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Keep on smiling!

The sun continued to shine (will it ever stop?), as we looked back on the last year and celebrated all we had achieved, at the AGM, followed by the volunteers’ BBQ. Gary cooked the Prior’s Hall sausages and burgers to perfection, the salads we ...

dav

Bugs in the Gardens

We are counting our bugs…come and help us on our Open Day, Sunday 24 June, when we will have help on hand to identify them. This one, on fungi on a tree in the Glade, stumped us … it appears to be eating the fungi. Local expert, Jono Forgham, reckon ...

sdr

Now that’s a tongue!

Variously called a Devil’s Tongue, Voodoo Lily, Dragon Lily or more properly Dracunculus Vulgaris, this one is very much at home in the Italian Garden! It is an oddity of a plant because it is pollinated by flies not bees. Its shape has given rise t ...

dav

Vegetables galore

Each week, Steve seems to plant more vegetables and don’t they look great!! Today, it was runner beans, to add to the maize, leeks, onions, chard, lettuce etc etc. The recent rains have also helped the soft fruit to swell, the fruit trees to put on ...

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Our blousy hanky

The Handkerchief Tree was looking magnificent today, with the hankies blowing in the breeze against a clear blue sky, with the Glade framed with the frothy white of cow parsley. Hopefully they will still be looking stunning for the Open Day on 20 May. A h ...

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Fresh growth

It is an exciting time of year at the Gardens – full of promise for the season ahead! Spring green is making way for summer colour, as we remove weeds and excess euphorbia and make way for fresh planting of additional helianthemums, kniphofia, geums ...

dav

A birthday treat

for Steph: laying logs for a new earth seat and with delicious chocolate cakes for morning break, courtesy of Clare and Jacqueline…so much more fun than being pampered on a birthday! Meanwhile: primulas were planted, bringing colour to the entrance ...

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Ready for the Ramblers

Over 300 people came to the Gardens on Saturday 14 April to take part in the Helen Rollason Rural Ramble! The sun shone, the trees were bursting into leaf and the birds were singing and the ramblers set off on routes of 10 or 4 miles on the lanes and path ...

sdr

Graft, but it will be worth it

Digging out this new shrub border was not easy, after rain. But we want to put a lovely range of shrubs and trees along this edge of the Gardens. And our happy Stansted Security staff volunteers kept on smiling! Elsewhere, we had volunteers excavating and ...