a home fit for holly

There's a local butterfly I've never seen - the Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus).

The Butterfly Conservation East Midlands tells us that 'spring generation females lay their eggs on Holly buds, whilst the summer brood lay mainly on Ivy'. 

We've got holly. And ivy...

But I need you to suspend your disbelief for a mo'....

Brooding figures rise from a boiling green sea: one mysteriously cloaked in gold. Glowering, 'The Mesters' (for that is their name) guard a challenging stepping stone path that weaves through the breaking waves. 

Ok. You've had enough.

When we first came to Cordwood, we discovered a patch of native ivy growing beneath one of the towering Atlas Blue Cedars giving a distinctive character to this part of the garden. A visit to Biddulph Grange in Staffs showed us just how effective a ground cover ivy can be. Which is fortunate as it's great for wildlife and even better if allowed to grow vertically when, in what is called its arboreal state, it flowers and produces berries. The ivy flowers are amongst the last of the nectar sources for insects as they prepare for winter and so are especially prized.

But its value does not stop there. 

The Northumberland moths site tells us that some of our prettiest moths need ivy for their larval stage (caterpillars):

the stepping stone path

• Yellow-barred Brindle (Acasis viretata) 
• Willow Beauty (Peribatodes rhomboid aria) 
• Swallow-tailed Moth (Ourapteryx sambucaria) 
• Old Lady (Mormo maura) 
• Dot Moth (Melanchra persicariae) 
• Double-striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata). 

So our native ivy packs a real punch for wildlife and I'm keen to do all I can to help it.

Pat and I had a great session clearing ground and sinking sawn pine logs vertically into the soil during the autumn. I named them 'The Mesters'. The ivy will grow vertically and flower. I must say that I thought we had a great time - haven't seen him since!

Since then we have encouraged the ivy patch to grow and have  worked to remove brambles, nettles and elder that have punctured the vista. When our pal Jan was with us we set too to remove these thuggish intruders. It's amazing just how one extra pair of hands can make such a difference. Jan inspired me to transplant rooted ivy cuttings into bare patches and to create the stepping stone path from sawn logs.

Our pals Pete and Jan chipped in with the gift of a golden ivy which I planted up one of the vertical logs.

In coming months the ivy will be encouraged to cover more ground so that this part of the Cedar Walk path is surrounded on all sides by the 'Ivy Sea'. I have some more hefty logs that will need erecting to extend 'The Mesters'. And the native holly that has grown around the area will be planted in this area and shaped into spheres to contrast with the vertical sawn logs..

And then there'll be a fluttering of blue butterfly wings.....

'The Mesters'

Rising from the woodland floor, silent, forbidding, cloaked in ivy - 'The Mesters'.

Pat joined us this week, so decided to use his muscle to help me in the creation of a new feature at the entrance to the Cedar Walk where we have have been encouraging the ivy to create ground cover.

The ivy is successfully colonising the ground now that light is penetrating after the removal of the overcrowding pines. But it is rather flat, featureless and needs something else. And although the ivy provides excellent cover, it does not flower. Ivy only flowers when in its 'arboreal' state (growing up something). And ivy flowers are one of the most useful late season nectar sources. So, always on the lookout for ideas, I was interested to see sleepers placed vertically in the ground at the Sir Harold Hillier gardens as a landscaping feature. Hmmm. I can use that idea.

We have many big logs left from tree felling, lying on the woodland floor in repose. I decided to dig pits for them and then heave the logs to stand vertically. The new area immediately has another character with brooding potential and already feels almost neolithic.

So,  when I've manhandled more of these heavy timbers into their resting holes
the ivy will be able to grow up the logs and flower; the flat nature of this area will be broken and we'll have darkening shapes suggesting something from prehistory to welcome visitors to this part of the garden.  As with all gardening, the delay of gratification comes as standard. It will take some years for the ivy to cover the logs.

And as for the name - a 'Mester' is an archaic Nottingham term for a man in authority. "Give your ticket to the mester, Jonny'". The interweb suggests the word has old Norse roots perhaps connecting us linguistically to the time when this area formed the part of the old Danelaw nation from the 9th to the 11th centuries. It may be that my reading of the Game of Thrones series has also subconsciously entered my head, where the druid-like 'Maesters' provide spiritual and medicinal guidance.

Whatever....

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to you  - 'The Mesters'.

work to be done ...

A friend said to me the other day 'I admire your work ethic'. It's like saying to a donkey on a treadmill 'I like your hat'.

The work has to be done, whether it's raining or not. And this is the time of year to be out in the garden preparing for the new season that awaits.

In the Woodland Garden we've had the horse chestnut taken down and I've used the logs for the edging of the new path. We have planted our ornamental elders and our first two hazels. The annual pruning in the orchard is almost complete. Thanks to Jan for her hard work. I think she will have needed a brisk rub down with straw when she got home.

At the entrance to the Cedar Walk I've removed lots of offending nettles, brambles and elder so that we have a continuous ground cover of ivy. Trev and Linda joined me for an hour here before the weather turned and I treated them to my cannelini bean and sage soup with home made bread. Bless you pals!!

Then onto the newly created little Pond Wood. Man work here moving logs. I'll feel the benefit. Then onto planting birch, hawthorn and holly transplanted from other parts of the site with Jill. Rowan, gelder rose and other natives to be added as more ground is cleared. We transplanted Nordman Firs into the pinewood and banking.

Over to the drive border to stamp on molehills and plant a couple of variegated pieris.

Then into our warm home and sodden coat and trousers into the plant room for drying.

Floors to mop before lunch.

And my hat-of-the-day was my winter Tilley. With two holes cut for my ears.

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every day can't be a good one...

Odd how feelings change over a few days.

At the weekend Mike and Andrea joined us and we got through an amazing amount of work in the pine woodland. This part of the garden had been densely planted with non-native commercial conifers after World War II and then had been neglected. We inherited 'pompom' conifers that had rushed to the light leaving them with slender, unstable trunks and an understorey of chest high brambles and a few strangled elder trees.

We have worked steadily since November 2011 to reduce the number of trees and create more diversity.

Our work at the weekend saw our son Dave with us too as we removed trees that were too close to the garden boundary. Trees were pushed over using a machine followed by the arduous task of 'snedding' (removing side branches with chainsaws) and then disposing of the brash (branches). Stumps were used in the Stumpery and good logs carried away and stored.
There's more to be done, with the possibility of another visit later in the month by students of Brackenhurst College to practise their chainsawing skills.

But, by sundown on Sunday we felt we had achieved a huge amount and like the embers of our fire, were glowing with pride.

By Wednesday our moods had moved by 180 degrees.

We had not slept that night due to worries about money. How many of these nights have we had?!

And then work on Waxwings just didn't go well for us.

First we'd begun the day with a chase around the automated answering telephone system of British Telecom attempting to arrange a site visit. Little success there I can tell you.

Then at Cordwood, Roger realised that an electricity box in the annex had been fixed too close to the wall and would need to be moved. We didn't spot it at all.. We ran out of 'twinnet' tape for fixing the glass fibre airtight sheeting to the walls and ceiling; and we spent the entire day trying to wrap the airtight membrane over the top of a cavity wall using 'gunge on a roll' as an adhesive. Beastly. And still not finished.

Our electrician had forgotten a necessary box for the solar panels ..

And I didn't have warm socks and was cold all day.

Bless Dad who sawed battens cheerfully, Trev and Linda who also had a job applying 'gunge on a roll' down vertical block walls. And Roger who sailed on above it all fixing ceiling battens without a grumble.

A miserable day.

the cedar walk..

The darkest and most neglected corner of our Cordwood site began its transformation in November 2011 when we had five sycamore trees removed. This opened up this corner and allowed the two majestic Atlas Blue Cedars (seventy feet tall) to be seen to best effect.


Judith and Jill began the long slog of clearance. Our arborists had not understood (!) our request that chippings be mounded and had broadcast them all over the area. These needed to be raked into piles - a great job for my dad (84). Next to go was the mat of nettles, brambles and ground elder.. Here's Jim at the turn of the year as we cleared the ground.

Then came a flurry of activity when in one dizzying day with a large party of friends we laid the path that meanders through the area and suddenly 'The Cedar Walk' had an identity.

This area of Cordwood is being used as a nursery for trees and shrubs until they can be moved to their permanent positions and so we have a ragbag of plants. Amongst the ragbag have been planted a hundred Nordman Firs that will grow to become family Christmas trees of the future. But the bare soil was not bare for long as annual weeds, deep rooted brambles and pernicious ground elder fought back.

But by now, our bulging 'Vegetable Garden' and allotment were yielding up perennial plants that would have their vigour increased by division. Tiarellas, various hardy geraniums, violas, bergenias and symphitums were planted to cover the ground and throttle the weeds.

Much more work to do, including another of Rogers excellent benches for the tired gardener to rest on...

But hey, great progress as I hope you'll agree.

divide .. and conquer

It is said that nature abhors a vacuum. In the garden, bare soil is a 'vacuum' that will be filled by weeds if we don't take the initiative and fill the bare ground with useful plants ourselves. At this early stage of developing the Cordwood gardens, beating weed growth has become a waking thought. We have spent most of the summer trying to get back to the sate of orderliness we had achieved in mid July. Of course, this is nothing new and the great William Robinson told us that we should be 'covering the whole surface with free flowing hardy plants and of dwarf Evergreens' (The Wild Garden 1870).  So ground cover is what we need.

At Beth Chatto's garden (as in all good gardens) we saw effective use made of ground cover. Pictured we see a lovely mosaic of foliage with Gunnera prorepens at the centre flanked by Bergenias, marjoram, geraniums and tiarellas. We have bare ground and no budget for landscaping - but nature wants to give us a hand.

Gardeners should always look at what is growing in their locality for inspiration when planting their own gardens.

We have a small, but dense patch of violas that have established themselves beneath Scots Pines. They have dark, purple flowers in spring. Unblemished by slug damage, no weeds can squeeze beneath their tightly growing, erect and glossy leaves. If they can do well in the dry, acid conditions they find beneath the pines, surely they will flourish in other similar areas of the garden and become perfect ground cover plants?

So, as well as lifting and planting these, we also spotted violas (Viola sororia 'Dark Freckles') for sale on our visit to RHS Hyde Hall. £3.99 a pot, but when I took the plants from the pot, I was able to tease out ten plants which have now been planted in small groups in the Woodland Garden.

This 'lift and separate' philosophy has been used with clumps of tiarellas, geraniums, bergenias and symphyums as we have tried to provide an understory of ground cover plants in the developing Cedar walk. We have also been very successful in raising Deschampsia cespitosa grass. All of these have been planted in large drifts having first given the ravenous planting holes a healthy mouthful of well-rotted garden compost.

With luck, the new plants will have a couple of months to establish themselves before autumn sets in.

Rain has been promised for several days. I am hoping that we get the forecast heavy showers today to give them a good watering in.

extending the cedar walk

The two seventy feet tall Atlas Blue cedar trees that dominate our eastern boundary with our neighbours have given the name to the garden beneath them: the Cedar Walk.

The walk is a meandering path through what is a tree and shrub nursery of small plants we hope to bring on in future years for use in other parts of the garden.

Over the weekend, Judith and Roger brought a new burst of energy and first a car full of plants bought on a visit to Cae Hir gardens, then a trailer full of plants from their own garden.

The new arrivals have been planted in a bed that is at the end of the avenue of birches close to the Cedar Walk. And then, with blood glycogen still high, they cleared and extended the entrance to the Cedar Walk and mowed encroaching weeds.

The old tarmac service road that was part of the old mushroom farm separates the Cedar Walk and the avenue of birches but this will be cleared by our contractors.