Spud-U-Like

Friday, this week, saw Myddelton House Gardens tick off another milestone in its renovation of the Kitchen Garden. We lifted the first potatoes in over sixty years. I felt great pride when lifting the first row although two months late with planting we have had an excellent yield. The variety is named ‘Foremost’. Out of the varieties of potato we are growing this year it is the youngest variety of potato, dating from the year of Mr Bowles’ death.  

‘Foremost’ is a first early. It was initially added to the National Variety list in 1954 and was named ‘Suttons Foremost’.  It became an instant favourite with gardeners for its excellent flavour and resistance to disintegration when boiling. It also offers good common scab resistance. This variety was recognised by the RHS in 1998 with an Award of Garden Merit.  Use: salad, baked, boiled & roasted.

Seed potato Suppliers 

http://www.pennardplants.com/products.php?cat=209&pg=3

http://www.jbaseedpotatoes.co.uk/rhs-award-winners/foremost-p15.html

The produce is now for sale from the Visitors Centre at £2 for 2.5kg.  We have brought an old artefact back into action to help us weigh them out.

The Alpine Meadow

This week we cut the Alpine Meadow. It’s a few weeks earlier than it has been done in previous years due to work demands.

The original method of maintaining an area such as this would have been to cut the long grass using scythes and then raking it with wooden hay rakes. I can only imagine how exhausting this must have been. Our alpine meadow has been cut using a tractor mounted flail mower for many years and the grass was left to rot down. This, unfortunately, has increased the soil fertility and the vigour of growth of the meadow to the detriment of the bulbs and geraniums which get engulfed in the long grass. More recently, the meadow has been strimmed and the material removed. This is a labour intensive method for a meadow of our size taking two days for one person just to strim.

The mowing regime now is to cut the area once a year with a reciprocating blade and rake off all the grass. This ensures that we reduce the nutrient level within the meadow which in turn will help to reduce the vigour of the grass and weed growth. We are already starting to notice a difference just in two years with our improved mowing regime. We are now using a BCS 740 two-wheeled tractor with a reciprocating blade attachment. We will continue to mow and collect the meadow using a Kubota G23 Rotary ride-on mower until the first or second week in September when the first flowering of Autumn Crocus will begin. If the ground is hard enough in late winter prior to the spring crocus flowering we will try to cut again. This helps to show off the beautiful collection of Crocus, Daffodils and later Camassia.



Nereida cutting the Alpine Meadow with the BCS 740

This year we have also utilised a mechanical hay rake attachment fitted onto our two-wheeled tractor. This gathers the cut grass into rows. This piece of equipment proved to be labour saving. Click on the web link below to see the hay rake in action.

http://www.tracmaster.co.uk/BCS-Implements/Hay-Rake.html

It is exciting to think that even though the days are already getting noticeably shorter, it will not be long before the Autumn Crocus and Colchicums are flowering once again.

Austria

I have recently returned from a week’s stay in the beautiful village of Niederau within the Wildschonau Valley in the Tyrolean area of Austria. Now I could spend all evening writing about the wonderful scenery, the great hospitality and the marvellous paragliding flight, or the amusing tale of me getting lost in a woodland in the early hours of the morning. What I really want to tell you about, however, are the three fabulous plants I found on my travels. I must mention these plants as I was most excited and surprised to discover them while walking thought the mountains. All three are carnivorous: two sundews and a butterwort, which many of you will know are one of my passions.

Drosera rotundifolia

Drosera rotundifolia

Although I have found D. rotundifolia growing in the UK in bog land i have never seen it growing on such mass

Drosera intermedia

Drosera intermedia

Pinguicula alpina

Pinguicula alpina growing in the  moist tyre tracks of a forestry trail

http://www.thecps.org.uk/
There were many more plant we came across and from time to time I will try to add some of these great plants to the blog.

A bit of a quandary

I have been in a bit of a quandary as to exactly when to plant our deciduous Rhododendron luteum and Hydrangea paniculata cultivars along the driveway. We purchased the plants last autumn ready for spring planting. Due to drought hitting the southeast of England, combined with our sharp draining soil, we were forced to delay planting until the autumn. That was, until recently, when I changed the plan. In light of the much needed rains we have experienced as well as the continuing necessity of up righting these top heavy pots I decided to plant them now. The planting has already made an impact on the entrance of the gardens.

The idea was to improve the impact visitors are greeted with upon arriving at Myddelton House Gardens. This area from September through to the end of March offers a wonderful display of autumn crocus colchicums, early flowering daffodils and spring crocus, before being allowed to grow on before being cut back and maintained as a mown area.

Rhododendron luteum

Bryan & Nereida planting, the hard gravely ground has brought Bryan to his knees!

The new plantings were well watered, feed with a granular feed and mulched

I hope the spectacular panicles on the hydrangea will greatly improve the feeling of arrival when you enter the garden. The Royal Horticultural Society Hydrangea paniculata bulletin is a great source of information on selecting and cultivation of this most beautiful of shrubs.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/RHS-Publications/Plant-bulletins/Hydrangea-paniculata

Rhododendron luteum has to be my favourite early flowering Rhododendron offering such a splash of colour in spring and again with its autumnal tints.