Monday 26 May 2014






Jacob's Ladder - a self-seeded plant with great attraction for bees, with allium behind, also self-seeded.


Looking from ground level, the different patches meld into one large patch of natural planting.  This a soggy bank where I frequently see snakes and slow-worms.

Sunday 25 May 2014

All sorts of developments  have been taking place in the 'rough patches' this spring!  We have a pair of French Partridges, pheasants, a grass snake...and visits from spotted fly-catchers, goldfinches, woodpeckers, sparrows, frogs and toads...the plants in the patches have not grown that tall yet, but teazels, docks, thistles, dogwood, wild roses, rushes,willow-herb, forget-me-not, jacob's ladder and  allium are all proliferating and providing excellent shelter for the beasts.  Cow-parsley has begun flowering and attracting insects for the spotted-flycatcher to feed on. The 'runways' between the patches are perfect places for birds and animals to 'hide' and explore the shorter grass for slugs, ants and worms. Hedge-sparrows are nesting in the denser patches of nettles.  The slightly more conventional bed nearer the house plays its part in this activity, being well stocked with plants attractive to insects and birds and affording more cover - the pheasant regularly suns himself on an old tree stump there!

Friday 2 May 2014

Welcome to Rough Patch Gardening!

Rough Patch Gardening
Welcome to my new 'blog' Rough Patch Gardening!

 It came about through my wish to share my delight and learning while developing an new garden in rural Herefordshire.  For the first time I've got a garden without much immediate history or previous design, but I do know the local environment well and so am used to its soil and species.  Even so - there's always so much to learn!  Its a wonderful opportunity to find out more about botany and biodiversity, and at the same time develop methods and practical skills through experience, that I can share.

Origins:
A move to a garden full of rough grass, old agricultural land, criss-crossed by buried electric cables, water pipes, drains and soakaways, on a windswept plot, on heavy, wet, cold clay, over limestone, full of stones and lumps of concrete, badly drained and very uneven.  The totally rural view is wonderful! and the garden adjoins historic orchard and looks onto the Malvern Hills. 

Factors:
My immediate desire was to provide more shelter, habitat and biodiversity.  I had limited time and money for development, but I owned a good lawn-mower (or two).  I had decided I didn't want a conventional 'country garden', however attractive they can be, as I love natural planting and have an aversion to affluent garden 'consumerism'.  I wanted also to 'go with the flow', work with nature rather than against it, so my planting policy is 'Beg, borrow or.....'

Personal preferences:
When I was much younger, and creating a garden on much kinder Evesham soil, my father said to me that if I wanted to make a pathway, I should wait a few months to see where I walked and then put the path there! Such wise words!  I like to apply that principle to 'rough patch gardening'.  Instead of having too many ideas from 'on top', let them grow up from below in their own time - then use their energy to sculpt and create your forms.  You can be a scientist, an artist, an observer, a facilitator. If you listen well, you can assist the energy of the place to express itself in a way that will be  constantly varying.

Principles:
Don't 'landscape' mechanically - embrace uneven ground.
Allow plants to shade each other, allow transient plants to provide weed cover, allow them to teach you - even if its painful!
Look at the patches as communities, within a wider community.  This is SO important.
Enjoy change!