The garden is ’pregnant
with plans and possibilities’
A YEAR AT
HENLEY
MILL
A new series following Country Gardener
During the winter our part-time gardener, Ian, has spread two
regular contributor and nursery owner
loads of 18-month-old horse manure from our neighbouring
Sally Gregson in a year in her garden
stables, covering all the borders and the vegetable garden
with this deliciously crumbling black pudding.
The birds have had a rich winter’s pickings, and the worms
Peter and I first came
are working hard pulling it all down below ground.
across this plain white
In the summer-shaded borders the snowdrops are
house set in two and a
beginning to fade. It’s time to lift and divide them. A few
half acres of rich, alluvial
years ago I planted a red-stemmed dogwood (Cornus
soil alongside the River
alba ‘Sibirica’) to add a bit of pizzazz, but the ground was
Axe 20 years ago.
too dry and I had to admit defeat. I would like to try the
We walked to the end
combination of red dogwoods, snowdrops, and Pulmonaria
of the garden and stood
‘Blue Ensign’ in another damper area alongside the leat wall
beneath the ancient
where the dogwoods I planted last winter are now thriving.
horse chestnut beside
the gurgling, sparkling
‘It’s all a question of forward
stream and immediately
planning and patience.’
felt the magic of the
place, the ‘genius loci’.
My problem is that most of the snowdrops grow in a
Sally Gregson- follow her throughout
We were bowled over.
part of the garden that occasionally suffers from honey
spring, summer, autumn and winter
Now, 20 years on, the fungus, so I am very reluctant to dig them up and spread
this year in her garden and nursery at
trees we planted have them, and maybe the honey fungus, elsewhere. I shall
Henley Mill in Somerset.
grown and matured, the have to divide smaller clumps from another area and be
hedges have filled out to divide the garden and enclose the very patient.
flower beds, and the nursery, Mill Cottage Plants, has become
Around and about the borders the oriental hellebores are
widely known for its rare Hydrangeas and Epimediums.
flaunting their damask flowers among the Pulmonarias
And it’s at this exciting time of year, pregnant with plans and primroses.
and possibilities that the garden is at its most demanding.
I snip off dad’s anthers while they are fluffy with pollen
‘On dry days armed with tweezers, labels and nylon knitting wool, I hand-pollinate the hellebore buds. The trick is to open up a bud that is still shut
against the rapacious bees.’
20
Country Gardener
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