Welcome!

Header Picture courtesy of: WaterAid/Daniel O’Leary; Logo courtesy of: WaterAid

When I decided to join my local Sing for Water choir (see The Sing for Water Challenge on the sidebar) in 2008, I was also asked to raise a minimum £50 donation in addition to anything we might raise at the concert itself. I racked my brains for a different fundraising idea and came up with - opening my garden over the web!

This very different blog raised a fantastic total of £1085 (approx. 1,750 USD). Donations are closed now, but I decided to retain this tour as it gives such a good introduction to my garden for new readers of my regular blog, Veg Plotting. Before I show you around my garden, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about the charity, then if you like what you see, you might like to donate directly to WaterAid (note this link opens in a new window, so you won't lose your place here), the charity striving to provide clean water and sanitation for over 1 billion of the world's population. WaterAid were very excited about my fund raising idea and provided this 2 minute video to show why their work is so important.



I must also add that I've worked as a volunteer freshwater biologist researching into water quality on a nature reserve in Mallorca. For a number of years we had European Union funding to enable scientists from various African countries to come and help on the project. I was surprised to see their reaction to water when they came out with me to take samples. Many of them were terrified of it. Not just because of the dangers of animals such as crocodiles, but they were worried that by just touching the water they would contract a dreadful disease. It was hard work for them to overcome this fear and help me with my studies. Their reaction really drove home to me the value of the work that WaterAid is doing.

I'm suggesting a £2 (approx. $4 USD) donation for your visit. This is the usual minimum fee for gardens involved in the National Gardens Scheme in England and also reflects the equivalent amount of preparation I've made to open my garden to you over the web. My prize giveaways mentioned later - just to show what you missed - have finished, but I still have some seeds saved from mine and a couple of other bloggers gardens if you'd like some. See the sidebar on the right for more details and contact me via vegplotting at gmail dot com.

Note: The seed giveaway will be for UK and EU residents only (thanks to Sue Swift for confirming I can send seeds to EU residents) owing to the seed import restrictions applicable elsewhere. For example, I can't send seeds to the US unless you're registered with customs. I have risked it in the past and seeds have got usually got through to the recipient, but the postage costs are almost as much as my suggested minimum donation. In view of this I won't be sending seeds to the US.

Update 30/6/2009: Sing For Water continues! The first Sing For Water West took place last Saturday at Bristol Harbour, thanks to Chris and Ali, 2 of our choirmasters from last year, Chris' wife Lisa and a great team of volunteers. We were blessed with a hot sunny day and a large audience who came to hear 600 of us gathered from all over the south-west and Surrey. It was another fantastic day and you'll find links over to Veg Plotting about this year's event in the right sidebar.

Now, let's go and find the garden shall we?

Come into the Garden Maud...

Here's a garden that's open whatever the weather, 24/7. There's no problem with parking and your visit will be eco-friendly as you don't need to use any air miles to get here...

This scented basket of Surfinias will welcome you as you walk down the drive towards our house. However, you don't need to ring the doorbell, just go to the right of the house and through our side gate...

Walk through the garden nursery area at the side of the house and pass under the pergola at the end into the main garden, where we'll be expecting you!

So what do we have here then?

We'll do the grand tour first, followed by a closer look at two of my main year-round planting features of the garden, Heuchera and Clematis. My regular blog, Veg Plotting was mentioned recently in the Independent on Sunday's article on Heucheras, so it's about time I introduced them to you properly.

As our tour is a virtual one, there's no need to restrict ourselves to how the garden's looking at the moment, so I've made a slideshow to take you through the seasons. We bought our house from new in 1999, and were faced with a severely sloping blank canvas to work on. I thought you might be interested in how we came up with the garden's design. We can also get out of the garden for a while and over to my allotment just over a mile away. To complete the tour I've added a quick peek at our sheds. If you want to 'hear' what my garden sounds like as you complete your tour, do click on the Birdsong button on the Sidebar to the right.

I welcome your Comments - I do want to have a conversation with my visitors, just like you're really here. There's a separate Question & Answer section for anything you may want to ask about the garden, allotment or anything else on this blog. Please use that section instead of the Comments, so everyone can see these in one place. I'll endeavour to get back to you with an answer as soon as I can. If I need to do some research first, I'll let you know. I'll also be asking you some questions along the way - do leave your answers to these in the Comments section below where I've asked you.


Tea, coffee and cakes will be served in our spacious kitchen, though you're welcome to take your refreshements outside and picnic on the lawn, perch on a wall or take one of the seats on the patio (lower or upper).

After your tour and refreshments, there's the plant sales area and Guest Book to sign. This completes the first page of this blog. If you like the sound of any of the refreshments or Glut Buster ideas, I've added a second page, containing all of the recipes for you. The third page of the blog is an archive of articles from Veg Plotting - to include my Sing for Water experience thus far, a couple of earlier reviews I did of books included in the grand prize giveaway and finally some general articles to help with your orientation. I'm in the process of adding a fourth (and final) page to include plant lists for each of the beds and my monthly garden flower slideshows I've been posting over on Veg Plotting's sidebar.

Don't worry if you get lost on your way round here, I've summarised all the articles in the Sidebar on the right and linked to them, so you can quickly find where you want to be.

During the time my garden's open on the web, I'll also be posting some companion articles over on Veg Plotting, to update regular readers on there with what's been happening here. So far this has included my Sing for Water experience in London on September 14th, previous Open Garden prizewinners, plus progress re fundraising.

So, do follow me and let's go and see what's what!

Round and Round the Garden

View from patio bench looking south, August 2008 - click to enlarge image if needed

There's three benches on the patio for you to take a pause to admire the view from the top of the garden as well as the walls to perch on. We're on the middle one, so you can just see into furthest corner at the bottom of the garden where the shed is. I have two similar large planter groups placed by the two benches facing away from the house. One of these is on you right and has a large topiary box, bedding dahlias and a vast bowl of lavender to scent your stay. To your left is a small bed sheltered by next door's garage wall housing 3 Clematis, various herbs, strawberries, a fig tree plus some of this year's tomato crop. Ahead of you is a large planter in the brick/stone circle surrounded by some of the larger specimens in my geological collection. There's also a stone bench to your left surrounded by planters containing Hebe and scented Surfinias. The small pot on the bench itself contains variegated lemon balm. The walls in front of you are the boundaries of the terraced beds that take the garden down to its next level.

View from the top of the eastern steps - August 2008

I'm always seeking ways to brighten up the vast amount of fencing we have that has no soil below it in which to grow anything. This year I have a large number of pots containing Busy Lizzie 'Spellbound Cranberry Cauldron' lined up along the top of the wall rather like Mediterranean gardeners use assorted tins as containers for Pelargoniums along their walls and steps. I've also started to train a Clematis montana var. Rubens 'Elizabeth' from the lower garden - for once I want something that's a rampant grower to clothe my fence. I use a Rosa 'Rambling Rector' on the opposite fence for the same reason and to also provide some security against any curious children who may seek to climb the fence from the public land bordering the house. On the whole I love having the public land next door as the woodland provides a feeling that the garden extends well beyond its boundaries.

View from the lower garden - August 2008

I've tried to have a feature in one bed echoed elsewhere in the garden, whether it be another cultivar of the same species or a similar shape and/or foliage. Here the Crocosmia 'Amberglow' of the single terrace bed are picked up by the Crocosmia 'Lucifer' in the lower garden bed. Both beds also contain Stachys byzantina plus different cultivars of Fuchsia. The single terrace bed has flowers for every season except winter, but is at its best in late summer/autumn where Echinacea, Sedum 'Autumn Joy', Eryngium and Perovskia are stars of the border. Bees, butterflies and hoverflies love it there.

View from the 'shed with windows' - August 2008

Until summer last year, the shed side of the garden was a shady, woodland area - at its best in the spring with snowdrops, daffodils, then Dicentra spectabilis making a last hurrah before the shade from the overhead canopy set in. Then two of the ash trees on the public land were felled by last year's summer storms. They fell into the area on the left of this picture and a further two trees were deemed too dangerous to remain. This year, it's a lot brighter there whilst the shrubs make their speedy recovery from having had their tops taken off when the trees fell down. And it's not so much a woodland garden any more - there's a lot more scope for the planting. A project for next year, I think.

On the other side of the patio, the double terrace bed has a mainly yellow theme. The perennial Helianthemum are spreading themselves out, echoed by the deeper, more orangey yellow of Dahlia 'Moonfire'. On the lower terrace, a new planting made this year of Helenium autumnale 'Helena Gold' is just coming into flower. The silvery Teucrium fruticans is beginning to reclaim its central spot in the top terrace after being hard pruned in the spring. It'll be a welcome sight from the kitchen window this winter and its early blue flowers will have some of the first food for the emerging bees in late winter/early spring.

Eight years ago the view was completely different - see my article on the garden's design for more information...

Update - September 2008
I've started to add illustrated planting lists for each garden bed at the end of this blog. A list has been started in the sidebar under the heading Garden Plant Lists for those already available and a full summary is also here.

Update - October 2008
I've also added the garden slideshows I've created since March 2008 after the Garden Plant Lists. They're listed in the sidebar under the heading Garden Slideshows and a full summary is also here. I'll be adding further articles and slideshows on what's looking good in the garden during the next few months, to give you something fresh and new to look at for your future visits.

Heuchera Haul

Click on the image to enlarge if needed

Clockwise from top left: 1. Front door pot arrangement complete with 'Silverlight' 2. 'Green Spice' 3. 'Lime Rickey' with grasshopper 4. 'Ebony & Ivory' flower 5. 'Key Lime Pie' 6. 'Ebony & Ivory' 7. 'Obsidian' 8. 'Liquorice' 9. Mislabelled - should be Green Spice & Key Lime Pie, but nothing like them!

Heuchera are valued for their foliage, providing year-round border edging interest in the garden and in a wide variety of colours from the lightest, zingiest green to the darkest, almost black. They provide a perfect foil for the other, more showy plants, as well as being of interest in their own right. Visit any show garden or nursery display at a garden show and I can pretty much guarantee they'll be there, working really hard to ensure top marks. However, you don't need to confine them to your borders - they look equally good and at home in a large pot.

I hadn't heard of Heuchera until I came to plant up my new borders in 2000. I read about them in Gardeners' World magazine whilst the garden's hardscaping was being done and was instantly hooked. I love their foliage and variety of colours. My local garden centre had a big display of them at the time and I was like a child in a sweet shop and had to stop myself from buying the lot. Whenever I visit a show, I have to repeat the mantra 'I haven't got room for any more Heuchera' many times as I go round. However, I often come out of my trance a few hours later and find at least a couple of them are in my arms waiting to be paid for. How did that happen? At the last count I had over 20 of them in my front and back garden borders. Plus a couple in pots. Oh and another couple of them in the nursery area waiting to be planted out.

I think their flowers are beautiful too. They're usually a deep red (hence their common name 'Coral Flower'), pink or white. Each flower is tiny, but there are hundreds per stem, making a frothy, see-through display about 2 foot high in the border. A close-up view reveals their beauty and bees love them too. The flower stems can be cut back in the autumn, or left until spring to create some additional winter interest in the garden.

Heuchera are easy to look after - they do have a reputation of easing themselves out of the soil, but that hasn't happened so far in my clayey garden. If it does happen to you, then just firm them back down again. This may also provide the perfect opportunity to split out chunks of the root to make more plants. Some of the foliage can get a bit ragged in the winter, but trim this out in the spring and you'll be rewarded with lots of new growth. They're happy in sun or shade, though the amber coloured ones can get a bit washed out looking in a very sunny position. They like neutral or slightly alkaline soils and can withstand drought, even though their preferred position is in a moist, but well drained soil. They're mainly pest free, though the dreaded vine weevil can be partial to them - the usual treatments available should cure this problem.

Whilst I do love Heuchera, I don't think all of them are successful in my garden. I find the paler, more gingery forms take a long time to get established (if they survive at all) and I'm not really a fan of their colour anyway. This is Creme Brulee - I quite like the darker leaf shown here, but the majority of them are the paler colour as shown in the picture's background, which I don't like at all. What do you think? The newer Peach Flambe is meant to be a lot better, but I'm still to be convinced.

What's the favourite plant you use for foliage or year-round interest?

Clematis Carousel

As a flowering group I find Clematis hard to beat. Even their seed heads are beautiful as this picture of C. 'Nelly Moser' shows. From tiny, delicate flowers to large, blowsy dinner plate blooms, they add effortless height to my borders. With some judicious choosing and placing, I manage to have Clematis in bloom every month of the year.

I currently have the following Clematis in flower - these came into flower during July and are still going strong:

Clockwise from top left:

1. C. 'Souvenir du Capitaine Thuilleaux' (2nd flush) 2. C. 'Arabella' (in bloom from May to October usually) 3. C. 'The President' (2nd flush) 4. C. 'Polish Spirit' 5. C. 'Crystal Fountain'? (2nd flush) 6. C. 'Kermesina' - stubbornly flowering on the other side of the fence at the moment 7. C. alpina 'Francis Rivis' - this spring flowering Clematis always seems to bloom again for me 8. C. 'Hagley Hybrid' (2nd flush) 9. C. 'Jackmanii Superba'

From November to March/April, Clematis cirrhosa 'Balearica' is my sole flowerer. Soon it will be joined by its relative, 'Freckles'. I'm growing them on a sheltered, west facing wall, which encourages a prolonged season of flowering. They're different to most Clematis, being evergreen and with a fluted, almost oak-like leaf. I chose 'Balearica', not only because of its winter interest, but also because I've been volunteering as a freshwater biologist on a wetland project in Mallorca, so it's a reminder of happy times out there.

From March to May Clematis montana var. Rubens 'Elizabeth' (opposite) and C. Alpina 'Francis Rivis' (see above) hold the show. The latter has draped itself over a Corkscrew Hazel (Corylus avellana 'Contorta'), thus adding interest to this tree during its dull, leafy phase. During May, my Clematis display really gets going - these will flower until the end of June:

Clockwise from top left:

1. C. 'Guernsey Cream' 2. C. 'Miss Bateman' 3. C. 'Dorothy Walton' 4. C. 'Elsa Spath' & C. 'Hagley Hybrid' 5. C. 'Ville de Lyon' 6. C. 'Daniel Deronda' 7. C. 'Josephine' 8. C. 'Nelly Moser' 9. C. 'Josephine', C. 'Souvenir du Capitaine Thuilleaux' & mystery Clematis

So now we're back to the current display shown at the start of this post, which have been flowering since July. These will be joined later in August by others such as C. 'Elsa Spath' and C. 'Josephine'. 'Elsa Spath' in particular flowers late on into the year - last year, only the hard frosts experienced at the end of November bought its flowershow to an end and by then, C. cirrhosa 'Balearica' was ready to take over the baton.

My mystery Clematis









This is my floosiest of them all and I adore it. It's meant to be C. 'Crystal Fountain', but the flowers are nothing like those shown on the label. I can't match it with any other Clematis in the catalogues either. Can you help?

I have 30 varieties of Clematis spread over my front and back gardens. I've had to employ a little ingenuity to fit in the last 9 of them. I not only wanted to have more Clematis in the garden, I also wanted to add height to some of my borders. My solution was to buy 3 obelisks and to have 3 Clematis of the same pruning group grow up each of them.

We also have a lot of bare fences with no soil in which to grow plants. I've been experimenting with growing some potted Clematis up these. Success has been variable so far - 'Miss Bateman' has decided she'd prefer to trail rather than grow up the trellis provided! 'Polish Spirit' shown in the first collage has been much more successful though.

Do you have a favourite flowering plant group? Tell me about it...

Update - September 2008
The esteemed Raymond Evison has solved the case of my mystery Clematis. It's a sport - you may like to read more about it here. It turns out I have not one, but two new Clematis in my garden!

Seasonal Variations

Of course we're not confined to how the garden looks at the moment. This slideshow (32 photographs) has a selection of garden views and plants from when Veg Plotting started in November 2007, through to July 2008.

If you want to look at a particular image for longer, place your mouse pointer over it and the pages will stop turning.

If a black screen with a large orange arrow appears whilst you are viewing the slideshow or is there already when you reach this section, click on the x at the top right hand corner of the screen to start the slideshow again.

Update - October 2008
I've also added my monthly flower slideshows from Veg Plotting, plus June's foliage extravaganza. I'll be adding further ones as and when I produce them for my main blog. You'll find a full index of what's available here.

A Long Time Ago, In a Garden Far Away...

When we bought our house in early 1999 it looked like this - mainly turfed, severely sloping and some steps cut into the steepest part of the slope. We'd also got an extra 5 metres (15 feet) more than we should have - a planning protest from the houses behind meant the builders had to put in a 'buffer zone' between the gardens. This area was to be left for 5 years to enable the plants put in by the builders to grow and establish a green corridor between the houses. In reality our part of the 'buffer zone' had random plants stuck into it (mainly dogwood and birch), most of it wasn't planted at all and bindweed was planning on making a take over bid for the entire plot.

So we spent over a year just staring at our 50x50 foot plot wondering what to do. We decided to work mainly with what we were given in terms of contours. We liked the steps and we wanted to have a journey round the garden. A patio was a must (see the archive articles brought in from Veg Plotting at the end of this blog for a more detailed account of the patio's design) and I insisted on having a building in which I could happily potter. At about my 20th attempt, the rough design looked something like this:

The slope called for terracing, so we knew that this would mean building walls beyond our capability and patience. We had three people round to give us quotes. The one we finally chose improved on the original design and produced this:

We liked the plan (except for the patio planting which got moved to in front of next door's garage wall) and then had to persuade our neighbours and the planning department to accept the work involving the 'buffer zone' being done 4 years ahead of the end of the covenant placed on our house. NAH spent a lot of time and effort on this and thankfully was successful. The build went ahead in the summer of 2000 and took 8 weeks to complete. Planting started during the Sydney Olympic Games (with me rushing in every so often to watch the cycling and swimming) and continues to this day as I can't resist fiddling with the borders and buying new plants. I'm currently planning to replant major parts of the garden, but am very happy with the hardscaping aspects of the design.

Whilst we decided to work with the garden's contours, a small digger still was needed to move soil around, especially for the terracing. We also discovered during the site survey that the garden slopes on the diagonal into the south-western corner at the bottom of the garden, so one side of the terrace is a single layer and the other side double.

Most of the paving's in place and planting of the single terrace has started.

The lawn's been turfed and the lower patio awaits a lovely new shed - more on that later...

Did you start with a blank canvas like me, or did you inherit your garden? What was it like when you took it over and what changes have you made?

Allotment Allsorts

Of course we don't have to confine ourselves just to my garden, so let's take a quick walk up the hill for a change of scene and explore the delights of my allotment. Along the way we meet the latest example of land grabbing in Chippenham. Until a couple of weeks ago, this site was just one house surrounded by a magnificent walled garden.The walled garden of my dreams which always bought a smile to my face as I passed it on the way to my allotment. Now there's rubble and the promise of 14 'retirement cottages'.

Today the scene at the gate is less gloomy than the one I found back in late December last year, though January's advertisement found just inside the gate is still there albeit a little dog eared. It's looking very different now...

Site view from Plot 14 - August 2008

To your right is the large oak tree standing over the loo, communal shed and my nearest water standpipe. In the middle is my plot (just to the left of the next door's brown shed), the top right hand bed you can see is packed full of Autumn Bliss raspberries. The top of the left hand bed has my manure heap plus a blue compost barrel with a volunteer potato growing out of it. The Veg Plotting archive section at the end of this blog shows this year's plan for rest of my plot. On the left are the trees forming the site's boundary with the main road. Most of the tall trees are Horse Chestnuts showing very obvious signs of leaf miner damage. Below these is an ancient ditch from the days when the site formed part of the Hardenhuish Estate with the more traditional hedgerow specimens along it, mainly hazel. Just to the right of these trees are views to the Wiltshire downs - as far as Westbury White Horse 30 miles away on a clear day. On summer Sunday afternoons the sounds of brass bands playing in the nearby John Coles Park can be heard when the wind's in the right direction.

Now, let's have a closer plot level view shall we? Starting with the left hand plot nearest the entrance gate.

Until this year, we've had no allotment people...

...but toddler Jack thought long and hard about it and insisted the whole street help him to put that straight :D

Meanwhile back on my plot...
Oops - the 'pile of useful things for later' appears to be reasserting itself. Hope the inspection team haven't noticed. Could I pretend we're playing a spot of 'allotment Jenga' if they do?

Which reminds me, here's a quick guide to 5 things an allotment plot shouldn't be without (all should be available at a skip near you):

1. Pallets - for building award winning sheds, or compost bins, decking, raised beds, cold frames, shed stands or whatever
2. Bricks - cold frame sides, weighing down stuff
3. Tyres - water butt stands, water butt (stack with a heavy duty pond liner inside), weighing down stuff, potato tubs (stack with compost inside), small impromptu coldframes
4. Carpet (sadly banned on our lottie now as it's deemed a rat hazard) as a weed suppressing mulch, a cover for your pile of poo (assuming the animals haven't been grazing on Aminopyralid treated grass first)
5. Your choice - do add them to the Comments section below!

Here's what makes everything worthwhile - a selection of current crops and dreams of harvests to come:

Clockwise from top left: 1. Raspberry 'Autumn Bliss' 2. Courgette 'Defender' 3. Blueberry 'Top Hat' 4. Lettuce 'Little Gem' 5. Apple 'Falstaff' 6. Sweetcorn 'Swift' 7. Borlotti Bean 'Lingua di Fuoco' 8. Onion 'Red Baron' 9. Pear 'Concorde'

I'm sure your produce will put mine to shame - what are you harvesting at the moment?

Plus, there's some glut busting ideas to follow...

Beat the Glut

Marrow stripes - July 2008

August and September sees our harvest in full swing and with a number of crops in glut. Courgettes (zucchini) are notorious for this - back in June/July you may find just one small courgette per plant, then the next time you look there's armfulls of them. We always host a curry evening in August and put a crate of them out for our visitors to help themselves, having tried the product already in my husband's vegetable curry.

With this in mind, I've put together a few of my favourite 'glut busting' recipes. Some may already be old favourites of yours or you may have a similar version, but I think there should be something new here to tempt and tickle your tastebuds. Let me know how you get on if you decide to try any of them.

Any allotmenteer worth their salt is also a great soup maker. Here's my version of the genre. I've also added New Covent Garden Soup Company's Courgette and Brie Soup as a variation.

Soup should have lots of fresh, homemade bread to mop it all up - Courgette, Tarragon and Lemon Bread gives an easy to make more unusual, flavoursome twist on the old classic.

No soup, but you have some cheese to go with your bread? Then Glutney chutney's just the thing to go with it.

It's teatime? You love carrot cake? Then this Courgette Cake recipe's going to blow you away.

Right, we have enough recipes for snacks and tea-time treats. Here's a few more savoury recipes to make a more substantial meal.

For starters there's my favourite dish from Greek holidays - Courgette Fritters. For a main course I have two choices for you - Baked Courgette Omlette or Butternut Squash Risotto.

Oops, I appear to have overlooked tomatoes somewhat in the glutbuster stakes. It's probably because I had total crop failure last year owing to blight and this year's only just coming into production (I only grow outdoor varieties). So lets redress the balance a little with my favourite basic tomato recipe, Roasted Tomato Sauce.

What's your favourite Glut Busting recipe?

The Plotting Sheds

I'm a girl with riches - the proud possessor of two sheds. The first one is at home. It was pretentiously called a Summerhouse at 'Shedworld' in Bristol where we bought it, but dubbed by us as 'The Shed with Windows' ever since it's been gracing our lower patio. We bought it in 2001 and NAH managed to erect it pretty much all by himself, though it was a bit touch and go when the roof went on and so our neighbour was called in to help. Naturally it's a favourite with our two cats, who spend quite a lot of time up there chilling out and birdwatching - thankfully not bird catching.

Men at Work - April 2001

When I got my allotment in late 2003, I was delighted to find my plot already had a shed. It held traces of the previous owner - I still use the wellies, but have replaced the coat. The shed sort of hunkers down at the end of my plot. It looks like it might fall down at any moment, but surprisingly has remained dry inside and has TARDIS like qualities as far as storing some of my 'useful stuff for later' is concerned. I don't store anything of value up there as we've had a couple of break-ins over the years. The first break-in resulted in me acquiring a new pair of gloves. This gave me visions of a kind of 'reverse burglar' in operation - finding what's lacking in allotment sheds and donating the goods. These were then taken during the next break-in as was the unlocked padlock on my door. I've also had to quit my shed during the past three springs as I've had robins nesting above the door. They've rewarded my consideration by doing a good job in keeping the allotment pests down to a minimum.

Clockwise from top left:
1. General view 2. No shed is complete without ladybird drawing pins! 3. Guess how often I've worn these (they've been in there for over a year)? 4. Shed interior