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About us
This Meldreth garden consists of a back garden, front garden and one third of the siding along the drive. This amounts to about half an acre in all. The style is English country/cottage. As a gardener I am interested in the plants and propagation, less so on design and landscaping. Some would say my garden is bitty, I do not have many drifts of single cultivars a la Gertrude Jekyll, but do include colour schemes, with a largely white garden at the front.
This website has been developed to support the monthly gardening articles in Meldreth Matters the village magazine.
The garden was once one of the famous Meldreth orchards, so has been under some level of cultivation over many years. There are some areas where rubbish has been dumped and covered with soil. The soil is alkaline, fertile topsoil of varying depth, clay subsoil and then chalk. The alkaline nature of the soil means that organic material is broken down quickly.
In the year 2000 when we came to Meldreth the garden was a football pitch serving the family of the previous owners. The garden was a blank canvas. Now after 25 years upgrading is required. The boundary fences have all been replaced and currently garden sheds are being repaired/replaced. The small 1.8m X 3m greenhouse is central to spring propagation.
In flower in the garden now
A compact, rounded herbaceous clump forming perennial to 0.5m with narrow, mid-green leaves and terminal clusters of bright greenish-yellow flowers that really zings. Easily propagated from root basal cuttings in spring.
A perennial native wild flower, forming a mat to about 0.5m tall, with simple or lobed leaves, hairy beneath, and blue flower-heads 5cm across, reddish in the centre, from late spring to summer. Seeds readily or propagate by division in autumn or spring. Pink and white cultivars are also available.
This hardy perennial provides good groundcover with a long flowering season the dark markings on the leaves make a striking plant. Easy to propagate through softwood cuttings or by division in autumn or spring. Cut down after flowering for a flush of new leaves and potential for re-flowering in the late summer.
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Geums are easy to grow and have a long flowering period from early spring. Geum comes in orange, yellow and red cultivars. I also have the yellow Geum rivale flowers first. To prolong flowering period deadhead spent flowers. Propogate from seed or dividion or basal cuttings in the spring.
Use wallflowers and forget-me-nots to cover the legs of tulips as they pass over. White honesty provides a vigorous screen at this time of year and can be pulled out after flowering. As with Forget-me-nots leave a few to self seed for next year. In the final slide, Jan van Nes Parrot Tulip alongside English bluebells makes a beautiful contrast.
If you have a query or comment then please use the enclosed form. Where appropriate we will respond where a reply is required.
Plant Gallery
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