What a year it was. I would have been completely lost without the garden. The heavy work that Kate and I had done early in the year paid off although continuing rain made weeds prolific. Some of the new grasses we introduced grew well while others were disappointing - finding the right place seems to be key.
We bought grasses from the nursery, I bought some on line and planted a lot of seeds too. Although we have an huge established grass garden, I had not been using them much in the flower beds so we used some different ones in a new corner of the garden we developed where the ground was poor. Canna were potted up surrounded by different grasses.
We were aiming for plenty of colour. Normally the flowers are at their best in May and June and by July/August things are looking a little sad. But we had managed to increase the number of dahlias and zinnias so there was still plenty of colour in the beds. When I was young, dahlias in all their blowsiness were deeply unfashionable but there is no other flower I have come across which gives such value over such a long period - the zinnias that I grow from seed come a good second.
The dahlias have survived the recent winters and have proliferated so we have taken some out to make what we hope will be a spectacular dahlia hedge close to the potager. We planted some large grasses and daisies in the ‘long’ bed and staked the dahlias individually.
I have now found a French supplier for good quality seed and dahlias. We probably don’t need dahlias but I am very tempted to try one of the super tall dahlia trees which need lots of sun and can grow to 7/8 feet.
Of course, dahlias and zinnias aren’t the only show in town and the cutting garden had a great display of gaillardias, echinacea and hardy geraniums.
I had a year when I bought no new scarlet geraniums and decided to have pots on the terrace using different plants - coleus, ammi visnaga, salvia, false sweet potato and tucked away on the left a chocolate regal geranium which had survived the winter in the garden room.
I also planted canna in some of the pots which certainly added a bit of drama to corners of the garden. I’m hoping to grow some from seed this year. They don’t survive the winter but I take them into my plastic tunnel and they are happy there for the cold months.
The focus of attention had to move from the garden to the kitchen as musicians were arriving. The Alkyona Quartet flew in from the UK, Holland and Estonia in August, finding a way through the travel restrictions. They had visited in 2019 but had changes in players and a busy schedule of concerts in the autumn so so hard work was needed.
I pulled out my cookery books and looked at possible ingredients in Peter’s potager.
Although there were courgettes, chard, beetroot, beans and lovely little new potatoes plus loads of lettuce of various kinds, we had had a couple of disasters. The badgers had got the sweetcorn! And the tomatoes - all 50 of them - had succumbed to blight after so much rain.
The weather stayed fair for the days that the Alkyonas were with us. It was lovely to sit once again on the terrace in the evening and enjoy conversation from young people and hear how they had coped in lockdown times. They came with us to a rose tasting with neighbours and told us they loved the food we prepared for them.
Once the invitation went out for the concert, the email was buzzing with people wanting to come. And they were not disappointed by a great programme of works by Haydn, Kapustin and Schubert. It was a hot day and one of the audience reported that it was the first time they had seen a musician having to wipe off their bow during a performance. The audience in the concert barn was socially distanced and masks were voluntary. Full details of their programme are included in the Residencies section.
It was August. We celebrated the music. We celebrated a birthday. We started to make plans for travelling and a possible pocket opera.