land

There are many options for using a half acre of spare land, but practical factors such as time, labour, funding and interest will help decide what to choose. Different people will come up with a variety of good solutions depending on their own knowledge and experience. A lot of thought and research is essential to get the option most appropriate for Fiona and Scott as the choice may well be for the long term to make the most of a golden opportunity.

I will consider three ventures in greater detail next week. These include establishing an attractive easy to look after small woodland, a small apple orchard producing high quality heritage fruit for local markets and the first commercial Saskatoon fruit farm in UK.

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Landscaping in Practise

LANDSCAPING IN PRACTISE      

One of the winners of the Courier “Money Can’t Buy” competition got the prize of a visit from myself to give advice on any gardening matter they wished, in addition to £200 of vouchers from Dobbies Garden Centre and a meal out in their restaurant. The prize was very appropriate as Fiona Merrilees and her husband Scott from Lumphinans in Fife had a major problem with their new garden.

Scott is a builder and had just built a beautiful detached house in the country with an acre of land, but not a clue on what to do with it. The house was completed three years ago, but they had very little time to spare for sorting out the garden landscape as they both worked and had a young family. They desperately needed someone to advise them on how to make a start in creating a garden fitting to match the house.

Most garden landscaping follows the same creative path so although everyone has their own specific problems, these can all be sorted out by identifying personal requirements and site problems.

I thought it would be helpful for those readers in a similar position of having a new garden to landscape if I ran over the options for landscaping Fiona’s garden.

Site survey and analysis

Access is from a shared farm track with a proper road not yet in place.
Great views exist to the south and east and also to the north from the top of a bank.

The garden is still a large field running south down a slope to a burn at the bottom.

Adjacent fields are fenced off and mature trees to the west afford some shelter.

The site holds vehicles, machinery, caravan and useful stocks of builder’s materials.

At present the site is virtually devoid of trees, shrubs or useful garden plants, i.e. landscaping has not yet started.

Specific needs

Safe play area for young family

Attractive garden around the house, and ease of maintenance a priority.

Patio and seating area on the south and west of the house

Double garage

Henhouse for farm hens and kennels for four farm dogs

Hard standing for caravan, machinery and building materials

Ideas for land use for over half an acre of spare land.

The plan
(show detailed plan)

Discussion

Excellent views to south and east must be retained

A patio facing south and west is required

A double garage with workshop space is required
Hard standing for vehicles and materials is necessary, but it must be screened from view.
A lawn in front of the house will add prestige to a lovely new home.
Permanent landscape plants around the house will blend it into the landscape, add interest and colour. Plant tubs will add a splash of colour with annual bedding plants.

Create a play area at the far end of the lawn

Consider options for spare land use

The landscape programme

This garden is big so landscaping will require a fair bit of resources, funding and labour, but most of the work will be done by Scott and Fiona as and when time and funds are available.

The first priority is to sort out the hard landscape features, (paths, drive, patio and hard standing areas).The hard landscaping could take between three to twelve months depending on time, labour and funding.

The double garage should go in before the roadworks at it will need services laid through the ground. Once complete the soil can be brought in as required and prepared for planting.

Nowadays with so many plants available in pots and large containers, planting is no longer restricted to the winter dormant season.

There is about just over half an acre of spare land to the south of the property which can be used for numerous purposes. Being in the country the obvious ones are grazing for ponies, a few sheep, cows or other farm animals. The land is also perfect for a small woodland, orchard or fruit farm with blackcurrants, blueberries or saskatoons.

There are always plenty of professional organisations available and willing to offer advice and sometimes help with funding to get these projects up and running and assist with advice with ongoing maintenance.

Next week I will be landscaping around the house, discuss the use of specific plants and look in greater depth to the use of the spare land.

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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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The Autumn Harvest

 THE AUTUMN HARVEST      

 As autumn comes to an end most crops have been harvested and we can assess the results of our gardening skills and the effects of weather on the different plants.

It has been a good growing season for those plants that like plenty moisture, but a poor one for those that prefer a bit of sunshine after a shower. Many plants need a dryish warm and sunny spell at maturity to ripen up. This helps them to sweeten up, improve the flavour and assists their ability to store well. That kind of weather has been in very short supply this autumn.

This is a very busy time to harvest, dry off, clean and find storage space in garages, sheds or the freezer. However there are still many vegetables still growing slowly to take us into the winter with fresh healthy greens. Brassicas have really enjoyed the wet year. Cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts have been excellent, though losses from clubroot and attacks from mealy aphis, caterpillars and cabbage rootfly very serious. Early summer cauliflowers were wiped out by clubroot so I grew a stronger batch in pots for late summer cuttings. These got wiped out by rootfly. Alas the home gardener no longer has any chemicals to protect our crops from these attacks.

At least leeks do not seem to have any pest or disease problems and it has been an excellent year to grow huge Swedes.

Apples

My last variety of apple has now been picked. Bramley is a huge fruited cooker that is very reliable giving heavy crops that store right into March. The tree is strong and not affected by many pests or diseases, though I always find and remove a few mildew infected young shoots in spring. These primary infections come from overwintering spores in buds that develop as the young bud grows. However if you remove them quickly you prevent the disease spreading.

The huge crop was more than we can use, so a batch of good windfalls, smaller fruit and those with blemishes was put to immediate good use. I needed 30lbs for a three gallon batch of Sauternes type wine also adding raisins and ripe bananas for body, strength and flavour. With modern yeasts it is not too difficult to achieve a high alcohol content for this sweet dessert wine, if only I can be patient enough to wait till it reaches a fuller maturity. Gardening can be very rewarding. This is what makes the hard graft very worthwhile.

Other Bramleys going into storage are sorted into boxes and kept in my cold garage. They get a regular inspection and any showing signs of brown rot are removed immediately. Bramley is the perfect apple for cooking and numerous recipes abound for crumbles, stewed fruit, pies, stir fries, added to a cooked breakfast, curries, apple jelly, sauces, baked apples.

The gardener has no a bad life!!!

Dessert apples Fiesta and Red Falstaff are in store and continue to be used daily. Red Devil apples were fantastic, but have now all been eaten.

Grapes

Under glass the Black Hamburg grape continues to fruit, but lack of sunshine has caused some bunches to shrivel up without ripening. Not such a heavy crop as last year and outdoors my Brant grape is late but needed to be picked as the blackbird found them, told his mates and I had to chase four of them off before I could pick them. The berries were picked from the stalks, crushed and put in a pan to heat up and simmer for ten minutes. This helps to extract the juice and sterilise it. It is then strained through a jelly bag and bottled in sterile plastic bottles. These will keep for two weeks in a fridge, and any surplus bottles can be frozen.

Cape Gooseberries

Growth has been excellent but lack of sunshine has prevented them from fully ripening even if they are grown against a sheltered south facing fence. They really need a decent summer if you grow them outdoors. I still await my first fruit and although I have great patience, I am not hopeful.

Vegetables

Swiss chard always looks brilliant in such a wide range of bright colours and it is a very healthy plant to eat. It is having a good year unlike my beetroot which have struggled badly to grow bigger than a baby beet. They might be delicious, but there is nothing to store.

Courgettes were very poor with me as my plants got severely damaged by the gales in May and never really recovered, but other gardeners who kept them protected at that crucial time have had a great crop with massive surpluses.

Pumpkins need plenty moisture, a rich soil with extra feeding and warm sunny weather to pollinate the flowers and produce a good crop. This then needs a lot of sunshine to ripen up the swelling fruit. Sadly my two plants only produced two small pumpkins. I did not need a wheelbarrow to take in this year’s crop. However they do make a terrific soup, so my small crop will be much appreciated even if only for a very short spell.

Leeks are looking very strong and should keep cropping right through winter into next March.

Kale, swedes and Brussels sprouts are also in good form so we should be ok for healthy living if the snow arrives early and if it gets too cold I may just open up a bottle of my Apple/sauternes wine to cheer us up.

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