Easy treesy
Then plant some more. Different ones. After a while, you will discover that your single tree has turned into a copse, a woodland, an arboretum—a fascinating, personal collection of trees. Your very own terrestrial biome.
Trees are by far the most rewarding of garden plants. Easy maintenance is written into their very being. They are top-of-the-canopy plants. Some of them even exude chemicals that inhibit the development of rival plants. That makes them apex predators. The technical term is allelopathic. Walnut trees are a good example, but so are the tree of heaven, Ailanthus altissima, and the Canadian sugar maple, Acer saccharum: they keep their compe- titiveness by killing off their rivals. Rather like the mafia, you may suppose, although most trees and shrubs are not so murderous and tag along happily with everything else in the garden. Which means you can plant pretty woodland plants and bulbs underneath them —cyclamen, anemones, violets, pulmonarias and their like.
This story is from the July 12, 2023 edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the July 12, 2023 edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
A brush with greatness
Victor Hugo found solace in art, but dismissed his drawings as mere things made 'during hours of almost unconscious reverie'. Now, a Royal Academy exhibition reveals how powerfully they engage the imagination
Havens and hideaways
Some houses offer that little bit extra– a garden building to enhance your quality of life
A night on the tiles
From bloody beginnings of drunken mayhem in public houses, it is somewhat surprising that the game of dominoes reached pearl-encrusted heights in our royal palaces
The legacy Gertrude Jekyll and herbaceous planting
Until Gertrude Jekyll showed us how to plant a flower border brimming with satisfying waves of colour, form and texture, no one had thought to do it.
Building on a dream
Evenley Wood Garden, Northamptonshire When Nicola Taylor took on her plantsman father's flower-filled woodland, she knew more about horses than trees, but, as Tiffany Daneff discovers, that hasn't stopped her from making a great success of the garden
Take a seat
What makes a chair supremely comfortable? The rake, the suspension system, the frame or the fillings
Sour to the people
Vibrant, tangy and full of flavour, malt vinegar is still the best British condiment to slosh over hot fish and chips
My favourite painting Sir James MacMillan
Le Christ en banlieue (Christ in the suburbs)
The architect for me
In the first of two articles, Clive Aslet explores the relationship between Sir Edwin Lutyens and perhaps his most important private client, the politician and financier Reginald McKenna
Directors take centre stage
The imaginative vision of those behind the scenes brings out the best acting in Shakespeare and Chekhov revivals
