Month: April 2018

We have seen quite a bit of wildlife in our Shropshire garden. The previous owners left a large bird feeder and a stack of birdseed which we have continued to put out, so we see a good range of garden birds and last summer we saw a pleasing range of butterflies, which I hope my planting will encourage.

Pheasants and (once) red-legged partridges come to peck at the spilt seed along with the ubiquitous wood pigeons. Grey squirrels, of course, hang on the feeders devouring much of the bird seed whilst sparrows, tits and robins wait patiently. Sparrowhawks are often seen, but fortunately mostly leave empty handed.

A large hedgehog has been seen in the courtyard and scats left in the garden testify to the presence of foxes and maybe badgers – once a large fox was seen passing through the courtyard and then running off down the garden with something large in its jaws – a squirrel perhaps.  Apart from bats, no other mammals have been spotted, but there is clear evidence of them in the grass of the main garden.  Mole hills have appeared on a few occasions, but the moles have not taken up residence – as yet. However, all over the garden are rows and clusters of small round holes, which from the flattened grass around them are very much occupied. Voles.

At least, from my online research, I assume it is voles, though despite sitting quietly in the garden at dusk, I haven’t seen a single one.  It seems likely that the voles have colonised old mole tunnels. When it has been very wet many of the holes appear to be full of water, but remain in use. My research tells me that voles can eat the bark of shrubs, killing young plants, but they don’t seem to have attacked any of the trees or hedging we have planted – thankfully.

Last summer, we left large areas of the grass to grow long, which looked lovely swaying in the breeze, but I suspect created an ideal habitat for voles. This year we will keep the grass cut, and hope that the voles decide to move elsewhere. However, I like to think that the voles provide food for the barn owl which I have been fortunate to see on two occasions at twilight.

A paved path between the shrub and ash borders led to a small area of grass enclosed by a five‑bar gate and three panels of garden trellis. We assumed the trellis was in place to create a small private area, screened from neighbours on the other side of the ‘paddock’.

We liked this private area, but two things displeased me. First, the trellis seemed out of place, too suburban for a country garden. Secondly – and to my mind more importantly – the trellis and gate obscured the view of the ash tree when looking back from further down the garden, and it arbitrarily detached the ash tree’s trunk from the old stone wall.

I felt that more could be made of these features so decided to set about remodelling this area, to create a larger Secluded garden. First – after some persuasion – my husband removed the trellis and posts (I have plans for where the five-bar gate will be moved to, and the trellis will get used somewhere less conspicuous at a later date, so nothing wasted).  There were three roses growing on the paddock side of the trellis – two were old and hadn’t flowered well, so they were discarded (I’m trying to be less sentimental over plants that are not doing well or in the wrong place).  The middle one though, a floribunda with small pink blooms and a charming fragrance, I decided to keep. It was a struggle digging it up, and inevitably many significant roots had to be cut. But I replanted it in the new border, pruned it back and shall wait to see if it recovers.

I then set about digging a wide border in line with the end of the wall which will be the boundary of the Secluded garden. This was hard, hard work. Firstly I discovered that turf must have been laid at some point – testified by pernicious green plastic netting (which surely should be banned unless biodegradable). Next there were many large roots not far below the surface – the only explanation was that they were from the ash tree; cutting them and digging them out made slow work. Then of course the natural shale stones and clay made it back breaking work.

It was my husband’s suggestion that we should put grass right up the wall – I had been pondering about what to plant beneath it without obscuring the beautiful stone and his suggestion seemed to have merit. So, some of the turf from the new border was laid up to the wall, over what had been a rather scruffy bit of gravel. I’m a great believer in finding where objects ‘belong’ in a garden, where they look right; we had brought a small stone bench from Surrey and I had placed it in a couple of different places around the garden, but as I laid the turf by the wall, leaving a narrow band of thick gravel, I realised that this was where the bench belonged. To my mind it looks made for that spot.

It’ll take a while to get the new border planted up and I’m planning to get some rustic fencing to separate the Secluded garden from the areas beyond, but already the view of the stone wall and the trunk of the ash tree is better than I had imagined, especially in early spring with the grass awash with primroses and celandine. And sitting on the stone bench, leaning against the warm stone in our new Secluded garden is just perfect.