May 2017

Planting begins to fill out the spaces. You can begin to see 
what this area could become.

I spend more time in May than I had expected. It is a  month for planting as well as battling with the nettles. The western section of the fountain area is now beginning to look very different. Many of the plants are ones transplanted from the paths and woodland edge. At present I am only planting wild flowers that are already present in the woodlands, among them forget-me-not, red campion, mint, wood sage, foxglove, cowslip, primrose, snowdrop, grape hyacinth, germander speedwell, comfrey, herb-robert, bugle, giant snowflake, creeping buttercup, ground ivy, periwinkle, columbine.There are some spectacular spear thistles too. The muntjack deer are thrilled. They enjoy eating the flower heads, and have been presented by a ready-made smorgasbord of delicacies to nibble at.
The black plastic is still down around the fountain, and in a seating area on the east side of the fountain. It will all look very different when that is taken up and the paths are created, hopefully in the next few months.
Some heavy spells of rain have done much to improve water levels in the fountain, and I have also improved the collection of water from the garage roof into the water butt. Every drop will be precious as the Summer arrives. As a trial, I have also placed some marsh marigold and purple loostrife in the fountain to see how they get on. There are frogs, toads, at least one newt, pond skaters and water beetles. The thick moss has been removed from the fountain itself, and some of the broken stone (which mostly seems to be decorative rather than structural) has been taken out, but some left too to give places for wildlife to hide.

Wellingtonia gigantica

As the area develops I have plans for a herb garden that everyone can use on the west side  between the main ride and the wall, by the compost area and the log pile, and I have established a path that follows the line of the walk towards the lake that existed in 1915 out towards the lone wellingtonia.
A final historical note: these wellingtonia or giant redwood trees were a famous feature of the Sudbourne estate. They were first introduced to England from California in 1852  when a plant hunter, William Lobb, returned from the US in a ship full of seeds, saplings and shoots.These were seized upon by Victorian horticulturists, and would have been the latest craze when Sir Richard Wallace bought the Sudbourne estate in 1871 and planted out the gardens. (see more in the item by the National Trust on the web. The Americans wanted to call it Washingtonia, but it was named Wellingtonia gigantica after the Duke who had recently died. This was not an altogether popular choice in the US!)