Pruning box hedge

I have been growing a little box hedge across the front of my what was once patio since 2007!!  It was planted to hide the concrete slabs which edged the patio.

2007

This means the garden side of the hedge appears 'uneven as the garden drops two feet diagonally from the left to the right side.  I have always intended that the hedge would be about 18 inches high above the edge of the patio and on a level looking from that side.

Now we have the conservatory it certainly needs to be in line with the bricks on the conservatory wall when looking from either side.

2015

Box is notoriously slow growing and here we are nine years later (well eight actually as this is a photo from last year) and we still aren't quite there but, at last, we are pretty close.

Every year I have cut it to shape with some hand shears and every year have had a blister the size of saucer on my hand to prove it.

This year I succumbed to a great offer (Groupon? £16.99) and bought some small cordless shears.  I admit to being doubtful that either they would be strong enough or that they wouldn't chew up the box.  Wrong in both cases.  They were sharp and efficient and did the job in about a tenth of the time and sans blisters.

I got my other half to cut me three pieces of wood and screw them together to make me a cutting guide.  I just slide this 'bench' along as I cut.....

and used it as a guide, cutting from the other side of the hedge and keeping an eye on the top of the bench to make sure everything was cut to that height.

The traditional day for cutting box hedges is Derby Day - first week in June - but really you can do it more than once a year and pretty much as often as you like in the growing season.  Otherwise like almost all pruning/hedge cutting the general rule is cut for growth in spring (March/April)and cut for shape in late summer (August/September).

Regular Jobs

I realised talking to someone who is tackling their first garden just how much stuff 'gardeners' think is 'obvious' when they've been doing it for years!  We had a conversation about how often to do this or that so I thought I'd list the basic stuff I do and how often I do it, in hopes of helping any Newbie.

Feeding summer flowering containers and hanging baskets:  Use half strength cheap tomato food - obviously you can use super-duper 'proper' plant food if you want to but the half strength tomato food seems to do the job.  Water it in once a week.  I try to do mine on a Sunday so I think of it as their Sunday dinner.

Slug pellets: Start killing on Valentine's day (14th February) - the St Valentine's Day Massacre!  Then I do it around the 14th of every month - that makes it easy to remember.  To be fair the frequency may well depend on your slug pellet population - some people do it as much as weekly.  The key to success in keeping the numbers down is start early in the year and go on through until October - you can take November through January off!  The other key to success is use the pellets very, very thinly - READ and FOLLOW the instructions - one pellet about every six inches.  No, you don't have to put them down one at a time but just be sure you are not over-using them - the smell from loads of them actually deters slugs from eating them.

Feed borders:  Give them a good feed in the Spring as soon as you see some decent growth on plants.  Choice of food is down to you.  I generally use any 7:7:7 mix that I can buy cheaply.  Those numbers will make sense to you when you read a box like Miracle Grow/Grow More/Phostrogen.  I have also lobbed chicken pellets at the garden when I've seen a good deal on those.  You could leave it at that but I like to give particular plants a boost during the summer to keep them at their best - things like roses and clematis benefit from a summer snack.

Weed and Feed lawns: Pretty much the same as feeding the borders the grass needs a feed around March/April and again in high Summer (July/August).  You may as well apply a weed and feed product rather than just a lawn food and get both jobs done together.  In the Spring I find I need to rake out the dead moss after a week or so.  In the later session I might do that again if its been a wet summer and might also lightly over-seed with a mixture of grass seed and soil if I am feeling really keen on my lawn.

Cut hedges: the general rule for pruning anything (and hedge cutting is pruning) is that you prune for shape in the autumn and for growth in the spring so choose which it is you want the plant to do.  Hedges like my little box hedge can be done just once a year if you aren't looking for a pristine look all year round.  The tradition for box is to cut it on Derby Day (first week in June) BUT I prefer to cut it once a year in August - this will do for most hedges.  If you want to go for the two cut approach then May and September is fine.

More saved from the bin....

On the lines of a recent post saying I like to buy 'dying' plants in hopes of saving them - the following is even cheaper.

Lots of potted plants you buy are really 'designed' to be a one-off.  Many people, like me, think that things like orchids and amaryllis (often gifts) are just supposed to do their thing and then be binned - far too difficult to do anything else with?

Not so, I have just discovered......

I had a Tesco orchid (phalenopsis) which bloomed beautifully and for a long while and then was reduced to a few sad leaves and a short stump.  I kept it as I had a sad little landing window sill with nothing on it.  It got very little water and virtually no feeding.  This seems to be roughly the right thing to do.   Look what I have now........

I solemnly swear it has thrived on neglect.

In exactly the same vein I had two Ikea (£3?) amaryllis at Christmas that did their glorious thing and I was curious as to what they would do if I just kept them going.  Mine have done this....

They must be well over three feet tall, strong as an ox and glorious blemish free deep green leaves.  The googled advice to get them to flower again this year is to chuck them in a darkish, coolish place at the beginning of September and let the leaves die off, re-pot the bulb in an inch of fresh compost and bring back in when temperature goes below 10 degrees centigrade.

I haven't the heart to dump this one but I will, cruelly, experiment on the other..... watch this space.

Damson Jam

If you are lucky enough to grow your own damsons here is the quickest and easiest way to make damson jam:

 Put half a pound in big jug.  Cook three minutes in microwave, stir in half a pound of caster sugar, stir until its all dissolved, put back in microwave for four minutes and its done.  Keep in plastic box or jar in fridge.


I had lunch at Park farm the other day and they had damsons for £1.49 a pound - rare as hen's teeth to find these days.  I bought two pounds, divided them into four and put three half pounds of damsons in just simple ziplock bags and then in the freezer.  I don't want a ton of jam just for the two of us so half a pound now and then when I fancy it works for me.... and it makes the damson season last longer.

half pound for the freezer

I followed the instructions I've just given you using a large pyrex jub and keeping an eye on it in case it boiled over - it didn't.

damson jam in a box

I didn't cut the fruit off the stone, it all goes in together.  My mom used to say if you complained about the stones that if you'd found too many then you must be eating too much of the jam!  We just fish them out as we go along - but do be careful when eating it they can hide inside a skin.  You can spend a jolly ten minutes fiddling them out at the finished cooking stage if you want to - but not when its at full temperature - jam is exceedingly hot.

nothing beats a jam butty

I have a ton of damson jam uses - there's a particularly nice almond cake with damson jam threaded through it but to be honest not much beats a jam butty with homemade jam and freshly baked bread - this one is all ready for folding and eating.

I haven't added the recipe to the links at the top of the blog as I already have microwave jam instructions up there and the plum recipe will cover damsons perfectly well.

I thought the recipe given here was over-sweet for my taste so I will go back to my original instructions (see Microwave jam in the recipe tabs at the top) as that has less sugar and added lemon juice.  Each to their own.

Tatton Park

As part of a couple of days break for my husband's birthday we visited Tatton Park.  He and two friends were doing a Segway ride so I was able to wander the gardens at my leisure.  It was the most wonderful experience...

We arrived half an hour before the house and gardens were officially open so I, quite literally, had the estate to myself - not even a volunteer in sight let alone a member of the public.  What an incredible feeling to be able to wander through the gardens in the sunshine in high summer and have it all to myself.  Sheer joy.

I started off in the most fabulous wild flower meadow I have ever seen.  I am so sorry that none of my photos convey the glory of this area to you.  You will simply have to imagine standing waist deep in flowers either side of you on a fairly narrowly mowed path through the centre of a vast field.  Flower upon flower each seeming better than the one before.

breathtakingly lovely

It seemed impossible to top this experience but it was maybe possible to to match it.

Adjacent to the wild flower meadow is a lovely orchard with hundreds of wonderfully espaliered trees surrounding trees in grass, dotted with bee hives.  The clean lines and simplicity of all this brought me down to earth a little.

pristine orchard

I wandered from there through Charlotte's garden which offers an even more serene landscape after all that giddiness and is used by me as my route to a garden I have always loved - the Italian Garden

Charlotte's garden

This way to the Italian Garden passes the wonderful Conservatory which was only renewed in 2011 so it is looking very sharp right now.

You then arrive sort of sideways on at the Italian Garden and only when you walk to its centre and front do you grasp its magnitude.  This garden is a large formal parterre centered on the back of the house.

It drops down a couple of levels from the house, each level as interesting as the one above, finally arriving at the fountain 

and the incredible view across the estate.

Triton flanked by the wonderful symmetrical beds - in perfect harmony

Time was nearly up so I wandered back to the house to meet my companions having only just touched on the vast acres of gardens and glasshouses that you can visit at Tatton.  I did do a quick check of its wonderful vegetable garden - a real hive of production - no messing about in here - serious vegetable growing underway on a vast scale.

If you ever can get to Tatton Hall and gardens I recommend you do so.  There is so much to see I would give it at least half a day and if you are lucky enough to have a lovely sunny day and if you are fit enough you can easily spend a whole day there. 

(The house is not open on Mondays)  Here is a link to times and fees as they are a bit complicated unless you are a member of the National Trust and then it is free.  Click here:  Opening Times and Fees

Google them to read up about all the gardens I haven't mentioned like their world famous Japanese Garden.

Click here for more photos:  Tatton Park.