I used to have a large blackcurrant bush up against the old shed that the summerhouse replaced. There’s one of the same generation by the fence that has never done that well. I planted another little one as a replacement in its own wee patch that Ben loves to sleep and shelter behind. I also have 2 more bushes in pots. I do quite well on my potted fruit, I have a wineberry that at the moment its doing better at attracting butterflies than producing fruit. I think my best fruit in pots, besides the apples, are the autumn raspberries although the blueberries are coming close these days. My main blueberry crop is from the patch by the backdoor where currently the hedgehog is snoring away the winter.
Value for money - Erysimum, the perennial wallflower
I have one perennial plant that has had flowers during every month of the year, even if only a scattered few at the moment. My perennial wallflower is a Erysimum ‘Bowles’s Mauve’ which has performed consistently and is one of the best plants for bees and other pollinators in the Magic Garden. Given it came from a local supermarket, I think that it has proved value for money!
Fruit (2)
I have a love of gooseberries from childhood and memories of my Grandma ‘head & tailing’ them on a hot July day. My gooseberry bush came from a supermarket in 2004 and has turned into a superb fruiter. I regularly get in excess of 10 kg gooseberries off it despite attacks of gypsy moth caterpillars & sawfly over the years. It also makes a good background foil for the Magic Garden and place for the birds to hide.
Carnivorous Plants
I have always loved carnivorous plants but have not really succeeded that well with them in my own Magic Garden. Many years ago I gave my father two sarracenia purpurea plants and they have gone from strength to strength both the originals by the pond and now elsewhere in the garden in Badachro.
At the moment I have two lots of sarracenias in the Magic Garden - one in just a pot and the remainder in a trough next to the summerhouse & the pond.
I’m not particularly good at houseplants but I do currently have a Venus flytrap that is enjoying a sunny windowsill
Fruit (1)
I currently have 6 apple ‘trees’ & 4 sapling crab apples. I have 2 in the ground - the one I re-positioned and another that is just along from the bower seat.
The apples in the pots & vigoroot bags do better than either of the pair in the ground. The one that consistently is doing the best is the Bramley Seedling.
At the back of the garden I have a good patch of rhubarb. I don’t know what variety but the crowns came from an allotment neighbour and have always done well despite being a dry shaded patch of garden.
Utilising the space
My main problems with the Magic Garden are that I always have bigger ambitions than the space can contain and I always think I can do more in any time period than there really any possibility of doing. I used to have an allotment until I had to admit that I didn’t have the time & problems with my spine were creating difficulties with tending it. I love fresh vegetables though so I still attempt to grow them in pots, & troughs. I have some success particularly with said crops, kale, garlic and potatoes. on the patio. I also am very successful with runner and climbing beans - to be honest I’m better at growing than eating these.
Even in winter I keep the troughs full & pick salad throughout the season.
The patio space is almost entirely used by my pot, container and unplanted acquisitions although my faithful old rocking chair is much used Bsides the troughs with my vegetables & herbs, I also have troughs of geraniums, fuchsias & lobelia; rather a lot of fruit bushes - a topic for the future.
I have a wee forest of bushes & ‘trees’ that are in pots - mostly not as an ideal solution but as the only way to have things like my monkey-puzzle, seen in the background here. Even if its not very tidy & I lack places to put patio furniture, I rather like my collection of plants as well as taking pride in how much I can get into my garden.
In the Garden Today
Today we had a bit of sunlight and it felt mild at 7 degrees, mainly because there was very little wind & was dryI and a little time so I went out to do an inspection of what I have in pots - somethings are permanent pot or container residents intentionally, others I’m a little ashamed to say have just failed to arrive in their final position. The longest pot resident is the olive tree that is planted in the large terracotta pot my sister bought me as a housewarming present nearly two decades ago. The olive tree went in immediately & was about a foot tall. Two years ago I thought it was dead as it spent a whole summer without leaves but then I removed the top entirely with the plan of taking it out of the pot, failed to finish the task & a few weeks later it sprouted a fresh and is now healthy & even producing flowers and olives.
At the other end of the scale, the newest resident in the collection of the unplanted is my witch hazel (Hamamelis). This was an impulse buy because it seemed appropriate for the Magic Garden because of the medicinal properties associated with it, although not this version of the plant.
Another (intentional) pot resident is the Christmas Box, Sarcococca confusa. Mine is a neat wee plant just coming into flower now & the scent is lovely. I have left it near the backdoor giving me the best chance to enjoy the scent.
More about the Magic
When I first thought about what mattered to me in my Garden, I realised that planting with a reason went beyond the ‘because I like it’ even if that’s the first consideration. I consider my Garden a place of healing & my sanctuary & so it seemed appropriate to include plants that have herbal or medical uses or are associated with magical protection. Besides the rowan tree, protection comes from my oaks, holly, the apples & ivy in the garden & a slow growing yew.
Hazel is imbued with wisdom and inspiration. There are more than the two entwined in my arch in the garden. Last year there was a dunnock nest within the arch.
I am conscious that the trees will out grow their homes. This is particularly true for my two oaks -one ‘Sessile’ the other “English’ - neither is very big but I’m conscious that the potted one in particular will need rehoming soon.. Oaks are important symbolically e become associated with longevity, strength, stability, endurance, wisdom, power, justice, and honesty.
Most of the ivy now lives creeping over the arbour seat & the fence behind it. Ivy symbolises fidelity and eternal life - it holds tight & remains evergreen. It is surprisingly resilient.
Ben's Catnip
Ben is famous for his love of catnip & the strength of the fresh stuff that is grown in the Magic Garden. He has a patch of it in the corner under where the massive jasmine grew until Storm Arwen brought it and the fence down. I suspect that most of the catnip there will no longer be there come summer. Fortunately for Ben, I grow it each year from seed. I also have a couple of ‘posh’ versions that I have bought as plants .
Catnip or catmint is Nepeta cataria which is attractive to butterflies as well as cats. The other property of the plant is not particularly relevant to the Magic Garden, especially with the new high fences, is that it is repellant to deer.
Ben has been known to destroy the plants by ‘loving’ them too much so when they are still at the seedling & young plants I cover them with wire hoops to try and stop him from squashing them. This year I am going to try growing silver vine as the other plant type that cats are supposed to respond too - Ben doesn’t seem too impressed with the silvervine toy I bought him but we will see whether ‘fresh’ has more effect
The Rowan Tree in the Magic Garden
I have a rowan tree in the front & back gardens. This is because the rowan tree in Celtic mythology is the Tree of Life, symbolising courage, wisdom & protection, and its meant to keep witches out. Twigs tied together with red string to form a cross used to be sewn into garments as protection for the wearer. The wood must not be cut with a knife. The berries also carry symbols of magic as their base have a little pentagonal star.
I have hung some bird feeders in my rowan tree at the back as its branches are at convenient heights. When the berries are on the trees though it is only a matter of time before the blackbirds ignore the suet & strip the berries. I have in the past taken the berries for myself to make rowan jelly, the traditional accompaniment to venison.
Rowan trees had an important role in Norse mythology too as the first woman was made of its wood - this makes entire sense to me as rowan wood is strong & resilient. Thor had his life saved by a rowan tree when he clung to one of its branches when drowning in the fast flowing waters of the river leading to the Underworld. Rowan trees that grow out of crevices & clefts in rock have the strongest magic associated with them.
In Greek mythology the goddess of youth, Hebe, dispensed rejuvenating ambrosia from a chalice. When demons took the chalice the gods sent an eagle to retrieve it. The eagle was hurt in the fight although ultimately successful, but the blood & feathers that reached the ground sprang into life as the rowan hence its leaves look like feathers.
The Thyme Zone
The sundial & its surrounding seven paving stones & thyme plants are at the centre of the Magic Garden & are the Thyme zone . I usually have to replace at least one thyme plant each summer & judging by how it looks at the moment I think I might need to replace all of them this year.
I have already had to replace the central pentagonal arrangement of solar lights as the combination of Storm Arwen & my / Ben’s clumsiness had seen off three of the five. I love lights in my garden & bought more today to supplement those surviving around the remainder of the garden
Grey January Day
Although we are past the Solstice, the mornings are still dark & the light goes early in the afternoons. Today this was accentuated by the pervading greyness. Ben went out to check on the tree I moved & inspect the area where I plan a new raised bed but didn’t stay out long.
I am always surprised at what I find blooming that shouldn’t be at this time of year - at the moment last year’s Cosmos Purity are surviving in the Magic patch. I have just ordered a new packet of these seeds so maybe I will have more of these scattered through the garden. A much needed wee bit of optimism injected into the day.
Rosemary Beetle
One of the most important elements of the Magic Garden is the lavender. At the moment these are predominantly ‘English’ lavenders although I do have the French type in pots. The reasoning of having a pentagonal arrangement of lavender is to create a silver line pattern. This structural role in the Magic is almost as important as its role in attracting bees & other insects to the garden
Unfortunately I have found increasing numbers of Rosemary beetles (Chrysolina Americana). These are attractive metallic iridescent leaf beetles that feed on the foliage and flowers of rosemary, sage, thyme & lavender & can cause sufficient damage to kill the plants. I have only ever found these on my lavender plants & mainly have operated a policy of toleration. I have though noticed during the last year that one of the more mature plants has been dying back. I plan to do some replacement planting this spring.
Thinking about the Birds
I’ve been pleased over the last few years to have started attracting more birds to the garden with regular visits from long-tailed tis & goldfinches as well as my resident robins, wrens, dunnocks, blackbirds & coal tits. My blue tits originally arrived with the long-tailed tits and seem to be part of their extended family.
Both dunnocks & blackbirds feed at the feeders which is unusual although the dunnocks spend most of their time on the ground. The gooseberry bush, which is one of the first things that I planted in 2004, is a favourite place for the smaller birds. They used to like the jasmine for its cover too. The native hedging that I’ve put in this winter is going to take a while before it can provide as much cover.
Although the feeders are still in place in the rowan tree & the original pole, I have lost my bird table. I have a new set of feeders to put up now which will go into the other side of the Magic Garden.
Back corner
Before I gave up on Magic Garden for the afternoon I did notice in the central square that I have scattered snowdrops coming up. These are in their second year after I had a mega-bulb planting session in October & November 2020. There are other signs of spring with daffodils coming up & unfurling rhubarb. This is a time of year when these small signs are so welcome as a reminder of better times to come & also that there is always more to do in the garden
In the back corner of the Magic Garden today I decided to move one of my apple trees about a foot sideways as where it originally was, it was too close to a magnolia stellata & sambucus nigra (black elderflower). This also meant moving the hedgehog house, currently empty as (the hedgehog is asleep in the blueberry patch by the backdoor. I moved the cat first and then the hedgehog house went into the space where I’d had one of the water butts. I then dug out a hole where I wanted the apple tree to go & put in a scoop of mycorrhizal fungi before digging up the apple tree and moving it across & backfilling the hole from the soil around it.
Tha new configuration means there is a paving stone between the apple tree and the black elder allowing me to step through to where the hedgehog house is now. I planned to do the pruning of my apple trees this afternoon too but it promptly tipped it down with rain so that task was postponed
Recovering after Storm Arwen
The Magic Garden took a battering with Storm Arwen. We’re used to gales living by the North Sea but the wind direction was unusual & the force extreme. I was relieved & lucky that it was just my garden that came to harm.
Tha addition of snow the next day was fortunately just a short-lived flurry and I was blessed with a local firm rapidly able to give me new fences. They do look stark compared to the old weathered ones,, an effect greatened bu the loss of my jasmine & climbing roses
The new fence has given me an opportunity to clear out the back of the garden and so I plan to re-build a raised bed all the way along the back so I can grow more vegetables than I currently manage in my pots & containers
Ben's Magic Garden
The Magic Garden came about in 2014 as I wanted to create a healing space for myself and attract bees to feed my photographic habits. I also wanted a garden full of symbolism & magic. At the centre of the Magic Garden is a wee sundial enclosed in a circle of 7 stones & 7 thymes. There are 4 paths leading out to the four compass points.
Around the Thyme Zone the next layer is the pentagonal arrangement of lavender plants. The other key features of the Magic square are the rowan tree on the outward south corner, the holly in the west & oak in the east. Originally there was a yew in the north corner but it was growing too fast so now the north corner is full of michaelmas daisies representing St Michael fighting off the Devil.
When Bengamaine joined Twitter during the first lockdown of 2020, I started posting pictures of him in the Magic Garden including with the various catnip plants. At the end of 2020 my old shed was replaced with the summerhouse. Ben’s adventures in his Magic Garden with his #Hedgewatch furrends have become part of the #CatsOfTwitter world.