Net Gains (hopefully)

What wonderful weather we’ve been enjoying these past few weeks – I hope this doesn’t mean a disappointing summer though. Mind you today’s rain is much needed – the ground is looking very dry already. I was determined to be more restrained with my seed sowing this year but it all went a bit wrong. I did make ‘definite’ and ‘maybe’ piles of seed packets, but somehow things got out of hand! GR will be cursing me because he’s going to have to water them all while I’m away on my hols – you could look upon it as payback time for his 6 week absence on the ski slopes of Europe and Canada!

It’s so good to be back out in the garden for extended periods, without needing to wear all my clothes. I’ve been busy preparing for summer and enjoying seeing what is bursting into life in my garden. Last year I planted a lot of perennials in my bottom border (72 to be precise), after it was annihilated due to the installation of a new fence – you can read more about that here. I’m seeing new growth daily, but I have to look up what some of the plants are. I thought I would be able to tell from the planting plan that came with them, but I did deviate from it and I do remember there were some substitutes which I failed to record. Anyway, it will hopefully be a nice surprise!

Last year I went to the Harrogate Autumn Flower show, which is held at Newby Hall near Ripon. I had such a lovely day with my friends, which included a tour of the stunning garden, led by their Head Gardener, no less. One idea I was really struck with was the netting system they use to support plants in their herbaceous borders. It all just looked so natural. The wide gauge netting was attached horizontally onto wooden posts to form a framework. Every year I struggle with staking plants. I start with my shorter supports, but then plants like the ox-eye daisies, large lupins and sedums go mad and I have to to put in taller ones. Unfortunately this often looks rather contrived and I’m never quite satisfied with the look. So I decided to trial Newby Hall’s idea. I bought some quite substantial wooden posts like theirs, which I tried to hammer into the ground, but my pathetic attempts meant they weren’t very sturdy. No matter, this was where GR came in handy with our sledgehammer, which I can barely lift, never mind do anything useful with. Just to digress a minute, I started wondering why it’s called a sledgehammer – after all you could wreck a sledge with one in seconds. Apparently the ‘sledge’ bit is derived from the Old-English “slægan”, which means “to strike violently” – so there’s your fascinating fact for today!

My next task was to source the appropriate netting. I looked online and in garden centres but everything seemed too fine or not substantial enough or too pricey. So I emailed Newby Hall and I was really impressed to receive a prompt response from Lawrence Wright, the Head Gardener. The netting they use comes from Knowle Nets – they were really helpful and even reduced their standard postage for me, because they normally supply netting in gargantuan proportions, to the likes of Newby Hall and plant nurseries. Now granted, it doesn’t look the most attractive at the moment, but I’m hoping that as the plants start to fill out, the posts will be disguised a bit.

A few days after I had set it all up I came across an online video by Sarah Raven. She uses willow twigs as opposed to stocky posts, so hers all looks very sophisticated compared to mine. They probably would blend in better, although I’m not sure how sturdy they would be, because you do need to make sure the netting is really taut. Anyway, after a few weeks of growth, I think it’s working – some of the plants are already making their way through the netting and they’ve got a lot more growing to do yet. It’s all a bit of trial and error, but I’ll look and learn ready for next year. A question asked on our Newby Hall tour was, how do the gardeners weed once the netting is in. The answer is they crawl underneath. Thankfully I can still get down onto my hands and knees and my border is on a slightly smaller scale to theirs. Actually, I’ve just had another thought, Little Bud is on the verge of crawling, so I could send him in!

I’ve had a bit of a netting frenzy this month, in that I’ve used a finer kind for a different purpose. You may remember my pigeon nesting issues over the last couple of years – if not, or you want a refresh, have a look here. This year I decided to act before any amorous shenanigans ensued and while my wisteria was still bare of foliage. I draped netting across it so that the pigeons can’t land on the branches and build a nest. My only worry is whether the foliage will grow sufficiently long to poke its way through the netting, allowing the flowers to hang as they should, rather than being trapped inside it. I’ll let you know!

By the way, Mr & Mrs BT are back, busily building a nest in the tit box! Well, I’m assuming they’re the original pair. Victoria has done some research – they can live up to 4 years, so I like to think it’s them. I have noticed that one of them, let’s assume Mr BT, is trialling a speedier approach to nest building this year. On two occasions I’ve seen him take in items that weighed him down so much he had to land mid flight and try again – a very long piece of wool and a large feather – maybe he didn’t have to learn proverbs at school – more haste less speed Mr BT!

Happy Easter everyone.