And breathe

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blueberries, fruit netting, mangetout, successional sowing

Mangetout peas

I can’t believe it has been so long so I last posted. I’ve missed blogging but it has all been rather hectic here. My book deadline was today so the last few weeks have been spent writing, checking, writing some more, stressing about the weather and having photos taken. I have discovered a subconscious ability to predict rubbish weather. If anyone has a big event planned in the future but the date has yet to be confirmed you could ask me to pick the date and then go with the following day. So far every photo shoot has been cold, dull and decidedly not spring or summer-like. But as soon as Jason, the photographer, has left the clouds part and the sun comes out. It could have been worse, so far we’ve yet to be rained off but I’m touching wood as I write this, as I still have one photo shoot left. So fingers crossed July is wall to wall sunshine.

Yesterday I sent off the final draft of my book to my publisher. It was a strange feeling. With sweaty palms I spent quite a while rechecking and going to press the send button but not doing. A bit like when you’re a teenager wanting to phone up the boy/girl of your dreams but you can’t summon up the courage. It’s not as if I won’t see my words again. I now face the quite scary prospect of the editing process. But between now and October it should all start to come together and I’m really excited. Hopefully soon I should be able to say a bit more about it but for now I still have to keep it secret.

As well as the book it has been busy, busy, busy with plants. I’ve just about managed to keep up with the allotment. Of course there’s nothing like the prospect of having photos taken to spur on a weeding frenzy. My lettuce supply so far this spring and summer has been bountiful. I have more baby leaves coming through so I’m hoping for the holy grail of successional sowing this year . . . well with salads at least. I’ve been picking mangetout for the last few weeks and my broad beans are looking really healthy and are tantalizingly close to picking.

The first courgette

I’ve even got round to netting my blueberries and tayberry. Last year the blackbirds stripped 2 blueberry bushes dripping in unripe fruit. We didn’t get any, not a sausage. Much as I love birds and they do a good service in ridding my plot of slugs and snails I wasn’t planning on providing them with such fruity delights. I had looked into proper fruit cages but was taken aback at how expensive they are. So with Wellyman’s help we used some coppiced hazel poles and bamboo canes and made our own constructions for a fraction of the price. It was a bit of a faff and like any DIY job it always takes so much longer than you planned for. Hence us still being at the plot at 10pm one night wrestling with fruit netting.

Blueberries protected from rampaging birds

Not everything has worked quite so well. The topsy-turvy weather has meant some plants have sulked. The courgettes are finally looking happier but my squashes are still sitting there doing very little. The ornamental hops that I planted to grow along a trellis panel have not taken kindly to the gale force winds that battered the plot in mid-June when the weather resembled November and not the start of summer. Still, there are always winners and losers. We all dream of that perfect year when everything grows well, but I’m coming to the conclusion that it’s just a pipe dream, the dangling carrot that brings us back for more each spring.

I always think that this is a strange time of year. It feels as if the summer has only just got going, in it’s typically British unpredictable way but in so many ways the garden is what it is now for the rest of the season. The cold spring this year really compressed that short window of opportunity we have to sow, plant and divide. I catch myself thinking ‘oh I wish I’d grown that this year’ or ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ Then curse myself that I’ll have to wait until NEXT spring now to carry out those ideas. Still that’s what it is all about. I really must find a notebook though and write down those ideas.

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Cider and baker puns

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Alex Gooch, Brigit Strawbridge, Hellens Manor, Much Marcle, The Garden Festival

Floral Sculpture

Open gardens, plant fairs and gardening shows are coming thick and fast at the moment. I’ve got leaflets piled up in the kitchen and dates scribbled in my diary in the hope I can make it to as many as possible. It does seem that there are even more garden related events this year than ever. You’ve got to admire the optimism of the organisers after last year’s dreadful summer when many shows and festivals had to be cancelled. With so many competing for our spare time though, events need to stand out from the crowd if they are to attract more than one man and his dog.

Once such place for me, is the Garden Festival at Hellens Manor, in the small Herefordshire village of Much Marcle, and last weekend was the sixth year it has been held. The organisers have created a weekend which could win awards for being the friendliest garden show of the year. A combination of stalls, rural crafts, talks and great food set in such a beautiful location makes for a relaxed day out. The basis of the festival though is caring for, and understanding a little more about our environment. The carbon footprint of the large flower shows is an issue that should get more attention, but at this festival the planet and plants go hand-in-hand. Admittedly you’d struggle to make it here without the aid of a car, but public transport is thin on the ground in such a rural county.

The event last year was cancelled due to heavy rain and flooding so it was pleasing to see the sun basking on visitors this time around. Plant nurseries from the local area had put on a good display under the dappled shade of the trees. There was a tempting range of vintage bits and pieces. I’ve got a bit of a thing for zinc baths at the moment and there was the cutest old wooden cart which would have looked lovely planted up, but sadly I don’t have the space. Add in some willow weavers, coppicers, gorgeous wooden furniture, clothes made from vintage fabrics and a stall teaching composting skills and you get the kind of vibe this place has going on.

The brilliant charity Tools for Self Reliance had a stall. Run by volunteers,  tools that have been donated to them are cleaned and repaired and are then sent out to countries in Africa. Much of the charity’s work is funded by the sale of tools not in demand in Africa, at places such as the Garden Festival.  They even have a sewing machine workshop reconditioning hundreds of machines a year and sending these out to communities in places like Tanzania giving women the opportunity to earn an income.

Willow elephant sculpture in the grounds of Hellens Manor

From the heart-warming and ethical to the local cider, available on draught from an outdoor bar attached to one of the barns. I never used to be a fan of cider because my taste buds had been scarred by the dreadful stuff my friends drunk when we were teenagers. Gwatkin’s is the real stuff though, packed full of appley flavour. There was award-winning local baker Alex Gooch, and his amazing breads. His bread is the best I’ve ever tasted. . . . well, apart from Wellyman’s delicious sourdough that is. There was also The House of the Rising Bun which competes with Bread of Devon for the best baker’s shop pun title I’ve come across so far. Tables were dotted about in amongst the orchard with pretty pots of violas on them, and as people settled down in the sun for a bite to eat local bands entertained. Tea and cake were available in front of the manor house as a troupe of female morris dancers performed their routines. It all felt like a very British summer’s day.

The weekend saw a variety of talks with an environmental theme. I was disappointed to miss Brigit Strawbridge talking about bees on the Saturday, but spent a fascinating half an hour listening to Stephen Powell talk about his experiences of trying to establish a community forest farm near Abergavenny.

Hellens Manor, Much Marcle

Hellens Manor itself is fascinating. There has been a building on the site since the 11th century but the original manor was built around 1250. The inner courtyard from that period still remains but the rest of the house dates from the Tudor times with some additions made during the reign of Charles I. It’s still a family home but it is possible to look around inside. We didn’t get a chance on Sunday but we plan to go back to Hellens in October for their harvest celebrations so might pop in for a nosey around then. Much Marcle is the centre for Herefordshire cider production. Orchards dot the landscape and there is a long tradition of celebrating the apple harvest. The Great Barn at Hellens hosts the Feast of Apples which includes vast displays of apples and pears harvested from the local area. There will be a variety of fruity related events including perry making and apple identification, where apples can be brought along and an expert will identify the variety, in a fruit version of the Antiques Roadshow. You’re unlikely to go home financially richer at the end of the day though.

A 17th century dovecote

The gardens are a combination of formal and romantically wild. There is something about these old buildings though that can carry off a garden that is a bit untamed. Higgledy-piggledy paths and plants tumbling out over them seems to fit somehow. The formal areas with their knot gardens are in the process of being restored and are in keeping with the age of the property but if you’re looking for lots of planting and herbaceous borders I wouldn’t say the gardens were particularly worth visiting in their own right. If you’re here already there are some lovely species roses, and a new physic garden which is overlooked by an impressive and rare example of an octagonal dovecote.

So if you fancy a plant show with a difference and can make it to Herefordshire next June, make a date in your diary for the Hellens Garden Festival.

Sunny Bliss and Cricket Pavilions

Tags

bastard balm, cricket pavilion, Monmouthshire, open gardens, Wentwood

A garden with a view

The last few days have been a real joy. After a week of grim weather last week I thought emigration was the only option. June was just around the corner and I was still wearing a woolly hat and two pairs of socks. Then Friday came, the wind dropped, the sun shone and I finally felt some warmth on my skin.

Us Brits have a reputation for being a bit introverted but I’m sure some of our national psyche is influenced by the weather. Just look around you on a sunny day and see how people are smiling, how relaxed they look. We seem to spend way too much time in this country huddled from the wind, rain or snow. I noticed the other day that after a spell of hard work on the plot I didn’t ache quite so much. Maybe it’s just my body becoming ‘allotment fit’ but I think finally being able to ditch the layers and feel some warmth might have had something to do with it.

Green transport

The appearance of summer at last resulted in a mammoth planting session at the plot. The windowsills look bare after months of staring through a haze of greenery and the allotment is starting to take shape. The nasturtiums sown in March were planted out on Friday and we’ve already had our first flowery addition to a salad. The gooseberries and blackcurrants are laden with tiny fruit, and flowers on the tayberry and broad beans hold so much promise of tasty treats to come.

Saturday was devoted to fence building. At the end of the plot we have a small area that was fenced off in a rudimentary way by the previous tenants. A few weeks ago I leant on it and it collapsed. Not a case of too much cake, the wood had rotted and now it all needed replacing. Pallets were employed to construct a basic screen and with three left over the plot now has a second compost heap too. It did look a little like pallet city but after a lick of paint this morning they look much better.

Aquilegia in Mo’s Garden

The icing on the cake had to be a visit to some open gardens on Sunday.  My lovely postie David mentioned that his village was opening up their gardens to raise money for the village hall and that his mum’s cottage garden would be one of them. Not one to turn down the opportunity to nosy around other people’s gardens and miss the chance to eat cake we popped along. We thought we’d only be an hour or so but four hours later it had turned into one of those unexpectedly lovely days. We walked further than we’d planned, visited all twelve of the gardens and met some really lovely people.

The village on the south side of a ridge overlooks the Black Mountains and the ancient forest of Wentwood. With unbroken sunshine the views were incredible. It’s a linear village with houses dotted alongside country lanes running down to a river at the bottom. What I love about open gardens is that you get to see such diversity. In many ways I find these gardens much more inspiring than any show garden at Chelsea. The location of the village means that many of the gardens are sloping and it was interesting to see how they coped with this. Terracing and raised beds were used to great effect. There was Church Cottage, a small sheltered garden planted in a typical cottage garden style. A wonderful lilac greeted us at the gate and narrow paths took us through a garden packed with perennials.

Cricket pavilion anyone?

Lower Glyn Farm is a 9 acre garden with a more naturalistic feel which merged into the surrounding 80 acres of woodland. How many gardens can boast a cricket pavilion, bought on eBay and now positioned by the side of a lake? The owners use it for parties; I imagined writing there.

The Lodge was the garden of my postie’s mum. A real plantswoman, she was a great source of information and I came away with the inspiration for a small part of my own garden. I’ve been wondering what to do with it for a while but Sambucus nigra and a species rose will form the basis for a new planting scheme. She was such a lovely lady, she even gave me this lovely plant.

Free plant – Bastard balm

It was heartening to see new gardens being created by young families and in most growing fruit and vegetables was clearly a fundamental part of wanting to garden. There were orchards, both old and new, and the local wildlife must have been happy with a range of bug hotels, log piles and ponds to set up home in.

The combination of the sun, gardens and apricot upside-down cake made for a memorable day but there was something else. There was an enviable sense of community in this small village. The school and chapel both closed in the late eighties and the village hall is now the hub of life here. We met people who had lived and gardened here for over 40 years. For someone who has moved so frequently and doesn’t really feel like she has roots anywhere I find this remarkable. The strange thing is, an afternoon wandering around these gardens, meeting such warm and friendly people made me feel like I am finally starting to connect with somewhere. Whilst I might not live in this delightful village, Monmouthshire is such a beautiful county, it’s a place I love, a place where I’d liked to stay, for a little while longer, at least. Funny what plants can do.