Oak bank design

Time to visit a part of the garden you haven’t seen for months. The oak bank above the courtyard.

It’s settling in. And the one good thing about this hot weather is I don’t have to fuss too much about the lush growth of weedy grass around the eragrostis and gaura ruining my design.

I’m not strimming at the moment owing to incipient agony following the use of a heavy garden tool. So I’m relieved the growth is slow..

I just mulch heavily with any grass cuttings I have from the lawn mowings. And then I take a hasty action shot of the scene before the grass cuttings go brown and beige and dead looking and a bit blah.

I’m rather pleased to see the oaks are all doing quite well in among the narrow beds.

It’s a qualified ‘quite well’. Remember these trees have to grow on almost solid granite rock. I have no idea how far the roots spread to find sustenance. But they do.

I have a line of hornbeams at the top, in the deepest part of the soil. These were leftovers from my mass hedge planting below the house.

Then the American oaks.

Quercus ruba? Please don’t ask me to go back four years to when I planted them to find their latin name. Time flies in the tree planting life of the farm.

Okay. I did. January 2013. And yes, Quercus rubra. You missed the pause while I had a cup of tea and a rummage through my files.

I even have a shot of them the day they were planted. I think I have five left out of the original eight which isn’t bad.

And, oh joy, even the transplanted oaks have finally decided to grow.

I have so many self seeding oaks that pop up in unwanted places. The terrace bank is littered with them.  So a few years ago I carefully removed some, potted them up and then moved them to the oak bank.

Boy, did they sulk. I even had to put these natty green wire cages around them just so I could find them in the bed when I was strimming.

But two years on, they are actually looking settled. They might even stun me and actually grow. Yippee.