Now that we've finally had a couple of frosts at the Priory, I feel that I have permission to start tidying away. So I've been carting stuff off to the compost bins or bonfire site. In the topical border, the freezing temperatures have collapsed the tender plants into a soggy, exhausted (and, if you ask … Continue reading A Tidy Up
Trees
Keeping Busy, Keeping Warm
The grounds of the Priory can be a scary place when the wind gets up. Even the largest trees twist and sway alarmingly; creaking, groaning and occasionally hurling down dead branches. Generally, I think of trees as benign stalwarts but in high winds, I keep a wary eye on them and avoid walking beneath those … Continue reading Keeping Busy, Keeping Warm
I Turn My Back For Five Minutes
We've been on a city-break to Antwerp. Thought I'd better scrub up a bit first, so I had my monthly bath a couple of weeks early, scoured (most of) the ingrained grime from my hands and scraped (most of) the soil from under my fingernails. I even had a haircut, a shave (radical, I know), … Continue reading I Turn My Back For Five Minutes
Tending Trees Part 2
I don't know exactly how many trees I've planted during the past four years. Not counting a hundred and seventy beech-hedge saplings or five yew-hedge 'trees' or any of the 'shrubs' that will attain tree-like status (photinias and cotinus for example), I guess about forty. During the same period, we've felled perhaps a dozen dead … Continue reading Tending Trees Part 2
Tending Trees Part 1
When I took the job at the Priory, I (naively) didn't appreciate how much time and care the trees would require. Each year, I arrange for any sickly, dangerous or unwanted trees to be felled and for dead, rotten and restricted branches to be removed. If a smallish tree needs felling or a low branch … Continue reading Tending Trees Part 1
Sussex Eucalypts
Were you to walk up the drive from The Priory you would, after a couple of hundred yards, come to an area of mown grass surrounded on three sides by a small wood. In January 2009, I thought it would be a good idea to plant Eucalyptus gunnii here; three of them. So I did. … Continue reading Sussex Eucalypts
Making Leaf Mould
There are a lot of trees in the Priory gardens. Six very big oak trees, six big weeping willows, two large ash trees, nigh on twenty alder, half a dozen hornbeam and then various fruit trees, shrubs, hedges and specimen trees. In addition there are trees aplenty in the surrounding fields and on the driveway … Continue reading Making Leaf Mould
The Anxious Gardener 