With over 50 trees in the gardens of Bracken House, preparing them for the new growing season is a time-consuming task. The trees are a mixture of fruit trees and native trees. Each of these trees has now been pruned, had weeds cleared from their bases and had protectors placed around their trunks to prevent damage.
A view of the meadows looking back to the stables and paddock.
2013 was an excellent growing season, and the trees, which have been planted for almost four years, are beginning to fill out. The laurel hedge surrounding the car park is also thickening nicely and will need a light trim before the main growing season starts.
With last year being such a good growing season, the grasses in the areas assigned for wild flowers grew to over three feet in height. This year’s project is to keep these areas down to manageable heights so that wild flowers are given a chance. Hopefully regular cutting will remove nutrients from the soil, which will prevent grasses from flourishing as they do now.
Cow Parsley in flower, despite it being mid-January.
A major project planned for 2014 is the levelling of the wild flower areas. The surface in parts is very uneven, making it unsafe to walk on and difficult to maintain. Some hollows are over six inches deep and there are many rocks which need removing. I hope to order a load of low-quality top soil to fill in these hollows, and this is a task which will need to be completed before the end of March when the grasses will start to grow and hide the holes.
This time of year is always an exciting time for any gardener when Spring bulbs appear and trees start to bud. Preparations for Spring are well under way here and this should ensure a successful growing season to come.
Related articles
- Planting Wildflower Seeds (ledgrowlighthydro.typepad.com)
- Plantwatch: Mild weather brings late flowers, and early ones (theguardian.com)
- Wild Flowers (lorenashleigh.wordpress.com)
- The promise of spring (theflourishingtree.com)
