Easton Lodge is a Victorian Gothic style stately home in Little Easton in Essex.
Save the date for our Nature Day on 18 June! The Gardens are such a lovely haven for local wildlife. Mr Toad seemed happy today, near the rill pond. A kind of nest in the long grass looked like it was made by one or more deer snuggling down for the night there. And last weekend volunteers came upon a grass-snake warming itself on top of the lavender hedge. Without the cloud, today was warmer and s ...
Volunteers have been working hard to tidy the Gardens ahead of this Sunday’s Open Day , the weather is set fair and the blossom is still looking lovely on the trees. So come along and see for yourself?
The Gardens are looking lush – so why not come and see for yourself on Sunday 21 May? The Handkerchief Tree (Davidia involucrata) is flowering beautifully this year – a particular joy as we thought we might have lost it to drought a few years ago. The blossom is still on the cherry and apple trees and the really tall crab apple by the Archive building has flowers up into the sky! In th ...
What a lovely week it has been and our Open Thursday visitors enjoyed it as much as we volunteers did. Why not join us next week? The sun shone and the blossom and bluebells were stunning. The tulips were iridescent in the Italian Garden and there are the first roses there too and the solomon seal on its way. The wild areas of the Gardens are changing daily: primroses and cowslips all over the pl ...
We were delighted that William Cecil and entourage visited us yesterday. The local villagers cooked up a feast for them and found time to celebrate St George’s day. Visitors enjoyed learning archery, quill writing, basketry and much more besides. We hope the Merrie Folke will visit us again next year!
This Sunday, 23 April, is the Trust’s first ever Tudor Day, so volunteers were focused on getting the Gardens ready for this special event. The Companye of Merrie Folke have been preparing for Lord Burleigh (Queen Elizabeth I’s Chief Adviser) and entourage’s visit to Easton Lodge and the many fun activities they have planned for our visitors. So we needed to ensure the Gardens a ...
On Sunday, we had a beautiful day and the snowdrops were looking stunning and were enjoyed by old and young alike and our Tudor visitors too. The Tudors will be back with other Merrie Folke at our April Open Day, when visitors will learn about the building of Easton Lodge in 1594 and the lives of Queen Elizabeth I’s advisers and courtiers and local people at that time, on St George’s D ...
The snowdrops are now popping up everywhere, from the car park and entrance to the kitchen garden and Glade. So, this week volunteers started getting things ready for the snowdrop open days on 12, 16, 19 and 23 February. Fingers crossed for lovely weather! Some gardening was done too. Sam and Richard gingerly lifted a couple of dahlias, fearing they might have suffered from the hard cold weather, ...
We can’t change the weather, but we are trying to adapt to it! An early winter job was to put in extra water butts and, needless to say, they are now full, as is the waterlily pond in the Italian garden, so we will be able to manage better in a drought. This new surface for the vehicle entry is to deal with too much rain! Last year, we had huge wet craters there and woodchips did not resolve ...
Unfortunately we have had to close the gardens today due to Heavy rain and thunderstorms. All bookings made will be refunded in due course.
The rain poured down today and the roads to the Gardens were flooding as we decided, with regret, that we had to tell volunteers to stay safe at home and close the Gardens. Apologies from us all to visitors who thought they could brave the elements to come and see us. We will now need to work double hard on Saturday to prepare for the Open Day on Sunday 23 October.
It is so lovely to see the Gardens back to life after the long hot dry months of the summer. The dahlias, cosmos and tithonia are still looking great and the michaelmas daisies and sedum of course tell that it’s now autumn. But it’s also fantastic to see buds on roses still. They have just kept on flowering, all year! It was a busy day at the Gardens today, with visitors from Knebworth ...