Plants For The Water Garden

WATER GARDENS BY TWENTIETH-CENTURY DESIGNERS

GEOFFREY JELLICOE

Shute House Dorset, England

The garden of Shute House near Shaftesbury in Dorset is among the most influential of the twentieth century. Created by the designer Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe (19oo-1996) when he was in his late sixties, it combines the experience and skills of a lifetime of garden and landscape design with exuberance and a great sense of fun.

Sir Geoffrey was commissioned by Michael and Lady Anne Tree in 1968, shortly after they had acquired the fine eighteenth-century house. Curiously, it was Ronald Tree, Michael Tree's father, who had given Jellicoe his first major commission — for Ditchley Park in Oxfordshire — m 1933. Later, Jellicoe was commissioned by the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth) to design the gardens of Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park and of Sandringham, another royal residence, in Norfolk. Jellicoe also designed the John F. Kennedy Memorial on the River Thames at Runnymede, Berkshire, four years before Shute reached his drawing board.

Unlike his earlier commissions, which some describe as formal — with strong axes but unsurprising in concept — Shute combines all sorts of influences garnered by Jellicoe during his long career. He wrote Italian Gardens of the Renaissance in 1915, and there are strong echoes of the Italianate at Shute. More surprisingly, however, the garden also shows a Mughal influence. The centrepiece of Shute must be the musical cascade, a rill that relies on a gentle slope to fall in steps. Between the steps are differently shaped geometric pools, each with a bubbling central fountain. Each waterfall pours into copper bowls that Jellicoe designed to play musical chords. Musical purists rather pooh-pooh this idea, but it makes a pleasant sound. Although a Mughal prince would be surprised to see the lush green lawns that flank the cascade, the running water has the same cooling and calming effect that was intended in Indian gardens.

Basic Information About Water Gardening

THE WATERSIDE GARDEN

New York State, USA

The garden called Innisfree is not what it seems. It is not in Ireland, as one might expect, but in New York State. And it could not be further from Irish scenery, design or plants: it was inspired by Chinese landscape and gardens. This is how it happened.

Originally called Millbrook, Innisfree was the family home of Marion Beck, whose husband, Walter, was an artist and teacher. When they moved there in the 192.os, they changed its name to Innisfree in homage to W.B. Yeats's poem 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree'. Why? The garden has no nine bean-rows and no hive for the honeybee as the poet suggests, but it held the same promise of simplicity and peace as the poem, which is deeply romantic. What happened to Innisfree is equally so.

The house Marion Beck inherited was surrounded by 300 hectares (740 acres) of rolling hills, natural woodland and outcrops of stone. At its centre was the i6-hectare (40-acre) Lake Tyrrel. Walter Beck, who trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and later taught at the Pratt Institute in New York, became enthused by black-ink brush paintings of the Chinese landscape and calligraphic scrolls, especially those of Wang Wei, an eighth-century artist who used his own gardens and buildings as subjects for his paintings. From 1930 until Marion Beck died in 1959, they used the inspiration of Wang Wei's garden scrolls to create their own garden. Later, their protege, Lester Collins, a landscape architect whose views coincided with their own, took on Innisfree until his own death in 1993.

Using the natural glacial lake as the garden's centre, the Becks constructed a series of intimate 'cup' gardens, each one separate and distinct from the next and each creating its own self-contained scene. In each, the intention was to create asymmetrical spaces that combined rhythm and pattern with space and form, as in the Chinese scroll paintings they studied.

Because this was to appear a natural landscape, the garden largely relied on plants from the surrounding woods to create the scenery. These were carefully planted and pruned into artistic but natural shapes. The Becks used the rocks left by the glacier — sandstone, limestone, granite and quartz — to make the stone sculptures essential to Chinese gardening. Each was moved into its precisely planned space and positioned to give just the right punctuation mark. Water from the lake was pumped into a huge reservoir hidden in the hillside, from which a series of underground pipes fed the man-made pools, waterfalls and sculptures that enliven each garden 'picture'. Lester Collins's contribution was to apply Japanese skills to these Chinese-inspired pictures. He worked to make links between the various cup gardens, so that visitors would walk from one set scene to another, a concept known as a 'stroll' garden.

Today, the house, which was in the twentieth-century Queen Anne style — somewhat heavy but less lowering than the Victorian country house — has gone. It was demolished in 1982 as not being in keeping with the garden. The garden itself has been reduced to 6o hectares (15o acres), and, since Collins's death, Innisfree has been run by a trust, which opens the garden to the public.

How To Maintain A Water Garden

THE ROMANTIC WATER GARDEN

Not many people have the chance to create a garden from a ruined medieval town set on a spectacularly steep mountainside. But we can imagine the delight of re-creating the town plan with plants, the tremendous opportunities given by hundreds of old stone buildings, now ruined and roofless, and the challenge of creating new bridges leaping the tumbling streams that rush down from the old wells and watering places.

For the Caetani family, this most romantic of garden sites was not a daydream but reality. Ninfa, near Rome, belonged to them even before the town was sacked in 1382. as a result of opposition to the pope of the day. In its heyday Ninfa was a sizeable community, boasting a cathedral and seven churches, but all was lost when it was laid waste by papal decree, and it lay deserted for six hundred years.

In the twentieth century, however, the Caetani family repossessed the derelict town with the intention of creating a garden among its streets and ruined buildings. In the 1920s Duke Gelasio Caetani began to drain the nearby marshes, home to swarms of malarial mosquitoes. He made sure that the walls of the old buildings were fully stabilized, and canalized the river that ran through the town. Meanwhile his English mother, the Duchess of Sermoneta, began — as Englishwomen do — to plant quantities of old-fashioned roses against the ancient walls. These loved the climate and the freedom to ramble over the old stones. She also planted cypresses, their sky-rocket shape so typical of the Italian landscape, along the lines of the old streets, to create punctuation marks and emphasize formality and axes. Other Mediterranean trees included the evergreen ilex and black walnuts (Jugtans nigra) as well as Magnolia grandiflora, well suited to the region. A vast reservoir was constructed to store enough water to keep this luxuriant planting healthy and flourishing.

At first, native Italian trees were favored, but gradually the old town became home to all manner of exotics. This was the inspiration of Marguerite Chapin, the American wife of Duke Gelasio's brother Roffredo. In the twenty- five years they spent living in the village — the medieval town hall had been restored and made into a home for Duke Gelasio — Roffredo and Marguerite planted a huge range of plants that thrived in the sheltered conditions, including Drimys winteri from Chile, Cladrastis sinensis from China, hoherias from New Zealand and Montezuma pines from Mexico. They also created more pools and rivulets tojoin the streams already flowing into the River Ninfa, which lies at the heart of the garden, adding new watery habitats and further romantic idylls.

Their daughter Lelia, an artist, continued to work on the garden at Ninfa with her husband, Hubert Howard, until her death in 1971. She lined the old pathways with bushes of rosemary, added more old roses and climbers up the walls, as her grandmother had done, and filled streams with white-flowering arum lilies (Zantedeschia aethiopica). There are no more members of the family tending the garden today, but the work continues through the Caetani Foundation.

Plants Of The Water Garden

THE FORMAL WATER GARDEN

When the Renaissance, starting in Italy in the fifteenth century, set Europe free from the stifling clericalism of the medieval period, its architects and artists went back to the Classical principles of ancient Greece and Rome. And, because most garden designers of the Renaissance were actually architects, garden design underwent the same vast change.

As the twentieth-century garden designer  (and architect) Sir Geoffrey jellicoe explained: The saga of the Italian garden is richer and more varied than any other garden culture, falling roughly into three periods: the True Renaissance (1400—I 500); the High Renaissance (isoo-1600) and Mannerism and Baroque (1600—T700) ... it was in Rome that the first serious studies were made of the ruins of antiquity and the startling discovery of proportion as an echo of the rational human mind (The Landscape of Civilization, 1989). He then conjures up the formal Renaissance garden: ... the mythological caryatids, the long shady airy arcade, the tremendous folly, the splendid carpet patterned in evergreens and fountains, the music and sparkle of rising and falling waters and the dignity and grandeur of it all'.

The gardens designed by such architect, as Rernardo Buontalenti in the sixteenth centur), and ,knclre Lc Notre in the seventeenth were symmetrical, formal, carefully proportioned and treated like rooms in a palace. Plants played second fiddle to statuary, garden buildings and, most importantly, water.

Division Of Outdoor Plants

THE ISLAMIC WATER GARDEN

Jardin Majorelle Marrakesh, Morocco

Although the Islamic garden appears, at first sight, to be highly formulaic — high- walled and private, bisected by two canals or rills and with four rectangular beds — the work of the French painter Jacques Majorelle (1886-1962) in Marrakesh proves how adaptable even this format can be.

Majorelle was a great traveller in Africa before he arrived in Morocco, where he decided to stay because of his health. He chose to make his home in the beautiful town of Marrakesh, with its clear light and color and backdrop of the snow-tipped Atlas Mountains, and he settled at the edge of the town in 1919. Morocco was then still a French colony, and much of the architecture outside the souk and dramatic main square is recognizably French.

The artist, having moved into his pavilion villa with adjoining studio, started to experiment with his walled garden. The garden was already constructed along classic Islamic lines, with its crossing rills, fountains and a large fish tank, and as the garden was built on a sloping site, there were constant changes in level as the main path wound its way through the flower beds. However, it was only in the 1930s that the garden began to take on its distinctive character.

Opposite Although this is clearly a Mughal garden, it is far more playful than most, and, rather than being enclosed, the views down the main cascade open up on to the lake itself.

Top left The magnificent mountains provide a breathtaking backdrop. Above and top right Nishat Bagh is hugely admired — the jewel in Kashmir's crown — and is enjoyed for its frivolity and liveliness, which are more apparent than in most Mughal gardens. is shaded by a double row of chinar trees (Platanus orientalis). At the top of the garden is a pleasure pavilion.

A delightful Mughal painting in a book of poems of 1663 by Zafar Khan, a governor of Kashmir, depicts a very grand personage (perhaps Asaf Khan himself?) sitting on a golden oriental carpet with his courtiers around him and Nishat Bagh behind. A steep cascade is shown with a pavilion at the top, and on either side of the rushing water are beds of poppies and irises. In the background is a range of fierce mountains. Another part of the painting shows a series of arched niches built behind the cascade, probably intended for lights. The Mughals apparently made their waterfalls and fountains even more dramatic by putting lamps behind the water to increase the sparkle. These can still be seen at the seventeenth-century garden of Rambagh at Agra.

The garden also has a zenana. a special area for women, where two octagonal, three-storey gazebos were built so that ladies could view the lake, the rice paddies and the mountains beyond. There are also special viewing platforms alongside the rushing water.

The Garden Book (z000) is full of praise for this gem of a water garden: As the garden has a far steeper ascent than any other Mughal garden, the features have a more dramatic and lively effect: the water cascades faster, the sizes of the chutes are greater. This garden is much louder and visually ostentatious — a radical move away from the subtle and sublime tranquility of most other Mughal garden settings. The site is superb — and a crowning jewel of the Kashmir.'

Gardening In Water Garden

Having visited the Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea Flower Show over the decades, I have noticed that now, after a period of lack of interest, there is a revival of enthusiasm for water gardens. This may be a result of climate change and ever hotter summers, or the development of the technology that makes waterfalls, modernistic fountains and other watery effects easy to achieve. The best garden in the show of woo (a very good year for show gardens), 'Evolution' by Piet Oudolf and Arne Maynard, featured an arching jet of water that leapt from one pool to another (overleaf); anyone wandering in would have been drenched, but clearly this did not deter the judges.

I shall be looking at how famous designers have used water features in the past, from Bernardo Buontalenti, architect and designer to the Medicis, to 'Capability' Brown, a major mover in the landscape gardens of England, along with the more recent contributions of Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, Frank Lloyd Wright and Ian Hamilton Finlay. I shall be looking, too, at how designers, often confined to small urban spaces, have nonetheless found it possibleto include just one small fountain or a single still pool. The influence of the traditional water gardens of the Far East and of Islamic cultures from India to Spain is huge, especially on designers who are working in town gardens or in arid areas, as the heavy reliance on stone, bamboo, infinity pools, silent rills and trickling troughs shows. Included here, too, are those gardens linked to a large expanse of water that cannot be disregarded: gardens beside lakes and rivers, gardens perched on cliffs and by maritime inlets, and island gardens, where water is literally omnipresent.

Of course, water today is a political subject: if global warming continues we are likely to have too little in certain areas and too much in others. Water will probably become a resource that we have to use with care rather than with abandon. But the very fact that it will be important and valuable will increase its worth in our eyes.

Nursery Raising And Transplantation

Pest controls

YOU MAY, FROM TIME TO TIME, think about using some type of pesticide in or around your garden. You will probably go to the garden centre nearest you and ask a staff member what to do about the leaves curling on your fruit tree, the green bugs on your roses, or some obvious damage to a plant. Of course, the level of knowledge of staff members at a garden centre or even a specialist nursery will vary. They may point you to a certain product and say this will take care of your problem. It may, or may not.

The use of pesticides is a science, one that has been made much easier for the novice with the constant work of chemists and other researchers working for manufacturers. But it still requires attention on your part. Some plant treatments may be effective at one time of the year, but ineffective at others. Some plant treatments may work on one plant but be harmful to another. Let's look at how pesticides work.

• Always wear protective rubber gloves when applying insecticide sprays.

The label will state what, if any, food plants may come into contact with the product. The label will state treatment times, and how long you must wait to harvest after treatment. All garden pesticides can be.

Synthetic insecticides

Some chemical insecticides work on contact, and others have a systemic action. Contact insecticides must come in direct contact with the insect to have any effect. Contact insecticides for garden use are sold as a dust, spray, liquid concentrate, or soluble powder. When using a contact pesticide, you must thoroughly treat all parts of the plant, because some insects live primarily on the undersides of leaves. Systemic pesticides are those that will travel throughout the plant. An insect feeding on any plant part will ingest the systemic chemical that will kill it.

It is possible for some pests and fungal diseases to build up an immunity or tolerance to chemicals, so that a pesticide that was once effective no longer works. Continual use of the same chemical is not to be recommended. Different insecticides contain different active ingredients, so it's a good idea to rotate these regularly. All pesticides are poisonous to people, animals, and birds, and some will harm beneficial insects.

Synthetic herbicides

It is quite tedious to pull out weeds over and over again. Many gardeners find it easier to use a herbicide or weed killer to do the job. There are four common types of synthetic herbicides: pre-planting, pre-emergent, post-emergent, and sterilizers.

Pre-planting herbicides are used after you have prepared the soil, before you plant your seeds. They destroy weed seeds in the soil. After you have followed the directions, plant the seeds. Pre-emergent herbicides are used to destroy seeds as they germinate. They do not affect established plants or weeds. Post-emergent herbicides are used after the grass or other plants are established and you want to eliminate growing weeds. These products, usually sprays, may kill any plant on which they land. Sterilizing herbicides kill all plants they come into contact with. If sprayed on a plant, they will kill the leaves and then attack the roots and kill them. Avoid using these on a windy day.

It is extremely important when considering the use of any pesticide in a garden.

Rock Garden Plants

Fruit and veggie varmints

IF YOU LOVE A JUICY, sweet plum picked right off the tree, you're not alone. Some insects attack fruit crops with the same sort of gusto you might apply to a bowl of fruit salad. If you plan on growing fruit, look out for codling moths, pear midge, pear and cherry slug worm, and sawflies. There are also many unwanted vegetable visitors including caterpillars, cutworms, carrot root flies, and pea moths.

Apple saw fig

The adult sawfly lays eggs in fruitlets just at flowering time, and on hatching, a grub leaves a characteristic ribbon-shaped scar on the apple surface, before tunnelling its way into the heart of the fruit to feed on the central core. This normally causes the fruit to drop in June or July. When the larva is fully fed, it'll depart via an exit hole, crawl into the ground to pupate, and emerge later as an adult.

Once sawflies are within the fruit, they are protected from all chemical controls. So it's not worth spraying the fruit. You will not harm the insect, but the spray might harm anyone who eats the fruit.

Codling moths

The most common cause of wormy apples, these whitish-pink moth larvae also feed on pears. When the codling moths have invaded, you'll see small holes in the fruit skin with dark brown, crumbly matter around the holes. As if the larvae damage wasn't bad enough, the holes are perfect sites for bacterial and fungal growth. The larvae drop to the ground or crawl down the tree trunks when they are ready to spin cocoons. They may over-winter under tree bark or in garden litter. Severe codling moth infestations can totally destroy a fruit crop. Damage is worse in years that have warm, dry spring-time weather, because the moths lay more eggs.

To protect your garden, clean up garden fruits as they fall, and place rejects in a covered container for eventual disposal. Remove weeds and other debris to eliminate larvae hiding places.

Pick off and destroy fruitlets showing signs of damage before the larvae escape into the soil. If infestations are severe, spray the tree branches with an appropriate insecticide, reading the instructions carefully.

Pear midges

The early symptom of the pear midge is when small fruitlets become deformed and blackened and fall off the tree in late spring and early summer. With a bad infestation, all the fruit can be lost. On splitting the fruit, you'll see a large central cavity and numerous tiny white grubs up to 2 millimeters long. On small trees, pick off and destroy infested fruitlets before the maggots complete their feeding. You can stop the adult flies laying eggs by spraying with an appropriate insecticide at the white bud stage of the tree, which is when you can see the petal color but before the flowers have started to open.

Popular Descriptions With Plates

Be water-wise

If possible, water the lawn early in the morning on days when there is no wind. Water only when the lawn is dry. Do not over- water. If you are seeing runoff, the ground may be soaked. One of the more common over-watering problems is caused by not adjusting a sprinkler system for cooler weather or rain. We have all seen sprinklers going full spurt ahead when it's been raining all day. Drowned roots do not produce healthy lawns. It is also possible that the water pressure or amount is excessive, with more water being applied than the soil can absorb at one time, so it runs off. Underneath the top layer, the soil may be dry.

Before you decide that you're over-watering, check out whether the water is actually sinking in. If it's not, you'll need to try a more moderate approach to watering.

Under-watering can be a problem too. Grass roots will only survive with some moisture. If there isn't enough, the grass may be unable to withstand drought. Check your sprinkler system as the seasons change. The heat of summer is simply going to require more water for your lawn. Check how deeply the water has been absorbed with a spade, digging to about 15 centimeters. The soil should be damp. Check several spots, as absorption on slopes or in hollows will differ. If you don't like digging, buy a lawn-water measuring gadget.

• Grass roots soon show the signs of a lack of water If roots remain too close to the surface (top), it means they're just not getting enough moisture down in the soil where they need it. To ensure healthy roots (bottom) make sure that water is getting to a depth of at least 10 to 15 centimeters.

A simple Summary

Different grasses have different needs. Check out the strengths and weaknesses of the grasses you like so that you select the correct variety.

Do not over-water, and check to make certain water is soaking down into the soil rather than running off.

Fertilize your lawn regularly and in the recommended seasons. Lawns need lots of nutrients to be healthy

Be honest with yourself about how much time you actually have to spend on lawn care, and how willing you are to use that time for lawn work.

Be aware of any water limitations in your area, current or pending.

Make sure you choose the grass variety that is most suited to your area and to your site.

You can plant grass with seeds, turves, sprigs, or plugs.

Weeding wisely

Patience is most definitely a virtue when it comes to picking out weeds from pretty green lawns. Among the many perennial and annual weeds you may encounter are bindweed, black medic, clover, celandine, dandelion, and plantain. The most effective weed deterrent is a healthy, dense lawn that is well fertilized, watered, and has plenty of air circulation and the sunshine it needs. Always mow to the recommended height. If you mow too short, low-growing weeds have more space to thrive. Pull weeds out consistently so as not to let them get a foothold and just use herbicides on the areas where pulling just won't do the job. There are some organic weed sprays on the market, but you may have to look in specialist catalogues. Chapter 21 covers the use of herbicides in detail.

 You can visit this flower guide for more information about this article.

Flowering Plants - The First Track

Blue fescue

Often used in dry landscaping, the serene, blue-grey leaves of blue fescue (Festuca mina glauca) accent taller, brighter perennials. Only 17 to 25 centimeters high, blue fescue develops into a tufted, mounding plant that usually displays moderate growth, expanding from individual plants that may each get to 30 or more centimeters wide. During the summer months, brownish, rather bland flowers appear on little spikes. Blue fescue markedly prefers sun, but it will also tolerate light shade. To keep it looking its best, just water it occasionally.

Silver brocade artemisia

My 15 centimetre-high artemisia (Artemisia stelleriana) started when a dinner guest gave me a home-grown flower bouquet made up of stems in grey Out of curiosity, when the flowers faded I tucked the stems in a glass of water on a sunny bathroom windowsill and forgot about them. Three weeks later, the stems developed roots. The plant went into the sunny, dry spot where just about everything had refused to grow because of concrete-reflected heat. The artemisia thrived. I clipped a few stems, rooted them in water, and placed them into more tough, small areas, such as inside an ancient lorry type that has been transformed into a raised bed. To use artemisia as groundcover, you must place each plant about 25 centimeters apart. Expect artemisia to reach about 38 centimeters wide. This evergreen perennial has silvery-grey leaves about 5 to 10 centimeters long.

Beach covers

FORTUNATELY FOR THOSE AT THE SEASHORE, a good number of ground-cover plants work nicely in this environment. Try some of the following plants if your garden gets beach winds and salt sprays.

Cape weed

I use cape weed (Arctotheca calendula) in a really hot, dry side area where nothing else wants to tolerate the living conditions. The only problem is it keeps trying to escape into an area with soil less like hardened concrete. It's aggressive enough to require vigilance, but then, that's exactly what you may need. Cape weed can grow to about 20 centimeters tall, but will hug the ground in dry situations. It can tolerate temperatures as low as —4° C and is quite useful on neglected slopes and for erosion control. If you plant it in any form of shade, it will grow with great determination towards sunlight. Cape weed's flowers.

Bringing In Butterflies And Attracting Beneficial Insects

Lacewings

These insects are about 2 centimeters long, green or brown, and have lacy, long wings. Lacewing larvae, or young, can each devour 60 aphids per hour, and also feed on leafhoppers, mites, thrips, and other small pest insects. The adults feed on flower nectar and pollen. To encourage lacewings into your garden, plant:

• Archangel (Angelica archangelica)         • Goldenrod (Solidago)

• Butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii)            • Red cosmos (Cosmos)

• Campion (Lychnis)                                • Tickseed (Coreopsis)

• Common tansy (Tanacetum vulgare)      • Yarrow (Achillea)

 

Ladybirds

Most ladybirds are shiny red, orange, or yellow with black markings. Each adult ladybird is about 7 millimeters long. The wrinkled larvae, or young, are orange and black. Both adults and larvae feed on aphids, mites, whiteflies, and scale insects. Ladybirds emerge in spring, just as the aphids descend, and eat hundreds of these insects a day, making them a true gardener's friend. To encourage ladybirds, plant:

• Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa)

• Marigold (Tagetes)

• Spindle tree (Euonymus)

• Yarrow (Achillea)

Archangel ecstasy

This tropical-looking biennial plant, sometimes called angelica, offers bright green, deeply divided leaves and fragrant greenish-white flowers in large clusters. A rapid grower, it does best in rich, damp, soil planted in partial shade. In medieval times, archangel was believed to be sent by angels. It provided a cooked vegetable for the dinner table, candied stalks for dessert, kept evil spirits from entering the body, and offered protection from the plague. Archangel (Angelica archangelica) can grow to 2.5 meters high. The seeds may self-sow for next year's garden.

Cosmos companions

Cosmos (C. bipinnatus), sometimes called Mexican aster, can be found in perennial and annual varieties. The annuals may be white, pink, lavender, crimson, or bicoloured, but it's the white cosmos that is most attractive to beneficial insects. Ranging in height from 1 to 2 meters, cosmos prefer full sun, average soil, and moderate water.

Find Out When To Buy Your Plant And Bulbs

Favorite figs

 • Angelique — medium, roundish fruit that are yellow with white specks. Flesh white with pink tinge. Good for pots, does well by walls in a greenhouse.

• Brown Turkey — the large, pear-shaped fruit are brown with occasional purple tinge. Sugary rich flesh at centre. Excellent by garden walls or in a greenhouse. Easy to force in pots.

• Castle Kennedy — very large fruit. Skin greenish- yellow. Tender white flesh stained red. Very early cropper.

• Fig d'Or — golden fruit with pink-tinged flesh. Very indented leaves. An old variety most suited to pots in a greenhouse. Strawberry flesh, rich, sweet, and good quality.

• Kadota — medium-sized fruit with yellowish green to white skin. Rich, sweet, amber flesh, very old variety

• Panachee — striped wood and striped sweet fruit. Delicious eating. The figs look like little hot air balloons! Vigorous habit, but easily controlled.

• Rouge de Bordeaux — medium-sized fruit. Purple skin with violet bloom and red flesh. Excellent rich flavor. One of the best figs for greenhouse culture, border, or pot.

A rig fitness programme Caring for your fig trees couldn't be simpler. When the weather gets hot and dap remember to give them plentu of water.

As with many plants, mature trees require much less water than young trees. Potted figs need regular watering at all times. A mulch will help to preserve moisture, since the fig roots grow close to the surface. Because of the shallow root system, don't plan on digging or cultivating around your fig trees.

Figs need little pruning, and most pruning should be done for size and shapeliness when the tree is young. If you are into pruning, be aware that some fig trees fruit mostly on new shoots, and others fruit on both old and new branches.

Some people advocate wrapping fig trees for the winter. A simple way is to tie the branches together to make a cylinder. Use a wire cage to enclose the branches and fill the empty spaces with dried leaves. Cover the cage with a waterproof fabric. Few insects or diseases annoy fig trees, except birds and wasps. Weeding must be thorough near trunks to prevent rodents nibbling the bark.

Fabulous figs

FIGS ARE AMONG THE OLDEST of cultivated fruits. Records show that people have been planting figs (Ficus carica) since at least 2500 BC, but their history pre-dates that time. According to the Old Testament, while Adam was strolling around the Garden of Eden, he ate the apple Eve had given him and then had to cover his nakedness with a nearby fig leaf.

Grow Your Own Delicious Vegetables, Fruits, And Herbs

Beach covers

FORTUNATELY FOR THOSE AT THE SEASHORE, a good number of ground-cover plants work nicely in this environment. Try some of the following plants if your garden gets beach winds and salt sprays:

Cape weed

I use cape weed (Arctotheca calendula) in a really hot, dry side area where nothing else wants to tolerate the living conditions. The only problem is it keeps trying to escape into an area with soil less like hardened concrete. It's aggressive enough to require vigilance, but then, that's exactly what you may need. Cape weed can grow to about 20 centimeters tall, but will hug the ground in dry situations. It can tolerate temperatures as low as —4° C and is quite useful on neglected slopes and for erosion control. If you plant it in any form of shade, it will grow with great determination towards sunlight. Cape weed's flowers

Hottentot fig

Hottentot figs (Ccupobrotus edulis) have thick leaves, and each stem can reach 2 meters long. In some hot, dry areas of America it is called "freeway ice plant". It helps stabilize beach sand, and tolerates coastal soil spray and some soil salt. The large flowers are yellow and pink. Hottentot figs tolerate temperatures as low as —4° C.

Hottentot fig does have its advantages, but I don't recommend it for ordinarti garden use because it has a bulky appearance and spreads rapid/q. lnitiallrj lqiny flat, it may mound gradually as long stems pile on top of one another.

Sage-leaf rock rose

There are many types of rock rose, all originating on dry, stony soil in warm climates. They are grown in parks as well as gardens, and if watered occasionally and given full sun, they'll reward you with lovely spring flowers in white, light pink, or rose pink.

More beach covers:

• Bergenia (Bergenia)                                            • Lilyturf (Liriope)

• Blue fescue (Festuca ovina glauca)                  • Mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus)

• Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster)                              •    Creeping coprosma (Coprosma)                • Shrub verbena (Lantana)

• Dwarf rosemary                                                   • Snow-in-summer

(Rosmarinus officinalis) (Cerastium tomentosum)

• Gold dust (Aurinia scocatalis)                         • Stonecrop (Sedum)

•             Heather (Calluna vulgaris)                    • Sun rose (Helianthemum)

•             Lavender cotton                                     • Trailing African daisy

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How To Plan And Maintain A Beautiful Garden

EXPLORING EDIBLES

FUN WITH FRUIT TREES

To help prevent the roots from developing crown rot fungus damage, don't plant too deeply Place the trees in the ground at the same soil level they were in when you brought them home from the nursery. To provide good air circulation, dwarf trees require at least 2.5 meters of growing space, and standard trees should have about 8 meters in which to stretch out.

Choosing cherries

Most sweet cherry trees require another sweet cherry tree as a pollinator. The pollinator tree doesn't have to be in your garden, but it certainly helps to have one nearby Acid cherry trees, producing the kind of fruit used in preserves and pies, are self-fertile. The varieties I've chosen to feature are all trees producing sweet eating cherries. Some can be found as dwarf trees, such as Compact Stella, which produces more fruiting spurs and a heavy crop for its smaller size. Dwarf cherry trees are self-fertile.

Good cherries for beginners

• Compact Stella — this has all of the basic properties of the most popular sweet cherry It readily forms spurs. The fruits are large, dark , red, and are ready for picking around late July.

• Early Rivers — a variety that was introduced over 100 years ago and is still popular. The fruits are sweet, very large, and nearly black. Cropping is heavy and regular and the cherries are ready for picking around mid-June.

• Governor Wood — this yellow-fleshed cherry has a good flavor. Its sweet, medium-sized fruit have dark red skins, flushed yellow. They ripen in early July

• Merchant — a newer variety of sweet cherry with large fruit and bacterial canker resistance. Ripens early July

• Merton Bigarreau — large, black cherry with dark red firm flesh and an outstanding flavor, a heavy cropper with high vigor, it ripens around mid-July

• Merton Glory — large, yellow cherry ripening in late June. It has firm, white flesh and heart-shaped, rather than round, fruit. Growth is distinctly upright.

• Napoleon Bigarreau — renowned for its firm, very sweet flesh, pale yellow fruits, flushed with dark red. It's a heavy cropper that's ready for picking in early August.

• Van — reliable cropper with sweet, large, dark red fruit and firm, dark red flesh. Not a good choice for a small garden. Is ready for picking in late July.

Easy - To - Grow Fragrant Herbs

Fertilization

Plants can be self-fertile or require a pollinator plant. Cross-fertilization occurs with plants that rely on a pollinator plant.

When planning a fruit tree purchase, it is important to know whether the plant is self-fertile or whether it requires a pollinator. If a plant is self-fertile you need only one tree of that kind to produce fruit. If a plant requires a pollinator, you will need two trees to get fruit.

Super simple plant anatomy

PLANTS, WHETHER TINY HERBS OR GIANT TREES, are basically made up of three parts: roots, stems, and leaves. Roots are the parts growing downwards into the ground. They take in part of the plant's nourishment, including water, from the soil, and they anchor the plant into the soil. Roots usually branch many times as they grow. The smaller branches are called rootlets.

Growing upwards from the roots is a stem. At certain places along the stem, according to plant type, there are leaves. Leaves, as a group, make up the plant's foliage. The stem acts as a conduit, carrying nourishment from the roots to the leaves. Leaves also take in food from the air. These nutrients, along with the nutrients transferred to the leaves from the root system, begin to change within the leaves. When exposed to sunlight, the nutrients change into a form that the plant can actually use for its health and growth. This process is called photosynthesis.

A healthy growing plant extends its roots and rootlets further and further out into the soil. Reaching out lets it have access to more soil nutrients and more water. Meanwhile, in a healthy plant, the stem becomes longer. It develops more leaves, or sends out more branches, which in turn develop more leaves. The many leaves obtain more light and air, aiding plant nutrition. Your job as a gardener is to help each of your plants meet its growth needs.

• Each male stamen consists of an anther and a filament, while the female pistil has three parts — a stigma, style, and ovary. When pollen lands on the stigma, pollination occurs.

Fruit Tree Fundamentals

Choosing blackberries and hybrid berries

These plants like to sprawl and ramble, so you'll need to control them by confining them in some way, such as training them up a wall or fence, or a series of wires. If you have a small garden or limited space, choose a less vigorous variety, or one without horns (or both). Hybrid berries are more suited to a smaller garden than blackberries, since they are generally less vigorous. Hybrid berries prefer a sunny sheltered site, but blackberries will thrive in most situations, tolerating some shade and even bad drainage. Plant the bushes in autumn or winter, and tie the canes to some form of support.

Recommended blackberries

• Ashton Cross — wiry-stemmed, bears a heavy crop.

• Bedford Giant — as its name suggests, this is vigorous and so is not suitable for a small garden.

• Black Satin — thornless variety propagated in the U.S.

• Fantasia — discovered on an allotment near London, thorny, vigorous, with very large fruits indeed.

• Helen — thornless, best choice for early fruit.

• Himalaya Giant — makes a superb windbreak, but only suitable for large gardens.

• Loch Ness — thornless, and a good performer in the garden.

• Merton Thornless — good for confined spaces, small yields, but needs very little maintenance.

• Oregon Thornless — reliable, thornless, with mild-flavored fruit.

• Waldo — thornless. 

Hybrid berries

• Boysenberry — a cross between the loganberry, blackberry, and raspberry Thorned and thornless varieties are available. Fruits are long or oblong, and look more like raspberries although they taste more like wild blackberries. They ripen at the end of July.

• Dewberry — generally more popular in the US than in the UK, this is not a cross between other berries, but a distinct species on its own. The fruit tastes much better than it looks!

• Hildaberry — a new hybrid cross between a boysenberry and a tayberry, named after the plant breeder's wife. Not widely available except through specialist nursery catalogues.

• Japanese wineberry — This is a very ornamental plant with its arching stems covered with stiff red bristles. There's the added attraction of edible, seed-filled red berries.

• Loganberry — a straight cross between a raspberry and a blackberry This plant fruits mid-season, is very popular and more widely grown than other hybrid berry varieties.

Good grape-keeping

Water your vines regularly, as it is important to prevent drought stress. Drooping leaves are signs of thirst, so take action. Do not feed late in the season, as this encourages growth when energy should be placed into the fruit.

Pruning the vines

Once the main stem has reached the height you want, prune in winter to 2 buds of new growth. Cut back all the side shoots from the previous summer to one strong bud. As the vine matures, growth around these side shoots may become congested, so you may need to saw off these woody stubs. By early summer, you should see the flower trusses that will develop into bunches of grapes. Pinch out any weak trusses to concentrate the vine's energies on fewer, larger bunches.

Harvesting grapes

Examine your grapes for a slight translucence. This is a sign that they're mature. Fully ripe grapes have the best flavor, and you should taste before you pick to ensure sweetness.

It's important to avoid handling the ripe or ripening fruits, as dial are easily damaged.

Bountiful blackberries

ONE OF MY BEST CHILDHOOD MEMORIES is picking wild blackberries from the hedgerows and other wild patches of land. Even in cities, blackberries will grow wild along railway embankments and in other areas of neglected land. Cultivated blackberries are altogether more luscious, and well worth growing for apple and blackberry pie and bramble jelly

I'd put the other hybrid berries into the same category of deliciousness, the most popular of which is the loganberry. This is a cross between the blackberry and the raspberry, with fruit characteristics in between the two. The main difference is that hybrid berries have perennial canes, unlike the raspberry's annual stem.

 You can visit this flower guide for more information about this article.