The Raised Bed Is Dead… Long Live The Raised Bed

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We spent early November altering our front garden and replacing the big raised bed we built in October 2013 with a larger, lower flower bed. In just over a week we moved tens of plants and around thirteen tonnes of soil. It was hard work but we are pleased with the end result.

New Raised Bed

The new raised bed, 27th November 2016

We built the original raised bed on top of concrete, as we didn’t have the funds to break up the drive. In spite of this, the bed was a success and after a year the plants were thriving. After three years the plants growing in it, including an Olive tree, a Salvia ‘Hotlips’, a Broom, a Rosemary bush, Lavender, Mexican Fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus) and a Giant Feather Grass (Stipa gigantea), had knitted together to form a small patch of Mediterranean scrub. When I watered in hot dry spells in the summer, the scented shrubs released delicious wafts of perfume and reminded me of holidays in Corsica, Majorca, Provence and Greece.

So why did we decide to replace the raised bed? There were several reasons, including:

  1. The bulbs I had planted in the raised bed didn’t do very well. The daffodils which looked so good in the first spring were soon crowded out by the growth of the shrubs and the  tulips, Anemone blanda and white Muscari didn’t have enough moisture to thrive.
  2. We wanted to water as little as possible. The new bed is lower and will allow plant roots to reach far down into the sub-soil to gather water and nutrients.
  3. The double red Midland Hawthorn trees on our road (Crataegus laevigata ‘Paul’s Scarlet’) are lovely but they are ninety years old and trees of similar age on nearby roads have been condemned by Norwich City Council and are in the process of being removed. We wanted to plant a medium sized tree in our front garden as an eventual replacement for the street trees at the front of our house, but the raised bed wasn’t deep enough to do this.
  4. We wanted more space. The raised bed had a wide slab path around its perimeter, which we wanted to replace with a bigger growing area.

Key to our plans was hiring a contractor to break up the concrete. In April 2016 I asked my friend Sue Bell, who is a garden designer, for a recommendation and she suggested Ian Cooper of IFC Landscapes Ltd. We arranged for the work to be done at the start of November, when the plants could be moved easily in a semi-dormant state and Ian would have time to do the job.

With a week to go until the work was done, we dug out the plants and moved them onto the patio in the back garden. The following day we moved at least five tonnes of soil from the raised bed to the front drive and dismantled the edges of the raised bed. We put the sleepers to one side and rescued the nail plates.

Ian ordered a skip to hold the broken up concrete, which arrived on the Monday. He and a workmate arrived the next day and broke up the concrete. They did a very neat job and lifted and cut the slabs so that most could be reused. By lunchtime they had finished and we loosened the sub-soil, put the sleepers back as an edging to the new bed and shovelled the raised bed soil back. We ordered another two and a half tonnes of soil to top up the new bed, using a mix of topsoil and compost from G. Nicholls of Oaks Farm, Great Plumstead (01603 720224).

On the Friday the soil was delivered onto the drive and we shovelled it into the new bed. In the late morning and afternoon we replanted, spacing plants further apart and using some of the slabs to make a stepping stone path through the middle of the bed.

In the following week we planted a large, bare-rooted Oriental Hawthorn tree, Crataegus laciniata (also known as C. orientalis). It will provide a similar effect to the double red Midland Hawthorns but will also have edible and ornamental fruits. The leaves should provide food for any Hawthorn-eating insects and some of these will provide food for the birds.

Other newcomers to the front garden include three plants I bought at Norfolk Plant Heritage‘s Hethersett Plant Fair in August: a Honey Bush (Melianthus major), with lovely glaucous foliage and a mouth-watering whiff of peanut butter when bruised, Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca ‘Citrina’, with scented lemon-yellow pea flowers from late winter to spring, and Angels’ Fishing Rods (Dierama igneum), with arching wands of reddish pink flowers in summer.

I’ve also planted some more bulbs (Tulipa saxatilis ‘Lilac Wonder’ and Crocus chrysanthus  ‘Blue Pearl’) for early spring colour. I couldn’t resist adding a couple of Giant Echiums (Echium pininana). I may need to cover them with fleece to protect them from frosts. I have some spare plants in an unheated greenhouse, along with some Geranium maderense plants that I raised from seed this summer (from Ventnor Botanic Garden). I will plant these out in spring.

Work in progress

Work in progress (5th November 2016): the old raised bed has been removed and the concrete is ready to break up.

The Raised Bed Is Dead… Long Live The Raised Bed.

Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa

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The Blackthorn, or Sloe, Prunus spinosa, is one of my favourite wild shrubs. The plant produces masses of pretty white blossom in early spring and sloes, a key ingredient in Sloe Gin, in autumn.

Sloes

Sloes, late October 2016

In a week’s time I am going along to a gin tasting organised by No Fear Gardening, a new Norwich-based urban gardening club. My role is to talk about some of the ingredients used to flavour gin, including sloes. So I thought I could combine some homework with another post on my blog.

Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa, is in the Rosaceae, the Rose family. The genus Prunus can be split into six subgenera and three of these include several important fruit trees. Subgenus Amygdalus contains Almonds (Prunus dulcis) and Peaches (Prunus persica); subgenus Cerasus contains Cherries (Prunus avium and Prunus cerasus ) and subgenus Prunus includes Blackthorn and domesticated Plum trees (Prunus domestica). Blackthorn is believed to be one of the parents of the domesticated Plum, P. domestica, the other being the Cherry Plum, Prunus cerasifera.

The genus also contains the poisonous European Cherry Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus – subgenus Laurocerasus), the North American Sand Cherry (Prunus pumila – subgenus Lithocerasus) and European Bird Cherry (Prunus padus – subgenus Padus).

The sub-genera are distinguished by characteristics such as the arrangement of axillary buds and flowers, and the shape of the fruit.

Blackthorn grows in much of the British Isles, in open woodlands, hedgerows, as scrub on commons and rough ground and on screes and cliff-slopes. Although it normally grows as a shrub, it will grow as tall as 2.5 to 4 metres and will sometimes form a small tree (to ten metres tall).

When it is given the chance Blackthorn will spread sideways and outwards by suckers and a bush can be as wide as it is tall and often much wider. Indeed, I’ve spent many days keeping Blackthorn in check where it borders grasslands such as Alderford Common near Norwich. Without any maintenance these places would become solid thickets of Blackthorn. As well as providing a day of fresh air and exercise, clearance work in the autumn would often provide a good haul of sloes from the cut branches.

After a long, dark winter, Blackthorn blossom in the hedgerows is very welcome. Here in Norfolk, Blackthorn usually blossoms in March or April but the exact time varies depending on how warm a spring we have. Spring weather is very variable and a cold spell will often coincide with the onset of Blackthorn blossom, giving rise to the phrase “Blackthorn winter“. Cherry Plum (Prunus cerasifera) flowers even earlier than Blackthorn, with equally spectacular flowers.

Blackthorn blossom

Blackthorn in blossom

Blackthorn’s specific name spinosa refers to its sharp spines (which Cherry Plum lacks). These are very sharp and my bike tyres have suffered a number of punctures from Blackthorn spines, when hedges have been flail-mown and cuttings have been scattered on the road. The spines, which can reach over two inches (five centimetres) long, are also a hazard for anyone picking sloes or cutting Blackthorn scrub or hedges and they can easily penetrate leather gloves and even tractor tyres. It is quite common for part of a spine to break off after it has penetrated the skin and this can lead to inflammation, which can be serious. J. J. Kelly documented a number of cases in the 1966 paper “Blackthorn Inflammation” (on the Bone and Joint website) and other examples are given by H. Sharma and A. D. Meredith in a 2004 paper. The Netmums website gives some advice for children injured by Blackthorn.

Kneeling on a Blackthorn spine is a particularly bad idea (but is easy to do). A Blackthorn spine lodged in a joint can lead to a severe inflammation known as Plant Thorn Arthritis, Plant Thorn Synovitis or Thorn Arthritis. (Blackthorn isn’t the only species that can cause this.)

On a more cheery note, Blackthorn is an important plant for wildlife. Its flowers provide nectar for insects that emerge early in the spring, such as Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Brimstone butterflies, bees and hoverflies. The spines help to protect birds which nest in the branches and Blackthorn thickets can provide good habitat for Nightingales. In many parts of Europe, Shrikes (such as the Great Grey Shrike, Lanius excubitor), nest in Blackthorn bushes and impale a larder of food items on the thorns, which gives rise to their alternative name, the Butcher Bird.

Blackthorn is the food plant of the Brown Hairstreak and Black Hairstreak butterflies. Both species are quite restricted in range in the British Isles and the Black Hairstreak in particular prefers dense stands of mature blackthorn. A number of moth caterpillars also feed on Blackthorn. The Clouded Silver (Lomographa temerata), Green-brindled Crescent (Allophyes oxyacanthae) and Dark Dagger (Acronicta tridens) will also feed on other shrubs, such as Hawthorn, but the Sloe Carpet (Aleucis distinctata) is restricted to Blackthorn.

Blackthorn is easy to grow, though it is susceptible to Silver Leaf Disease, caused by the fungus Chondrostereum purpureum. (See my post “Winter Fungi” from 2012 for pictures.)  In the countryside Blackthorn is normally cut in the winter, but where Silver Leaf is a problem, you should only prune in dry spells in summer. (This is usually advised for Prunus fruit trees, such as Plums, Cherries, Almonds and Peaches.) If you do grow Blackthorn, give it enough room to spread or be prepared to cut back its suckers.

You have to be brave to eat a raw sloe, the Blackthorn’s fruit, and if you do you will probably do it only once. Sloes are very astringent, though frost can reduce the astringency and the Plants for a Future website says “some people find they can enjoy it raw“. (Avoid the stones, as they may contain cyanide glycosides.) The leaves can be used as a tea subsitute and the flowers are edible. There are also several medicinal uses for the plant.

Blackthorn wood is very hard and is used for making walking sticks and clubs, such as the Irish shillelagh.

The best use of sloes is for making jellies, syrups, conserves or flavoured alcoholic drinks. Sloe Vodka is quite good but the best is Sloe Gin. This is good to drink after just three months, but improves with age and becomes smoother and richer the longer it is stored. To make sloe gin, put pricked, bashed or frozen sloes in a large jar or demijohn and add sugar and gin (a cheap brand will do). There are numerous recipes, including these by River Cottage’s John Wright and on the BBC Food website and Very Berry Handmade website.

There are some great photographs of Blackthorn on the internet, such as on the Sulgrave Village and Wildscreen Arkive websites.

Porcelain Fungus, Oudemansiella mucida

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Porcelain Fungus, Oudemansiella mucida

Porcelain Fungus, Oudemansiella mucida. Photograph by Vanna Bartlett.

Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly this year. In the last week of September it was still summer, then temperatures became more seasonal and we had some rain at last. With autumn came fungi.

On Monday we walked through the woods at Felbrigg Hall in North Norfolk. This is where I saw my first Porcelain Fungus (Oudemansiella mucida) several years ago. It was high up in a Beech tree but nonetheless the shiny white fruit bodies were unmistakable (see some great photos here). This time, however, we were lucky enough to find the fungus on a Beech stump and we could admire it in all its shining, slimy glory.

Porcelain Fungus can be found throughout northern and central Europe (see UK distribution) and grows on dead or dying Beech trees, or on dying Beech branches. Autumn is the time of year to see it. Sometimes it is very plentiful and the fruit bodies can cover an entire tree.

Porcelain Fungus is very slimy and its specific name, mucida, refers to the layer of transparent mucus that covers the fungus’ cap. The genus Oudemansiella contains between 15 and 42 species, depending on which classification system is used, and is named after the Dutch mycologist Cornelius Anton Jan Abraham Oudemans (1825–1906). Other English names for Porcelain Fungus include Poached Egg Fungus and Slimy Beech Cap.

The fungus is edible, though I haven’t tried it yet. It has the advantage of not looking like anything else, but if you do decide to try it, remove the mucus first. John Wright (in the River Cottage Mushrooms Handbook, which I have recommended before) describes how he was converted to eating this fungus. The mucus should be washed off and tough stems removed and then the caps can be sauteed. Apparently the flavour is “surprisingly rich”. The Wild Food UK website says Porcelain Fungus has a “good mushroomy taste”.

Porcelain Fungus fights off competing fungi by producing fungicides called strobilurins. (The name comes from Strobilurus tenacellus, the Pinecone Cap, which is where the compounds were first isolated. The Pinecone Cap uses strobilurins to stop competing fungi from growing on the pine cones on which it grows.)

According to an article in Pest Management Science entitled ‘The strobilurin fungicides‘ (D. Bartlett et. al 2002), commercially produced strobilurins were first sold in 1996 and sales totalled approximately $620 million in 1999, representing over 10% of the global fungicide market.

In the UK, DEFRA produces a fact sheet on strobilurins, ‘Use of Strobilurin Fungicides on Cereals‘ and The American Phytopathological Society has produced ‘QoI (Strobilurin) Fungicides: Benefits and Risks‘ on its website, which explains how the fungicides are applied. Strobilurins work by blocking electron transport in mitochondria so that they can no longer produce energy. Since their introduction in agriculture, some fungi have become resistant to strobilurins, so they are now used more sparingly, often in conjunction with other chemicals. (See also ‘Resistance Management is Essential with Strobilurin Fungicides‘.)