Norfolk Lavender

A number of years ago I traveled to England, in part to see the renowned Norfolk Lavender fields - the oldest and largest fields of "English" Lavender of what was a substantial industry. English lavender [Lavandula angustifolia] really a type of lavender originally found in the wild in the mountains of northern France and traveled its way to England - perhaps via monks and their apothecary gardens.

I had a hidden agenda. I wanted them to carry my book The Lavender Garden in their gift shop. Mr. Head, carrying on the family tradition for at least four generations, perused the text. With a bit of anger he said "You say that lavender plants only last 8-10 years. We've got 25-year-old plants!" My response was that to say in the book that lavenders live to be 25 would greatly disappointed the gardener that doesn't reach that lofty goal. I said if I say 8-10 years and the gardener gets more than 10 years of healthy growth they'll be proud. He didn't buy my defense and they never carried the book.

The photo on the right is my current early fall pruning of a 18 year-old Spanish lavender [Lavandula stoechas]. It won't last much longer as the trees have grown so high the plant isn't getting enough light to keep it from being leggy. Alas "only" 18 years. Still a good run in our wet climate with 50+ inches of Mediterranean rain each winter.

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Garden Rot [not roots]

Every eccentric garden I’ve been in pays some homage to death. Here the face offers a slightly oblique reference to death. Rot. All gardens have compost, mulch, and rotting fibers and critters. Rot [as well as death] is just a natural part of every garden.

[This unique comical sculpture was carved by the wonderfully-eccentric Marcia Donahue in Berekely, CA.]

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Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

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Root Bondage

Here’ a view from above of what’s left of an apple tree’s roots growing in a wire basket.

Wire baskets around here are becoming required planting additions for perennials, shrubs, and trees. I once had a wire basket protecting the apple tree in the photo. The wire was four inches above the mulch. That didn’t stop a gopher from climbing over the wire to be encaged with all those succulent roots. The tree leaned over and simply died.

As the photo shows [I’m the only person I know of that has excavated the roots as they grow when using wire baskets] very few of the roots got out of the basket to explore a bigger volume of soil. For practical purposes, this tree should have been treated like a container plant—keeping all the moisture, fertility, and mulch within the basket’s diameter. BUT, the wire must extend 6-12 inches above the mulch to have a shot at excluding these pesty critters. Such a wire basket is very hard to make and isn’t to be found commercially. Your up to your own to make a Rube Goldberg machine-made, anti-gopher basket .

However, wire baskets can work with smaller plants.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert