GARDENER'S BLOG - May
by Phylip Statner, Head Gardener

I don't know about you, but I don't mourn the passing of all things yellow that have been flowering over the previous number of weeks, so I feel it's a kick in the teeth to find that with the passing of gaudy spring yellows, they're re-placed with hundreds of acres of rape. If you don't have to bare witness to yet more yellow, lucky you, and if yellow is one of your favourite colours, and you enjoy this visual onslaught, well, each to their own. I, however look forward to the gentler colours of early summer like the unfurling of the ferns, red tinged growth on the roses, and the pleasing hues of the rhododenrons, magnolia's and crescendo of the late flowering winter shrubs. The cherries are a welcome sight, as are the soft new growth on the trees. The new leaves give off a lovely colour, and you can identify the trees from some way away from their winter skeletons and unfurling leaves. Trees in the landscape that still give the impression that they remain in the depths of winter are the ashes, whereas the Oaks have a green-brown haze over the canopy as the new leaves and flowers are produced. The Birches, easily spotted with their graceful hanging branches are heavy with catkins, and Malus species are covered with flowers, covering all but the largest leaves. Acers have either just finished their flowering or pushing out orange pink leaves that will fade as the season progresses, and the poplars have a Cor-Ten steel orange about them. Tree seedlings may also be springing up in the garden, ash and sycamore are well known for their promiscuous seeding, and it's worth pulling them out now while they haven't yet got too much of a hold.

In the last few weeks all systems have been go, and where sowing of seed the months previous were to supply plentiful number of plants to stock and plugs holes in your summer borders, now is the time where all things perennial are growing by the day, and are needing close inspection for what they may require in the near future. Prevention is so much better than cure, and with that in mind, and the fact it's warm enough for plants to grow, it is also warm enough for bugs, both good and bad to be up and about, necessitates the need to be inspecting closely, treating as required. Like we need a cup of tea in the morning to kick-start us, our plants need some food having rested over the winter to ensure they get the best position in the border. If you haven't dressed your borders with blood fish and bone you need to do it now! It's also a good time to have a look at your evergreens and check whether they need a foliar feed to spruce them up in time for summer. If they're looking a little yellow give a top up with a sequestrine feed, maxi crop or Epsom salts. We'll continue foliar feeding the evergreens that are in pots or larger hedging plants that need to bulk up, making sure they have a plenty of chlorophyll to feed their roots.

On the warm walls, the roses have romped away, and need spraying with fungicide to keep the black spot away, or if grown organically feed with maxi crop. The clematis that are on the same walls have gone bonkers, and need to be pulled back into shape, all they want to do is go up, and all I want them to do is grow side wards so we don't end up with a bare stem and flowers out of our eye line. The herbaceous material is emerging on the terrace, and we'll keep a check on these by pinching out anything that has a growing tip like the phlox. Done early they won't receive a check to the growth, and nor will they require stacking later in the year. Growth seems to start a little later here at Cottesbrooke, and many of your herbaceous material have probably been up and actively growing for several weeks now, and with the addition of all the mulch which we have used throughout the garden has meant that it has retained a lot of the winter rain thus making the soil a little slower at warming up. It will pay dividends later in the year though

This being my first season, its' interesting to see what kind of volunteers we'll get in the garden. By volunteers, I mean plants that have made Cottesbrooke their own without any formal invitation. This includes all the troublesome weeds, but also some rather pleasant ones as well. Daisies and danilions if room allows are pleasant to have around, and although I don't like the yellow rape, I will quite happily tolerate danilions, and like to see them spreading themselves through the road verges and road-abouts. Daisies and the little blue flowers of speedwell are rather charming in a lawn, and adds a tapestry to an otherwise bland monoculture, much like the vast fields of rape, and although not perhaps important for it's nectar, the honey bee do like to visit the daisies for their pollen. The dandelion is also an important source of pollen and nectar and has been listed as an important bee plant in many European countries.

The English bluebells are looking good in the wild garden, and although small and out of sight at the moment, we have planted the edges of the bluebell wood with aquilegias which if kept free of weeds should be looking a treat come June, as will the terrace and statue borders were we hope to be planting the annuals over the coming couple of weeks. The new plantings are beginning to move, and although we suffer from rabbits I'm hopeful that plants like cephalaria, deschampsia, stipa, hostas, millium and valeriana are all tough enough to weather the storm. It's when the blasted sheep get in when we're in trouble. In the wild garden the comfrey looks good along with the dicentra and polygonatum that I split over winter from another clump in the garden, as is the pulmonaria placed next to it. I've developed an aversion to naked soil, and if there isn't a thick layer of leave or mulch over it, the borders look hungry for nurishment. You won't often see naked soil in nature, and most ground is quickly colonised by plants, spontaneous as the Germans may say. It is this blanket that protects against drying winds, soils being capped from the heavy rains, and decreases the opportunity for microbial activity which lays at the very heart of a healthy soil, it therefore has to discourage any plant from conilsing or establishing itself that garden. We're hoping that in the autumn we'll reduce the need of carrying away leaves to a compost heap and instead mulching them up with a mower and blowing them onto the borders, because it is at this time of year when you reap the rewards of replenishing the borders with plenty of organic matter.

There has been a number a large tree's taken down in the wild garden over the last week, and none of the material has been taken off site. Granted we're lucky enough to enjoy the luxury a large garden will give you, in that we have the room to retain the wood, but it's surprising just how a large tree can be reduced, only the large sections of the trunk that could not be sent through the shredder are left, and those pieces can be logged and piled in a quite area of the garden for nature to reclaim. I would regard this as intelligent gardening.

Cottesbrooke is now open for the season, and both the Gardens and Hall teams look forward to welcoming you. Opening times are all on the web site, and we open for all the bank holidays during the season. There will be a plant stall, where you can plants for your containers and planters with material that's a little more creative than the usual bedding plants, but for something really unusual I strongly recommend you visiting the plant finders fair at the end of June, where there will be a huge range of plants grown by some of the best people in the industry.

Until then keep an eye on your bugs, and new growth.

Phylip Pinch

A perfect summer day is when the sun is shinning, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.
James Dent, humorist