Chiaroscuro

"To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon
 verdure is the most perfect refreshment."
 - Jane Austen

I have to admit there are times when we're sorely tempted to dig up what's left of the verdure and turn it into pathway instead.  Don't look too closely at what we laughingly call "lawn" because what you'll see is a network of daisies and clover, knit together with some coarse strands of couch grass. (There are those who resort to astroturf in this climate and I can well understand why!)

Parasols and strategic seating areas

But Ms Austen does have a point.  Our little oasis of remaining green wouldn't seem quite so cooling if it became just another area of gravel or oyster shells.

The layout of the driveway and resulting grassland was already established when we bought our property.

Few people have the opportunity to design with a blank canvas but it's vital to work out early on just where you want to place those all-important seating areas. They may be dependent on sun, wind, views and time of year. Then you can plant your trees and shrubs accordingly, perhaps using them to provide shade where required. 

Planting under the olive tree

We recently put in an olive tree just for this purpose, hoping it will provide us with dappled shade on evenings when the low sun can still burn quite hot.

Although midsummer isn't a good time for starting a new bed, we had some leftover compost and a few dianthus seedlings, so it just remained to gather a bunch of rocks from nearby fields...  In a month or so, it should fill out and look quite natural, providing a few more scented plants without needing much water or maintenance. 

Catanache caerulea

I love growing different pinks because they really thrive in our chalk-based driveway and provide neat cushions of green-grey foliage - echoing the leaves of the olive tree.

Also happy in chalk is the delightful catanache with its silvery, papery flowers and a basal rosette of narrow drought-resistant leaves. It only grows about 50cm high and would look at home in a rock or scree garden, given a bit of space to display itself to full advantage.

Verbascum hybridum 'Snow Queen'
(more primrose than snow white!) 

For long-lasting flowers, I've been impressed by a verbascum which I grew from seed last year.  Two of the plants I put in began blooming some six weeks ago and are still being visited by bees, so I'm loathe to cut them down whilst there are more buds to open.

Occasionally they need re-staking against strong winds and I've now removed their main stems, leaving the outer branches to keep flowering. 

By chance, there happens to be a Stipa gigantea growing nearby and its gilded, grassy panicles tend to prop themselves rather fetchingly against the verbascum.

Rudbeckia hirta 'Prairie Sun'
with red Cosmos sulphureus

Also grown from seed this year is the sturdy Rudbeckia hirta which I ordered from Chiltern Seeds. These began fully flowering at the start of July and provide two bold splashes of colour where I've planted them in groups.

I particularly like this variety with its raised green centre and it makes a long-lasting cut flower which contrasts well with the orange or red Cosmos sulphureus. 

This type also seems to have greater drought resistance than its more common cousin with the brown centre - but, then again, I might just have given it better growing conditions this time, in areas which do get some shade!

Border with Garden House

In the midst of this hot Charentais summer we're always relieved to come home to our garden, where we park in the shade of our old ash tree. Odd to think we actually contemplated cutting down some of these mature trees when we first moved here!


Luckily our French neighbour, a wise old agriculteur, sounded a note of caution saying that les anciens had planted them for 'a reason'. We certainly appreciated that reason in 2004 when a severe heatwave struck most of France - and England too - making it uncomfortable to spend any time outdoors after about 9am. 

But being on the coast helps to keep the heat down and we often notice how much warmer it is just a few kilometers inland. Although our mornings can be quite cool, even without wind, we find there's usually a 'lunchtime breeze' which springs up and may continue through the afternoon or else disappear until about 5pm when it blows up again to cool things off for the evening. A civilised climate.

Lythrum salicaria

Our back lane provides some shade for evening walks and the water channels are currently adorned with spikes of purple loosestrife which likes to grow in boggy places.

Another reminder of English country walks is the wild arum whose poisonous berries glow in dark corners, here framed by a tasteful arrangement of convolvulus.

Arum maculatum

Alien Invaders

Our waterways attract other less welcome plants like the invasive Mare's Tail (Equisetum arvense) which has gradually been spreading its way into a particularly damp field of sunflowers. Apparently these horsetails are descended from ancient treelike plants of some 300 million years ago, so they're worthy of respect for simply having survived!

Equisetum arvense - flora from a lost world

I must confess to a certain fascination with them as creatures from the Carboniferous period which are eye-catchingly architectural, like tree ferns and monkey puzzle trees.  You might not want them in your field or garden but I'm glad they can still spread their rhizomes through areas where they do relatively little damage.

Far worse, in my opinion, is the acid-yellow water primrose, a type of Ludwigia, which was probably introduced as an ornamental plant and now infests many waterways. It spreads quickly, clogging up drainage ditches and adding to the risk of flooding.  

Back in our garden sanctuary, the herb bed continues to fill out and those hard working salvias and hyssops are now joined by a couple of sedum, to provide some variation in colour and texture.

Sedums are another of those plants which can often look better in development than in maturity when they have a tendency to fall over in an ungainly fashion!

A ripe crop and impending rain on the Estuary