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Steve Edney's Blog

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.