Following on from talking about rejuvenating aged shrubs two months ago, this month I am going to show some of those shrubs literally from a different angle, one we had never had the opportunity to see before. Up until then we had seen them from the path down our garden, with the ivy and bramble infested fence behind them, but when the fence behind them was replaced, suddenly we could see the garden from a novel perspective.
Firstly a plant I mentioned last month that I have been collecting seed from – Scabiosa ochroleuca, ie ‘Small Yellow Scabious’, that still flowers in October:-
Cutting back brambles growing round, through and behind the shrubs along that fence-line was always an ongoing issue, but I had tried on several occasions to attack the ivy which carpeted the fence, ground and base of the shrubs, and tried to grow up them and smother them. We were fairly sure the ivy was the only thing holding the fence up, and as it wasn’t our fence, it was a case of judicious cutting back of the ivy so as not to have the fence collapse on us – so it easily wound its way through the base of the shrubs, even if we managed to keep it and the brambles clear of the upper parts. Perhaps I should say here I am a fan of mature ivy (Hedera helix), also called tree ivy – it’s a great evergreen climber that will grow in even deep shade, and it flowers late in the season providing nectar and pollen for pollinators. However, it needs to be controlled, not overwhelming other plants. Here I have it growing up a post near our Conference Pear Tree, coming into flower mid-September this year:-
We gained new neighbours at the end of 2019, and one of their first acts was to get estimates for the fence being replaced. Being gardeners themselves, they told us it wouldn’t be til the winter so our shrubs would be dormant and no birds would be nesting. We had asked if we could make use of the work to do some weeding/pruning at the back of the shrubs, and to try and dig out some of the bramble and ivy roots that were underneath the current fence line, which had been agreed. As it happened, it was suddenly scheduled in for October, and we had to drop everything and focus on that between the fencers removing panels/putting in fence posts, and inserting the new fence panels, without impeding them (too much!!)
Here are a couple of “before” shots to show you the old fence, and the solid dark green mass of ivy/bramble it presented behind the shrubs:-
The contractors worked very fast, so suddenly it looked like this:-
Suddenly daylight! The ivy is either laid on the ground, or cut off at ground level by the contractors at that point (I had optimistically thought they would remove it as they went, oh no!)
And from our neighbours’ side:-
Possibly you can see that the contractors had cut the ivy to stumps at ground level to get the panels out, but had not removed the roots, or removed the stems laid out on the ground unless they were exactly where they wanted to place new fence posts or gravel boards. As ivy and brambles were ALL OVER we had to rush along behind them (and after they stopped for the day) to try and dig them out, and weed/pull ivy and bramble out from our neighbours’ side, to a depth we thought we could reach ok from our side of the border to finish it off at a more leisurely pace.
Incidentally, as you can see from the photo below, it became apparent to us once we WERE on our neighbours side just how much of our shrubs/climbers had been growing over the top of the fence into our neighbours’ garden – towards where the sun is most of the day during the autumn and winter!
And here are shots of the Philadelphus coronarius (with himself attacking ivy roots), and Weigela ‘Bristol Ruby’ from “the back”:-
Hopefully you can see some of the extent of the ivy roots we were trying to get out – naturally they had worked their way through the clumps of Epimedium x perralchicum ‘Froehnleiten’ growing either side of the Weigela ‘Bristol Ruby’, and in the short time I had before we lost the light, I couldn’t easily get them out without digging up the entire clump, which I was loathe to do, so “bodged” it as best I could, and hoped I could reach the rest from our side. As light started to fade we were actually able to prune behind our Cherry Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) for the first time ever, and get to the brambles that were growing through it:-
This was only just over halfway down the part of the boundary they were re-fencing, but I think from a horticultural point of view it was the most difficult for us with removing ivy and brambles from our plants – not helped by the fact that the two leylandii stumps we had left in when we took the 40ft giants down in 2005 as “features” because it was too difficult to dig them out, had been completely covered with ivy. Cutting the ivy stems growing over them and managing to push them over/prise them out was a great moment – though we had to have one of the contractors help with the “push” they were so well anchored! Here is an “after” shot of that space – HURRAH:-
This also shows you what I meant about digging out roots from the neighbours side but not right to our path as we hoped to be able to reach to dig the rest out from our side – more slowly so I didn’t decapitate eg the honeysuckle growing up the post on the left of the photo.
Here’s a shot looking up along the stretch of our pergola from our neighbours as the light fades:-
I don’t know if you can see the growth patterns of all these shrubs and climbers is flattened at the side, you can see here because of the fence, but also tall – everything grows towards the light above the fence. Not only did we want to try and eradicate the ivy, (and be optimistic on the bramble removal) but our aim with the shrub pruning from the neighbours side of them was to ensure there was space between them and the new fence panels to help with ventilation through the plants. The next shot, taken from roughly the same level of the garden, but from our side of the fence as the panels went up shows we were successful – we were pleased to see clearly behind the shrubs all the way from the end of the pergola up to the water butts:-
As day two dawned, the contractors were clearing the next section of fencing lower down the garden which had already collapsed and where we had put in temporary sheet material under our trellis to keep deer and dogs from getting in. This had let a lot more light than before, and allowed the Magnolia ‘Leonard Messel’ and Acer Davidii planted there to thrive more. Here is an idea of “before” with some of our root clearing work in progress behind the Acer Davidii and Magnolia ‘Leonard Messel’ from their side:-
As you can see from this close up, we were more able to clear round the shrubs and ferns here:-
An “after” shot from this area shows how steeply the garden slopes at this point – the new fence is stepped down behind our sloping trellis:-
I would say that we were fairly successful in places in slowing the ivy’s march, certainly it is not climbing the fence, but in the case of both the Weigela ‘Bristol Ruby’ and the Philadelphus coronarius the huge ivy stems, whilst I was able to saw through them as they clung limpet-like to the base of the shrubs, I could not get the roots growing UNDER the shrubs out without killing the shrub itself. In the case of the Philadelphus, this was complicated by the ivy additionally coming up right through the middle of the rootball of the Mock Orange. So it is a case of constant vigilance to cut the ivy back when it grows, at least it is COMPARATIVELY slow-growing…..
I’ll end with a shot through a border of many autumnal seed heads and sculptural stems:-
I love the contrast between the smoky grey stems of Vipers Bugloss (Echium vulgare) with the shocking pink Salvia microphylla ‘Cerro Potosi’ behind it; glimpses of Verbena Bonariensis still flowering; the dead stems of Helenium at the left of photo; and the black cones of Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii ‘Goldsturm’ bottom middle.
Next time a review of my vegetable and fruit year, and my thoughts about using peat-free composts.
Sheila May
