As well as giving us some good reasons for growing organically, he told us about one of his projects which has been to create a Forest Garden round the factory. So cheeky as ever I invited myself to take a look.

This is what I found. Alex has created a garden about 50 metres long and about 8-10 meters wide along the West side of a factory unit.  It has created a great microclimate on 2 terraces and after 5 years it’s already quiet prolific with an effective forest garden / permaculture mix of fruit trees, bushes, eleagnus to fix nitrogen and also to provide fruits, asparagus and some prominent cordons of japanese wineberry.  There’s more about Alex’s vision on his own site here.

Here are a couple of pictures I took. We’ read lots about this but its’ a rare privilege to be able to see one – particularly in an industrial / urban setting. Alex has also created an orchard, a vineyard and some intensive potato production in compost in old tyres. And all 10 minutes walk form the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras

View of Alara Forest Garden, Kings Cross

Anyway it was a dull afternoon but the bulbs were just outstanding. – particularly in the areas of woodland garden they have.

The shot of the tower looks particularly atmospheric.

Woodland Carpet

Garden and the Tower

Sissinghurst Bulbs

RHS top tips

1. Keep weeds under control
2. Protect fruit blossom from late frosts
3. Tie in climbing and rambling roses
4. Sow hardy annuals and herb seeds
5. Start to feed citrus plants
6. Increase the water given to houseplants
7. Feed hungry shrubs and roses
8. Sow new lawns or repair bare patches
9. Prune fig trees
10. Divide bamboos and waterlilies

Easter in the Intelligent Garden

I think here we’ve got away with the blossoms – only the damson and the victoria plum are out at the moment and we’re due a few days soft weather. Alas the plum blossom has been attacked by bullfinches that have cut a bit of a swathe. Yesterday I was training the brambles into our new hedge and have been delighted to see that the hazel cuttings look like they’re rooting – one of them in particular looks in great shape.

Isobel has been sewing wild flower seeds to make a meadow area round the new fruit trees that aren’t getting the potato treatment this year.

I’m looking to transplant a bit of comfrey for mulching into the other part of the woodland garden and am going to broadcast a bit of landcress which is a great self seeder and a good standby for winter salad.

Finally if want to follow the RHS advice and feed up your citrus plants – you can buy some here from plants4presents.co.uk which will send you 4 years supply for a small tree (150g) for £6.95 including delivery.

I’ve never really rated his early stuff but what he’s achieved with this landscape exhibition is something else – he’s had to master watercolour technique and using the iPad to draw to create these marvellous paintings.

He also displays such a feel for the plants. You can feel the spirit of the landscape, the presence of the individual trees and the sequence of spring coming day by day and week by week is a drama played out in my garden here

The man is 75 – to produce some of these he had to paint two large canvases a day most days for a month.

If I’m still learning and creating at this rate when I’m his age (not so far away now alas) I shall think I’m doing well.

If you can get in to see it do – otherwise enjoy the video

We’ve been following the principle of making maximum use of what’s already there so we’ve divided existing bushes and planted them along the line, layed existing hazel and willow, used cuttings from the hazel which now seem to be rooting ok and transplanting in thorn and holly volunteers plus a few spare rosemary bushes. We’ve also made use of the existing brambles and rosa rugosa which were already in place.  Finally we’ve incoroporated a small oak tree and a baby yew which had already seeded themselves in the line of the hedge.

We want something that will discourage the deer through being prickly, pungent (the rosemary) while being as ornamental and edible as possible so that it would form an integral edge into our 5 metre woodland garden ribbon. We’ll let you know how get on.

The accompanying video shows some of the stages we went through in creating it.

Spring Hellebores

Wow – what a glorious afternoon at Nymans National Trust garden… you can’t beat a bit of spring sunshine.

I was surprised there weren’t more people out and about enjoying the show but it’s not often I have the opportunity to sneak out on a work day either and even rarer that I have the camera with me. I’d be hoping to slip in and catch the spring show for a while because the walled garden in particular is amazing at this time of year and today was well worth the stop.

Glandiflora and Stellata magnolias were the star of the show for me against a Nymans mass of daffs and spring bulbs. It’s great to see these magnificent trees in their mature glory and the way they have them planted en masse at Nymans really makes the most of their fragrance.

Pulmenarias, hellebores, frillaries, prunus and spring rhododendrons were also looking pretty special against the victorian walls and I was happy to catch a queen bumble out for early nectar.

I’ve had to whittle the photos down from 145 to my top 5 but hopeful it gives you a taste of the afternoon! – Emily

Buy magnolias from Plants4Presents 

Delicate Fritallaries

Pink Magnolia Stellata

Magnolia Grandiflora

 

We are using it as a technique for building our forest garden by using it as part of the sequence towards perennial planting.  Basically you cover the ground with something organic and rottable that the weeds can’t get through. Old Carpets and rugs made from natural fibres like cotton and wool are good as is cardboard.

So to create the bed cover the ground with these and then top with 3 or 4 inches of  well rotted horse or farmyard manure. Next you grow potatoes in it. I’m using a mixture of Arran Pilots (firest earlies) and charlotte.  I’;ll then cover with straw. We’ll use alstro straw out of the glasshouses.

The tatties will be ready to lift about the end of July when I shall plant up with Fruit Bushes and Chard.   I’m going to grow raspberries and gooseberries here to take advantage of the sun until the apple trees get too big for them.  When it’s time to plant the bushes I’ll cut through the sheet with a stanley knife and bury the root ball in our made ground.  Next year I”ll repeat this on the grass going back towards the plum and mulberry trees which are standards and plant blackcurrants round the drip lines.

Here’s a little video about how I did the sheet mulch – I’ll let you know how we got on with the spuds later

However at the Intelligent Garden we like to work with nature where possible so I was delighted to come across this piece  via Twitter. I’ve reproduced some of it because it’s so useful.

“There are many plants deer don’t like. Rhododendrons, daffodils, Mexican sage, Lithodora and hellebores to name just a few. .

PUNGENT SCENT — Deer have a sensitive sense of smell and dislike plants that have sharp, pungent odors. . Rosemary, thyme, scented geranium, lavender, salvia, tulbaghia and cat mint . These plants work well in most landscape situations. .

PRICKLY — Spiny, prickly plants tend to put deer off. .

POISONOUS PLANTS — Deer know what plants are poisonous. The will shun lobelias, plants in the nightshade family, euphorbias and papavers (poppies). Likewise rhododendrons, hellebores and daphne are poisonous. Dahlias contain a substance called inulin that deer shun (also found in Jerusalem Artichokes-) . Campanulas like C. poscharskyana and C. muralis exude a milky substance when crushed that deer do not like.”

This information was created by Terry Kramer. She is a trained horticulturist and journalist. She has been writing a garden column for the Times-Standard since 1982. To get in touch with Terry, send an e-mail to style@times-standard.com and put “For Terry Kramer” in the subject line, or write to Terry Kramer, c/o Times-Standard, P.O. Box 3580, Eureka, CA, 95502. You can read the full article here.

The best time to do this is when the Rhubarb is dormant – in December to the end of February. We’ve left it a bit late this year because we’re in the process of developing the woodland garden here at the Glasshouses and in the pressure of work to get the ground cleared, hedge defined, potato plot organised etc, the Rhubarb got left until last weekend. However Finger’s crossed.

Basically we had to dig up the clump, divide it, prune it back a bit and then replant it in it’s new location between two of the new apple trees. This was done by backfilling some topsoil into the hole left where the Spirea was dug up (it’s now divided and forming part of the structure of the new hedge) making some holes ( we ended up with about 8 bits in the end)  adding a touch of Mycorrhiza (Rootbooster to you!) and finally covering up with some horse manure liberated from the potato patch.

A summary of this is in the video here.

1.  Plant shallots, onion sets and early potatoes
2. Protect new spring shoots from slugs
3. Plant summer-flowering bulbs
4. Lift and divide overgrown clumps of perennials
5. Top dress containers with fresh compost
6. Mow the lawn on dry days (if needed)
7. Cut back Cornus (dogwood) and Salix (willow) grown for colourful winter stems
8. Weeds come back in to growth – deal with them before they get out of hand
9. Start feeding fish and using the pond fountain; remove pond heaters
10. Open the greenhouse or conservatory doors and vents on warm days

Well we’re certainly doing some of that here. Haven’t mowed the lawn yet but we’ve been dividing up perennials and sticking them into the new hedge. And the potatoes are chitting at the moment ready for their role in the pincer movement against weeds – sheet mulch, compost , potatoes – around the new fruit trees.

Perennial Bushes for division

The photo shows some of the old garden perennials we had behind the new Braeburn – a berberis and a spiraea. The berberis has been cut back hard on the garden side but left on the field side to from part of the hedge. The Spireae is shown cut back hard.

The next stage was to dig it out – divide it into 4 or 5 clumps and replant them to form part of the basis of the new hedge.