General – Easton Lodge

Well we complained it was too cold and wet….

April 19, 2018

We are keeping our fingers crossed that we will keep this wall-to-wall sunshine for the Open Day on Sunday – but we wouldn’t mind if it were a bit cooler! The plants are probably confused too ….the grass is growing apace, which makes it ...

Ready for the Ramblers

April 14, 2018

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 ...

Graft, but it will be worth it

March 29, 2018

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 ...

Before and after the Beast from the East

March 8, 2018

Back in February, we celebrated the coming of spring, with two fantastic snowdrop open days and lots of visitors. The RSPB joined us and will return later in the season. We thought, then, that it was cold …. …but it got much colder – it& ...

Fingers crossed for more blue skies!

February 15, 2018

The snowdrops are at their best, ready for the Open Day on Sunday 18th. The birds are singing and in the warm areas in the Garden it is possible to dawdle and enjoy the sights, as we did today with visitors from Austria and Switzerland and a more local ga ...

Our gorgeous purple lambs’ tails

February 8, 2018

There was ice on the lily pond and the ground was frozen, but catkins everywhere this month have reminded us spring is on its way, albeit perhaps a bit arrested by this cold snap. Our purple hazel catkins were a picture. It was difficult to see that the c ...

Snowdrops are such a welcome sight

February 1, 2018

Our main snowdrop area is at the front of the gardens, but they are also looking stunning in the walled garden and in many other areas, such as here under the trees at the top of the glade. Cleaning/touching up the painting on Daisy’s and the Archiv ...

Spring cleaning starts….

January 25, 2018

The sun was shining, there was no further wind damage and the snowdrops were starting to come out, so it felt like early Spring! The moss on the balustrading looks beautiful but can lead to more water damage to the stone, so we have started to remove it. ...

So lovely to see the sun

January 18, 2018

After strong winds we expected the worst, but the sun came out and we only had small branches and twigs to tidy up in the Glade. So other jobs got done too. The treehouse oak received some tlc. While in the walled garden, the grass had its first cut (exc ...

Snow is beautiful, but causes damage!

December 14, 2017

Volunteers took time today to contemplate the loss of a couple of large branches from the Cedar of Lebanon at the entrance to the Garden, as well as some other damage in the Gardens. Phenology, the scientific study of seasonal changes, in action as it wer ...

A cracking good fire…

December 7, 2017

Peter kept the fire burning fast and furious – and it was perfect activity for a wintry day, cutting back bushes, raking up fallen branches and feeding the fire, until the rain came!

What’s not to like?

November 30, 2017

Raking up leaves is easy and enjoyable when frosts have brought them all down with a rush and many volunteers are on hand to share the picking up and taking of them to the leaf mould bin, where David is ensuring that they are packed down well and that the ...