We have been talking about the "Avenue" and whether it should be flanked with a row of trained Apple trees or even just some very low Step-Over Apples. The concern is that if we put back in too much in the way of architecture too soon we might regret it later as views across the garden are obscured. In any event Jane has already planned the thin bed in front of the hard standing for the glasshouse and the beds that sit next to the current Wood Shed (to be reclassified as the Potting Shed) and the Mower Store (which is rapidly becoming my dumping ground for both logs and power tools). An original plan for quite a grandiose Avenue of Espalier of Cordon Apples was vetoed on the grounds that they would sit in lawn and would be difficult to mow around. I did not see the issue but I attach my plan below for what might have been. There are borders I guess for "responsibility" which at present lie along the Avenue itself. Jane has plans for Red Currents and Quinces all mapped - all delightful in any event. My Espalier Apples will stay firmly on my side of the path for now as in the plan above.
The old plan with its section drawing shows more ambitious scheme for almost 30 m of posts and wires I had designed. It is always possible later to have a change if we change our mind at some future date. The "rooms" in the formal area of the garden will be created by the hardstanding and the beds without currently any hedging or fencing or posts. The main consideration is keeping the big views open from the terrace. I was in a very "exact" mood when I reached for my pencils and pens the other night - I consulted with the RHS website for the heights needed to train each tree.
In the end then the more modest set of 6 posts along one edge of the Potager with 4 sets of wires and 4 trees made the final cut. Those have to be chosen with the correct root stock. This will create more of a "room" to the Potager with its eight raised beds which will be fixed in by the Esaplier apples and the rows of giant Cardons and Artichokes in the Demi-Lunes. I have as yet to fix on what will go on within the thin strips facing the house at the North and South ends. I would have liked to have been wandering formal vegetable gardens, walled gardens and National Trust delights this Spring for inspiration but I am confined to pictures of garden porn online at present still stuck in Dubai for now.
I will close with some pictures of the Potager area and garden newly surrounded and mapped out with turf. I can see myself weeding, brushing and raking constantly to try and keep the whole thing "box fresh". It feels like a responsibility. I never seen a garden look so new and unwrapped.
So my original plan was for two rows down the centre of the two lawn areas either side of the avenue in the picture above. The scaled back plan if for a single row of two sets of posts in the thin border immediately to the right of the raised bed area. A closer view from the opposite angle below.
The whole area looks stunning now and we are just 3 more working days away from completion. The lawn was laid just yesterday and will now be "boarded" which is a process of laying boards across it and walking along them to ensure that the turf contacts with the earth below evenly - Who knew ? We have had sprinklers on the turf for two days now to assist in the dry weather. I say "we" - my son Sam was marshalling the sprinklers and ensuring adequate coverage yesterday evening. You can see him on the path in the picture below.
There are some very new aspects to be seen that I had not "envisaged". Here we stand where the big S-shaped Woodland Way joins the driveway turning circle. I have seen the path on the plan now for 10 months but I have never really understood the extent of the big "Oxbow" back towards the house taking in the two Walnut trees. Those now sit clearly at centre stage in front of the meadow and wood. The winding path then curves back around to the South, passing close to the Mower Store and past the new composting bins and old Manor garden wall eventually t0 joins right up to the main ride through our 3 acres of woodland.
I fly home now two weeks today - hopefully. All is dependent on being able to fly back to the Gulf at the beginning of July to return to clients and my team. I cannot risk getting stuck in the UK for any length of time. That is causing me a degree of anxiety but its a very minor problem I know in comparison to what some people have had to endure in the last few months. I have toughed out 3 months abroad without any family but my only issue really has been a touch of boredom at the weekends and a lack of company during our own quite rigorous lockdown here in Dubai. It is going to be very strange flying back to a completely novel landscape at Oaklands that I have only seen to the depth of a Mac screen if that makes sense. I am on the early flight to Heathrow so should make Herefordshire by mid to late afternoon. I assume there are not huge flows of traffic down the main roads on a Friday afternoon as there might usually be.
So two weeks today I will be able to sit in a camp chair and move it around the garden and take everything in slowly with a "T&A" (Tonic and Angostura Bitters) - a pink gin without the gin. A good casualty of lockdown has been my drinking which has been knocked on the head now for over 8 weeks. I decided that drinking on my own was a sad sport and that my stomach and waistline could due with shrinking a good 6 inches. I was also long overdue for giving a very lawyerly liver after 27 years in the game a good long rest. I am very fond of my wine. and very much come from the last century of solicitors. I have lost two full stone though and am really full of energy after my bout of abstinence. I am going to carry on with the recuperation for a while yet - or at least "moderate" a great deal and throw all of that energy into the house and garden for 3 weeks when I come home. I expect though I will be stunned into silence for the first days. Unlike Jane I haven't seen any progress. In the same way after 3 months Jane won't have seen any progress with restoration of my youthful good looks and figure so there is a certain symmetry. I expect the garden will win out as the view.
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