20120313

One after another coming into life and flower so just a quick catch up...
次から次へと新しい花が咲き、芽が芽吹き・・・

Magnolia sprengeri 'Diva'　マグノリア（木蓮）



This is acutually not in our garden but we borrow the view and it is looking magnificent!
この木蓮は実はお隣さんの庭のもの。でもここガーデンハウスからよく見えるのです。こういう、実はその庭の敷地内にあるものではないものを庭に取り入れることを（たとえば、遠くの建物）「Borrowed view」といいます。



View through cottage garden (The church is not as visible on the photo. Eyes always look for a focal point but pictures don't!)
コテージガーデンからの眺め



Arboretum is taking its shape! This is very exciting and I'm happy to see it all!
森林エリアがどんどん出来上がっていきます。

20120229

Spring? Summer!

Today was very warm and I was down to short sleeve T shirt at one point. Sunny all day with smell of cut grass…

Did I say winter is good time to see gardens because one can see the structure? It is true, but let’s be honest, spring is so much better! Yes, bright colours pull your eyes towards them and it is more difficult to see the structure of the garden, but so what! The structure can stay as background! These colours of Crocus, Daffodils etc. and signs of new shoots everywhere on a sunny day in early Spring is just magical.

Bold new shoots of Paeonia 'Aurelia'


Dew on Wild Flower Meadow

I was weeding and mulching in Walled Garden today. Head gardener asked me to pull any Spanish Bluebell out of beds so I asked if there are anything else look similar to bluebell shoots. He mentioned Camassia, with pointy end of leaves and upside of leaves are silver. We have a colony of Camassia on Annex Terrace under magnolia trees so I went over to see them. Now I can tell the difference.

Some of the spring bulbs are similar. Scilla, Chionodoxa, Hyacinthoides (bluebells) and Puschkinia are all blue and star or bell shaped flowers. Also these names changed over the years a lot and for example, Hyacinthoides (bluebells) were once Scilla, then Endymion before becoming current name. There is a species of Puschkinia called P. scilloides. Oh well, that is on top of struggling with Latin (that is, for me, on top of English!) and I wish my brain was a bit younger...

Chionodoxa


Bulb meadow now has yellow of Daffodils


Narcissus cyclamineus


View from the Tower

20120223

Spring is around the corner. It was a very warm day today even though it was grey…

春がそこまで来ています！今日は曇りでしたがとても暖かい日でした。

Groundwork for the arboretum is going very fast and now the late is half filled! It is amazing what you can do with machines and it makes me feel like what I achieve in a day is nothing compared to that. But I guess it is just different scales. The big digger cannot weed a delicate flowerbed!

森林エリア（Arboretum)の基礎作りが順調に進んでいます。これは業者に請負でやってもらっています。パワーシャベルとかどんどん土掘って、昨日まで草が茂ってコンクリートの基礎とかがあった土地が１時間でまっさら！なんだか自分が１日働いて成し遂げる量がみみっちく感じますね・・・まあスケールと内容が違うんですがね。

Part of the lake before filling – liner was laid before putting soil back on.　池用のライナーが敷かれて、その上に土を盛っているところです。

Trees for the arboretum are arriving as well. Mostly in pots but some are bare-rooted. I heeled them in today, but not in soil but in bracken mulch we have. A bit of cheating…?

森林エリア用の木も続々届いております。ベア・ルートで届いた木は、すぐに植えられない場合はヒール・インといって一時的にあいた土地等に植えるのですが、その簡略バージョンというか、やや手抜きというか、私たちは根っこをブラッケンのマルチ（この庭でマルチングに使っている、ワラビを多少腐らせたもの）でカバーしてます。

Plants are arriving in Plant Sales area as well and we are all geared up for proper opening in March. There are quite a lot to be done. Some of the benches still need treatment (with wood preservative) and quite a few areas need weeding, tidying and mulching. Things like mulching is good to be done before opening as we will not be able to park the tractors everywhere like we are allowed at the moment.

まだまだやることはたくさん！でも３月から本格オープンです。ベンチのトリートメントも終わってないし、まだまだマルチ等終わってないエリアが山ほど！芝だってもうだいぶ伸びっぱなしだし、忙しいわー！仕事内容によってはオープン前に済ませたほうがずっと楽なこともあるし。（トラクターどこでも止め放題、道具等出しっぱなしで休憩行けるし。

I pruned Cotinus coggygria ‘Grace’ shrubs in Bottom Walled Garden. Some of these had put on so much new growth (more than 1.5 meters in one season) last year and was pushing other plants around it. This year, I gave it a medium weight cut today and I will keep an eye on them throughout the growing season to give occasional discreet trims.

今日はコタイナスの剪定をしました。とても折れやすい木です。去年はものすごい勢いで伸びて伸びて伸びまくって場所に収まりきらないという問題児でした。今年は今剪定して、夏の間も様子を見て軽く剪定していく予定です。

Cotinus after pruning.　剪定後のコタイナス。

Someone told me that winter is a very good time to visit a garden because you can see the structure clearly. Here in the Quarry Garden, I see exactly that.

冬は庭の構造がよくわかっていいですね。夏は植物に目を奪われがちですので。（写真はクオリー・ガーデン）