VERTICAL gardening is a useful trick for those in a hurry. If you want instant height in a border, try a tripod, a wigwam of pea sticks, a metal obelisk, or even simply a wooden post, then plant an annual climber or two at the bottom and watch the plants race to the top in a couple of months. They can also clothe your new walls long before more permanent things are ready to take over.
If you are careful about what you pair with what, annual climbers can co-exist with long-term choices. I am still waiting for my favorite ‘Bengal Crimson’ rose to spread its wings in the courtyard, so a good companion, for the time being, is Lathyrus matucana, the sweet pea with the best scent of all. The deep red of the rose and rich dark velvety purple of the pea are fine together. But the rose has to win, so only a few strands of L. matucana are allowed to climb among and above the thorns. Rhodochiton atrosanguineus, of the tiny purple bells and in a similar color range, would also work. Or I might have tried morning glory, Ipomoea tricolor ‘Heavenly Blue’, which is true to its name, but shivers at any hint of cold. I had some grown by a friend and, even in the greenhouse in late April, they became wan after I banished the heater too soon.
Denne historien er fra August 25, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra August 25, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
