Merlin's Hollow

Merlin's Hollow is a 25 year old English cottage garden in the town of Aurora. The owner, David Tomlinson, gives gardening courses and this year I am attending. There are 15 of us in the session, I've waited a few years for my turn.

His gardening philosophy is simple - laying two inches of leaves on your beds, in the Fall, will provide all the nutrients your soil and plants need. By July the worms will have pulled them into the soil and they will be gone.

Merlin's Hollow is divided into garden rooms and within each room are varied beds. David says "Think about the plants you want and plan for their different growing conditions."

Where he wanted a bog, he dug out the soil, lined the area with pond liner and filled in with peat and sand. He has treated every area this way and so grows many unique plants by providing them with their needed growing conditions.

Another useful point is that the area closest to your house is warmer than the rest of the garden. Rather than fill up this good area with foundation shrubs, he encourages more diverse plantings.

One final point - he divides his plants in Spring and this year with its warm days and cool moist nights is a good explanation of why.

More next month.