bty

What gorgeous sunshine!

It was spring-like this week, but final clearance in the top end of the walled kitchen garden is still hard-going, with bracken, brambles, nettles and dogwood to dig up as well as bricks to remove! Preparation of the dahlia border and raised beds was much ...

bty

We’re getting ready

well, nearly ready, for the snowdrop open days on 16 and 23 February. Spring cleaning of Daisy’s will be the last job on the list, but we are crossing off the rest: this week, painting the viewing platform at the bottom of the glade, next week finis ...

japanese pagoda jan 2020 cropped

Standing tall

The Japanese garden now has its pagoda standing tall and the Salix Gracilistyla Mount Aso (Japanese pink pussy willow), magnolias and rhododendrons all have buds. It’s very exciting to see this garden developing and in 2020 the design will be streng ...

bty

Golden in the sunshine

The golden yews were shining today and, turning our thoughts to warmer times to come, we hatched plans to take cuttings so that we can replace those we have had to remove and we have back-up should any more succumb to phytophthora. Work continued on the n ...

pagoda cropped

kosame turns to ooame

It rains a lot in Japan and so they have at least 50 words for different types of rain. This might have been kosame – before it turned to ooame later! Anyway, it was probably appropriate for erecting a pagoda!! Our volunteers are so dedicated and we ...

bty

Swampy sheds her gold

We believe this tree by the fishing lake, beyond the bottom of the Garden, is a marsh cypress (taxodium distichum), also known as a red cypress.  That sounds right doesn’t it? They are native to the South East of the USA, but are recognised as a goo ...

bdr

Beautiful, if grey

Well, it mostly didn’t rain, and the wood around the Gardens was looking particularly beautiful, shining under the grey skies. We had a good crew in, so we set to and did more tidying up in the Italian garden and walled kitchen garden, pruning of th ...

Stumpery 3 cropped nov 2019

Growing our stumpery!

We have had this gorgeous stump for a while, but couldn’t move it! It nearly defeated Trevor’s truck, but luckily didn’t so is now installed and sitting pretty! We had another dry day, so cracked on with planting more bulbs, pruning lave ...

bty

Precision in action!

Roger’s parks management skills are legendary – and no doubt this leaf mould will fall precisely where wanted!! Leaf mould bins and compost bins were dug out today and the lovely mulches were distributed where they are needed most – part ...

bty

Moving on the spiders!

It’s nearly Halloween, but we can’t have spiders spoiling our refreshments offer at the last Open Day of the season this Sunday! The Gardens are looking gorgeous, refreshed by the rains and not yet hit by frost! In the Italian Garden thereR ...

bty

Engineers as well as gardeners

Our volunteers are a talented bunch – here, John and Stephen are making great progress installing a ramp into the Italian Garden so that volunteers can wheel their barrows in and out and avoid bumping up and down the newly restored steps! We were vi ...