Because I am British, I feel that it is OK if I talk about the weather – when it comes to NGS Garden Ferns Lodge. And as a gardener, in the past weeks, it has dominated my every waking gardening thought.
Like everyone else, I have seen the water butts empty, grass turn from green to faded green, to a lifeless yellow colour which scrunches under foot. Worse than this – plants have drooped, turned a sickly colour and some of them have sadly curled up their toes and are no more. For the newly planted shrubs at NGS Garden Ferns Lodge, many have been in intensive care for what seems to be months, both Simon and I must have biceps like Popeye from carrying literally hundreds of watering cans full of relief to plants in all corners of the garden. The ground has cracked beneath our feet and even the laurel began to look very unhappy (not that I am hugely upset about that!).
Through this extremely hot and very dry period, we have also had plenty of breeze to dry things further whilst whipping falling leaves all around. For this August, the autumn fall has come. A number of trees are showing their autumn reds now – some oaks, silver birch and sycamore. Cyclamen are now in flower! During the worst of the heat, Ghillie retired to the back of the Land Rover, parked in the cool of the barn, where the breeze cools his ears and he is able to bark at anyone with the temerity to walk on the lane outside, without moving from the comfort of his bed!
The garden is not looking its best so I am ashamed to have asked a number of lovely people who have asked for private visits to the garden in aid of the NGS that I would prefer that they wait for a happier time. I am very sorry and hope to see them soon. The recently fallen rain has improved things a lot and we are hoping for much more to put the garden and ground beneath back into good order.
Amongst all this weather, our next big project has begun. Dan and his crew have been here taking down laurel and some old and very sick fruit trees. Drilling their roots next to the vegetable cage. In September a frightening looking tank will be sunk into the ground which has a capacity of 4,000 litres of water (that’s A LOT of watering cans) with a solar pump and piping to the Dutch barn as well as to the foundations of the most charming red cedar, gothic style green house that is being built right now by the lovely people at Woodpecker Joinery.
With dry summers likely to be a feature of life in the future, storing and using our own harvested water seems the way to go.
There is A LOT to do. Another shrubbery, clearing and levelling ground, making good and the rest. The new greenhouse will enable us to grow things on, and from seed and do all sort of fun stuff. Ghillie and caterpillar may not be massively impressed – but I can’t wait and I am looking forward to showing you how far we have got at our 2023 NGS garden opening.
Contact sue.grant@fernslodge.co.uk.