My Spring Garden

Hello !

I am new to blogging but not new to writing about gardening. For a number of years I was the Gardening writer for The Teesdale Mercury, Durham Town & Country magazine and successfully produced a video ' Spirit of Place ' a personal account of a year in my garden and the surrounding countryside which sold nationwide ! After a 5 year break from garden design and helping others in a practical way I am back now working as a professional gardener.

Needless to say, I love gardening !  So, I hope that what I can share with you will help or inspire you, especially if you have a difficult garden such as mine which is either partial or heavy shade.

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Springtime is a period of excitement for me ! Throughout February hundreds and hundreds of snowdrops have taken centre stage, to be followed by daffodils and now celandines carpeting the woodland floor en masse.

Today's glorious sunshine has highlighted the Epimediums. I call them my buried treasure ! If you haven't come across them, start searching because they are plants worth knowing and having. These delightful woodland lovers come to us from Japan and China. The older types are giving way to new colourful beauties, spreading excitement through the world of plant collectors. A brief description here just wont do, they have to be seen to be appreciated. Jewel-like flowers - sparkling gold, ruby, amethyst, diamond white and more besides dance amidst foliage decorated in coppery red, bronze and green markings. The beautifully crafted flowers nod delicately from slender stems, with some varieties displaying elongated petals which arch back like spurs. Translation of the Japanese word for Epimedium gives us ' anchor plant '. Here we refer to them as barren wort, a term dating back to medieval times, and was believed to hinder conception. But, not so in China where the extract from the leaves is used as a aphrodisiac !

My favourite has to be E. x rubrum. They gleam resplendent in the sunshine. The cheery red and yellow spurs stand tall against the foliage - such a contrast !

Larger blooms projecting longer spurs can be found in different forms of E. grandiflorum.

Above we have a variety that has taken well in this shady garden and will soon need dividing. E. x versicolour  ' Sulphureum ' has excellent yellow flower heads that highlight the shadier borders. This is a good one to start off with, being easy and reliable and holds an Award of Garden Merit.

I check on my treasures regularly especially during frosty spells. The emerging foliage can be caught in no time and may disturb next years's flowering process. My prevention tactics involve cutting down all the old foliage in late winter to ground level and covering with a layer of leaf-mould and peat. This method means the emerging flowers will be seen at their best due to the fact that the flower stems emerge before the new foliage.

The foliage is superb and once away these plants provide very attractive ground cover. Before planting I would suggest good ground prep. A well-drained, humus-rich soil is best and this can be enriched with well rotted compost, leaf mould or peat substitute. If, after a number of years the flowers decrease or the leaves start to deteriorate then divide and replant in a newly prepared site. Keep them content by mulching and applying a general fertiliser, until the guardian of the treasure chest  locks them away for safe keeping !!

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