Adam's Garden

Gardening by committee can be exasperating and lead to many headaches, not to mention frequent changes of mind by the participants, as in, for example: "Well, I initially favoured the idea of a section of decking, but I am now leaning more towards paving, although gravel does have its' own merits." Unsurprisingly each person has their own firm views on landscape and layout, plants, colour scheme, water features, and so on. If too many compromises are made then a project can either lead to a garden with rather bland features, so as not to offend one party too much, or else the different features are in danger of not marrying together, resulting in a garden of disparate parts not forming a coherent whole. However, without enough compromises there is a danger of alienating others, leading to a complete breakdown of discussions and even, dare I say it, causing rancour and resentment!

Now what does this have to do with this month's story? Well, I live on a farm with a number of others, and right in the middle is a section of stream. In years gone by the stream would have run along the side of the farm and have provided a good source of water for both stock and humans. As the years passed buildings went up, and with the farm buildings being situated on the side of a valley with the stream below, the natural tendency was to extend them around and across the stream. Culverts were installed at both ends of the stream, in order to pipe it underground, leaving a stretch of approximately seventy yards to provide access to the water, which for many years supplied the steam trains passing through the valley. With the demise of steam locomotives, and indeed the rail track itself, the old supply fittings fell into disrepair and have largely disappeared. There are the remnants of an old pool, euphemistically known as 'the duck pond', an ancient water tank and a broken section of cast iron pipe, covered in ivy. The site is approximately twenty yards wide, with a drop end to end of about fifteen feet, and there is a section below the pool forming a kind of waterfall over worn granite boulders. A large amount of gravely silt is washed through when there is heavy rainfall, which periodically needs excavating by hand.

It has been a long term project to turn the area into a garden. It offers tremendous potential, with a large coppiced willow forming a centrepiece and the quick-flowing stream providing cooling views on sunny days. The only problem has been reaching an agreement on an overall structure and layout, mainly with a view to keeping costs down. Last year I did some remedial work by constructing a retaining wall at the lower end, and repaired part of the granite wall running along one side, putting in some access steps up to the side of the stream, which at the higher end runs appreciably above the parallel roadway. Recently I have been finishing off the granite wall, which had tumbled in places. The difficulty faced with repairing walls such as these is knowing where to stop! As the collapsed parts are cleared away, more of the wall starts to fall. It can be rather soul destroying, because what started out as a minor job can escalate alarmingly. Because these walls retain quite a large quantity of soil and rubble they need to be quite strong, and the easiest thing is to mix up concrete and shovel it in with the granite. Some of the stones are large, and many have one flat side, so the idea is to align these accordingly. I am by no means an expert waller, but if the stretch is not too long a reasonable line can be maintained by reference to the abutting walls.

Repairing these walls gives a good lesson into how destructive ivy roots can be. If the mortar between stones is old and decaying, then once the plant has a toehold in the cracks it can, over time, force apart the looser stones . Soil gets in from behind, allowing other plants in and eventually the wall sags outwards, becoming dangerous. The ivy does look nice on old walls, and I am not one to permanently destroy it, but periodically it must be removed and the structure checked.

Once the walls are finished the more creative work will begin, assuming agreement is reached on design! There are already a number of plants in situ. These have gone in over the years and have no particular theme or layout, but some are well-established, particularly a pampas grass and a couple of Carex pendula. On the far side there is a large timber stable block that would lend itself to trellis and shade loving climbers but the adjacent soil is of poor quality, containing a large quantity of builders rubble, and a certain amount of improvement will be necessary. It would be nice to include a bridge or walkway above the waterfall or pool, and a picnic table, but this would all add to the cost and in some ways it would be better to spend the money on interesting plants. I have found that it is all too easy to bulk up a plant collection by cuttings and dividing, resulting in too much duplication, and a lack of diversity, when there are in fact so many different and new species in the garden centre to choose from. Doubling up like this is a quick, cheap and easy method of filling a garden quickly but in the long term it is better to remove these stock plants and introduce choice plants.

The other gardens on the farm have been planted in a fairly desultory fashion; new specimens have gone in on an ad hoc basis. For this new garden it would be fun to get a theme going. One of the most impressive theme gardens I have seen is the Chinese Scholar's Garden in Hamilton, New Zealand. Although fairly small, almost all the features have a certain originality, and combine to produce something that appears greater than the sum of the parts. It uses water, seating, structures and planting to produce a garden that is eminently calming and wholly suited for meditation or cogitation. Not that I have such grand plans for our little plot, you understand, but a simpler theme, say, autumn or spring. a Japanese garden would probably look a bit out of place, especially when hens are likely to rummage there. We do have some guinea fowl and some brightly coloured cockerels which would add to the eastern effect, but these creatures never play on cue. In addition they are a total menace to newly planted beds, scratching the earth for food and making dust baths in the summer.

Well, until we have overcome our analysis paralysis, and reached decisions about what will eventually happen with the new garden I shall continue to make preparations. The greenhouse is filling nicely with maturing cuttings and seedlings, so some of these will come in handy for a start. There is unlimited granite for rockeries and the waterfall. Lots of old logs too. Plans, plans.....

You can find more articles in the archive under Soiled Hands.

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