By Jodie Jones
This week at Great Dixter the temperature plunged into surprising single figures after hitting the higher 20s last time I was here. It felt like winter, but it was still time to switch out the spring bedding displays and get ready for summer.
While the scholars set out work boards and tonne bags and began to dismantle the fading Solar display of tulips and myosotis, I was sent off to water all the pot displays. This was a slow but satisfying job which gave me lots of time to admire how the garden is changing.
There were still some tulips, but the cow parsley was starting to froth, and the Beth’s poppies in the Peacock Garden were looking so astonishingly beautiful that I spent a long time trying, and broadly failing, to capture the effect in a photograph. (And no, there aren’t any pots to water in the Peacock, but I couldn’t resist sloping off to look.)
Then I went back to the Solar and clambered into the back of the bed to weed cleavers, bryony and brambles out of the perennial planting while the scholars dug fresh compost into the bedding zone at the front. They soon went off to select trays of seed-raised bedding for their new display and I plugged steadily away until lunchtime.
During the break, the cheeky Mess Room robin outdid itself and settled on top of Michael's head. I was too stunned (and too close) to take a picture but fortunately Connie captured the moment.
And in the afternoon, I moved on to Vietnam for more weeding – bindweed and an unknown suckering rose are the main targets here – a little light conversation, and the occasional detour to check on the progress of the Solar bed. This is usually planted pretty densely, but I was astonished to see just how many plants they were shoehorning into the space.
I couldn’t get close enough to work out exactly what went into this rich mix, but it's going to be fascinating to see how it turns out.
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