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Steve Edney's Blog

July in the garden

Quote of the month:

'You don't need lots of money to create a beautiful garden, what you really need is passion, knowledge and good taste.' - Vita Sackville-West

July at the Salutation in the past five years has been a month of extraordinary differences; one year it rained so much that the garden flooded and others, like this one, it is hot and dry so far!

After such a magnificent spring in the garden (even if a little cold for some people) we are once again hard pushed to get everything done, weeding, watering, dead heading etc the list goes on but adding to that we still plant out annuals in July to support the perennial framework and fill any gaps that appear from the spring. This of course leads to us having to pay extra care to watering.

It would be much easier to plant annuals a month or two ago, because its cooler with more rain to help the roots establish better and thus have a healthier stronger plant, but there is often too much happening in the borders early to allow us to get in amongst the flowers and we have to settle for planting late if there is to be a succession of flowers in places such as amongst our perennial poppies. We cut them down hard to the floor in June and July, and this year have planted among other things Nicotiana Sylvestris between them to give late summer scent and a white flower on a 4ft spike which never fails to impress. If grown well the poppies will also benefit from the extra water and food we are giving the Nicotiana, and will by later in the month have produced a new clump of growth filling the gaps between the Nicotiana with more green and covering the ground.

Planting out annuals of course isn't the only way to have colour succession, there are many ways to achieve this and one I use is planting in drifts instead of blocks so you don't have big gaps when a plant group goes over, as this is harder to manage and harder to remember what plants are where!! It can look like its verging on chaos, especially when the plants eventually meet, and it can be tough to separate plant roots in the winter. But if you select species that flower at different times then you hide one group of plants with another group of plants so on the long views you still see a colour filled border; of course as you close in on borders you can see the gaps but they are much less obvious.

July is a month when I often arrive in the garden by 5.30am to get the little things done that I can't when the pressures of the day are on me, like guiding my students and garden staff and other little interruptions that eat into the gardening day. But above all it is a time for me to think and enjoy the garden, so the early hours are some of the most precious to me, it's worth losing some sleep over to help me remember why I love this garden so much.

Steve

June in the garden

Quote of the month:

'Success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration!'

The garden continues to build momentum for the summer, the spring display is almost over with just alliums, cammasias and wall flowers with forget-me-nots in the Holm oak walk hanging on and in the second week of June we strip this out for the summer display a little late some may say but we stagger the shakedown so the garden doesn't look empty all at once ( the tropical garden is done at mid to the end of May), not that it would on the Holm oak walk because there is a hedge of lavendula 'Munstead' with Rosa compte de chambore (Portland) and Rosa 'James Mitchell' (moss) in their hundreds to give the June display, we infill these with annuals for later colour to succeed the roses/lavender and give late summer colour to a border that otherwise would be a little dull later on and with a garden only three and a half acres big all the borders have to work hard right up to the first frosts anything less would be disappointing in my eyes.

Speaking of disappointments I am always keen to grow lots of new plants to me as there is no better way to know a plant than to grow it 'you know what you grow' is what I always say to people who don't know why I can't identify a plant for them.

It allows me to see if a plant suits my gardens soil and location, it also allows me to see what height, form and colour it will achieve in my garden, book descriptions can be quite different from the actual plant and there are many factors that contribute to this. Every year for the past three years I have brought the variegated form of Nicotiana Tabacum quite unusual and I was really taken with its appearance the guidance with the seed said discard seedlings not displaying good variegation sooo watching, waiting!!

Then hundreds of plants emerged from the packet of sown seeds none with the slightest hint of variegation on them huh! Well I thought maybe it comes with age so I pricked them out potted them on and finally planted them out still with no variegation they grew really well to 6 ft and had pinky bell like flowers but no variegation disappointed to say the least but I did not give up buying the seed each year and binned the lot when no variegation appeared just when I was about to give up and tell the seed supplier he must be having me on there were three hopefuls emerged in this year's batch and one is now six inches high and looks awesome!! Cream and yellow heavy variegation all over every leaf and all the other failures are melting into the background of my one plant obsession!!!

The garden is looking so beautiful this June, years of Restoration and now with a really good team on board I am finally beginning to see my vision becoming reality. If you only come a few times a year June surely has to be one not to miss and this one is no exception.

Steve

The garden in May

Quote of the month:

'There are only three options in life, Give up, Give in, or Give it all you've got!!'

The garden is looking amazing this month!! In the five years I have been at the salutation it has never looked better than this spring.

Since starting the restoration I have at times been too focused on the replanting, maintenance and shameless promotion of the salutation that I forget to enjoy it! All I see are the things to do and often the list is long and shameful. Now after years of replanting I am at last beginning to feel like many areas of planting are beginning to gel together and colours are tying groups of planting together and the garden is starting to resemble my vision of a garden filled with plants in every direction with long views of colours working together to create wonderful classic, romantic pictures.

That being said we also work very hard to make sure that for the keen eyed garden visitor has many plants to inspect close up with intricate patterned flowers and small groups of well placed plants working together to create smaller more intimate collaborations of colour. May is the month that we clear spring bedding, bulbs and plant material to make way for the summer displays in what I call 'the shakedown', this year however with such a cold winter and spring it will be a little later in the month or maybe even into the beginning of June, I like to stagger this 'shakedown' so we don't lose all the colour at once and areas don't look bare.

All this talk of classic, romantic combinations of colour can be a bit much for some people and even me at times so I ought to mention that I am a huge fan of some extremely vulgar plant colours!! One such plant is a rose in the tropical garden called Rosa 'warm welcome' it has glossy, healthy small mid green leaves with burnt yellow/orange flowers and when I first saw it in a nursery I thought 'ahhh hideous!', perfect!! You see even the prettiest of plants and colours if used stupidly are awful, but even the most Gordy hideous of colours when seen in an appropriate context can look amazing and a warm welcome is what you get from this rose in my exotic garden at the entrance to the main garden with its warm exotic colourations I can't fail to stop to admire its efforts.

Steve

April in the garden

Quote of the month:

'Man was lost and saved in a garden' - Blaise Pascal

If March gives rise to the glimmer of hope of things to come then April is like a snow ball heading down hill gaining momentum and getting larger and nothing will stop it when it gets too big, gardening is like that too! There are suddenly plants and flowers everywhere all the bulbs are beginning to flower but now trees, shrubs, perennials and later flowering bulbs and corms are making their presence felt with brown earthy borders suddenly looking green and full, while I'm talking about early colour people do sometimes say to me at this time of year why aren't there more flowers around where's all the colour!! Colour I say are you blind there is colour all around you maybe not in flower power alone but all the different shades of green are amazing and fresh with every texture and type of foliage imaginable, a famous gardener said once 'green is the most important colour in my garden' and I couldn't agree more.

Plants are carefully thought about at the salutation and the flower is only part of the story, a early flowering tree or shrub will possibly become a climbing frame for something later or it may be a foil for something flowering near it to make the eye see the colours better, foliage can be striking and very useful in all seasons. But all this talk of foliage might make you think of creating one of those hideous low maintenance gardens with plants for foliage and mostly evergreens, don't do it remember the old saying of not to over egg the pudding ! low maintenance gardens can be achieved and still be seasonally interesting, we call our foliage or evergreen anchor plants our 'specials' they form a framework of interest throughout the year and the 'specials' change with the seasons many trees and shrubs go unnoticed until they suddenly stop you in your tracks with a delicious scent or amazing flowers or profusion of flowers, but their delight often comes because they are fleeting... that then means you look forward to the plants return to the centre stage the following season.

April is my favourite month of the year for gardening the days are warm and getting longer, plants sown from seed are growing well but mostly I love April because after the sluggishness of the winter there is a real sense of urgency... its deeply rooted in my own body's rhythm telling me to get a move on before the winter arrives again.

Plants of interest this month:

• Anemone Blanda
• Fritillaria imperialis lutea maxima
• Magnolia 'Kobus'
• Lunaria annua

Our many different species and variety's of Narcissus plus so many other plants.

Steve

A Day At The Salutation

Dressed in Levis, checked shirt and scuffed brogues, Dominic, owner of The Secret Garden, was not quite the tweed clad lord of the manor I expected to find today. After an informal welcome and coffee Dominic took us on a tour of The Salutation. At ease, smoking, he strode around his garden with pride.

The Salutation grounds are surprisingly well established after just four years of attention from The Secret Gardens dedicated team. It is a quintessentially English garden. Groomed lawns, bold colours, avenues of trees and framed, structured borders.

The house boasts enchanting accommodation in the 3.5 acre grounds available for guests, a tearoom offering the highest of 'high tea', an organic nursery and gift shop.

Each area of the beautiful garden is full of colour and blossom, the uniform White Garden and Vegetable Garden being my favourites. Surrounded by bright planting and blossom trees there is a small lake with fountain and island full of black and purple tulips with a quaint footbridge approaching from the neat lawns. Along the far side of the garden is a woodland walk through a pathway of poplar trees with carved benches and laced with bluebells and ferns.

The Salutation prides itself on its sustainability, everything they produce is organic and making compost and using complex planting structures that help to pollinate the garden. The kitchen Garden and Vegetable Patch are organically marinated and provide the tearooms with fresh fruit and vegetables.

At the bottom of the garden is the greenhouses and large potting shed to look around with obliging garden staff offering answers to visitors horticultural questions.

Among the English planting are tropical plants of wild and exotic species rarely seen in the Kent countryside.

The view of the house from the long, groomed bowling lawn is a memorable sight. The symmetry of this enclosed section of the garden magnifies the grandeur of the house and stands in stark contrast to the meadow Spring Garden just over the hedge, complete with wild grasses, orchids and daisies. Ornate gates and iron sculptures create architectural focal points that guide the visitors around the garden.

The Secret Garden is charming. Its independent management makes it a much more personal experience, it's a home, open to the public and this makes you feel like a privileged guest. There is something a little less commercial about the Secret Garden than your average National Trust, Bank Holiday destination. Its your own secret discovery, and if you happen to bump into Dominic in the garden, he will gladly welcome you.

Lizzie

Good Weather For Ducks

As I sit here looking out of the window at yet more rain I know like me the rest of the gardeners are all praying that March is going to be a lot dryer than February has been, after the snow at the beginning of the month hindering us the last thing we needed was this much rain, shame we didn't have some of it last summer! We are all fed up trying to dodge the rain, getting soaking wet and caked in mud. The lake has overflowed into the entrance of the vegetable garden turning the lawn into a bog much to the enjoyment of our resident Heron, Ducks and Moorhen and the path outside the workshop will soon be submerged if this carries on.

Luckily we have plenty to do indoors, seed sowing is now under way with over 350 different varieties and cultivars there are thousands to sow. We have also now started potting the first of our Dahlia tubers; we have around 100 different cultivars totalling to about 6000 tubers much to the distress of our propagator Boo who has to find room for them all in our greenhouses!

Unfortunately this month we have lost one of our professional gardeners ; Frinky who is still staying on site but is moving on to set up and work in our new gift shop. We are all very excited about it selling a wide range of gardening gifts it will be opening at the end of March. Frinky is going to be replaced with a seasonal maintenance gardener whose duties will be mowing edging and hedge cutting allowing Steve and I to concentrate on the planting.

We have made a lot of progress over the past month, the garden is looking neat and tidy almost ready for the start of the season most of the borders have been cleared and forked over and the roses have been pruned, bent or trained and manured we are just waiting for many of our bulbs to battle their way through this awful weather, we already have snowdrops, crocuses and winter aconites flowering and I noticed yesterday after a few hours of sun the reticulated irises newly planted on the island meadow have suddenly burst into life. I am waiting with anticipation as I know by the end of the month spring will be well under way.

Steve

February in the garden

February is a great month to be a gardener and not just because it's my birthday this month it's also really the beginning of the season for us.

We start sowing seeds in earnest this month I don't bother any earlier I know people say you can and we do have some really great heated greenhouses but the days are shorter in Jan so the light levels are poor so by march from a early Feb sowing things tend to have caught up with anything you sow in Jan. Speaking of seeds this year we are growing more than ever and are trying a few new suppliers Chiltern seeds and Moles both come highly recommended by friends and colleagues and they have certainly tempted us with some great variety's new and heirloom for the garden and a few for the nursery. The most anticipated of which are; rehmannia angulata, zinnia elegans 'envy double', passiflora vitifolia, hibiscus coccineus and a number of single colours from the cosmos double click series.

Our compost, pots, bare root plants and bulbs start arriving from suppliers this month. Something I rave about to people visiting the salutation is our biodegradable pots, most people think of soft coir pots or paper Mache type things but we use vi-pots these solid pots come in a variety of sizes from 9cm to 3ltr and also as modular trays there made from grain husks and stems which is a complete by-product of growing cereals', they come in an attractive beige colour that will last 3-5 years as a pot but when you break the pot, put it in the compost and let it rot with your normal compost in 6 months or so.

Our winter walk is now almost fully planted with shrubs, trees, perennials and bulbs to add an extra dimension to the poplar walk in the autumn, winter and spring we've combined the planting to contrast on mass, planting groups of plants in minimums of six but more often in twenties to give greatest impact, scent is a very important part of the decision making when choosing plants for anywhere in the garden and the winter walk is no exception to this rule, the scented plants we chose were Sarcococca confusa, viburnum x burkwoodii 'conoy', petisites fragrans to name but a few.

The garden is now being carefully tidied ready for spring all perennials cut down and all borders forked over, roses pruned and tied, hedges cut and vegetable seeds sown. The garden is just starting to show signs of life the sap is rising and buds are swelling in most shrubs and bulbs are on the move! Flowering at the moment we have winter aconites, snow drops, hellebores, daphne's and viburnum tinus 'spirit' and more.

Steve

January in the garden - 05.01.2010

Quote of the month

He who plants a tree, plants hope

Why do so many people retreat indoors the second it gets cold! I bet there are thousands of people who work indoors who go straight to work and then straight home and spend the weekends indoors in the winter.

The trouble is (and I've thought about this often) that not only do you seldom see the world outside but it's the beginning of the cold period and near the end that you miss so much, if you are lucky and you live to 74 (the average male life expectancy) you rarely notice the first 14 when you're young then that's down to 60 years not bad you may say but that's only sixty times you will really see the winter not many. Then knock two thirds off that if you work indoors and don't go out in the winter so that's 20 winters if you're lucky that you will notice anything in the real world.

Only 20 times to see the clear sun shining on Cornus 'midwinter fire' setting the border ablaze with its magnificent stems then gone again, Only 20 times to smell the sweetest scent from the sweet box so far from the plant sometimes you have to follow your nose to find it.

These days are not of summer... but winter...Not just for the brave or stupid but for people who want to be alive and connected to the earth they live on. Well enough of the rambling. The point I'm trying to make is at times we have come into the line of fire from winter visitors who are perhaps upset that there is not enough to see in the form of flowers in winter.

Well my answer to the those visitors or anyone wishing to visit in winter has many layers,
But the reasons to visit are;

To really know a garden you should visit in all the seasons, in the summer there is a riot of colour and fragrance, lush leaves and interesting colour patterns on leaves and it's easy to overlook the symmetrical design of the salutation, its bare framework in winter is worth seeing alone.

But also to see a garden in the depths of winter then to come back at the height of summer is the ultimate contrast it's like being in a completely different place.

In the winter garden there is beauty of so many coloured stems like our Cornus alba 'sibirica' with its strong red stems or interesting shapes that are hidden by foliage in summer like prunus incisa 'Kojo-no-mai' with the most unusual brown twisting stems, of course the winter has many flowering shrubs are that much more precious when we come across them in the winter garden.

Evergreens and conifers come into play with their different shades of greens, silvers and purples and we have many.

Our trees as well stand out in winter with their ghost like silhouettes and for a small garden we have hundreds of them, so the next time you are thinking about what to do on a Sunday afternoon remember gardens aren't only about flowers.

Steve

Dream Job...

By Lou

Wow!!! A year and a half ago I was a floor supervisor in a department store. I now have my dream job as a gardener in a beautiful historic garden. I've always been a keen amateur gardener but it was only a couple of years ago I realised it was the career I wanted. When I saw the advert for the apprenticeship at the Salutation I knew I had to apply. I was lucky to be offered the post (not your usual candidate at 27). It meant taking a pay cut and moving back home while I re- trained, a bit scary with no guarantee of a job at the end of it.

I enjoyed my training the year flew by and I learned so much. It was hard at times on a freezing cold day in winter after spending the whole day bulb planting I did wonder if it was worth it when I could have been in a nice warm shop. Of course it is when you see the results of your hard work the following spring.

Fortunately a full time position became available in the autumn just at the right time for me to complete my training. The transition hasn't been easy at times especially with four new students to help train! Suddenly you are expected to know everything by both students and customers.

We are still a fairly new team but are all settling into our new roles well. There is still so much to do in preparation for spring. There is a big re-vamp going on in our work area we are re-building all our compost bays and making new ones to store, grit, leaf mould and our own blends of compost in as well as a new shed for extra tool storage due to the lack of space in the workshop. All our Roses will be manured, trained, tied in and pruned, with lots of new Roses to be planted in our re-designed play area. We are starting to prep a new bed to be planted with winter plants for winter interest at the beginning of what is going to be our winter walk and off site our greenhouse at Delf farm is being prepared for the storage of the thousands of plants that will be produced in our nursery. Some of our smaller jobs this month will include. Replacing three of our Laburnums we have lost on our Laburnum walk due to the high winds we had in the autumn, planting the last of our Tulips and Wallflowers, hedge cutting and at last in end is in sight for the constant leaf clearing we have been doing since the autumn. All the hard work put in by everyone over winter will be worth it to make the garden more impressive this year than last.

Working outside makes me feel alive, a bright clear day in the depths of winter lifts the spirit letting you know spring is around the corner. Gardening has become a love passion and obsession to me especially in an amazing garden such as this one.

Lou

December in the garden

Quote of the month

in the depths of winter is when I realise there lies within me an eternal summer

It's all change amongst the garden team, we have said goodbye to two members who have worked tirelessly to help me transform the grounds over the past few years, my three students this past year who have finished their apprenticeship are either moving on or are taking permanent posts in the garden team (very well done to them) and we have a new gardener Rebecca Voice or as she is known to us BOO.

At the salutation we are proud to offer the chance for budding amateurs to become professionals to that end every year I offer a practical horticulture qualification and a chance to work alongside our award winning team on a day to day basis, this year we have extended the training and the timetable. The new students will be with me for two years instead of one and they will spend one evening a week at college studying for the RHS general certificate as well as working full time in the garden towards their practical diploma, this for me is the best of both worlds as I don't feel there are any college courses that give enough practical skill and theory together it's all one or the other.

Now I know what people say, you need to go to college and learn in full time education but that's all well but to be useful to an employer (and that's where all this is leading) you have to have solid practical skills and be fit for the job, time and time again I see people who can talk the talk but can't do the do. It's hard to balance both and from my experience training people on the job it can get too much and its 50/50 if the student makes the grade and pass with us!

As the unseasonal weather continues (whether good or bad I have not made up my mind yet) the garden team are making the most of it, working on unfrozen ground is a blessing at this time of year. We are lucky with our extreme south-eastern location and the fact that the whole garden is walled and we are just by a tidal river which helps keep the worst frosts at bay but still this time last year it was -7 and the ground was frozen and making progress was slow, not so this year.

We still have cannas, hedychium and dahlias flowering and are now reluctantly lifting them for winter storage. While the warm weather is benefiting our tender friends it is playing havoc with many spring flowering bulbs in the garden which are beginning to sprout too early for my liking… I can't help but think that they will regret their eagerness when the cold weather finally sets in, and it will!

Plants that are stealing the show now.

Viburnum farreri white or pale pink flowers of this viburnum look amazing on this large shrub with the leaves gone.

Clerodendrum trichotomum berries of this small tree are nearly pearlescent with a cerise pink star shaped hood at there base which with no leaves to speak of makes them shout look at me!

Viburnum tinus 'Eve price' white flowers pink buds opening to white flowers on a lush, dark green, evergreen shrub makes them stand out even more.