Creating a wildflower and wildlife meadow from scratch

Mark and Olivia Cooper-Portland live in a large country house situated in a leafy lane near the village of Chute. With another house in London and busy lives high flying in financial institutions in the city and charities, they do enjoy coming down to the country for a well earned rest. They are both very keen on the garden and the natural world. Mark in particular is a keen bird spotter, so we have put up numerous bird boxes around the garden.In the late summer of 2007 we decided to create, with some twenty acres of land adjacent to the house, a wildflower meadow, with the idea of creating a habitat for all sorts of wildlife and flowers.

To create a meadow of this size is quite a task, so we engaged the aptly named Charles Flower from Flower farm in the village of Shalbourne to act as a consultant. Charles successfully turned some of his paddocks into amazing fields of wildflowers some years ago and now acts as an adviser to those seeking to do the same thing, as well as opening his property to the public in the summer.

The first thing to consider when planting wildflowers is that perhaps surprisingly, the poorer the soil in terms of nutrients the better they like it. Our land had previously been used for cereals so we were worried it might be a bit to rich, but were assured by Charles that with careful management things would be fine. The local farmer ploughed and prepared the seed bed and a special mix of flower and grass seed was scattered in. It is important that the grass seed in your wildflower mix is of a non vigorous variety so it doesn't swamp the flowers. Planting should ideally be in late summer, because some flower seeds need to overwinter and get frost on them in order to germinate the following spring.

It takes a number of years for the flowers to become fully established, but as you can see from the photos one year on we are not doing to badly. Wonderful daisies, knapweed and scabious are in abundance. To finish off this exciting creation it was decided to put in an avenue of Oak trees to enable generations of cooper-portlands to enjoy a picnic in the meadow under the spreading branches of the old oak trees.
( pictures from top to bottom: 1,planting the Oak avenue commences. 2, One year on. 3, Wildflower mix one year after planting. 4, beautiful knapweed.

General discussion and your views are welcome please say hello. I regret however because of my busy schedule, I am unable to answer many questions. Sneaky advertising will be deleted sorry. Thanks so much for visiting my blog today.

Autumn and Fall Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

John Keats famous and wonderful poem 'To Autumn' is as fresh and descriptive about this time of year now as it was when he wrote it in 1820. Those morning mists and early frosts, fruit and colourful leaves reminds me of his words.

One of my favourite fruits which are both cultivated and can be found in abundance in the wild hedgerows in this part of the world is the Blackberry. I think this is because of my fondness for Blackberry and Apple crumble which reminds me so much of my childhood.

However English legend reminds us one should never pick Blackberries after Michaelmas (September 29th) for the Devil has spit on them. It is said that the Devil was kicked out of Heaven on this day and landed cursing on a thorny Blackberry bush. He avenges himself every year on this day by spitting on the berries making them unfit to eat. In truth the tannin in the berry starts to make them taste bitter by this time of year and insects and early frosts make them wither and look totally unpalatable.

We have had a good year for all our fruits this year. The Orchards have cropped well and I usually store excess in a cool dry shed and send the remaining bruised and damaged ones to our local apple press where they make superb apple juice.  I am lucky to have some of Olivia Cooper-Portlands Blackcurrant jam and Lady Binoches crab apple jelly in my larder which is comforting during the Winter months  

Quince Jelly is another favourite, used as a compliment to many meats.

Out in the paddocks in Autumn especially on those misty mornings, there is usually plenty of 'field' portabello mushrooms to be picked. Providing that is the horses haven't trampled them first. Make sure however that you know what's what with all things fungi. Some can be deadly poisonous so it's essential you can identify the different varieties before you go picking.

Horse chestnuts or 'conkers' abound this time of year scattered beneath the trees. Squirrels are the first to take advantage quickly followed by children sorting through to find the best ones to have games of conkers which has been played through the generations. Perhaps not so popular now as it was in Victorian times is roasting chestnuts especially at Christmas.

 The hedgerows are full of berries like these Hawthorn which are great for birds to feed on during the cold Winter months.

So to Keats then....Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness... Close bosom friend of the maturing sun.......Conspiring with him how to load and bless...... With fruit the vines that round the thatch eves run....... To bend with apples the moss'd cottage trees....... And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core .....To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells....... With a sweet kernel to set budding more .....And still more later flowers for the Bees.... Until they think warm days will never cease.... For Summer has o'er brimm'd their clammy cells.

General discussion and your views are welcome please say hello. I regret however because of my busy schedule, I am unable to answer many questions. Sneaky advertising will be deleted sorry. Thanks so much for visiting my blog today.

Highclere Thoroughbred Racing Yearling Parade

One of my customers is very well known on the English Horse Racing scene running syndicates under the prestigious Highclere Thoroughbred Racing brand, Highclere Castle being his childhood home. These days you may Highclere Castle as the setting for the fictional Downton Abbey television series.

 Every year there is a yearling parade at the Castle stud where invited participants get to see the years new horses and syndicates. This is a great way to get involved in the sport of kings by getting to own a share in a racehorse. This makes going to the Races even more enjoyable.

Every year after exhaustive selection the new yearlings are paraded in front of prospective shareholders of the various syndicates. For myself, I have been invited to go along to view the spectacle and have a glass or two of Champagne with everybody in the Castle afterwards. If you fancy owning a share of a racehorse and becoming part of the sport of Kings yourself click this link:

Highclere Thoroughbred Racing

They are also available to follow on twitter @HighclereRacing

General discussion and your views are welcome please say hello. I regret however because of my busy schedule, I am unable to answer many questions. Sneaky advertising will be deleted sorry. Thanks so much for visiting my blog today.

Deer Proofing Your Roses. Deer damage and how to stop it.

There is nothing more annoying than waking up on a lovely morning to find someone's been nibbling and stripping the leaves of your Gertrude Jekyll's or munching new shoots on your Icebergs. Roses are a favourite of deer, so more than likely and certainly, in village gardens in the UK the culprit will almost certainly be them.

. To deer it seems, roses are the chocolate of their diet and they have become increasingly brazen in their attempts to attain their favourite snack and will eat your roses down to the bare skeletal framework of branches

Here in North Hampshire there are three types of deer Roe, Fallow, and the little Muntjac all of which are found in abounding numbers and will usually pay you a visit under cover of darkness.

I have heard of gardeners trying all sorts of extensive measures to keep the deer out. High fencing is an effective option. However, deer are cunning and they will soon realize if there is a hole or a gate left open. Electric fencing is another remedy but it is not always practical. There are also numerous liquid repellants on the market which need to be regularly reapplied and in my humble opinion are not that effective.

So let me tell you what works for me. To start with I use my CD on a stick trick. Simply attach an unwanted CD to a piece of string and hang it from a stick (see photo ) then place the stick on the border or by the roses you want to protect, making sure the CD can swing and turn freely. This certainly does the trick in the short term, a few weeks or so, and should work from day one and costs virtually nothing. It doesn't matter what is on the CD, you won't see the deer doing air guitar or an exercise workout, but it seems the rainbow shimmering reflection is what they don't like. The drawbacks are that they will get used to them after a while and they look a little bit unsightly.

They will get used to the CD trick as I say after a while so the other more permanent fixture that I've found to be the most effective of all the remedies on the market is the Jet Spray Repeller of which there are several different makes available. I use them all the time. It works by emitting an infrared beam just like a halogen lamp which when broken sprays a short burst of water from an attached hosepipe.

Most people have a hosepipe and an outside tap these days and it's simple to connect it up. Placed near the roses you want to protect, deer soon find out that it's not much fun being around this gadget when they get squirted and stop visiting your plants.





I have included some of the Jet spray repellers that are available from Amazon below                           

General discussion and your views are welcome please say hello. I regret however because of my busy schedule, I am unable to answer any questions.  Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Life between the flowers Garden Choices

Brown leaves on Box plants, How to treat Box Blight & Box Moth Caterpillars

What Causes Buxus Box Brown Leaves? 

Box shrubs -buxus sempervirens- are wonderful evergreen plants used mainly in ornamental gardens to formalize the edge of a border or terrace with a low hedge. They are often found being used for this purpose at grand country houses and palaces across Europe. They can also be grown into larger shrubs to make topiary shapes Terracotta pots placed on your Terrace or Patio look fabulous containing carefully clipped box balls and topiary triangles. Problems can occur when the leaves go brown and drop off leaving channels of dead wood in the middle of low hedges and a generally unhealthy and unsightly plant in everything else. Assuming the plant is not heavily waterlogged or suffering from planting/feeding problems, there are usually two main reasons for this

Box Blight on Buxus Hedging Am I Infected?

Number one on our list is a virulent fungal disease which can do great damage to Buxus. This results in browning leaves and bare patches and as more of the Box plants become infected, great dead chasms of skeletal branches open up in the centre of the plant or hedge. It spreads by fungal spores attaching themselves to the leaves, especially in humid conditions.

Buxus Box Volutella Blight (Volutella Buxi)

There are two main strains of Buxus Box Blight present here in the UK, both are funguses.  Volutella Blight (Volutella buxi) is best identified by the pink and orange clusters of spores on the leaves, especially the underside. It infects the buxus usually through damaged branches, especially when the buxus shrubs are clipped. It can spread quickly when conditions are warm and humid and spores can remain active in fallen leaves even over the winter. 

Buxus Box Blight Cylindrocladium Buxicola

Cylindrocladium Buxicola is the other common fungal blight to be found in the UK. Again it will decimate box plants and quickly spread in moist conditions. It is identified by dark spots appearing on the leaves with white/grey almost mildew-like fungal spores on the underside of leaves. Unlike Volutella, Cylindrocladium can penetrate buxus without the need for clipped or damaged stems. Its spores too can survive the winter infecting new growth or replanted box in the Spring.

Box Tree Moth Caterpillar Damage

There is another pest which can cause significant damage to buxus trees. Box moths only like to lay their eggs within box trees normally under the leaves, with the resulting caterpillars literally sucking the life out of your plants. Commonly known as the Asian box tree caterpillar this pesky bug is a foreign invader first discovered in Europe in 2007. About 4cm/1.5inches in length they can devastate a bush within a few days. Scroll down for treatment solutions. 

Box Blight Cure, Treatment and Prevention

If you are about to purchase new box plants the first line of defence is to make sure you purchase disease-free stock. If you are not sure about them it might be worth keeping them in quarantine away from other buxus in your garden for a few weeks.

If there are a small amount of infected leaves/branches cut them out pruning right back to the green healthy stems. Then apply a suitable fungicide. Burn the prunings.

Never compost the clipped leaves of box plants. Burn them even if there are no symptoms present

Ideally, remove and burn plants that have identifiable symptoms and are significantly infected. If however you really would not prefer to remove a much-loved specimen you could try pruning it right back hard until the main structure of the plant, and of course, burn the prunings.

Obviously, It may be undesirable or not practical to remove hedges or much-loved topiary. The blight is a fungus and its spores live on the diseased leaves that have fallen and settled on the ground, so removing the infected plants alone may not solve the problem. The next line of defence is chemical. There are several products available to the amateur gardener.

Bayer Garden produce a Fungicide which helps treat Box Blight. The product is a concentrate so you will need a suitable sprayer to apply the mix. It is a Systemic fungicide, that is to say, the product works through the plant's system treating and preventing infections from the inside out. 

TOPBUXUS Health Mix For Box Blight Treatment

Another good product on the market is the Top Buxus health mix. It's a foliar treatment that stops and prevents box blight. It helps keep your boxwood healthy and resistant to disease and blight infestation. It needs to be applied with a sprayer like those below.

 

Box Moth Caterpillar Treatments

If you've got the time you can simply pick off the caterpillars by hand wearing suitable gloves and squish them. Alternatively, an insecticide Treatment or Caterpillar repellent applied regularly should do the trick. Bear in mind that box trees are naturally dense so make sure as much of the plant is thoroughly wetted. A repeat application will likely be necessary until all signs of the caterpillars have disappeared.  

 

General discussion and your views are welcome please say hello. I regret however because of my busy schedule, I am unable to answer many questions. Sneaky advertising will be deleted sorry. Thanks so much for visiting my blog today.