September 2025 Part 2
Hello Gardening Friends,
I realised with my previous two newsletters that they should have been titled Writing from Normandy in France which makes it clearer, although I’ve been back in New Zealand for three weeks. As plants are now developing in my Normandy garden I can’t wait to get back to continue with the project.
Photo 1: Hydrangea ‘Limelight’ is doing well on the upper terrace garden. I have filled gaps among the hydrangeas with box plants which I grew on from plugs. I trim them loosely. To the right is a planting of Geranium macrorrhrizum; the pieces were given to me and we’ve added more since the photo was taken. A good plant for a dry spot under a tree. We bought the chairs, made by a man who lives in Brittany, at a Plant Fair at St Jean de Beauregard which we went to last year. When you sit in them it’s hard to get up again, as you can see. What a good idea!
Photo 2: Looking from the other direction. The yew to the right, which seeded itself there, has been removed as I didn’t think that it sat well with the surrounding plants.
Photo 3: A large clump of bamboo has been growing here since we arrived. We have tried to control it by various means, e.g. digging a trench, etc, but it continued to pop up throughout the garden and this year I made the decision that we would eradicate it. So two experienced men came in with their digger, after the tall growing bamboo had been cut to ground level and they dug and minced the roots so much that I am quietly confident that we will be on top of the problem that it created. In this space I am having two old olive trees planted while I am away.
MAJOR TYPO: This is an opportune moment to say that in my last letter I talked about an old ‘oak’ tree that we’d placed in the upper terrace. Several readers wrote gently to me. It is an olive tree too.
Photo 4: Exciting! One of my first arrangements from my garden with Aster ‘frikartii monch’ and Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Alba”. The latter has been renamed Bistorta amplexicaulis ‘Alba’. I’m adding some more of the aster to give the garden some colour, and the Bistorta will thrive and spread in the poor soil.
Photo 5: The Bistorta with a stack of small logs from prunings in the background which are left for insects and other small creatures to live in.
In my next newsletter I will write about our changes at Frensham. The garden is looking so promisingly fresh and each day brings new happenings.
Best wishes to you all,
Margaret
