A new home brings new gardening challenges

AT the start of summer I loaded dozens of plants in pots of various sizes into the back of my car and packed them off for an extended stay with every friend and family member who was willing to take them.

I don’t usually send my plants on holiday, but this was different. We were moving house.

After five years we have swapped our views of the Ochil Hills and the Forth Valley for a spot in the Carrick Hills in South Ayrshire.

Our new house sits in a clearing in the middle of a wood and although our nearest village is only a mile away and we have half a dozen close neighbours, it feels as if we are miles from anywhere.

My new garden is very different from the previous one.

It is much bigger and slopes steeply from south to north. The house sits half way up the plot, which means the back garden gets full advantage of the sun, while the front garden is perfect for woodland plants and shade-lovers.

This is my idea of the best of both worlds.

On the day we arrived a chestnut tree was spilling conkers on to the lawn and a couple of squirrels were squabbling over them. Fiery orange crocosmias and amethyst-coloured hydrangeas were exploding from the flowerbeds and the birdsong was deafening.

Here, just a few miles from the Firth of Clyde, the climate is wet and mild, so plants of a more tender nature should grow well and anything that likes damp roots will flourish in soil fed by underground streams.

Already I have lists of candidates, as well as other lists of plants that, for the sake of keeping their roots dry, will have to be consigned to pots or raised beds.

Vegetables too will be given similar treatment for the moment, where they can be netted against the predations of the resident rabbits.

There are deer in the woods, so I’ll have to choose my shrubs and trees carefully and for this I plan to take advice from Brian Cunningham, head gardener at Scone Palace in Perth, who earlier this year was telling me how he tackles a similar problem.

At some point we may terrace the back garden in order to create a flat lawn and more extensive borders but, for the moment, my plan is to enjoy it exactly as it is, studded with wild mushrooms and scampered over by birds of all kinds.

Meanwhile I’ve got all those plants that I shipped off back in July to round up again. I have tools to hang up on hooks in the garage and a spot to pick out for a temporary, pop-up greenhouse while I decide on where to site the real thing.

There’s also the small matter of finding new bookcases for my extensive collection of gardening volumes.

It will be good to get these back out of storage and start using the knowledge contained within their pages to start shaping my new garden.