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SCOTLAND’S GARDENS
SCHEME
Rhododendron Simona - almost my
namesake! SEA VIEW DURNAMUCK, DUNDONNELL MAY - SEPT10 a.m. - 6 p.m. ADMISSION: £1 Children free with adultsSorry, no dogs Garden overlooking
Little Loch Broom A croft garden, the flourishing result of one woman’s ongoing contest with virgin moor and the elements 20% to CANCER RELIEF MACMILLAN FUND20% DUNDONNELL AREA COMMUNITY EVENTS IN AID OF THE QUEEN’S NURSING INSTITUTE (SCOTLAND) andTHE GARDENS FUND OF THE NATIONAL TRUST FOR SCOTLAND Welcome to our garden!
Sea View in May 1989 A record of some dramatic successes/surprises and naturally enough, a few failures. This little bit of Wester Ross moorland has taught us much in the last few years. You can see what it looked like before I got my shovel out (a dyking spade the correct title, with a good point on the end - vital for getting those stones out). Serious gardening didn’t really start until May 1990, apart from digging in those plants we brought with us in September 1989. As the ‘soil’ was only some 7"- 8" deep, I really believed that the only way to grow anything would be in raised beds (lazy beds?! as they are known locally). I started accordingly, by undoing a rockery full of weeds. The only manure available was too new, so this went in the bottom with the pretty poor soil on top. After making our outer fences deer and rabbit proof, my husband dug a potato patch - the Rhodie bed now. We planted two hedges of escallonias, macrantha and slieve donard.
Lots more manure delivered during the winter of 1990/91,
but this was still too fresh. The first raised bed had grown some huge plants to our utter
astonishment, they looked totally stupid in their restrained base. So off they went to a
new herbaceous border, along the wall, now the edge of the pond. In February I built the
raised heather bed, using my by now standard procedure of manure topped by garnered soil
and peat. My husband built our first raised vegetable bed, taking his ‘potato
patch’ soil with him - leaving me to scrounge soil from under the back lawn, rather
fresh compost and new manure to make my Rhodie bed in March 1991. About 5"-6" of
the fresh manure was also spread over the bog bed, and where I planned to plant the next
hedges of Fuchsia riccartonii and griselinia (had they known it at the start they would
have chosen this at Inverewe). Various piles of builders spill had been shifted and most
of the weeds banished, the back area began to look like a lawn. Whenever our digging
produced a flat stone they accumulated on our highest point, until there were enough to
make a circular area for seats - where on dry days we enjoy our wonderful dramatic view
with our morning coffee. Thirty five tons of specially chosen pink ‘Torridonian’ gravel much improved the appearance of both drives and our ‘now’ patio area. I had also been gathering up the double-fist sized stones and ‘built’ them up along our ditch, together with potted-on mimulus - an instant colourful success. This left one bare patch between the two drives we had then. More manure to the rescue with clumps of cerastium, ajuga, polyanthus, London Pride and lysimachia just laid on top - a quick and easy solution. Long before we moved to Scotland, I had desperately wanted a greenhouse, so I could propagate plants and seedlings. My husband was convinced it would almost instantly blow into the loch. Boxing Day, the kit arrived and by March 1992 it was finally dug in, anchored firmly and with windbreak, hedging and many a prayer it is still there. Somewhat alarming when you are inside and a 70 mph gust strikes, but as the hedge grows, hopefully we can be a little less anxious! In the winter of 1991/92 we had the front
garden wall moved to the front boundary. Our manure provider was moving, so we greedily
took all he had, producing a huge ‘mountain’ and the tractor had made a deeply
rutted ‘waterway’ across our front.
January 1993 did the winds blow, they blew the leylandii into a Mexican wave, but the greenhouse remained rooted to the spot. I did underplant the leylandii with variegated griselinias, after a great deal of discussion. I had really fancied slow growing golden cupressus, spaced 9ft apart (as per Inverewe). Experts said however that they would suffer the same fate once they got large enough to put up sufficient wind resistance. This year I decided I would start the green vegetables in the greenhouse. This proved to be most successful, particularly if you enjoy corkscrew carrots!
Winter 1993/94 was a good one for digging, We dug up our main drive, which was a real wind tunnel, facing as it did into the prevailing SW wind, various shrubs that had already outgrown their original homes were moved in. What a pleasure to have more than enough soil, plenty of compost and that manure mountain, now well rotted. The new drive arrangement is much more suited to our little croft house. I finally dug the bog bed - bliss, here was 24" of wonderful soil - if only I had known, but now I didn’t need it anywhere else! There is one enormous boulder in the middle, however, I know when I have more than met my match. I then tackled the removal of the rest of the old roadway, which had lain under the manure, now to be the orchard (patch, I should say, being too small for the title of full-blown orchard) and reshaping the original front beds - more suited to suburbia than Wester Ross. These two tasks produced more tons of rocks, with nowhere left to hide them. One disadvantage of having one’s garden open is of course that major works can not be easily undertaken during the season. If however we have a wet winter then I do have an organizational problem! Winter 1994/95 was a wet one - nonetheless I attempted to level off various bumps and dips in our lawns - an exercise that grew to almost 60-70% of all but our front lawn. The raised turf was invariably ‘floated’ back down. A technique not guaranteed to produce the smoothest effect.
Well, I thought I had dug everything, but my enthusiasm for reading some garden catalogues and subsequent purchases…. meant a home was required for a much needed (!) collection of shrubs and trees, temporarily residing in the vegetable patch. Despite quite the wettest winter yet - 96/97 - and having removed the turf in October, I managed to prepare their new home only just in time by the end of April - the back lawn is gradually disappearing. In fact my husband thinks we should do away with the vegetables altogether - can I sacrifice new potatoes for all sorts of exotica?! Our Visitors will see that the
vegetables have gone and after two very wet winters I had finally managed to reshape a
more aesthetic looking area outside my husband’s studio. My husband also managed to build large compost bins which should give me ample space in future years. I need one bin for shreddings anyway - since we rarely get sufficiently cold the compost grows foxgloves in profusion apart from other unwanted 'flowers', the shreddings have taken over where the bark left off. This area needs more finishing off, but this may be delayed by the builder coming to reroof my husband's studio - and installing a more easily reached loo (the top of the house is not very practical when one has mud laden boots and an urgent need!) May the builder was due, mid July for three days then he had holidays!!!!!!! Meantime the weather was amazing and the borders wonderful, all adorned with scaffolding to build a skyscraper....that disappeared early September but as the end of September approaches we still have the builder and constantly descending dust - garden visitors have had to be very tolerant. I have all but given up until they finally vanish - then I will be up to my neck in smoked salmon brochures etc....roll on 2001. Clearly the webmistress not to mention the gardener have been rather busy elsewhere - hopefully as I write in May 2003 - things are about to change - I am desperately concerned that the lack of my 'work-out'/gardening is very bad for my health. So before the weeds take over totally we must get out there.
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Outside UK:
Dundonnell Smoked Salmon, Greenacres, |
