May in the Ednovean Farm Garden

Sub tropical garden in Cornwall — Looking down on the echiums and Date Palm at the courtyard entrance

May has come and nearly gone in our Cornish garden at Ednovean farm and it has never felt as alive and full of spring promise as this year as the garden continues to mature.The scent of the blue bells is still hanging in the air, long after it should have been gone but then this has been a strange, voluptuous month, held in slow motion, hostage to the cool breezes.

This month has seen the sharp profile of the hedges in the Italian garden re-emerging again from the soft lax growth of the spring with the first trim for the season. We’ve tried petrol hedge cutters with the attendant roar and fatigue of wielding their weight; pole hedge trimmers that produce an interesting undulation as the operative walks before returning with a sigh of relief to my father’s old Black and Decker electric hedge trimmer and extension leads. Now the newly restored sleek, crisp, clean lines stretch in front of us in that regular reassuring way that hedges are supposed to do.

The sheltered heart of the Italian garden flanked by the gravel border – Charles has devoted on area to a bank of Agapanthus

From the gravel border half circles cut in the hedges give glimpses to other garden rooms

Looking from room to room across the aisle of the Italian Garden

The sleek sharp lines of the newly trimmed edges

I planted the standard bay trees out last year after years in pots

The urns that flank the entrance to the Italian Garden

The long avenue that bisects the italian garden opens to a series of garden rooms

The wide sweep of the natural terraced lawns towards the Italian Garden

The italian Garden opens to the sweep of the main lawn

The star of the Ednovean Farm garden this month has to be Echium Panina. The Echiums like a frost free environment to overwinter before shooting up at an impossible rate in the spring and look spectacular for weeks swaying in the breeze, wreathed in honeybees working their way up the tall columns of flowers. The tall waving spires are the first thing that catches our Bed and Breakfast guest’s eye when they explore the gardens.

Echiums flanking the lawns

Pots of Topiary create a focal point from the front door across the top terrace

Geraniums have overwintered outside this year

A view from the lower terrace to the Italian Garden

Echiums thrive in the mild Cornish climate

The seep of lawn to the Italian garden

The strange Echiums give an exotic surreal look to our garden at the moment

Our lush garden in May

The Chusan palm was originally brought back from China by plant hunter Robert Fiortune

The box hedges that frame the more formal areas have not fared so well this year -They’ve been blighted (to coin a pun) by box blight over the last couple of years we’ve just ordered a herbal treatment (the only one available to the amateur gardener) from Top Buxuscare.com – I can only hope!! So for the minute they look rather pale and interesting particularly as I decided on radically trimming them in the early spring to remove some of the diseased wood and open out their structure to allow the air to get in.

Ednovean Farm courtyard above Mounts bay — The parterre has a touch of box blight I’m afraid but I’ve trimmed it radically and it is now resprouting – fingers crossed

Still as I pottered about watering the pots this evening I still loved the quiet sanctuary of the green spaces and felt the simple joy of watching a garden grow and reflect the seasons. May in the garden perfect and the Cornish lanes are still full of Blue bells!