Garden Update...

Despite Peter telling me it hadn't rained at WBP for almost eight weeks, the universe decided that the three days I was home would be the perfect time to bucket down. The gardener and farmer in me didn't mind, although it did not make for the brightest condition for photos. It did provide some dramatic stormy backdrops for shots such as the one above of a sphinx with Badger's Wood in the background. 

As we head into autumn the greens will give way to yellows and browns, so until the new growth and unfurling flowers of spring, like trumpets, herald our long awaited opening, here are some shots of the greenery....

The Orchard

Above and Below: Plums and Prunes.

Above: Quinces.

Above: A cider Apple tree (Sweet Alford).

Below: A dual grafted Apricot tree.

Above and Below: Beurre Bosch Pears.

Above: Belle de Jumet Pears. They are a late harvest pear and should be ready by the end of March.

Above and Below: Damsons. These should be ready mid-late March. Peter is going to pick them and then we shall make Damson Jam when I return in 4 weeks.

Above: Elderberries.

Below: Turkish Figs.

The Vineyard

Above: Before Netting.

Below: After Netting.

Badger's Wood

Above: A view of Badger's Wood from the roof. On the right you can see the culvert which has been placed in antcipation of building our Palladian Bridge.

Above: The final good shot before it tipped down...

Above and Below: A brace of Heron who have made their home at WBP. Heron are a protected species, so they are very welcome to come and fish in the lake or pull up worms on the lawn.

Above: Parterre with buxus partitioning planted, awaiting the planting of the flowers in the spring.

Above: The Bell Lawn and Urn en Flambeau from Terrace.

Below: The same as view from roof.

The Camellia Lawn

The Lime Walk

Above: View down the lime walk from the roof, looking towards the site of the rotunda.

Above: The view from the Rotunda towards the Bell Lawn and Urn en Flambeau

Above: The view towards the manor from Rotunda.

Below: The view towards the Elysian Fields and Farm from Rotunda.

Below: The Elysian Fields, where we are going to sow our wild flower project.

The Potager

Above: One of two newly replanted knot gardens. The original ones succumbed to a lack of weeding and neglect during a single spring from which they never fully recovered. This time we have planted just the buxus hedging, and have planted it through weed matting with mulch on top...

We replanted them in spring just gone. We had to remove everything, spray the ground out three times, and start from scratch. Willoughby, rest his soul, was still around, but not up to helping much...

Once the hedge is established we will grow the herbs in nice pots above the ground (as the main failing of of previous attempt was the difficulty of weeding around the herbs, not the hedges). The pots will additionally provide interest through their height. Peter has become excellent at shaping the buxus...

Below: Hibiscus syriacus "Coelestris". 

Such a lovely shade of purple.

The Olive Grove

Above and Below: We have added a focal point to the view through the olive grove in the form of a bust of Helena on a spare plinth from the building project.

Lastly the two corners of the garden seldom shown (as they are far from reaching their potential). Spencer's Corner...

This is the corner through the archway in the hedge where Spencer is buried. This winter we are going to plant a thicket of oaks there.

The other corner is known as "Little Hollows". We plan to create a semicircular seating area in this area, looking back towards the manor. Behind the seating will be our lilacs and some silver pears. At present there is a small recycled shell planter on a recycled plinth...

In the next post we will give you a sneak peek into the interior progress. See you again then.

Coppicing...

Above: Stands of coppiced trees.

We have planted evergreen Alders along the length of the brook. These little foot tall sticks over the past 3 years have grown into 10m tall, bushy trees. Evergreen Alder - Alnus acuminate (aka jorullensis or Mexican / Andean Alder) is a quick growing tree. It grows 25 m tall in 10 years, then slows to grow to a maximum height of 30m. 

Above: One of the Alders along our brook.

We chose it as it is almost evergreen in milder climates such as Willowbrook's (being only deciduous for 3 months a year, loosing it’s leaves in very late autumn and gaining them again in very early spring, as opposed to European Alder (Alnus glutinosa), which is bare for 6 months of the year).

Alders grow to 30 metres under natural conditions, which would be far taller than we would want along our brook. We have a tall stand of trees on the adjacent estate, and so to have a tiered view we would like our trees to be shorter than those, but taller than the trees in front making up the backdrop for the bell lawn, which will be trimmed at about 10 feet tall (3 metres). Therefore we want our Alders to only grow to about 30 feet tall (9 metres). Trimming them perpetually at this height would be technically difficult and would require trimming twice yearly given how quickly they grow. It would also give them an unnatural hedged appearance, which is not the look we wish to achieve along the brook, which we would like to look like a natural waterway. Thus we have decided to coppice them. 

Coppicing is a fairly ancient technique for maintaining healthy forests as well as being able to harvest firewood and poles for use.

Usually it would take alders 3 years to  bounce back after being coppiced, but our soil is so fertile we have found 18 months to be the norm for most trees. We have had several trees struck down from winds, but have left the stumps in situ and they have grown back to be the same height and density as the other trees of the same species which were not blown down, and it has only taken them 12-18 months to do this! This is because their root structure is intact, so they have plenty of water and nutrients to draw from and they put all their energy into growing their canopies again. The stump left behind after coppicing is traditionally referred to as ‘the stool’

Above: A newly coppiced stool of Alder.

Below: The same stool 18 months later.

Alnus acuminata has a good root structure suitable for suring up slopes and eroded or deforested areas. Like most species of Alder, it is found near waterways and wet lands. The wood burns well - a good even burning firewood - which is good given we have 7 open hearth fires to fuel (our planting of thousands of trees on the estate over the last 7 years far out strips any negative effects of our carbon footprint). Its freshly harvested poles are also useful in gardening and agriculture as posts and stakes. In Costa Rica the wood, with its straight grain, fine texture and reddish brown colour, is considered too good for firewood and is used for boxes and furniture. It coppices well (better than Alnus glutinosa – European Alder). 

Although they are not legumes, they do have root nodules which are nitrogen fixing (convert nitrogen in the air into ammonium for storage, thus enhancing soil fertility and promoting good undergrowth of flora below their canopies.

I would not go as far as to say coppicing is a lost art, but it is certainly less common than it once was.

Coppicing was known in the Neolithic times – the coppiced shoots, being characteristically curved at the base where they grow out from the side of the stool, have been identified in pre-historic archaeological sites). In particular there was a good find of coppiced lime in Sweet Track Sommerset which dates back to about 3800 BC. The thin poles were used for fencing, walking sticks, thatching, hedge laying and faggots (bundles of brushwood for fires).

Coppicing was common practice with alders, willows, beech, hazel, poplar and ash. Typically a woodland would be harvested in coups – small areas - at a time, so that perhaps over a 3-5 year period (depending on the species being coppiced). This would provide sustainable forestry as well as allow light into the forest to promote growth of the forest floor flora.

Brambles often grow around the coppiced stools allowing insects and small mammals refuge, encouraging biodiversity. Creating glades in the middle of a wood by coppicing a group of trees provides the open space required for many animals such as butterflies to thrive. There are far fewer butterflies now than there were at the turn of last century, so I think we should do every little thing to promote their well being. Don't even get me started on the plight of the honey bee...

Coppicing also maintains the vigour of the tree (trees that are coppiced regularly will live longer than those which are not – virtually forever - as they have no old growth and when you coppice them the weakest part of the root system will usually die back naturally to balance the growth of the canopy above).

  

One can also use the practice of singling to allow one shoot to grow on. So after the first coppicing, where you leave behind essentially only one trunk, you then get several shoots coming out of it. You would harvest all of those shoots when they are ready, except one which you allow to grow on to be a proper tree again.

I think our trees will be due for their first coppicing next winter (16 months time). We will take some before, during and after photos to share I am sure.

Which White?

It is time to choose our interior paint colours, and boy are there a lot of shades of white to choose from. We knew that we didn't want a harsh white, and most people would naturally choose an off-white for ceilings and walls these days. After looking through the Resene colour range (NZ's main paint company), we have settled on 'Double Alabaster' for the ceilings (3rd up, 2nd from right)...

We think that we will choose a slightly darker shade of off-white for the cornicing and skirting, and any wainscoting panels, and will look at having a colour made up for us for the interior walls, probably about 1/8th 'Willowbrook', as we made a paint colour for the outside render. It would be similar to 'Half Spanish White' (3rd down, left hand row).

Any suggestions?

Field of the Cloth of Gold...

Possibly not as grand as the 1520 summit between Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France (shown above), known as the Field of the Cloth of Gold (as Henry had spent millions of pounds in today's equivalent of fine gold cloth for marquees and tents and clothing), but none the less this is what I was reminded of when we were unraveling our precious wall upholstery in the middle of a farm paddock to ensure the carpet we have chosen worked with the wall fabric...

Above and Below: The gold silk for the drawing room, with "Golden Buff" coloured carpet...

Alas, the previous carpet we chose is no longer in production, so we decided we would lay more marble down in the common areas instead, but we still needed carpet for the private areas such as drawing rooms and bedrooms. We wanted to choose a colour that we could use in multiple spaces. The golden buff didn't really work with the gold silk (too much brown and gold in one room)...

But it did work with the curtains for the Brideshead suite...

And surprisingly worked very well with the Berry and Gold velvet damask for the Chatsworth suite...

Much better than the originally chosen red carpets would have...

It also worked well with the two-tone gold velvet damask for the master suite...

Other choices we had entertained were Honey (top left), Delta Sunset (top right), and Casting Rod (bottom right). These are shown below on a based unpolished marble.... 

We decided we needed a lighter colour to go with the gold, but one which was not too white (it had to look warm, not cold). We settled on "Blondie" ...

Below: Blondie (centre), Pearl (left - too white) and Golden Buff (right - too dark)...

A Goldielocks moment, this colour was "just right"...

Hooray and Up She Rises...

I was very happy to be home last week to see several small milestones met on the building project. The first small but satisfying moment was seeing the erection of the clock tower and weather vane on top of the carriage house.

It arrived at the end of last year and had been wrapped up on a pellet inside the foyer... 

There was talk about getting a crane in to set it atop the roof, but when the digger was on site to start on the courtyard contouring the builders decided they would use a combination of the digger and the construction of a roof ladder to shift the components up there themselves, which proved an ingenious idea...

Above: The digger lifting the carcass of the tower up to the builders.

Below: The tower sitting on the lowest rung of the roof ladder.

Above and below: The tower being shifted up the ladder rung by rung...

Once the tower was up on the base and secured they did the same with the lead pagoda-styled roof...

And then assembled the weather vane, checking the compass points were accurate (the weather vane is set to true north whereas the manor is built on magnetic north)...

A sense of accomplishment...

Now it just needs to have its electrics wired and then it will be fully functional!

We are now fully back in the blogosphere, with 14 posts set to be published during the month of March, so due visit regularly, as we would love to share our progress with you.