NGS Garden Wincombe Park

As we walked down the leafy lane towards the house, I felt a little bit daunted. It was the first garden of my project and I didn't know what to expect. I wasn't at all worried about photographing the plants or the teas but I was concerned at how the portrait would go. My biggest concern was the fact that I didn't want to get in the way, when the garden owners could potentially be feeling stressed and very busy and therefore feel irritated by my asking them to pose but my concerns were totally unfounded as I found out later that afternoon.

When we reached the house, Mrs Fortescue and her helpers were setting out the tables and chairs and adorning them with chequered table clothes and vases of bluebells, freshly picked from the woods. I introduced myself and Andy (I introduced him as Andrew my partner, which sounds better than Andy my boyfriend and far more fitting for this occasion and our age!) and left them to set up, whilst I went off to photograph the garden to the front of the house, before all the visitors arrived.

Closeup of wild garlic

Wild Garlic


Closed Hydrangea Buds

Pink Hydrangea

Cow Parsley

At the back of the beautiful house was a wonderful walled vegetable garden, with a lovely iron gate at its entrance.

I've have a passion for walled gardens, especially those with vegetables growing in them for a long time. When I was a child, I had a Ladybird book called Rapunzel and one of the paintings in the book showed a walled garden belonging to the witch. It had rows of delphiniums and lettuces (which Rapunzel's Mother longed for) and that image has stayed with me ever since, so whenever I am in a walled garden, I have happy memories, although the story itself is rather dark, as with most fairy stories.

When I walked through the gate, I was not at all disappointed. The beds were neatly laid out and the young vegetables were thriving.

Walled Vegetable Garden

A little room tucked away in the wall

Orange Tulips

Side view of the house

After photographing the walled garden, I went to partake in a very vital and enjoyable part of the afternoon which was sampling the tea and cake. There were plenty of cakes to choose from and all looked equally as yummy. Serving tea and cakes at these events, enables lots of money to be raised for the NGS and charities of the garden owners choice. In this case it was Riding for the disabled.

Lastly came the portrait. Mr and Mrs Fortescue posed with their two black Labradors and their wonderful cat in front of a backdrop of spring plants.

Mr and Mrs Fortesuce

If you wish to visit this garden, you will have to wait until next year but I heartily recommend it. For my first garden, it was a photographers dream and I am sure my next garden will also be fabulous. I am visiting Knowle Farm at Uploaders near Bridport on Saturday. Lets hope the sun is shining but maybe not so brightly!

A Well Needed Rest

We have just returned from a holiday to Tenerife. I have never been before and I chose Tenerife because it had guaranteed sunshine (which was sorely needed) and I found a cheap holiday in a lovely hotel, flying from our local airport, 15 mins away, so this added up to to be a winning combination, well it would have been, if only I had been more impressed with Tenerife (we were situated down the south which was a bit touristy, the north of the island seemed much more to my taste) but it was fit for purpose, a nice rest!

On our travels around the island I saw some beautiful wild flowers, growing in the most inhabitable conditions. The island has a dormant volcano, Mount Teide, situated in the middle, which last erupted in 1798, so the soil is very poor especially around the volcano, which is mostly lava and with minimal amounts of rain I'm surprised anything grows.

I left written instructions with my children, on how to water my garden, especially the seedlings, whilst we were away and so when I returned, everything looked good. I had left my garlic and legumes outside to harden off, so they were planted into the beds on my return on Sunday.

The garlic had a good root system, so I am hopeful that I will have better success this year.

My new bed which has potatoes growing, now has legumes growing up wigwams of bamboo canes, has had the sandy soil improved by compost but it still isn't in the best condition. Growing legumes will help because they take nitrogen from the air and fix it to their roots, which will help next years plants.

This summer I am undertaking a photography project, with the consent of the National Garden Scheme, to photograph a number of gardens in Dorset, together with a portrait of the garden owners. 7 garden owners have given their permission and Sunday was the first garden I photographed.

It was totally amazing, a photographers dream. I need to edit the photographs, so in the meantime I leave you with some flower portraits from Tenerife. (Taken on my little Lumix)

Cactus Flower

Echium Wildprettii


Echium Wildprettii Flowers

Marigold

Pennisetum

Unknown pink flower



Unknown yellow flower growing in the lava fields

Busy In The Garden

When I walked up the stairs at work today, I felt as stiff as a board - the after effects of a weekends toil in the garden.

The past two weekends have been a very busy time in the garden. Firstly digging out a new veg bed in the garden (actually that was Andy's hard graft) and this weekend it was shaking the soil off the mountain of turfs removed to make the way for the raised bed. We removed quite a lot of soil, which we put back into the raised bed, which now needs enriching with eco compost.

Last weekend I sowed, four types of tomatoes, basil, peas, runner beans, climbing french beans, sweet peas, chillies and lots of different cut and come again lettuces. Also to add a bit of colour to the veg beds, companion plants; marigolds and nasturtiums. My legumes have burst up through the soil in no time and the tomatoes are just starting to peep through.

Gardeners' World is back on our screens and from a new location; Greenacres.

At first I was a bit sceptical about Toby (I was a bit miffed that Carol wasn't asked to take over as head of the programme) but I am really loving this new series. It's all about going back to basics and although I have been gardening for many years, it's good to be reminded especially when it comes to vegetable growing which I am relatively new at and gardening needs to encourage new young blood.

I have been to my local garden centre Haskins and bought some lovely plants for my new Herbaceous border. Some plants caught my eye, planted in coir pots, which biodegrade (you plant the plants in their pots) with a reduced peat content. I bought Crambe Cordifolia and a Verbascum. I would have been happier if the soil did not contain any peat at all and can't wait for the day when growers ditch the use of peat. I went to B & Q and bought a Peony, a plant which I have never grown before, so I am very excited. When reading the planting instructions, it said to plant in peat free compost (gold star) but reading further it stated that it was planted in 75% peat! Oh B & Q you nearly got a house point, just try a little harder next time!

In the garden this week

Carex Pendula

Strawberry Plant

Garlic

Pea Seedling

Legume Seedling

River Cottage in Spring

On Saturday we spent another lovely day visiting River Cottage HQ celebrating the return of Spring. There were talks and demonstrations on growing vegetables by Mark Diacono Head Gardener at RC, cooking seasonal vegetables and making pasta by Tim Maddams, Head Chef at RC Canteen and an illuminating talk by John Wright, wild food expert, on collecting sea weed and foraging by the coast. There were stalls filled with gardening paraphernalia, a talk by Dave Wiscombe on keeping bees, which always fascinates me, plus the usual stuff, yummy food and drink, animals, including baby lambs and for entertainment the Uplyme Morris Men.

I absolutely love visiting RCHQ, it has such a lovely atmosphere and is filled with a gorgeous light.

Talking of light, on the way home above Bridport, I saw a rainbow. It's the first rainbow I have ever seen from start to finish. In other words I saw the whole thing. It was an amazing sight seeing it coming up out of the ground, so to speak.

We are all reved up and ready for Spring now. I have planted the garlic cloves into modules and popped them in the summer house. The bed which had the bonfire on it, has had the ash dug in and compost added. I have raked it and we put the new cloches on top to warm the soil up ready for planting. We have marked out new beds, ready for the turf to be stripped off - exciting times ahead, if not a little back breaking!

The Scent of Spring

This week we have had the most incredible weather. Although there is still a little nip in the air, we have had wall to wall sunshine for the whole week.

The sunshine has brought the Spring flowers into bloom with their soft colours and scents filling the air.

I tided the front garden this weekend and was blown away by the scent coming from the Skimmia. I had never noticed it before probably because I never spend any time in the front garden. It's one of those wasted spaces, with scrubby grass and a car parked on it for much of the time. I am at a loss as to what to do with it. Where is Matt James when you need him?

Hyacinth

Skimmia

Yellow - The Colour of March

Today I woke up aching after my first proper workout in the garden of the year.

The grass was cut, edges trimmed and the leaves from the Winter drop were sucked up and burnt on a bonfire.

The sun had a warmth to it - Spring is definitely here!!

I took a trip into Bournemouth last week and paid a visit to Wilkinsons. They have a fantastic gardening department and I got all sorts of bargains. I bought a couple of clear plastic covered cloches for £4.99 each. They are going to be excellent for putting on the soil to warm it up before planting, or for keeping off the rain, if it gets really heavy.

I also purchased some lovely gardening gloves, which are too lovely to wear, for a couple of pounds. Their live plants need looking over before purchasing but you can certainly pick up a bargain. I bought two blackberry plants and two blueberry plants for £2 and £3 each.

The garden is coming back to life after its Winter sleep. Buds and shoots are appearing and there is anticipation in the air. My Tete a Tete are heralding the beginning of Spring with their yellow cheerfulness glowing in the sunshine and with the clocks going on an hour in a couple of weeks, that really is something to look forward to.

Tete a Tete

Kerria Buds

Raspberry Shoots

What do you wear to garden in?

When you get dressed in the morning, knowing that you have a day of gardening ahead of you, do you have clothes dedicated to the task? Do you look presentable like Rachel de Thame, or do you look like me; joggy bottoms splattered with paint, the oldest t shirt from the drawer and no make-up! The clothes I wear in the garden, used to look tidy, until worn out and tatty and then relegated to the gardening wardrobe. I know it seems kind of pointless, looking your best, when you know you are going to get covered in dirt but really I think I need to make more of an effort so I am going to look in my wardrobe for newer clothes to relegate to gardening duty and maybe a touch of mascara at the very least!


The sun shone yesterday and I was glad to be outside. For a brief moment, there were no children in the neighbouring gardens and it was peaceful. Instead of enjoying this moment though, all I could think of was that the little blighters would return at any second to spoil the birdsong and then there it was, shouting from the top and side of the garden. My daughter tried to remind me that she and her brother were like that once but somehow it doesn't sound so bad when it comes from your children!

After muttering 'shut up' a few times, I turned to the jobs in hand. To move the raspberries which I grew in pots last year into beds and do some weeding. The raspberries did quite well in pots last year but you have to be quite vigilant with the watering (which I wasn't always) and they didn't fruit as well as the ones in the ground. They are autumn fruiting raspberries, which are cut to the ground each winter and now have lovely green shoots over them, a sure sign that spring is on the way. The weeding and cutting back were quite satisfying jobs. I got quite excited to see new shoots on the clematis which I purchased last year but hadn't planted out. I was a bit worried that it hadn't survived the cold weather we had this winter.

I found a few spring flowers to photograph in the garden. Pulmonaria also known as Lungwort and Bergenia. It was thought that the plant had medicinal qualities, as the leaves have white spots on them, resembling diseased lungs and therefore it was used to cure pulmonary disease during the plague.




Pulmonaria



Bergenia

Fingers crossed for sunny weather next weekend. Lots to do in the garden and I must sort out my wardrobe before then.