the elegance of simple flowers

It's my dream to make Cordwood an exceptional garden - or series of gardens - over the coming years.

 

I've blogged about some of the structural work we've been doing to create different gardens ... but gardens are nothing without their plants so chance for a quick catch up on work done in the past few days.

 

My preference is for the simple elegance of species forms rather than blousey cultivars. Insects love the simpler forms too and often can't get at pollen and nectar in 'doubles'.

We have a section of the site that has mature silver birch (Betula pendula) and this is a great place to sit and have sandwiches in the heat of the summer and early autumn - hence 'Picnic Wood'. Work clearing brambles and nettles from beneath the trees and removal of some of the seedling sycamores (Acer pseudoplatinoides) (cheers Mike!) has created an area that is aching for our native Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta). So, here's Jill (left) planting the first two metres of bluebells .. thanks to an offer on Tesco clubcard points! The intention is to have a serpentine stream of blue flowers snaking through the trees over the coming years.

Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) have now finished flowering and so it is time to lift and split them. This increases vigour and it is possible to double their numbers each year by doing this. I've transplanted and divided clumps remaining on the allotment (right) and will nurture these until they can be transferred to Cordwood next year.

 

Primrose (Primula vulgaris) (left) are just the prettiest flowers. Picnic Wood and other areas will be studded with these in future but first I must allow the flowers to finish. In June I will divide the clumps, getting several plants from each clump and nurture them before planting out in the autumn. I will also collect the 'green' seeds and sow these into peat free potting compost to make plants for planting out in the early spring.