The Charming Nook

Today I wanted to introduce you all to another one of the nooks in our garden and show you how we have developed the area so far.

This is the honeysuckle nook, so named due to the mature evergreen honeysuckle we inherited in this area:

As you can see, the nook is sheltered on three sides by a half wall, which holds back the soil in the raised beds that surround the area.

The honeysuckle gave us the most beautiful fragrance last year and it is evergreen, I believe it to be Lonicera Japonica ‘Halliana’:

The honeysuckle is accompanied by a rambling cerise rose (variety not yet identified) which we leave to just ramble as it wants through the vine:

We have also inherited a buddleia, which this Winter 2023 has housed a number of sparrows and blue tits. Last Summer 2023, I loved sitting out in this area and watching the butterflies and bees that flocked to the buddleia and the honeysuckle.

Since we inherited this garden in December 2022, we have tweaked this area here and there.

The first change we made in this area was to install a pergola so that the honeysuckle and rose could climb up over it and create a proper outdoor room. It will also help to conceal the neighbouring building behind with the planting.

We initially planned to concrete the posts in, but due to the Mr being particularly tall, we needed to lift the height slightly. After brainstorming a few ideas, we settled on setting the front posts into pots filled with gravel and setting the back posts into the ground after trimming them down:

Despite being fairly lightweight, the pergola has survived many a storm and the howling winds that run off the hills here at certain times of year.

We chose the curved shape to echo the curves already used throughout the garden, which I think looks more harmonious in this setting as opposed to an angular shape; it also flows with the slope of the garden up the staircase to the top of the garden.

As you can see, the wall finishing would likely need yearly maintenance to keep it looking fresh, which I am not a fan of, so instead we intend to leave the honeysuckle and rose to grow down the walls and over the pergola to create a green garden room and eventually hide the walls.

Other changes we have made have included removing a couple of paving slabs so that we could plant out some evergreen hedging, with the intention of creating further seclusion and privacy for the area:

The hedges I chose for this area are Oleaster x Ebbingei, also known as Elaeagnus Ebbingei or Silverberry. I ordered from Hedges Direct www.hedgesdirect.co.uk/acatalog/oleaster-elaeagnus-x-ebbingei.html#aELA

Silverberry can grow in a wide variety of positions. Here we have it in a sunny position, which can sometimes be windy when strong winds are forecast; that’s not a problem for this plant, as it likes both of those conditions.

In Autumn, silverberry produces small creamy coloured flowers that are beautifully fragranced (perfect for seating areas) and it goes on to produce orange berries in Spring. The berries support local wildlife, since they are eaten by the birds.

We had a small amount of flowers in Autumn 2023 and I can confirm that the fragrance is wonderful:

Silverberry is also evergreen and when it gets blown by the wind, the underside of the leaves almost seems to glisten as it is slightly silver in tone and has an unusual bobbled texture. The foliage has a slightly silver cast to it, like lavender.

The new growth is slightly lighter golden copper before it darkens:

All in all, it is a really interesting hedging plant! I plan to leave the hedging to grow about 1.5-2 metres in height before I start to trim it; I want to create a sense of seclusion and being enveloped in the planting in this nook. Once we find the right table for this space, it will be used as an outdoor eating area, as our back door opens directly onto this area. I envisage eventually weaving little fairy lights through this hedge once it has matured to light the area up in the evening and make it feel cosy.

Alongside the front of the planting beds where the hedges are planted, I also put in some Thrift (some of which I grew from seed) and some of which I purchased as mature plants:

These provide a good foliage contrast to the Silverberry, as well as year round structure and they flower with sweet little pom-poms in the Spring. They are white with a hint of pink:

That’s the majority of what we have done in this area for now. It will mostly remain as it is for the most part, save for continuing to encourage the honeysuckle and rambling rose to scramble down the walls and up over the pergola. All of that will just take time and patience.

I hope you enjoyed reading about what we have done in this area and stay tuned for further updates!