Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog July 2024
/We are not in the Garden all the time …and the garden birds know it! Our strawberry plants look strong and lush, but we arrive on a Monday morning to see the blackbirds scuttling off across the path, raising the alarm. We are too late! The birds have scoffed all the fruit and there have been no strawberries left for us this Wimbledon.
Of the six precious apricots on our young tree, one has been nibbled by something with a sharp little beak, too. In our absence, our feathered friends are enjoying their summer diet.
We do have one little helper, however. Sometimes from behind the hedge or the top of the bank, we’ll hear one of the gardeners saying, “Oh, Good morning! How are you today? Have you come to help us?’ It’s our friend, the little raggedy robin, come to eat up the grubs we unearth as we dig and weed. The robin always looks as though he’s been in a scrap and is happy to join us.
…And now to other Garden news:
As predicted for all black bamboo, by ‘The Don’, (as Cleo calls Monty from ‘Gardeners’ World), our Phyllostachys nigra in the troughs at the Pavilion has flowered, and then, died. It was planted about four years ago to form a living screen against the sun at the large glass doors.
There is hope; Helen cut it down and discovered fresh shoots at the base. We shall wait and see.
Meanwhile in the front garden, there is further progress. Geoff has given the beech hedge a summer trim and we’ve had the 3 very overgrown shrubs near the yew tree seriously pruned – in fact, we’ve removed one of them entirely as it’s been attacked every year by sawfly and loses most of its leaves soon after they’ve appeared.
The Anthony Abrahams sculpture, ‘Man with Raised Arm’, had become slightly unstable on its plinth and has been taken away temporarily for repairs possibly because of roots from a pink Japanese Anemone. Gardener Cheryl is creating a lovely plot in the dappled shade behind the railings.
And in the Walled Garden there is summer colour everywhere. Though the weather isn’t particularly seasonal, the rains have promoted some strong growth – the purple salvias and Berkheya purpurea, the reds, pinks, oranges, and yellows of the Bonkers are catching the eye of visitors.
Meanwhile, in the Stellata border, Carroll is continuing her mission to control Miss Willmott (Eryngium giganteum). Look at the top border when next you are in and compare with the images below; Carroll is making progress.
On the left is Miss Willmott from 2023 and on the right from July 2021 (back in the days when July was sunny!). The eryngium was rampant -and spreading through the other borders too! Now we are trying to deal with the consequences of such exuberance!
