irrigation systems

Tim Brayford’s Isle of Wight Gardens 26

A successful garden will contribute significantly to our well-being and quality of life. It may play host to a broad range of flora and fauna enhancing local biodiversity and collectively benefiting the wider world environment by absorbing CO2. Here are just a few examples from gardens on the Isle of Wight and elsewhere.

A bee feeds on a Marsh Marigold

Hungry pheasants survey this snowy garden

A lovely July flowering clematis

Spring flowering bluebells

An English country garden

Tim Brayford Landscapes were established in 1980 and we are British Association of Landscape Industries National Award Winners for Garden Design & Construction. For more photos, advice & stories about gardening please visit our website email timbrayfordlandscapes@gmail.com phone 07890 869918

Tim Brayford’s Isle of Wight Gardens 25

Bespoke Oak Pergola

Apple Blossom & Bee

Tim Brayford Landscapes – Colourful Ivy

Mallard ducks 25.04.20 (2)

Mallard ducks

The Garden in Summer by Garden Designer Tim Brayford

The Isle of Wight has long been recognised as benefitting from both a mild coastal climate and fertile soils favourable to the gardener

“In general such is the purity of the air, the fertility of the soil, and the beauty and variety of the landscapes, that this island has often been styled the Garden of England” – The History of the Isle of Wight, Sir Richard Worsley. 1781

This is one of a series of articles and anecdotes largely based around our work on the Isle of Wight and occasionally further afield

“That beautiful season the Summer!
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light;
And the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Summer is the time that all the hard work and planning of earlier seasons comes to fruition.

The long days and balmy evenings will see the traditional English country and cottage gardens at their best, with earlier flowerings of Poppies, Delphiniums, Peonies and Aquilegias to be followed by Hostas, Japanese Anemonies, Rudbeckias and Heleniums to name but a few.

Cutting down the stems of early plants such as Lupins may lead to a second blooming in late summer and dead heading repeat flowering roses such as the fragrant “Claire Austin” is beneficial.
The fresher air in the evening is perhaps the best time to enjoy sweetly scented Honeysuckles and Nicotianas

Mid summer herbaceous border

Bright and colourful summer bedding like Geraniums and Busy Lizzies can highlight decorative tubs whilst Petunias and Nemesias may be found in hanging baskets. Keeping a few Begonias to hand in pots can be a useful way of plugging any gaps that may appear in herbaceous borders until a more permanent solution can be found in the autumn.

Bees feast on these late summer flowering Heleniums

Watering may become necessary during a prolonged dry spell, a thick organic mulch will help to retain moisture and if seed free deter weeds from germinating. If the lawn starts to turn brown raise the cutting height of your mower and cut less frequently.

Watering is best done at night when evaporation is less and there is little risk of scorching or better still install some sub-surface irrigation.

Do not be afraid of pruning back plants that are starting to obstruct paths or gateways and do make a note of any possible changes or improvements for future reference.

Tim Brayford Landscapes were established in 1980 and we are British Association of Landscape Industries National Award Winners for Garden Design & Construction. For more photos, advice & stories about gardening please visit our website email timbrayfordlandscapes@gmail.com phone 07890 869918

Tim Brayford’s Garden Thugs

Garden Thugs 1

Many plants are promoted as being easy to grow and quick to establish, however some of them have the potential to rapidly outgrow themselves, and are totally unsuited to the average suburban garden. Their removal once they have become a nuisance can be both challenging and expensive if they are in a confined space with restricted access.

Here are just a few examples:-

1 Pampas Grass – Cortaderia selloana

A tall grass native to south America , rapidly forms clumps 2 – 4 m high, can spread up to 7m wide.

Grown for its attractive plumes, has razor sharp leaves and has been banned from some countries as an invasive species.

Pampas pot grown

In the pot

Pampas clump

Established plant

2 Leylandii Hedging – Cupressus X leylandii

A hybrid tree resulting from a cross between the Monterey and Nootka Cypress trees, ultimate height around 35 m and spread 7 m.

Grown as a rapidly establishing evergreen hedge with a growth rate of up to 1 m a year, it is shallow rooted and prone to wind damage and has been the subject of disputes between neighbours leading to the passing of the High Hedges Act.

Leylandii pg

In the pot

Leylandii trees

Established trees

3 New Zealand Flax – Phormium tenax

A robust evergreen clump forming perennial plant, depending on variety can grow to 4m high with a spread of 2.5m.

Grown for its decorative leaves it has a well-developed fibrous root system which makes controlling the spread difficult and ultimate removal problematic

Phormium tenax pg

In the pot

Phormium tenax clumps

Established plants

4. Red Bistort – Persicaria amplexicaulis

Another robust clump forming perennial plant, semi-evergreen, with a height and spread of around 1.2m
Grown for its spikes of red, purple or white flowers from mid-summer to early autumn it is more suited to a large country house garden and will soon dominate a small herbaceous or mixed border.

Persicaria pg

In the pot

Established Plants

5. Black Bamboo – Phyllostachys nigra

A tall bamboo native to Hunan province in China with an ultimate height of around 25m.

Grown for its slender arching stems which turn from green to black as they mature this bamboo possesses running rhizomes which can spread indefinitely at a rate of 1m-1.5m a year.

Black Bamboo pg

In the pot

Black Bamboo Forest

Established plants

Russian Vine – Polygonum baldschuanicun

An Asiatic deciduous climbing plant with stems that can grow up to 50m in length.

Grown to cover unsightly structures such as fences it has nectar rich fragrant white flowers, it can spread at a rate of 4m a year.

Russian Vine pg

In the pot

Russian Vine established

Established Plant

The Potting Shed by Garden Designer Tim Brayford

The Potting Shed

The potting shed was full of old fashioned charm. I didn’t appreciate it at the time. What sixteen year old would? It was built of rough bricks in a warm shade of red with a slate roof. A wooden door was on the left hand side, its bottom edge ragged from rot and rodent’s teeth. There was a window set into the brick under which grew a neat row of Box. Closely pruned for making wreaths. Stepping through the door was like going back to 1872 not 1972. A mixture of stone slabs, brick and concrete made up the floor. An ‘economy job’ as the boss used to say, ‘left-overs from something else’. All the gardening hand tools were hung on the left hand wall on square ended cut-nails. The wooden handles worn dark and smooth by decades of sweaty hands. Hoes and rip hooks made from proper forged steel which took an edge. Spade blades and fork tines worn down from years of use in stony ground.

The walls had once been lime-washed. Dust had accrued on the rough surface and a fine grey lace of old cobwebs hung between the wall and the exposed wooden roof beams. On the right hand side were planking shelves. These were stacked with flat pack cardboard boxes variously used for tomatoes, cucumbers and strawberries. They stuck out over the edge of the shelves and looked in imminent danger of falling off, but force of habit kept them there. There was a stout wooden workbench under the window, its surface covered with a rough grey blanket. Here, tomatoes were graded, wreaths were made and seeds were sown. The potting shed was never used for potting.

Terracotta Pots

Handy stuff was pushed out to the corners of the bench. A selection of old jam jars held florist’s wires, fine rusty dust gathering in the bottoms. They made a musical, metallic jingle when moved. A ceramic pot held pens and pencils. Odd amounts of wire were curled into circles and stood propped against the window frame. An old metal Oxo tin, its colours turning into rust, held a selection of small wooden dibbers for pricking out bedding plants. I became notorious for putting them down and then forgetting where I had put them. One of my workmates carved me a mahogany dibber with a hole in the end, through which he threaded a piece of string. He hung it round my neck like an Olympic medal causing much laughter from everyone else. I still have the dibber thirty odd years later, minus its string.

The roof beams were low enough to touch and all sorts of small items were hung there. Bags of elastic bands, bags of bags and string, lots of small bundles of string. These were a speciality of the boss’s father. He was affectionately known as the ‘Old Chap’. Well into his eighties he would shuffle out from the house around eleven in the morning and cast his pale, watery blue eyes over the contents of all the glasshouses. This took him some time as they were on quite a steep hill. He would tweak a plant here, move a tray there, and pick up string. He finished his tour of inspection in the shed. He would stand at the bench and slowly wind the bits of string around his fingers. Taking the long end he tied the bundle through the middle and put a loop in the end. He then selected a nail on the beams and hung it up. It sometimes took him a couple of goes as his aim wasn’t good. There was all sorts of string, from hairy sisal to orange binder twine. And there they hung, a flutter of bizarre butterflies. Job well done, he would adjust his flat tweed cap more firmly on his head and shuffle back indoors for his lunch.

seeds 2

I love my greenhouse by Garden Designer Tim Brayford

The Isle of Wight has long been recognised as benefitting from both a mild coastal climate and fertile soils favourable to the gardener

“In general such is the purity of the air,the fertility of the soil, and the beauty and variety of the landscapes, that this island has often been styled the Garden of England” – The History of the Isle of Wight, Sir Richard Worsley. 1781

This is one of a series of articles and anecdotes largely based around our work on the Isle of Wight and occasionally further afield

I do, I really do. What do I love about it? Well for starters there’s the smell. Warm, wet, leafmould and compost. You tip up the watering can on a warm day and the water sinks into the humus rich soil and within a few seconds it’s released a wonderful earthy odour that holds the promise of growth. The greenhouse is so full of promise in the spring. Everything has the potential to be a success.

Propagator

Seed sowing is a great activity for a cold blustery day. I can slide back the door, nip inside quick and shut out the bad weather. With the heater going I perch on a stool and fill small trays and pots with compost that’s been warming up over the last few weeks. I find it pays to get bags of compost early, store them in the greenhouse and when you want to use them they’re not totally soggy and freezing cold. I keep my seeds in biscuit tins, the deeper sort that crackers come in are good. In December I’ll go through the seeds that I have left from the previous year and chuck out the ones that are probably too old to germinate well.

seeds 2

Then I order what I need from a catalogue, that’s a good bit of armchair gardening for a rainy day too! I have dividers made from a cereal box, which are labelled with the months January to July, which fit across the tin and I sort the packets into the months they are to be sown. I find that if I don’t do this during a quiet time then when spring really gets into it’s stride things are so busy that something gets forgotten.

Tomatoes

I have a couple of ‘window-sill’ propagators on a shelf and they are invaluable, bottom heat gets things started so much quicker. If you want to get things going early then electricity is a must in the greenhouse. The thrill of a new season starts when those little shoots start unfurling in the trays. I love going to the greenhouse every morning to see what’s come up. Then the game of musical plants starts. For a couple of months I have pots and trays on shelving, makeshift benches or on the ground. It’s too cold outside still and there’s just so much of everything. I swear that growth can be smelt in the air, particularly tomatoes. Just brush a leaf and the pungent odour is with you.

cucumber

At last the weather warms up and the tougher things destined for the outdoors anyway can be moved out to a sheltered spot. I can space things out, start to dismantle the benches and think about planting the tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. I grow all these in the same greenhouse, some people say you shouldn’t. Or can’t. But I have found over the years that with a little improvisation you can grow them together, after all, who has the luxury of several greenhouses? The toms and peppers like the sunnier side and the cucumbers benefit from a bit of shade, I’ve found that a strip of horticultural fleece hung on the southern side of the cucumber plants works well. So, they’re planted out and they sit there for a few days, looking like they’re doing nothing. But the roots will be burrowing into the humus rich ground and suddenly they’re off! Rich green leaves are doing an impression of Jack’s beanstalk and spotting the first embryonic cucumber or the yellow blossom of tomato becomes the thrill of the morning visit.

chili peppers

The best thrill of all comes when I go into the greenhouse and cup my hand under a ripe tomato, gently twist upwards and take it off the plant. The flavour from that fruit will remind me why I go to all this trouble every year. Oh, I most definitely love my greenhouse.

A Care Home Garden by Tim Brayford

Colourful raised beds

A Residential Care Home on the Isle of Wight

As part of a major refurbishment we were called in to upgrade the gardens at one of the island’s most prestigious nursing homes. We had worked for the same client before at another of their establishments and we were looking forward to working with them again.

The building had been doubled in size and featured a sunny inner courtyard accessible to the residents, raised beds were constructed within it which enabled them to gain the full benefit of the flowering, scented plants that featured in our carefully considered scheme. In such locations it is vital realise that elderly people can sometimes get confused and attempt to eat things that are not good for them so avoiding spiky or poisonous leaves and berries was essential.

Fragrant French Lavender

Outside was some mature woodland which we extended with new native trees and a grassy slope leading down to the sea, located within an Area of Outstanding Beauty, this too presented some challenges. The soil was a very heavy clay that had to be improved with large amounts of compost. Again we had to be mindful of the need to provide a safe environment for the residents whilst providing as much scent and colour from the plants that we used as possible . Decorative bark mulches were spread around the planting to help conserve moisture and suppress weed growth, thus reducing future maintenance requirements

Newly extended native woodland

Ground conditions were yet another challenge as with the onset of autumn rains it would become unworkable. We had to even out the slope to a more shallow grade, easier for those who needed the help of a stick or frame to walk on and separate areas of this had to be both seeded and turfed whilst we were still able to do so.

The owner of this prestigious establishment said:- “ Tim Brayford has done a great job bringing the gardens up to the high standard of our care home”

Tree Planting and Climate Change by Garden Designer Tim Brayford

The government has launched a £ 50 Million campaign to encourage farmers and landowners to plant more trees to help tackle climate change but is this a good idea, and what are the options?

Forestry

Tree planting is a long term investment, some native species such as Yew can live for thousands of years and even the non-native Sitka spruce commonly grown in commercial forestry may live past six hundred years although in the UK they may be typically harvested between thirty and fifty years of age. If it is intended to produce timber this may follow a clear felling operation on previously forested land, on peat bog moorland or on more productive agricultural land.

If sequestration of carbon is the main objective according to scientific research pasture sequesters 30% more carbon than forestry and this grass land may be grazed by the animals that provide us with dairy products and meat. It would seem to be counter-productive to plant trees in the UK if this merely resulted in forest clearances elsewhere in the world so that food may be grown for us to import instead?

Cord Wood 1

What about the rewilding options, how can they help to fight climate change?

Around ten thousand years ago after the climate had warmed at the end of the Ice Age the tundra habitat that had then prevailed in the UK gave way to the primeval woodland that we consider to be native today, remnants of which may be found in what are defined as ancient woodlands, those deemed to be over four hundred years old. This process occurred through natural regeneration, the spread of both flora and fauna from warmer latitudes.

These woodlands are rich in species diversity containing complex interdependent ecosystems, far better than any man-made creation. They have proved to be resilient in the face of the ongoing post Ice Age climate fluctuations, thriving during the extremes of cold, heat, wet and drought that have occurred since. If allowed to do so these woodlands can expand outwards to regain their former territory through natural regeneration, with the seeds distributed by the wind and in the droppings of wild birds and mammals such as deer.

Tree Planting

Nursery grown trees provide an instant visual impact, in the short term is quicker and gives control over what species are planted although the choice may be somewhat limited. If the trees are not local to the area they may bring new plant diseases with them. Planting may be both costly and labour intensive with the trees requiring unsightly stakes and guards, and they may require careful watering and weeding for the first few years until well established.

In the 20^th century following the devastating loss of the nation’s Elm trees to the imported Dutch Elm disease the government promoted new tree planting, so what became of it? In short the trees failed to thrive:-

Plant a tree in ‘73

Plant some more in ‘74

Still alive in ‘75

Dead as sticks in ‘76

Natural Regeneration

Natural regeneration can be slower to establish and care must be taken to remove any alien invasive species such as Sycamore, however the emerging scrub will provide valuable, diverse wildlife habitats in which declining species such as nightingales may thrive. Survivability will be good in the long term with the scrub gradually transitioning into mature woodlands from which future generations may benefit. Much of this work is currently being pioneered on the Knepp Castle Estate in Sussex.

knepp livestock

Making a choice

Whichever method is used to establish new woodlands there needs to be clearly defined objectives about what this tree planting is supposed to achieve. Is it to be a commercial timber crop that may be used to produce renewable energy wood pellets or is it to be part of a rewilding scheme managed to benefit biodiversity in the future? Each will sequester carbon and both have their advantages and disadvantages, it is however essential to decide which route to follow before embarking on such a project.

Rewilding with Trees by Garden Designer Tim Brayford

Ancient Woodland

Rewilding with Trees

What is rewilding?

Rewilding has been defined as restoring healthy ecosystems by creating wild, biodiverse spaces. It rebuilds ecosystems that have previously been modified by human disturbance, using the plant and animal life that would have been present had the disturbance never occurred. When such ecosystems are restored at a landscape scale it can help to mitigate climate change, and provide socio-economic benefits for communities.

Why natural regeneration is best

Native roe deer in a bluebell wood

Giving nature a helping hand

Sometimes it is advantageous to expedite this process, particularly if seed banks have become impoverished by intensive agriculture, forestry or previous building work. Ideally seeds and seedlings will be sourced from native trees, shrubs and ground flora local to the area, but before these are sown or planted take care to clear away any non-native or commercially derived species first. A sterile seed bed can be helpful in this respect and resist the temptation to add fertilisers, the truly wild plants just don’t need it and it can encourage the more vigorous species to become dominant.

New woodland planting with regenerated ground flora

Things to avoid

Straight row monocultures of similar aged species, especially of non-natives and commercial cultivars. Avoid using plastic tree guards if at all possible, over time they can degrade into micro plastics, find their way into watercourses and cause serious oceanic pollution.

Avoid using this method of tree planting!

Instead accept that some of your planting will be lost or retarded by being nibbled by both large and small herbivores. This is an entirely natural process and over time will lead to the development of the mosaic habitat most favourable to creatures such as dormice, red squirrels and woodland butterflies.