Some musings on the current drought

Since I last posted it's been very warm and completely rain free.  With most parts of Southern England in drought conditions gardens inevitably suffer.  My own garden has been left to its own devices and it's coping reasonably well, being largely shady, though pots need watering daily from my water butts via treks with cans.

But that's not possible in the ten acres of The Garden House.  The cost of watering would be exorbitant.  So, how has it coped?

Remarkably well.  Of course areas of the garden are dry.  Witness the lawn in the Magic Circle and the long grass wildflower areas on the banked hillside of the Arboretum:

The Magic Circle 

The Arboretum and lake 

Shaded areas suffer lower evaporation rates which is why the Magic Circle lawn still remains partially green after weeks without rain.  Meanwhile the long grass of the wildflower banks insulate the soil to reduce water loss around our many specimen trees and shrubs.

Covering the ground is an essential part of the water conservation strategy.  We have very little bare earth even in the most cultivated areas of the walled garden.  

Walled garden lower terrace

Another view of the Walled Garden lower terrace

The central lawn between the main borders may be going brown but the plant filled beds are still producing abundant colour without watering.  Here's a couple more examples:

Two further factors add to the ability of the garden to cope with drought.  

Firstly the location.  The Garden House is a valley garden, oriented approximately east west and surrounded by mature tree plantings.  There's plentiful sunshine but the wind shelter of the location cuts evaporation down.  

Secondly, the mulching.  We apply heavy annual winter mulches to the loamy acid shale derived soil throughout as much of the garden as possible.  Most is on-site generated but tons of composted bracken is also added.  80 years of this has produced a very organic, water retentive and nutrient rich soil that further insulates the plants against drought.

The result is colour throughout the garden.  This was the Summer Garden on Monday 27 July.  

Colourful, naturalistic planting that is shrugging off the worst of the current weather.  Well worth visiting to see the lessons to be learned.

 Eryngium x zabelii 'Big Blue'

I first became aware of this lovely sea holly in the Summer garden at The Garden House and knew I had to buy it for my own small plot   It took a while to source a plant but I found one in the end and it went into a small, sunny bed under my tree trained Yucca gloriosa 'Variegata' where it's remained and flowered for the last few years.  Here's the latest image, taken today, the spiky, intensely blue, flower heads contrasting well with the Yucca..

Of course The Garden House has a lot more room to display a good patch of the plant, most notably in this image I took a couple of years ago with the Eryngium pointing across the Summer Garden towards the house.

Even in my small plot it fits in well with my more exotic plantings.  Here it's contrasting with my Cycas revoluta sago palm and Hosta 'Frances Williams'

Perennial, hardy, reliable providing it doesn't sit with its roots in saturated soil and, in its own way, exotic looking, its a plant I treasure.  And, on a final note, it's very attractive to bees, the cluster of individual flowers in the flower head producing a wealth of nectar for weeks on end..

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 A visit to Great Dixter

Exactly a year ago, Maria and I were holidaying in Rye, in East Sussex on the Kent border.  Northiam, home to the late Christopher Lloyd's fabulous garden, was only a short trip away.  How could I resist making what would likely be my one and only pilgrimage to a garden I'd only seen in his many books and other writings.

I was not disappointed.

The iconic long border and house view

It's hard to categorise a garden based on a single image but the above view along the long border back to the house reminds me of what I experienced.  Abundance.  Density of planting to leave no bare earth.  A clever mixture of annuals, perennials and shrubs to provide a painterly palette of colour and interest.

Even in early summer there was colour everywhere.  In the High Garden...

...around the pond in The Sunk Garden...

...in the borders round the front meadow...

..and repeated in the container collection at the front door to the house.

One of the practices Christopher Lloyd was famous for was mixing the formal with the informal, no better demonstrated than in the Topiary Lawn.  Here are combined clipped yew shapes and wildflower meadow abundance.

Judging by the number of Common spotted orchids, Dactylorhiza fuchsii, in the grassy areas the wilding experiment has proved a success.

The garden round the house is a little bit of a maze, with narrow paths leading from one small area to the next.  Just a few steps and the another vista is revealed.  

Path from the Sunk Garden to the Wall Garden

The Blue Garden

Needless to say, it gets a bit crowded at times.  How I got the visitor free shots I did was a matter of patience and taking the shot the instant it presented.

How does it compare with The Garden House?  Well, the climatic conditions are rather different, Great Dixter being drier and warmer in summer than our wetter, milder edge of Dartmoor garden.  We're on an acid soil tempered by liberal applications  of annual mulch, Great Dixter's is more neutral to slightly acid and thus less suited to growing Camellias, Rhododendrons and other calcifuge plants.  Both gardens have an emphasis on biodiversity to maintain the ecological balance.  And both are plantsman's gardens, showcasing a wide diversity of plants and plantings in both formal and informal settings.  Above all, both are great gardens and I'm glad I could finally visit to enjoy the contrast.