Head Gardeners Blog June 2023...

Gardener's Blog

Monday, 17 July 2023

By Anja Gohlke

Picture 1 Evening irrigation of the Herbaceous Border

A lot has happened here in the Victorian Walled Garden within the last month.

First of all, we had no rain for nearly four weeks. Even so, we always wish for a bit of sun and heat, we definitely had enough and too much of both this time. My constant thoughts were circling around watering schedules, our automatic irrigation system was a life saver, or better said, plant saver once again. We are very fortunate that our water supply is coming from a lake which is situated on top of Doughruagh Mountain, behind the garden. The lake, which is covering quite a large area, is fed with rain water and is also home to brown trout. Gravity means that no pumps are needed to pipe the water down to the garden. This is a brilliant setup, installed over 150 years ago by Mitchell Henry, the owner and builder of Kylemore Castle and the Victorian Walled Garden.

The warm humid weather was welcomed by heat loving vegetables like climbing beans or pumpkins and it looks like we will have a good crop this year. Last years French beans hardly made it to the top of the climbing frames and slugs dug into the soft young growth and had a feast, very much to our dismay. With less growth of the crops you also end up with more open ground for weeds, so it is great to see that we wont have this worry to such an extent this season. A cover of straw or seaweed will also keep down the weeds and prevents losing too much moisture.

Picture 2 Climbing beans, dwarf beans, pumpkins and courgettes are starting to cover the ground and supports.

One of the new heritage varieties I was able to seed hunt is Runner Bean ‘Scarlet Emperor’. Introduced as early as 1633, it is one of the oldest varieties still existing. The brilliant red blossom makes it very attractive even as a climbing plant between flower borders. I tried to grow the same variety in my own garden, which is facing the Atlantic but did not succeed, the sheltered spot here in Kylemore with the protective walls makes it possible.

Picture 3 Runner Bean ‘Scarlet Emperor’, dating back to 1633.

We also grow more unique legumes like Crown Peas or Amish snap peas. Particularly the Crown Pea is a great addition to every vegetable garden if you are looking for attractive blossoms on top of tasty peas. Clusters of white-pink flowers, very similar to sweet peas, are crowning the climbing green shoots.

Picture 4 Crown Peas in bloom

The brassicas are also doing really well this year. A mixture of heritage kales, cabbages, broccolis, brussel sprouts, kohlrabies and others, are covering three plots in the vegetable garden. Collars, seaweed and an earlier treatment with nematodes prevented the infestation of cabbage root flies and other unwanted creatures.

Picture 5 Brassica plot well established by mid June.

This season we decided to grow green manures mainly in our smaller plots to give them a well earned rest and to improve the soil structure. Crimson clover, Phacelia or Mustard are the main green manures we are growing. Especially clover, which would fix the must needed nitrogen in the soil, without the usage of artificial fertilizers. Many farmers and growers are starting to move towards that direction at the moment, to reduce water pollution and to increase biodiversity.

We often let the green manures like Phacelia flower, the mauve coloured flower heads attract an abundance of insects and give a splash of colour in between the green vegetables. Our sweetpeas just started to bloom, too, and work well in between the crops.

Picture 6 Phacelia, crimson clover and sweet peas in full bloom.

The Herbaceous Border is at its peak too. Perennials, biennial and few annuals are competing for the most space and sunlight, few are competing better then others and threaten to overrun smaller ones. Weekly checks, deadheading, weeding, staking and reducing are the main jobs in the Border at the moment. Also the elevated lawn stripe running along the front on both sides needs edging and mowing every one to two weeks in the high season.

Picture 7 South side of the Herbaceous Border