I have never felt so privileged, to have a two acre garden in the country and a partner to be locked down in it with. For so many people in this pandemic this is luxury beyond belief. So I thought I would cheer some of those people up a little with some schadenfreude, and tell of the latest garden disasters.
We all know that every garden is lovely, but Veddw may be an exception. Veddw is not a garden of Eden: it is full of worries and problems. Our evening walk in the garden is a strange mix of pleasure, wine, adding to the ‘to’do’ list – and feeling sick about some of the nasties.
Many of you will be aware that we have been tortured by box blight. Our originally ‘free’ hedges, grown from someone else’s clippings, have become a major expense, with spraying to contain the blight. This has caused real grief to all of us every time a new outbreak is discovered. I console myself every time we see it worse, (see below) but really other people’s suffering is small consolation. I will write here one day about how we’ve decided to deal with this long term and how successful (or not) that is.
And now, we have holly blight. The hollies in the wood are mostly destroyed. The standard hollies we grew from babies are ruined. Holly blight attacks from the bottom of the plant, so there is no possibility of trimming it off and it looking ok on a standard and the dead branches will never regrow.
I persuaded Charles to grow ivy up the standards in the Veg Plot, in order to take over from the holly at the top one day. Then, surprise, surprise, someone accidentally cut the ivy off one of the trees.
We have now, after much time and grief, beheaded them. We now wait to see what we think of having ivy pillars.
Elsewhere Charles just cut down the remnant of a magnificent Ilex x altaclerensis ‘Camelliifolia’ which we were foolish enough to admire last winter. We will see whether it will regrow. If it does, then there will be more executions.
Then – maybe the worst, because this is our own fault. We could have prevented this. We left a tap dripping over a long long time. Then it rained all winter (or most of it). We should have drained the pool, because the excessive wet has killed some of our yew hedge.
We were disappointed last autumn when we were going to be filmed for Great British Gardens, but then we were not because they needed another garden nearby in Wales for some filming reason. (check it out – yes, they are all in geographical pairs!). I don’t know what Coronavirus has done to the filming but this is one spring when we’re now feeling quite relieved to not have a film crew here.
So, what other disasters can I cheer you up with? Last year we discovered a rose (Moonlight) suddenly revived and flowering. This spring we find it dodo like…..
The Cornfield Garden is in its third attempt. We have spent much money on plants for the latest attempt. We began the spring with a crop of novel weeds from the mulch. Then we waited for our proper plants to appear. And waited, waited, still waiting…
Remember that blue wood anemone I mentioned? Not long after its mention and worldwide fame we visited the Coppice to find that we couldn’t find it. I have no idea what ate it but it’s not the only thing to get chomped….
And, sigh, what about the lawn mower service and repair which cost an arm and many legs? We were looking forward to the brake being sorted. I have come to hate this machine, which Charles pointed out cost the same as a small car, because it is supposed to STOP when you take your foot off the accelerator. But it doesn’t. There is no foot-brake, so the only way to bring it to a sudden emergency halt is to step on the reverse pedal. Which, as you’ve no doubt worked out, could have disastrous consequences as you abruptly cannon backwards.
So after the ££££££ service was this mended? It wasn’t. Thanks Countax for a mower with safety features which drive me mad (it stops cutting when you reverse) which I am scared to use.
And no, I am not now going to end in that classic depressing way with a cheerful reminder to count our blessings. But I will give you a nice flower to cheer us all up.
I do so hope it was the plant you beheaded & not the one who cut it???!!! Jeff’s mum x
Ouch!!!! (it was the plant…) Xxx
I can still hear my grandmother saying in Yiddish “ Der mentsh trakht un Got lakht.” Man plans and God laughs. Or Man proposes, God disposes. I am so glad you shine a light on these dark corners of garden-making.
Thank you. She was SO right!
I remember in the early days I used to get upset by Clematis Wilt, black spot, slug damage, and by maurauding rabbits and squirrel damage. I didn’t know I was born. These days we have real things to get upset about. I think I look older than my 65 years.
You’ve always found it hard, but it doesn’t show as much as you think! Worst thing of all is that we’ve finished Frankie and Grace too! Xxxxx
Hang in there. Remember, it is always darkest just before it goes completely black.
You made us both laugh! Wonderful. Thank you. xxx
Anne – what a valuable post! So helpful to gardeners fighting battles right now. We so rarely get to see the wizard behind the curtain. – xo
Blights in general seem to be getting worse. I don’t much like lonicera nitida hedges and was happy to murder mine to the ground for it to grow anew and hopefully less scruffy…but a client is distraught that his lonicera topairy duck is dying in patches…whereas his wife’s duck next to is is flourishing beautifully. He is trying not to read too much into this.
Lovely garden? Ha! The torment is real…..
Yes, reading about other people’s troubles does brighten the day. A tiny bit, at least.
This week we have discovered we have an infestation of mole crickets in our potager.
Like monsters from the deep, they sing lovingly to try and lure a mate over for a party.
However, most of their fun seems to be had in the destruction of all things living and growing. Things are disappearing nightly, being chomped off above the roots. Tomatoes, potatoes, beans, you name it. Nothing is spared. Quite soon I fear there will be nothing left.
I feel your pain
Ouch!!!!! We spend too much time suffering in silence, I think, while admiring beautiful images of gardens taken in lovely light. What else cultivates and propagates such unreality? (Guilty myself, of course..)
I wage a one person campaign against all that – and, of course, I too post unrealities whenever I can.
And I, yours. We have deer chomping now…
I find that reading of these deaths and failures of yours does not make me feel the least bit better. I mourn all your losses. As for me, I await the return of a quarantined buddy with a shotgun to take care of my rabbit issue. Too bad you can’t use a shotgun against voles.
I envy you the shotgun… but we used to have a neighbour who shot moles with his shotgun and I thought he was very lucky not to have died by ricochet from a stray boulder underground.
So sorry to hear of your calamities. 2020is not panning out well,is it? We’ve gone from several metres of flooding and saturated soil to inch wide cracks in the ground in less than two months. Whatever next??
Yes, I wondered how those of us who had been flooded were coping with the further calamities. Best not think what may be next! Xxx