Hanging heavy

For some reason this year the Ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior) growing to the side of the garden is hanging very heavy in developing seeds or keys as they are known.

It's a lovely tree that has got better and better since we moved here a good number of years ago. Then it seemed to be declining, the foliage was sparse and thin. But since creating the garden and cultivating it the Ash tree has obviously benefited with resplendent growth every year.

Some of it's roots do manage to grow halfway across the garden and end up in some of the vegetable beds. It means the first few beds have to be dug each year to chop through the fine roots invading them and to stop them swiping the nourishment added to the bed.

Important for Wildlife

The Ash tree is very important for wildlife. Many Butterfly's and Moths depend upon it for food using both the leaves and the fruits. As it gets old it forms many crevasses and cracks in the bark that harbour many forms of insect life, attracting all sorts of birds to visit.

Improving it even more so for wildlife, the tree supports a good growth of Ivy (Hedera helix) which creates another terrific environment.

Wild Summer Flavour.

Wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca) are now ripening along banks and walls. They may be small but they make up with the intense strawberry flavour once fully ripe.

It's strange but for some reason they are never stripped out by Blackbirds. Yet if garden Strawberries are left unprotected, Blackies will scoff the lot.

Wild Strawberries (Fragaria vesca)

Wild strawberries were widely cultivated in Europe until the larger fruited forms which came from America took over as dessert fruits. If you have a little space, and you don't need much. Make a little plot in the garden for a few Wild Strawberry plants. These in the photo are actually growing in a rock wall and do very well in there.

Suffolk Herbs are stockist for Wild Strawberry seeds.  Once you have them they will spread like wildfire with their thin runners they throw out, though they are not difficult to control.

When it comes to intensity, once again an area of the garden is awash in scent. At the top of the garden by the shed, the Philadelphus coronaria or Mock Orange is in full flower.

Philadelphus coronaria flowering.

As we walk through the gate to this area of the garden, the sharp fruitiness hits us. The shrub has got massive and peeks over the top of the roof of the shed.

A flower of more delicate scent is the rose Madame Alfred Carrier. It's one of the reliable and hardy Noisette climbers. The flowers repeat all Summer long. We have it growing over the outhouse roof where we can catch the delightful perfume as we go into the house from the garden.

Madame Alfred Carrier.

Meltingly Delicious

We have been cropping our Wild Sea Beet from out of the garden. A wonderful perennial crop that comes up each year without fail. It is quite frankly superior in taste and texture to the perennial beets or spinach beet that is offered in seed catalogues.

The texture when cooked is melting when eaten and the flavour light and delicious. Compared to the catalogue beets that are really quite coarse and the flavour a bit earthy. It is a case in point that sometimes selective breeding of a plant does not always produce something superior.

Wild Sea beet (Beta vulgaris ssp maritima ).

Sea beet can be found growing on many sea shores and can be easy to recognise from the clump forming habit and waxy leaves. Pick a few leaves for cooking or even eaten raw. They can be lightly steamed until soft.

Unfortunately the seeds are all but impossible to obtain. Ours came in with a load of seaweed we picked from the shore and just popped up in the garden as a fortuitous crop. Now it self seeds within the garden.

If you can find some plants on the shore, make a visit in late Summer and see if you can obtain a few seeds from the seed heads. They are easy to spot when brown and ripening over a lax clump of plants, the seed looks exactly like Beetroot seeds as the Sea beet is the ancestor of Perennial Spinach, Beetroot and Sugar Beet.

Take only a few seeds for your own use, but do not dig up the plant itself as you would be breaking the law under the Wildlife and Countryside act 1981.

Wonderful Wisteria

I always wait with anticipation for the Wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) to bloom. The scent for me is so evocative. It always takes me back to when I started out in Horticulture. The gardens there had a brick built wall and a wide brick arch over which Wisteria bloomed in early Summer. The racemes of flowers hung down in glorious clusters and the scent was overpowering. I used to make every excuse to have to pass under that arch.

Many people think that They are difficult to grow and maintain, but it is just not the case. Undemanding of soil, if it is too good it can stop it flowering. Top growth kept within bounds, if it thinks it has reached the ultimate height it  encourages it to flower.

Being a relative of the pea family, bees are attracted to the flowers, numerous Bumble Bees enjoy buzzing amidst the massed clusters.

The gorgeous racemes of flowers hang in dense clusters.

I made this photo a little over large to try and get the feeling you get underneath the hanging flowers. Unfortunately to try and describe the scent while photographing this just would not do it justice.

Montana Madness

The Clematis Montana 'Queen Elizabeth' has gone totally mad this year. Growing fast and vigorous, grabbing and coiling onto anything that it can find. It will have to be taken into hand this year. But for now we enjoy the delicious perfume that comes from it.

With a mass of flower that it has, the perfume intensity is compounded. I can only describe it as a sweet dusty scent. Reminding one of a favourite Aunt who gently powders herself with a talc found only in stores frequented by gentile ladies.

Clematis montana attracts many insects to it and is a valuable source of nectar.

Gradually the centre area of our top garden where the Clematis montana resides, is fleshing out more. The aim is to make it have a wooded feel with plenty of shelter from prevailing winds. Then hopefully we will gradually be able to establish a bat colony within it. Bats have been in decline over the years and are now heavily protected. They  need as much help as they can get.

We have erected 11 bat boxes in just this area of the garden. The garden itself we have been planting to ensure many forms of insects are attracted to it as potential food source for bats.

Three bat boxes can be seen on three of the trees in this picture.

Paths within the garden are made from shredded woody cuttings to create  forest floor conditions, once again to support  invertebrates.

During Summer we have bats swooping and wheeling around the trees so hopefully they will be encouraged to investigate the setup.