The East Bank and Meadows
This northen part of the Main Garden is characterised by the steep bank that falls from the house and terrace to some flatter ground below. The area is currently (2021) undergoing considerable redevelopment, after years of neglect.
The East Bank was created over the remains of the old rock garden in orr to create the terrace. It was a pity to cover over what must once have been pretty spectacular. The image shows the bank after construction in summer 2006. It's a very tricky space because the bank is very steep at the top and abit less steep towards the bottom. It can be quite nerve racking balamcing whilst planting - particularly when your tools or the plant keep rolling back down the bank ...
It did look pretty good for a while after I started planting it up. The main themes were big herbaceous and lots of flowers with some shrubs. A minor theme was to have quite a few Gondwanan plants, the flora of which I fell in love with after visits to South Africa and New Zealand. So there were Astelia, Cortaderi richardii, Poa cita,
Drimys winteri, Olearia nummulariifolia, Agapanthus and Crocosmia cultivars. There were also other shrubs and trees, such as Cercidiphyllum japonicum, Microbiota decussata and Heptacodium miconioides (syn. jasminoides). The photo shows te bank at its height in 2013.
Unfortunately, for the next few years I became very busy with work and the garden - particularly the East Bank was completely neglected. So brambles, willow, birch and all manner of dreadful things swamped the site so that I had to have it cleared in 2021 (right)
You can see the flowering New Zealand pampas grasses (Cortaderia richardii) which are still going strong as are the planted shrubs. There were also surviving Astelia and Crocosmias that I managed to rescue, but little else of the herbaceous. Currently (spring 2022) I am still trying to reduce the bramble problem and plan to start planting, mainly with shrubs, in summer 2022, but I anticipate it will take some years before it is 'finished'.
The Meadows are two areas of long grass below the house, separated by mown paths. One, shown on the left, is planted up with varieties of daffodils that take over from a clump of snowdrops and flower from late March through to early May when the bluebells take over. No upkeep is required except to cut it down in early Autumn.
The second meadow, now named the Conifer Meadow, used to just be an area of long grass with a few ramdom bulbs in. However, a number of the bulbs, except for bluebells and spring snowflakes (Leucojum vernum) didn't amount to much. I had hoped that wildflowers would eventually come into the grass as on the Mount, but this didn't really happen. So it is now being redeveloped as an hommage to the 20th century garden and plated with heathers, dwarf conifers, rhododendrons and willows, as well as with a variety of wildflowers. A couple of rowans (Sorbus 'Aspenifolia' and 'copper kettle') and the white flowering cherry Prunus 'Taihaku' have been planted at the north end for variety. The hope is tht over time the shrubs will bulk up and obviate the need for cutting. The photo shows the area being planted up in March 2021.
© Ronnie Cann 2021