rain – My Japanesque Garden

the rain to the wind said, ‘You push and I’ll pelt.’ They smote so that the flowers actually knelt, And lay lodged – though not dead ~ Robert Frost

After the wettest July on record, August has more or less followed suit with some of the lowest temperatures interspersed with average ones. So how does the garden grow?

^{potted cottage annuals battling on despite the slugs & rains}

With the potted cottage plants, its been necessary to vigilantly empty containers of excess water as well as check for slugs and snails that have many niches amongst the crowded dais. And as well as suffering gastropod demolition, the softer petalled annuals of geranium, petunia and nicotiana have struggled in the wet, dull days. Surprisingly the hostas here have survived well perhaps because most are the tougher leaved varieties whilst the Tagetes have offered themselves up as sacrificial plants instead.

I seem to have a clematis curse having never been very successful with the few I’ve tried and just as Ville de Lyon was about to burst its many blooms, the pot it shares with Photinia ‘Louise‘ became severely waterlogged so the result was inevitable decay of the vine. I suspected my emptying of used coffee grounds into the pot earlier in the year was responsible for poor drainage and further research confirms this:

coffee grounds provide valuable nutrients to your potted plants. However, avoid applying coffee grounds on your potted plants directly since this might impair growth, promote fungal overgrowth and facilitate excessive moisture retention ~ plants heaven

In the back garden, it’s also been a real task to deter slugs from lettuce, perennial spinach and beetroot leaves. To that end, I’ve been trialling some copper mesh around potted Japanese hostas and one planted ‘café au lait’ dahlia and so far it looks to be successful.

The silver lining to these days of rain has been the lush growth of most vegetables and a resultant bountiful harvest of French beans, Charlotte potatoes, mange tout peas. and even some few yellow dwarf beans Meanwhile leeks and onions are fattening up, and the ‘painted lady’ runner bean flowers are now producing their crop.

Since this was the first serious year of planting I knew there would be gaps and like ‘Johnny apple seed’ planted any leftover nasturtium seeds I had in stock, including the climbing variety which has boldly gone along the stonewall veg bed, down the cascade and on into the lower pond. A welcome flowery filler just waiting for the cabbage whites and blackfly!

Another seed sown plant that I’m thrilled with is Anise hyssop. Aside from pulling in the pollinators for the vegetables, the purple line of them along the lower veg bed makes a stunning contrast with the red and white flowers of runner bean

Despite my best intentions not to make plant purchases I have splashed out on some late perennials as the garden was very much in need of autumn interest. These included several Persicarias for the cascade beds as well as Japanese anemones, Sedums and Chrysanthemums

^{the reluctant invalid – rescued female blackbird fledgling}

And when not gardening, or being busy with builder buddy trialling the cascade plumbing (more of that in another post) I’ve been acting as nurse/guardian for a fledgling blackbird. I rescued her from the middle of the main road (after stopping the traffic), thinking she could die in peace in a pre-used rat cage in the greenhouse. Instead she grew stronger day by day, despite one broken leg and some feather damage and after two weeks or so insisted on her freedom!

A scrolling view through the gardens in August

annuals brightening up the potted cottage garden
along with balcony mixtures of dwarf varieties
including potted anise hyssop for the bees
?shrill/common carder bee defying the damp
white lychnis bloom after the rain
roses blooms have struggled through the wet weather
defying the slugs ? ID hosta ‘gold standard’
reaching for the sky light, perennial sweet peas
an abundance of Tom Thumb fuchsias
Snakeroot plant awaiting its turn to flower in autumn
into the Japanesque back garden
dwarf Japanese white pine – a most welcome birthday gift
the Far sight shrubbery with acer and Spirea providing some colour
prolific harvest of climbing French beans
garlands of trailing nasturtiums along the veg beds
nasturtium dipping its toes in the lower pond
autumnal colour of the early Korean Forsythia
lovely soft-leaved Chinese Mahonia preparing itself for winter flowering

So quiet and subtle is the beauty of December…colour gives way to form: every branch distinct, in a delicate tracery against the sky.” ~ Flora Thomspon

When we gardeners think of next year’s growing seasons, we firstly consider all those plants that we already have that require staking, cutting back or bedding down for winter. Some will need frost protection and/or have cuttings taken as insurance against loss, or simply for multiplying stock. Since it’s been such a warm, wet November, these preparations have only recently begun.

^{Salvia Amistad cuttings – Purple & Pink varieties}

Mine is a cold greenhouse, part storage shed, part plant house. Now it’s being used to shelter the movable, potted half-hardy perennials. It’s also nurturing some semi-ripe cuttings of the less mobile, tender perennials (the parent plants are now nestling under hay/straw layers of frost protection).

There is no additional heating source as I want to keep the greenhouse ‘green’ but, on the plant stand side have put in place some clear plastic cavity trays I had, to act as secondary glazing. I figured the cavities will act like air pockets for insulation, and besides I did not want to buy/use greenhouse bubble wrap.

^{upcycled plant trays –} ^{keeping the pelargoniums warmer}

In future, I’ll consider including other ‘renewable’ heating methods such as a manure based ‘hot bed’, but for now Pelargonium and Salvias find enough warmth here.

And just to ensure I remember which plants are frost tender, I have created a new category for tender perennials. Most of these could take care of themselves in my London garden but having moved to Derbyshire, winter protection is a must. Any future plant purchases I make, however, will be confined to hardier varieties as it makes better sense to fit the plants to their environs rather than having to shield them against their surroundings.

Two non-herbaceous tender plants I also have are a small Agave americana ‘Variegata; a gift that might be better re-homed but for now I’ve brought indoors. Also, a couple of knee-high shrubby Leptospermum scoparium which I grew from seed (as memento of a 2019 New Zealand trip). These struggled last winter without extra protection in the greenhouse (and outside in the August heat/drought whilst I was away). They can withstand temperatures down to -5°C (23°F) and so will be placed in a pop-up cloche before long as snow showers and frost are predicted next week.

As a pensioner, budgeting is becoming more and more of a necessity, especially with current inflation and a new garden to stock. Next Spring I’ll be purchasing a number of shrubs but to keep further costs to a minimum, I’ve rather optimistically bought several seed packets of perennials and annuals to help fill out the bare garden spaces.

^{hormone dip and stick method of hardwood cuttings}

Usually I’m more successful propagating from cuttings rather than seed (all that fiddly sowing and transplanting takes its toll on my patience!). And this month have ventured for the first time ever into preparing a variety of hardwood cuttings (with this helpful video from Burncoose Nursery).

It’s one gardening job we can do at this time of year, and also hardwood cuttings require no heat but are potted up and left outside. My main motive was to grow willow in order to infill gaps in my lower boundary hedge. But I also ventured into my daughter’s garden to cut long stems of fuchsia magellanica, a Japanese quince (chaenomeles speciosa ‘rubra’) and Deutzia scabra (also from Japan).

Meanwhile, a few tubers drying out in the greenhouse will benefit from shredded paper or straw covering. I also swept the floor of dirt and plant detritus as disease and pest prevention. In the process, a large snail was discovered snuggled into one corner – and evicted into the boundary hedge! Though I’m hardly squeamish, I’d not the heart for any other outcome.