Homes & Gardens - City and Country Gardens
Author: Louisa Bell from City and Country Gardens
Publication: Latest Homes magazine
Design and construction - Animal instincts
It is possible to have a garden, and keep pets too, but it can be quite hard work. Dogs are the biggest challenge with damage to grass. Puppies like bouncing around irrespective of plants but raised planters can help, and it may be better to have somewhere to hose down, rather than grass itself. Cats like any bit of bare earth, so keep everywhere well planted. There are good cat deterrents on the market now if you really don’t want them in the garden, but living in an urban environment really means we should accept others pets. We had some lovely fish in our pond, and I’d got quite attached to them. I fed them every day and they came up to see us, but they all got eaten by a heron at the weekend. There were scales all over the pond – it was like a massacre! I cried.
Rabbits are great in a run, but if you give them the whole garden they will quickly dig up most of it. If you live near a field and have wild rabbits coming into the garden, there are lots of problems to overcome. They eat so many types of plants that it can be quite disheartening.
We have lists of rabbit proof plants that they really do tend to avoid. Last year we planted a long border for a client with major rabbit problems and this year, it’s all still there! They don’t like things such as Euphorbias, with poisonous sap, and poppies with their soft prickly stems. They avoid Heuchera and Hydrangeas and Verbena bonariensis and Sedums survived really well. The other tip is to buy well-established, larger plants. That way they’ll have a chance, even if the rabbits do have a nibble along the way.
We have even had two gardens with tortoises this year! I haven’t seen a tortoise for years and we see two in a month. One is a bit territorial and clamped onto our feet when we were measuring the garden! I didn’t know they could be so cross! I would say the biggest problem with animals in the garden is the look your children give you when they ask for a puppy, a kitten or a guinea pig. As parents, we never ever learn. I see countless neglected furry friends – much loved for about twenty minutes and then forgotten as Hollyoaks comes on. If you love the idea of a garden, then this is the time to harden your heart, and call City Gardens. We’ll put you straight!
Plants - It’s all coming up roses!
Oh, any excuse to talk about roses. I just love roses. When clients say to me that they don’t like roses, I think they must be imagining the old hybrid tea type of rose – that stiff, upright tightly blooming rose, like Whisky Mac, that their grandparents grew. They stood there like some old colonel all summer and then got pruned back with precision cutting in the autumn. The roses that I love are the big, blowsy perfumed wonders. I love the David Austin roses and I could bury my head into their wonderful blooms all day. We went to see a garden the other weekend, and I just kept going back to the same plant over and over again to smell that perfect rose fragrance. They all smell different too and it’s hard to quantify that perfect rose. I don’t like the really sweet ones. I prefer the ones that seem to go on forever; the fragrance has depth and seems to have been instilled in the plant for hundreds of years. Sometimes it’s the yellow ones that smell best.
I really don’t know which colour I like best. As a decisive person, roses just show me to be useless. The deep, velvety reds remind me of love and passion and blood and crossing continents. The yellows are more frivolous, yet pretty and cottagey. The pinks are so girly that I just have to love them and the whites are wonderful at night, when they glow in their phosphorescent way through the trees where they grow. Plant shrub roses, climbers, ramblers and old fashioned gallica and moss roses. Smell them first thing in the morning when there’s still dew on the petals. Then try and tell me there’s no heaven.
Things to do - Dig for victory
Grow some veg! Don’t pretend you don’t have time, or your garden’s too small. Anyone can grow veg. There is nothing on earth like your own tomatoes or runner beans. You only need a big pot for tomatoes, if you haven’t got a bit of ground for them. The plants are for sale everywhere. Put a big long cane, or piece of wood, behind them first then plant them just in front. Tie them in loosely and keep them well watered. If you like, you can add some tomato feed to the water each week but even if you don’t, they’ll still do wonderful things. Don’t water them erratically, or they’ll split as they ripen. One good bucket of water a couple of times a week, is much better (for any plant in the garden) than a half hearted squirt from the hose pipe every day. Keep tying them in as they grow and all you have to do is wait, and then eat them straight from the plant.
Runner beans need a bit more space, but just make a wig wam out of canes and plant a bean at the bottom of each cane. Again, tie them in as they grow and keep them well watered. Pick them when they’re young and bendy and slice straight into boiling water. Serve them with two new season roasted lamb chops, boiled Jersey potatoes – smothered in butter with chopped fresh mint. Its superb. If you don’t grow any other vegetables, they’re the two most prolific and worthwhile. Beans from Kenya? How can they possibly compare?