Moors Meadow Open Gardens and Nursery - Bromyard

This Month

This Month April 2023 - Friday, 31 Mar 2023

It is an exciting time in the garden and I have been adding plants that will add to the interest in spring especially in Tawny Corner where I have also added ferns and flowers to enjoy later in the year. It is not the only area that I have been planting, at the end of the fernery I added Viburnum carlesii which is superbly scented, I do have one but that specimen is getting shaded out so the new one is in a more open area and next to a path to make it all the easier to imbibe the aroma. I have planted two more Viburnum that I have never seen before. At the bottom of the right bank of the lower garden, near the younger Davidia involucrata, I planted Viburnum calvum but it was difficult deciding where it should go as the few bits of information I could find about it stated different heights. About halfway up the right bank is where I put Viburnum Le Bois Marquis (Viburnum Handsome Devil) which has stunning foliage, shiny green infused with red and red veins, I look forward to the autumn colour which is said to be fabulous. Its common name is very apt.
It is not all the fun of planting out, one other job that I am not so keen on is to tidy the paths but it is a necessary chore. I am also starting to plant the vegetables, the first ones to go in is the parsnips, broad beans and potatoes. In recent years I have been planting just three varieties of spuds, but I have been unable to find the seed potatoes of best crop I grew last year so I will see if they grow ok from tubers I saved.
The snow in March caused a little damage but mostly just broken small branches, for a while afterwards I kept finding the odd branch here and there that needed removing due to damage.
The Daffodils are one of the most dominant flowers as there are so many of them but there is so much coming out it is a riot of colour with the many Rhododendrons, Camellias and Magnolias and a myriad other plants in flower. I must take more time to walk around and enjoy the garden as it is just too tempting to keep working and forget to look and there is so much to do now that sometimes I don’t take much time to relax.
It was good to get a decent amount of rain through March although until it dries a little I cannot bring the wood up from the lower garden from the winter pruning and there is quite a lot as we took one tree out as well as raising branches on others. For the same reason I haven’t yet been able to mow down there so if there isn’t a dry few days I will be strimming the paths which is not much fun when it such a large area.
On a recent trip out I noticed how many hedges are being decimated, either cut to within an inch of their lives or taken out completely. It is such a backward step as hedgerows are so important to help reduce flooding, to shelter stock animals, very important for wildlife which in turn help to pollinate crops. We have lost about 60% of flying insects in the last 20 years and about 75% of food requires pollinating insects. With increasingly strong storms tall hedges are important to help to filter the wind and thus protect our homes. It is not only sad but a disaster for wildlife and thus ourselves how few wild spaces there are in Britain, it is up to us gardeners and landowners to do much more to create wild spaces with a great diversity of plants and to avoid chemical use.

It is an exciting time in the garden and I have been adding plants that will add to the interest in spring especially in Tawny Corner where I have also added ferns and flowers to enjoy later in the year. It is not the only area that I have been planting, at the end of the fernery I added Viburnum carlesii which is superbly scented, I do have one but that specimen is getting shaded out so the new one is in a more open area and next to a path to make it all the easier to imbibe the aroma. I have planted two more Viburnum that I have never seen before. At the bottom of the right bank of the lower garden, near the younger Davidia involucrata, I planted Viburnum calvum but it was difficult deciding where it should go as the few bits of information I could find about it stated different heights. About halfway up the right bank is where I put Viburnum Le Bois Marquis (Viburnum Handsome Devil) which has stunning foliage, shiny green infused with red and red veins, I look forward to the autumn colour which is said to be fabulous. Its common name is very apt.
It is not all the fun of planting out, one other job that I am not so keen on is to tidy the paths but it is a necessary chore. I am also starting to plant the vegetables, the first ones to go in is the parsnips, broad beans and potatoes. In recent years I have been planting just three varieties of spuds, but I have been unable to find the seed potatoes of best crop I grew last year so I will see if they grow ok from tubers I saved.
The snow in March caused a little damage but mostly just broken small branches, for a while afterwards I kept finding the odd branch here and there that needed removing due to damage.
The Daffodils are one of the most dominant flowers as there are so many of them but there is so much coming out it is a riot of colour with the many Rhododendrons, Camellias and Magnolias and a myriad other plants in flower. I must take more time to walk around and enjoy the garden as it is just too tempting to keep working and forget to look and there is so much to do now that sometimes I don’t take much time to relax.
It was good to get a decent amount of rain through March although until it dries a little I cannot bring the wood up from the lower garden from the winter pruning and there is quite a lot as we took one tree out as well as raising branches on others. For the same reason I haven’t yet been able to mow down there so if there isn’t a dry few days I will be strimming the paths which is not much fun when it such a large area.
On a recent trip out I noticed how many hedges are being decimated, either cut to within an inch of their lives or taken out completely. It is such a backward step as hedgerows are so important to help reduce flooding, to shelter stock animals, very important for wildlife which in turn help to pollinate crops. We have lost about 60% of flying insects in the last 20 years and about 75% of food requires pollinating insects. With increasingly strong storms tall hedges are important to help to filter the wind and thus protect our homes. It is not only sad but a disaster for wildlife and thus ourselves how few wild spaces there are in Britain, it is up to us gardeners and landowners to do much more to create wild spaces with a great diversity of plants and to avoid chemical use.

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