Diana and Martin have been here. Diana has removed parts of the stumpery in the bog and so we have been inspired to remove some more. We found a few little blaeberry plants in among the roots; and I have replanted them just outside the study window. I have also planted near there an olearia macrodonta like the one which Janet gave me years ago and which is now huge and very beautiful. The ground beneath the six inches of peat put there by the builders, taken, as I believe I may have said before, from our beautiful peat meadow grrr, is a mixture of orange sand and stones. I have no idea if this is indigenous or builders' waste. I will be interested to see how it operates as a growing medium.
When we took D and M for the usual walk around we had the greatest excitement of finding a huge bush of knee high oak, far down towards the river just to the side of the knoll with the dead tree. The oak is either one sprawling or several not sprawling seedlings, very thoroughly bonsaied by deer. It is eight feet by six feet across and about two feet high. We are amazed that we have not seen it before; but, really, you don't expect to see an oak tree imitating the action of bog myrtle. This is a fencing priority.
Diana and Roy waded across to one of the little islands in the river, as the water was so low, and found three alders there. Rather fairy taleish I feel. Otherwise, we just noticed trees and plants and we sat on rocks in the burn and fantasised about what the Victorians would have done with the ravine. Well, I did.
On Sunday we went to have lunch at the Invergarry Castle Hotel, a very civilised place, because we had to buy some milk. We went for a walk in the grounds which are decayed gentility: lots of big oaks and beeches; the remains of gardens; terraces; gunneras; a whole pond full of arum lilies; and dozens and dozens of oak seedlings. Oh how my trowel finger itched.
I have been taking pictures which will be posted when I can find the intellectual energy. They include some interiors because I have been asked for them. The study is now useable as such; we have moved the sofa to the place where a second one might be put. And the builders have done various things such as fixing the lights which I don't much like over the table (and breaking one of them). The table is really too short for three lights. They have also put up our ingenious American coathooks as yet unavailable here. (Thank you, Max.) The pictures will be there to prove it.
Monday, July 27, 2009
General Notes about what is appearing and what I have planted
Somewhat remiss in the blog-writing recently. Well, not so recently, actually, I see. It is a problem, writing things about a building project when it has virtually ended. All I really have is the report of three months’ worth of wild flowers, which I find interesting, but which may seem dull to some, plus a discussion of trees and one visit to Alasdair about snagging.
Simply in the interests of recording what I may later find has died on me, I note that I have moved some plants from St Andrews and put them at the top of the bank on the south side of the house. So far there are these: the small scented jonquil-like daffodils with slightly twisted petals and a small cup; iris reticulata; erythronium revolutum; narcissus Tete a Tete; iris Katherine Hodgkin, a spectacular spring-flowering miniature; ranunculus aconitifolius plenus, the double white buttercup; some hybrid geranium renardii which have not come out in that lovely grey colour of flower, as they are hybrids; and astrantia. Mike has let me take a root of golden oreganum from Tomdoun. I have also sown some seeds of orleya grandiflora, given me by Gardens Illustrated, and some aquilegia seeds from St Andrews. At the back of the house, on the bank, I have sown some white foxgloves, also from GI. Beside the track, I have cast a weird collection of seeds given by someone. They include cornflower, achillea, some sort of daisy flower, poppies and more aquilegias. In the difficult area in front of Klarg I have buried a thank you letter impregnated with wildflower seeds. Heaven knows what will come up; it felt like an odd thing to do.
The wild flowers already in residence have gone through several waves since I last wrote. Bluebells, wood anemones, wood sorrel and violets gave way to chickweed wintergreen, orchids, tomentil and cinquefoils. (I know the difference, I think.) There is also tick wort, milkwort and those succulent bog flowers that I can’t look up because the wildflower books are elsewhere. Now the bog asphodel has come out in huge swathes, very noticeably behind the house, where it makes a harmonious sweep of yellow surrounded by lines of the different greens of grass, bog myrtle and bracken. Things here seem to go in for monoculture.
The bare banks are greening up reasonably well. Livy has posted some pictures taken several weeks ago which show this; and I am taking some more this weekend. Except in the areas immediately beside the house, where the builders put a layer of peat taken from the meadow, over the brickbats and pieces of wire which I fully expect to find down there one day, the bare earth has had two summers to recover. It is doing particularly well in the place where the original track to the meadow was made and then abandoned. The back of the quarry and the sides of the track are not doing too badly; the banks to the north and south of the house are starting to recover, except the place to the north which is pure scree. The only really slow bit is the long barrow of subsoil up the slope behind the north bank.
Simply in the interests of recording what I may later find has died on me, I note that I have moved some plants from St Andrews and put them at the top of the bank on the south side of the house. So far there are these: the small scented jonquil-like daffodils with slightly twisted petals and a small cup; iris reticulata; erythronium revolutum; narcissus Tete a Tete; iris Katherine Hodgkin, a spectacular spring-flowering miniature; ranunculus aconitifolius plenus, the double white buttercup; some hybrid geranium renardii which have not come out in that lovely grey colour of flower, as they are hybrids; and astrantia. Mike has let me take a root of golden oreganum from Tomdoun. I have also sown some seeds of orleya grandiflora, given me by Gardens Illustrated, and some aquilegia seeds from St Andrews. At the back of the house, on the bank, I have sown some white foxgloves, also from GI. Beside the track, I have cast a weird collection of seeds given by someone. They include cornflower, achillea, some sort of daisy flower, poppies and more aquilegias. In the difficult area in front of Klarg I have buried a thank you letter impregnated with wildflower seeds. Heaven knows what will come up; it felt like an odd thing to do.
The wild flowers already in residence have gone through several waves since I last wrote. Bluebells, wood anemones, wood sorrel and violets gave way to chickweed wintergreen, orchids, tomentil and cinquefoils. (I know the difference, I think.) There is also tick wort, milkwort and those succulent bog flowers that I can’t look up because the wildflower books are elsewhere. Now the bog asphodel has come out in huge swathes, very noticeably behind the house, where it makes a harmonious sweep of yellow surrounded by lines of the different greens of grass, bog myrtle and bracken. Things here seem to go in for monoculture.
The bare banks are greening up reasonably well. Livy has posted some pictures taken several weeks ago which show this; and I am taking some more this weekend. Except in the areas immediately beside the house, where the builders put a layer of peat taken from the meadow, over the brickbats and pieces of wire which I fully expect to find down there one day, the bare earth has had two summers to recover. It is doing particularly well in the place where the original track to the meadow was made and then abandoned. The back of the quarry and the sides of the track are not doing too badly; the banks to the north and south of the house are starting to recover, except the place to the north which is pure scree. The only really slow bit is the long barrow of subsoil up the slope behind the north bank.
Visit from the Tree Man
I have mentioned Graham Tuley before. His second visit deserves a separate posting and I only hope I can remember all his advice. It was a jolly hot day and we walked around looking at trees and discussing management strategies until I was bushed. And then we did it again after lunch.
Graham is a forester of standing, now retired. We don’t know the full extent of his expertise; but we accept it as far beyond what we will ever have the capacity to benefit fully from, if you get my drift. For us, it is the regenerating old woodland aspect that is important.
We made the beginnings of an inventory: pretty much the species that I have mentioned before. What we should be trying to encourage are the oaks and hazels, which are old; and only the hazels seem to be putting out seedlings. Birch doesn’t really need much encouragement, though it would be nice to see some young ones getting beyond bonsai size. We should try to get the right variety of Scots pine to gain or regain a foothold.
There is a lot of erudite stuff about Scots pines which I have somewhat forgotten, taking away from it the memory of the name of a book, which Roy has written down somewhere, and the fact that Scots pines have various varieties (sub-species?) that appear only in very restricted areas. The Knoydart pines at Runival and Barrisdale are completely different from the ones in Glengarry. There is a pocket of very ancient trees indeed just over the hill from the Wood in the direction of Loch Loyn. Apparently, it is important not to interfere with the speciation and geographical speciality, so we must be careful to take seeds for our pines from old trees in Glengarry, and not planted ones.
In general, we should be putting trees where bracken flourishes – no point in even thinking of doing anything in the bogs. I am reasonably content with that, though I shall probably try the odd willow in the bog – acceptable as it is a native tree, and taxodium, to see if it grows knees. This is markedly not acceptable, or perhaps just marginally so if placed near the house. I am not to plant a Wellintonia. (Mutinous muttering – but I might just conceivably get away with it in an overtly gardened place.
We also discussed deer management. The new approach seems to be to try cohabitation. Donald the ghillie at Kinlochhourn would like this, too. We should try to set out easy routes through the wood from top to bottom, and otherwise do a little topical fencing in small areas. Deer don’t like what I believe is called an in-and-out in show jumping. So an enclosure only a few metres across will discourage them. As Esther noticed, just a plain piece of wire fencing may discourage them if a seedling tree is tangled up in it.
There are other odd places where trees are regenerating – a little stand of alders up quite near the top of the west burn, for example, where an angle of fencing makes a sort of nook, not actually enclosed, but just sufficiently discouraging to keep the deer off.
Graham is keen on growing from seed and so we will be keenly collecting bird cherry seeds and rose hips as well as pine cones, and making natty little wire entanglements for them. Hours of innocent pleasure.
Graham is a forester of standing, now retired. We don’t know the full extent of his expertise; but we accept it as far beyond what we will ever have the capacity to benefit fully from, if you get my drift. For us, it is the regenerating old woodland aspect that is important.
We made the beginnings of an inventory: pretty much the species that I have mentioned before. What we should be trying to encourage are the oaks and hazels, which are old; and only the hazels seem to be putting out seedlings. Birch doesn’t really need much encouragement, though it would be nice to see some young ones getting beyond bonsai size. We should try to get the right variety of Scots pine to gain or regain a foothold.
There is a lot of erudite stuff about Scots pines which I have somewhat forgotten, taking away from it the memory of the name of a book, which Roy has written down somewhere, and the fact that Scots pines have various varieties (sub-species?) that appear only in very restricted areas. The Knoydart pines at Runival and Barrisdale are completely different from the ones in Glengarry. There is a pocket of very ancient trees indeed just over the hill from the Wood in the direction of Loch Loyn. Apparently, it is important not to interfere with the speciation and geographical speciality, so we must be careful to take seeds for our pines from old trees in Glengarry, and not planted ones.
In general, we should be putting trees where bracken flourishes – no point in even thinking of doing anything in the bogs. I am reasonably content with that, though I shall probably try the odd willow in the bog – acceptable as it is a native tree, and taxodium, to see if it grows knees. This is markedly not acceptable, or perhaps just marginally so if placed near the house. I am not to plant a Wellintonia. (Mutinous muttering – but I might just conceivably get away with it in an overtly gardened place.
We also discussed deer management. The new approach seems to be to try cohabitation. Donald the ghillie at Kinlochhourn would like this, too. We should try to set out easy routes through the wood from top to bottom, and otherwise do a little topical fencing in small areas. Deer don’t like what I believe is called an in-and-out in show jumping. So an enclosure only a few metres across will discourage them. As Esther noticed, just a plain piece of wire fencing may discourage them if a seedling tree is tangled up in it.
There are other odd places where trees are regenerating – a little stand of alders up quite near the top of the west burn, for example, where an angle of fencing makes a sort of nook, not actually enclosed, but just sufficiently discouraging to keep the deer off.
Graham is keen on growing from seed and so we will be keenly collecting bird cherry seeds and rose hips as well as pine cones, and making natty little wire entanglements for them. Hours of innocent pleasure.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
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