As I said yesterday - the snow really blasted some of our plants. Probably the worse affected from weather was this plant - now a seemingly dead bunch of twigs trapping leaves in our front garden. It was one of the very first plants we bought for the garden and one which survived the rabbits. Now I'm guessing that you can't tell what it is from this shot of the devastated plant.
This is what it looked like in Nov 08 - only 3 months ago - a fine bushy plant that was gradually expanding. Nothing spectacular I'll admit but evergreen and occasional splashes of blue across the bush.
Well it seems that the plant may have a chance because buried under the leaves next to the plant was a twig (a couple of twigs) which had survived the blast and were still attached to the plant.. Going round the garden today I really appreciated the leaf mulch which was all over the rockery and around the roses and several of the plants in the shade. This mulch was a happy coincidence of a few of the themes running through the garden low maintenance and increased naturalism.
Low maintenance, I am away for months at a time and so my wife is left to do the gardening hereself. She likes weeding and getting out there but some things just aren't worth speniding time on - leaf collecting is one job not worth doing - you have to give the worms something to eat.
Natrualism - I did a masters in sustainable agriculture some 10 years ago - Agroforestry was a major topic that was promoted - use of trees in forwsat system. Also permaculture is one of my favourite ideas. Both Agroforestry and permaculture promote using trees and perennials as an integral part of the garden/agriculture. Also they promote a return to a more integrated and more natural form of gardening/food production with a move away from monoculture and petrochemical inputs by promoting natural cycles. To return to my garden - letting leaves lie to act as a mulch just simp-lifies everything, removes the waste, adds a natural mulch and promotes worm growth - thus greater fertility.
And that's my excuse - no, not excuse, reason - my reason for not raking up the leaves every autumn.
As you can see the only part of this hebe (for it is one of those hardy plants) is the part that was hidden beneath the leaves.
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I'll still be amazed to see it survive.But it has got a better chance than a few of the others which I'll tell you about tomorrow because of the horror, the horror.
