The guys are making huge strides strides at Oaklands and I am keeping my excitement managed with colouring pencils and lots of reading. The last time that Jane was in Dubai in early March we had some fun shopping online for some plants from Crocus. The idea for the whole Potager is that it should be both productive and beautiful. The two "Demi-Lunes" as they have been christened aim firmly for the latter end of that scale. I am no plantsman but piece by piece with an RHS plant encylopedia we put together a first plan for a blue, white , purple and silver theme to cap off the raised bed area. Those colours are good of a cool evening and should pop out. I am already imagining sitting in the corner of the Potager with a glass of wine as the dusk draws in and the whites of some of the plants starting to be drawn out. I sat up until midnight last night blowing up the section of the plan drawing I needed and then carefully drew in, coloured and labelled each of our purchases - like a child with set of pencils.
The first choice was Cynara Cardunclus or cardoons. These huge wild cousins of artichokes have silver grey spiky foliage and rise to 6 foot tall with a reach of 3 foot across at the base each plant. They are Jurassic in nature. I am sure I saw them at the back of a long border in a stately home once years ago topped off with their purple thistles. I made a mental note, Here they are arriving in their box a few weeks ago.
Echoing these I bought a good selection of tamed Globe Aritichokes from Thompson and Morgan. I am not sure how many actually arrived but these are space hungry perennials and were never going to be right for the raised beds. I had never eaten artichokes before a family holiday when the boys were small in Languedoc. We stayed on a working vineyard and most evenings we would sit out and barbeque and drink big Southern french wines and then have cherries and muscat for desert all topped off by zingy goats cheese. I remember putting some artichokes on the grill after cleaning them up - pulling out the "choke" and then dipping each petal in butter. It seemed like a bit of a fuss at the time but the ritual was nice. You don't get much of a meal out of each one. They much a starter to while away the time and to leave you hungry (I think that is more my current diet talking). I am not sure then that they will really pay for the space that they take up in calories but we will have the structure of plants in the bed and maybe an odd starter.
24 Geranium "Johnsons Blue" plants should pack a punch. I love "cranesbill". In our first garden in London I started to buy odd examples from garden centres. Usually odd singular examples. I think they were £4.99 in London garden centres even then. We could not afford to go and buy 24 plants in a month and when you are limited in resources you almost want one of everything which doesn't work. Oaklands has space and we have to work in numbers to get the most out of the borders. We are going to need to garden at the correct scale. I can already see us doubling up on purchases to help ourselves along next year. I am the man who comes back with two of everything from the supermarket - even before the virus.
At some point I bought one of those small RHS mono-tomes at Wisley. I have forgotten everything I learned but the book is out of storage now and on the shelf in my study. I did feel very knowledgeable about geraniums. You only have to look at the foliage to see that they are the very definition of a herbaceous perennial. They remind me of flat leafed parsley. Also they are so easy to propagate once you get going. I love the idea that after a couple of years we can take a spade to them and triple the number of plants we have by division. Jane has spoken about the joys of free plants in a recent post.
There is a reason why "Johnsons Blue" is so popular - the colour. It was a sunny day in Herefordshire today and this quick snap sent by Jane of one of my refugees waiting in its temporary home for the Demi-Lunes to be complete brought a smile to my face. Are they blue or purple. They are straight from the water colour box.
I think this year the Allium "Purple Sensations" will be flowering in the their temporary home rather than putting on a display in the Potager. How could your ever have too many of these ? Next door are the bubbly white and yellow-centred flowers of Hesperis matronatis "albiflora" - Sweet Rocket. I think we need more white in the border and I have my eye on Fleasbane as a good nectar bar.
The final purchase that afternoon, at least in the order I have presented here was some purple spired Salvia nemerosa "ostfriesland".
The reason I am getting so excited is because the pictures from the front line are telling a story of completion in perhaps one to two weeks. I will finish the post with a few shots of progress around the Potager and the new compost bays and then tell the story of my Hoggin Wobble.
The area covered by the Potager section is really defined now.
I did have a panic about the colour of the Hoggin as it started to be laid but it has been explained to me - and demonstrated that it will weather. I have had a demonstration about the ageing of Hoggin. Here you can see the right hand "Lune" taking shape at the back of the picture and in the front the beds have been filled with quality soil that arrived by lorry today.
I think the whole space looks stunning now, I hope I can do it justice with my vegetable efforts once I get to play with more than pencils. Below you stand just across one of the big oxbow bends of Woodland Ride Road (we need a name) looking into the Potager from the South towards the house. The Hoggin as I say will calm down as it weathers and will leave a crunchy "national trust" surface that should match the stone of the house. I was starting to get a nagging doubt about the colour and whether the whole thing would like a tennis court at the French Open.
I will leave you with the shots Jane sent to me to prove to that all will be well with the colour of the Hoggin and that my OCD should take a back seat along with my back seat project management. My "Hoggin Wobble". We do need rain for that weathering and rain for the lawn areas to be laid. The very pink colour from the photo above does not exist on the edge of the Hoggin pile in the driveway where it has weathered over the weeks of the Covid Hiatus. Over time the coloured lime and clay in the mixture melds down into the surface revealing the crunchy flakes which do match the sandstone bricks of the house. Jane describes them as a nice Himalayan salt colour. It stands to reason as the Hoggin is local and the house bricks would be local also.
Not a Sand Martin nest but proof of weathering by excavation to compare the inside and outside of the pile.
The kitchen colander test and it is a good match. It will weather up nicely and blend in with the 150 year old sandstone barn in time. We just need rain now or the lawn will be delayed and Sam will need to return later to finish off final touches.
3 weeks 3 days and counting until I can hopefully get on a plane now. The Oak looks magnificent today. The colour against the sky is worthy of my pencil set.
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