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Am I turning into a Flower Arranger?
I suppose flower arranging has always gone hand in hand with gardening, but it’s just not something I’ve ever bothered with. I’ve never picked flowers from my own garden to bring into the house, preferring to see them growing naturally outside. Obviously I do my best when someone has bought me a bunch of flowers, I do like to see them arranged nicely. It’s possible that because my mum went to flower arranging classes years ago, and would come home with some spectacular but very formal displays, it put me off. My mum is exceptionally talented and can turn her hand to anything practical and artistic. She definitely brought me…
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Our Cherry Tree – It’s the cherry on the cake!
It was the garden apprentice that chose this cherry tree. It must be around ten years ago now, and it spent the first few years of its life in a pot. It was one of those spontaneous buys at the garden centre. It was April and as a result it was covered in blossom, making it look magnificent and irresistible! It’s full name is Prunus avium ‘Stella’ and it is a sweet desert cherry. Dark red fruits that can be eaten straight from the tree. Unlike the sour cherry trees which are more commonly grown for their ornamental qualities. I’d always thought that I didn’t like cherries, but it turns…
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Catching-up with the White Garden – Part 1
Five years on from the first flowers being planted. The white garden is now needing a bit of a sort out. As with any new garden, or just new border, some things work out and some things don’t! You need to give plants a few seasons to see if they settle. Some plants need to put their roots down before they start to grow properly. This usually means after a couple of years of underperforming, I have a stern talk to them. It goes a bit like, “ok, one more year, if you don’t do anything between now and then, you’re out!” I’d say eight times out of ten, it…
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Happy Birthday Walnut Kitchen Garden
This week, marks twelve months since I started this garden blog. Is it me or is time going faster! It’s gone by so quickly. I’ve had such an enjoyable time, writing about the garden each week. And as I have done research for a number of the topics, I’ve leaned a great deal too. To celebrate our first anniversary. I’m going to take you back through the original garden transformation series. And show you where we’re up to today. If you’d like to read any of them again, just press on the titles. Part 1 – Let’s get stuck into the garden makeover! In part one, we did nothing but strip…
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Tomatoes – My first crop
Tomatoes were the first edible plants I grew, which I’m sure is true of many gardeners. I’ve grown them from seed for more than 20 years now and February wouldn’t feel the same without the excitement of starting the tomatoes. Losing my dad as a teenager meant I lost all of his gardening knowledge, built up over so many generations. I still feel sad for all the gardening chats we would have had, as us gardeners do like to talk about our hobby. By the time I got into my mid-twenties, the gardening bug had got a hold of me. I knew so little and was desperate to learn more.…
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Wollerton Old Hall Garden
Autumn visit to a beautiful garden The enjoyment of Wollerton Old Hall Garden starts as you approach the ticket office. You walk along a gently curving path, lined with trees, shrubs and some of the many colourful salvias. As you look straight ahead the view of the 16th century timber framed hall appears. Symmetrical flattened domes of box either side of the front door, are complemented by a stunning display of plants in pots, reminiscent of the doorway at Great Dixter. The exuberant colours coming mainly from dahlias, of which there are 65 varieties in their collection. At the ticket office is a poster telling you about their plant of…
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Gardening through a pandemic – Part 4 Winter 2020/21
December, January, February So here we are in winter, we’re now in a full blown second wave of Covid infection. With the pandemic showing no signs of abating. We’re facing another lockdown and gardening alone isn’t going to get me through this one! I guess I’m finally going to have to tackle that list of indoor jobs. Luckily the first vaccine has been given approval here in the UK, so there is light at the end of the tunnel. We all feel cautiously optimistic for next year. December is probably the quietest gardening month for me. A bit of mulching and tidying on the nicer days. Flicking through the seed…
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Creating a walled garden from scratch – The Great Wall
Garden transformation Part 6 – The south facing wall The ‘Great Wall’ is what it’s become jokingly known as. It starts in the front at 3ft high, runs for over 65ft. Then goes up to 6ft high and runs for a further 160ft to the end of the garden. It’s a south facing boundary, so we knew from the moment we moved in that we wanted to grow fruit on it. We both love walled gardens, more than any others and so set about the ambitious task of creating one. With the small exception of our 80ft long holly hedge, which has to stay for the birds and wildlife. When we…
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Creating a walled garden from scratch – The Shady Wall
Garden transformation Part 5 – The north facing wall This is a 30ft long border on the right hand side of the garden, near to the house. It had an existing old fence that the foliage had entwined itself through. As I mentioned previously in Lets get stuck into the garden makeover, we took down and dug out some very large conifers from this area. Hidden behind them we found a small section of lovely old sandstone wall. We also discovered that the old crazy paving patio in the corner was substantially larger than we’d been able to see. We weren’t really surprised that this had been a seating area.…
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Lady bricklayer ?
Garden transformation Part 4 – How I started brick laying When we moved to our first house it had an ancient wall that was leaning at a very precarious angle. It had to come down before it fell down! My husband and I had both been brought up by very practical parents, prepared to get stuck in and have a go. I had been a big Lego fan as a child and really fancied having a go at brick laying. That Christmas my husband bought me a trowel and spirit level, together with a book – no internet then – and we got stuck in. We knocked the old wall…
