When One Tree Is Never Enough - November in the Lewis Cottage Garden

Thirty years ago the owners of Lewis Cottage, near Spreyton, took up an offer of free trees to plant as many as possible in their garden. This month Richard Orton reports on how these trees have fared, as well as the challenge of repainting their cottage which is covered in climbing plants. He also shares his gardening tips for November.

About thirty years ago Devon County Council offered free trees to encourage local community groups and anyone who had a large garden to plant as many new trees as possible. The trees were all native species: birch, beech, hornbeam, sycamore, lime, hawthorn and cherry. A friend did not understand why we were planting all these trees when we would never see them mature. We probably wouldn’t, but would have the delight of watching them grow from saplings into something resembling a proper tree.

Over the years we’ve watched the trees grow; some to maturity, others to struggle and perish, several badly damaged by our local population of red deer, squirrels and badgers.

The limes were planted in a line of twelve, spaced about 8-10 feet apart with the ambition to grow a pleached hedge. Things don’t always go to plan though and by the time we remembered our intention, the trees were already too big to pleach. We were left with twelve very large trees which cast a dark shadow across the garden. Over the years, we have removed eight of them, leaving us with four lovely mature trees, which in summer look spectacular.

They were pollarded when they were about 10 years old and this year we decided it was time they were pollarded again. Pollarding is a method of hard pruning a tree by removing the upper branches to promote the growth of dense foliage and keeps a tree much smaller than it would usually grow.

For pollarding to work successfully the species must be capable of producing epicormic growth or water shoots. These new shoots are produced from dormant buds lower down and are triggered into growth by the reduction in size. Whilst broad leaved trees such as limes, London plane, acers and beech all benefit for pollarding, conifers do not.

Many gardeners won’t like the very stark, naked appearance of the tree when pollarded, but if done correctly, within a season the trees will be covered with fresh new growth. It is also a way of keeping mature trees where the alternative would be to remove them.

Every 10-20 years we repaint the cottage and it was due to be done again this year. The hardest part was removing all the climbing plants from every wall. Heartbreaking to do, but they needed to come down. Twenty-year-old hydrangea, rose, ivy, virginia creeper, all were taken down to within 12 inches of ground level.

The hardest decision of all was whether or not to hard prune an ancient wisteria that was winding and vigorous but without the gnarled thick stems that add to a wisteria’s charm. We have other wisteria which tick all the boxes so the decision was made to hard prune it. That was early August and by October the wisteria had already thrown up 2ft of new growth. I don’t know how long it will be before it flowers again, but I may just have saved it for another generation of gardeners.

The rose, ivy, hydrangea and virginia creeper are also all doing very well.

If you’re not quite in the mood for some hard pruning or pollarding, here are a few less onerous tasks for the month ahead.

Jobs to do in November.

• Give hedges their last trim ahead of winter.
• Still time to get your spring bulb orders in and plant them out.
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• Bare root roses can be planted any time between now and March.
• Spread fresh manure across your vegetable beds to rot down over winter.
• Prune pear and apple trees anytime between now and February, but don't be tempted to prune your plum trees now as they will be susceptible to the silver leaf fungus - wait until midsummer.
• It’s time to clear up fallen leaves from your ponds, lawns and flower beds. Build a leaf mould bin using four posts and some chicken wire. You’ll be glad next spring!
• Any outside containers will benefit from being raised up to prevent waterlogging. Pot feet or recycled rubber pads do the trick.
• Now is the time to plant out winter bedding and containers of bulbs for a spring display.
• If you haven’t already cleaned your greenhouse, it’s not too late before you bring in your tender perennials for overwintering.
• As the weather turns colder, put out seeds, nuts or fat balls to encourage those birds that overwinter here to visit your garden.