Plants of Current Interest: July

Plants of Current Interest: July

Welcome to Wisley in mid-summer.

Wander through Wisley and see the water lilies covering the Canal, ripening fruit in the Model Fruit Garden and Fruit Field. Climb the Fruit Mount for a bird's eye view of the Glasshouse Borders (previously known as the Piet Oudolf Borders).

Walk up between the Mixed Borders in the height of summer to enjoy the variety of herbaceous perennials and shrubs at their best. You can see the four clematis named after the four RHS Gardens from the RHS Bicentenary Plant Collection.

Escape the heat by taking a wander through the Pinetum, or stroll through to the Fruit Field and Arboretum. The grapevines are getting established and fruit on the trees and bushes are swelling up. You can buy the produce from outside the Gatehouse.

Model Vegetable Garden

In a hedged off section of Weatherhill, overlooking the Rock Garden is the Model Vegetable Garden. This area demonstrates a range of techniques for growing a variety of different vegetables.

Allotment

The western side of the garden is the allotment plot. This strip is laid out the size of a standard allotment, 10 rods (see below) and is cultivated traditionally in rows working on a three-year crop rotation.

On the allotment plot you can see different brassicas such as cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts growing under insect netting. Light, air and water can pass through, and it helps keeps pests out.

Climbing up canes

At the top end of the middle area, wigwams of canes are being smothered by climbing beans. French climbing and runner beans are both here, and have ornamental as well as productive benefits. Flowers come in soft purple, white and scarlet and the bean pods are in shades of green.

At the bottom end is a small glasshouse full of 2003 AGM winning beefsteak tomatoes.

Silver leaves

Serrated silver foliage topped with scaly, rounded buds of globe artichokes grow in the bottom corner. Immature flower buds are picked, stripped and eaten. If left to flower, the deep blue and purple blooms are attractive and ornamental in themselves.

Patio garden

Pots and growing bags of crops including herbs, onions and tomatoes grow in different sized containers on the patio area.

Lablab

There is a purple-flowered and purple-podded bean with purple-tinged leaves. Lablab purpureus 'Ruby Moon' (syn. Dolichos 'Ruby Moon') is edible, but its climbing nature and ornamental character means it is a popular choice in other parts of the garden. See it growing up the obelisks in the Canal border, and in the Country Garden, in the Fruit Allotment Garden, or in a tub here, in the patio garden.

Pretty potager

Divided into compartments by green and variegated box hedging is the potager. A potager is a small kitchen garden, with ornamental and productive purposes, derived from the French jardin potager - a garden providing vegetables for the pot, hence the French for soup, potage.

Vegetables and flowers are grown together, laid out in patterns to look attractive, with flowers to provide companion planting. Theoretically, Tagetes species, in this case French marigolds, will attract beneficial insects and deter harmful eelworms in the soil.

Magic beans

Runner beans were first grown in this country by Victorians purely for their ornamental virtues rather than the edible harvest. The RHS Bicentenary Plant Collection, launched at Chelsea this year, contains the runner bean 'Wisley Magic' AGM. It has red flowers and green pods that grow up to 35cm long, with an 'old-fashioned' runner bean taste. See it growing in the organic plot in the centre of the garden.

Ferny foliage

A young asparagus bed beside the compost heaps was too young to be harvested this year, but on the other side of the path the asparagus was continually harvested from early May to the end of June. It is now being left to grow tall ferny foliage and will be cut down at the end of the year.

Prize winning lettuces

See some of last year's AGM (Award of Garden Merit) winning lettuces growing in the beds on the eastern side of the garden. Colour and taste were both important when tasted and judged.

You can find celery, Brussels sprouts, cauliflowers, carrots, spinach, potatoes and numerous other crops growing in this garden.