Mistakes

One of the few areas of my garden that I can actually get on to during the winter is my so-called gravel garden. It has not been as successful as I had hoped and may even turn out to be a major mistake, though I have not quite got to that conclusion as yet. The rabbits have not helped in that their presence has required that I surround the garden with chicken wire. This is not quite as ghastly as it might seem; chicken wire is far less visible than for instance plastic, which is why I use it to protect newly planted trees, but it clearly does not help to set off the gravel. I was also lazy, or perhaps just a little defeatist: the gravel is placed on top of heavy clay soil in an area which is more or less flat, and it would have been much better to have heavily rotavated or even dug out the area to at least 60 cms before putting down the gravel and in my case peat - and if you want to know how the professionals do it you need to consult Beth Chatto's 'Gravel Garden'. But I do not possess 'subsoilers' or tractors, am of a certain age, and lack the necessary manpower to do what Beth Chatto recommends.My biggest mistake was to my surprise and annoyance the peat. I used it because I did not want anything too rich, since that is what most gravel garden plants dislike. What I did not allow for is that it came with a most obnoxious weeds that runs all over the place and is thus very difficult to eliminate. Almost as obnoxious however is a plant that is very popular in our region and when in full flower is admittedly attractive, the plant being Oenothera speciosa in its various forms ('rosea': 'siskiyou'). I have fallen for it on a number of occasions, but am now busy eliminating it. It is very invasive, for much of the year rather untidy, but perhaps most worryingly it is also a killer, it's prey being the lovely Humming bird moth, whose long tongue gets caught in the flower's throat and cannot escape. I am not as you know very environmentally correct but I do like the Humming bird moth and hate to see it trapped in this way.

Another popular if not to say fashionable plant is the grass, Stipa tenuissima/tenuifolia, what the French call 'cheveux d'ange'. There is much to be said for it, but in my experience it is better in the photographs than in reality where it can, to quote Christopher Lloyd, 'quickly subside into a depressing mush' . It is also quite invasive, though much easier to eliminate that the oenothera. It may be that I have got it in the wrong place. I increasingly think that I want to keep my gravel garden full of much lower and what one might call tidier plants - the small dianthus for instance - and anything bigger needs to be attractive for a long period, with perhaps some shape to it. On my wilder banks the stipa might be just thing, because if it does turn to mush, and of course it does not always, it would not be too noticeable.

Meanwhile one or two plants are making an appearance. In my last blog I sung the praises of Iris unguicularis. Now I would like to mention other species Iris usually grouped under the heading 'reticulata'; In fact my favourite is Iris histrioides George, a marvellous deep purple with yellow markings. I have also got I. reticulata Harmony, attractive enough, but so similar to 'George' that I now see no point in having them both. In previous gardens I have had Iris danfordiae which is yellow, and there are plenty of others to choose from. In England one used to worry abut their survival from year to year, or any rate the probability that they would not clump up. Here there seems to be no worry about this. Mine are definitely on the increase and are a very welcome sight. I have also got the odd crocus out, especially C. tommasinianus, but they are far too rabbit friendly to make much of showing here - in England I seem to remember it was the squirrels that were the danger, and while there is the occasional Red squirrel about, they do not seem to be a danger to gardens in quite the same way as the Grey.

Also out are the Cyclamen coums. I wish I had more. They come in various shades of purple and white, and their leaves, which are round rather than in the case of C. hederifolium heart shaped, come with various patterns, including some that are almost entirely silver. I have said it before but will say it again, if one could only choose one family of bulbs/corms for our region it would surely be the cyclamens.