November Garden Update

November is, for many reasons, the month for the axe.’

Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 1949

In Leopold’s essay, Axe-in-Hand, he argues that the definition of a conservationist is written not with a pen, but with an axe. It is with the axe that we exercise our inherent biases to shape the landscape in ways that are as individual as we are. The axe, he argues, is a regenerative force in the right hands. I have this essay in mind as we start to dismantle a large and long-established border in the garden, assessing each plant individually and taking the axe (or in this case, spade) to those that don’t make the cut. 

The issue in this border was quantity, as well as quality – we had lupins in the hundreds that looked spectacular for a couple of weeks in June but collapsed catastrophically under the weight of mildew and lupin aphid by August, leaving large gaps and mouldering heaps. There are those which have had a long stay of execution but have just never really performed, and shrubs such as Brachyglottis that have simply run out of steam. There are also great tangles of ground elder and couch grass in amongst the crowns of perennials, which need to be lifted, split, and cleaned before replanting. Most plants from this border can be rehomed with only the most ill-behaved consigned to the compost, and many will be put to one side to be replanted in the same border later. 

Once we have an empty space, we can start to think about what new plants will go in. The border itself is the second half of a 70m long stretch that we began replanting in 2022/3, and so the planting will be a continuation of what already exists but will consider a moisture gradient that drops away towards a south facing wall, meaning there are opportunities, most excitingly, to introduce new varieties. 

Alongside these bigger jobs, we have been potting on the cuttings taken in September and October, and we’ll start taking hardwood cuttings of Coryllus avellana with the aim of growing a sufficiency of pea sticks in years to come. The bulb order arrived and so these will go into pots and containers for displays in spring and at Christmas time. We will bring in the last of the tender pelargoniums, and plant out the last of the hardy annuals while we still can because by this time next month the ground may well be frozen, and I draw the line at planting with an axe. 

Kate