July 2025

July 2025 Update

The hedges, mostly planted in 2017/19 as 20-30cm bare-root sticks, have had their first full cut, with the yews, hornbeam, holm oak and native boundary hedges being faced and topped.  A daunting job with a handheld hedge trimmer and loppers.  

We have planted a Henry's Lime tree as the central feature in a circular area we have created as a memorial garden for our son Henry.  Henry's Lime tree, Tilia henryana, originates in China where it was first described by Augustine Henry in 1888.  It is notable for the finely toothed margins to the leaves.  The tree is surrounded by daffodil bulbs and there is an outer circle of Fargesia murielae clump forming bamboo, which, if it survives the exposed site, the rabbits and deer, should ultimately form a 2 to 3m high hedge.

The Japanese wisteria (Wisteria floribunda 'Multijuga' on the front of the house and 'Black Dragon' on the back) have been pruned and given wires to climb along.  The Black Dragons are taking longer to establish on a North facing wall, but will hopefully take off.

The X Chitalpa tashkentensis is flowering for the first time. This is a rare small tree, unusual in that it is an inter-generic cross between desert willow (Chilopsis linearis) and Indian bean tree (Catalpa bignonioides).  It can be found to the road side of the gravel parking area.

We have planted a semicircle of eleven white birch (Betula utilis var. jacquemontii) around the yew crescent at the far end of the garden.  These have been grown from seed and so it will be interesting to see how white the trunks of the mature trees will be - the white trunks take a few years to develop.  

The weather station has been relocated in the kitchen garden so that it is now nearly 5m above the ground and clear of the hedges.