veg 030720

Veg aplenty

It was so lovely to greet our first visitors to the Gardens since lockdown eased and to have a good selection of veg on offer for them. Our volunteers enjoyed the opportunity to chat to the visitors as they explored the Gardens. Maybe the sun will also sh ...

20200625_120402

The battle against box moths

Box tree caterpillars can eat their way through all the leaves on box bushes/trees and there can be 2 or 3 caterpillar hatchings a year. The moths were first reported in Britain in 2007 and are now widespread in London and the South East, so we have been ...

20200618_115926

Prepping for wall building

Denny is all set now to rebuild the wall at the back of the kitchen garden with our old bricks, delivered to him by John, Sam and Stephen. It will really tidy up that corner. Perhaps it might also keep off more frosts and increase the warmth in that area? ...

20200611_135526

Trims all round this week!

The prunus lusitanica (Portuguese laurel) in the Italian garden were simultaneously trimmed today by Steve, John, Martin and Sam. I don’t think Sue gave marks out of ten for their efforts at clipping to umbrella shape!! After a little light rain, th ...

June 2020

Haircuts for our trees!

Our trees are allowed haircuts even if we are still not! The tree-surgeons were reducing the crown in this large bifurcated red oak at the bottom of the Glade to reduce the risk of it losing big branches and improve its health and longevity. They also tid ...

bdr

Next up: pseudo acacias

The trees in the Gardens are looking beautiful and not yet suffering from the drought. We have three or four white and pink Robinia pseudoacacias, which don’t always flower but are this year. The indian horsechestnut is also in flower, while the ran ...

bty

Hot, hot, hot

It was 28 degrees at times on Thursday and it felt it! We had volunteers back working in the Gardens, with a full set of Covid 19 risk mitigation measures in place. So we spread out across the Gardens to start getting back on top of more of the basic main ...

rosa

Our first rose of the year

The Countess of Warwick loved her roses. She planted a roserie at Stone Hall, her hideaway cottage the other side of her estate, and each rose had a Tudor rose shaped label, with a relevant quote from a poem. An 1886 magazine article says that at Easton L ...

tulips apr 2020

Prinz Armin to cheer us

Sue planted these gorgeous tulips to provide colour for the April open day and they are blooming on schedule! The National Trust provide a lovely history of tulips on their website, charting their origin as wild flowers in Asia, through the Dutch Tulipman ...

cherry 9 april 2020

Sakura

This cherry blossom (sakura) is in the kitchen garden and cherries will soon be blossoming also in the Glade and Italian garden. Our local Trustees will enjoy their Hanami in isolation! Did you know that the Japanese tradition of ‘hanami’ (which translate ...

RAS 1 April 2020 1

New leaves

Spring is really evident now, with the euphorbia looking lovely, the perennials coming up and the lavender greening. Fortunately the weeds are not yet rampant and our local Trustees are looking after the Gardens well. The daffodils throughout the Gardens ...