I finally understood the song “slow down you’re going to fast” as spring sped away from us this year in the garden. It felt that no sooner than the tide of Daffodils had spread across garden than their vibrant yellow blooms seemed almost to look far too bright as the intensity of the light increased with the lengthening days.
This month I have spent a little time working on a garden project that I have had in my imagination for many years and it is finally taking shape in the Italian Garden. So join me for my March diary update with a photo album of Ednovean Farm’s garden for March as the spring garden slips towards early summer.
Garden dreams as Spring flies passed (2017)
It has always been a dream to develop the garden rooms in the Italian Garden and I’ve slowly tweaked with a plan in mind over the last couple of years. I started the foundations by adding two bay trees that had overgrown their containers to flank a bench in one “room” a couple of years ago and they stand beside an imaginary dark pool that will reflect the sky and allow a sitter gentle contemplations for a moment or two…..
Recycling materials
This project has become an exercise in recycling and at each stage materials and plants have been reclaimed and redeployed. In fact the cost so far, as you see the garden at the moment, amounts to £40. That bought landscaping fabric to go under the path foundations reclaimed when the JCB came to level the car park.
Our car park had suffered from the winter rains and many tons of gravel had partly disintegrated and mixed with mud to form a sort of hogging. And so as the material was scraped up, for the price of my labours if I waiting as the JCB bucket scraped the surface my wheelbarrow was filled I had the ideal hogging to start my paths for the new quadrant lay out. Mind you restraining a full wheelbarrow down the courtyard steps is an acquired art!
The retaining framework for the paths was found from discarded pieces or wood and railing stacked in forgotten corners and it became a matter of principle, as we did when renovating our home, to use every old reclaimed scrap.
The useful pieces of old white electric fencing tape have now been replaced with a stout pre-loved wooden stake to hold the wayward Olive tree at a better angle. a guest who stayed and owned an Olive Grove (envious sigh ) recommended keeping it staked fro a couple of years until it becomes established
The Gazebo and layout (Real and imagined!)
As I described in last garden diary – the gazebo that was brought to the garden by the props department for a Rosamunde Pilcher film. We relocated it last autumn so it only remained to gingerly make a big gap in the hedge to link the two fledgling gardens. I then designed a straight path to the arbour and a cross path from an entrance effectively making a quadrant centred on a previously positioned olive tree.
As I said this plan has been at the back of my mind for quite a long time so I’ve positioned a few plants over time – I only had to join the dots to make a fairly established looking garden with the finishing touch, an elderly but oh so comfortable, table and chairs. Admittedly they are in need of a fresh coat of paint but they fit perfectly under the gazebo.
I have a feeling that the garden has somehow moved on in its design encompassing the hippy Gazebo now from Rosamunde Pilcher and with it the Eastern influence in courtyard design. and somehow the contrast to the rest of the Italian garden and nod to arabic garden influences, feels just right in the shaper light of summer.
Future planting
I want to keep to a Mediterranean palette with plants evocative of summer days that will love to simmer in the enclosed warmth so I’m thinking pale mauve Iris in front of the table and chairs and lavender to line the path. After road testing the garden over a morning cup of coffee and admiring the silvery grey foliage of the Olive tree in reflecting the light in the sunshine we “chipped a couple of silvery grey astelias from an established clump to continue the light reflecting scheme. Maybe a couple of box balls to add next to help pace the path or just maybe the garden rabbits are going to have a gourmet feast – I’ll tell you next month as work continues after Easter!
The Ednovean farm Gardens – The March album
Can I stay or visit?
Our gardens at Ednovean Farm are open all day for our Bed and Breakfast guests and just perfect for the garden lovers and strollers to explore and it is not too late to check out our reservations page for a short spring break this year.
We used to open the gardens as a Yellow Book NGS garden and do open the gardens very occasionally still for groups in aid of local charities.
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