Rose on a Ramble

This weekend we visited a village in the Peak District that had around 30 gardens open to the public for charity.

It took us a little longer to reach Bonsall due to there being a cycle fun race in and around Bakewell. 

One garden in particular I have to admit to being quite partial to. We were warmly greeted at the entrance by the owner and the gardener was around for a chat about any of the plants or design.

Herbert Lodge included a grotto decorated floor to ceiling with shells and features a couple of mermaids.

A gently sloping trail took us through a shaded area with masses of hostas without barely a nibble from any marauding slugs or snails. This I think is a relatively new area, other than the trees as the plants were all still quite young, but another year or two will have great swathes of shaded planting that I would love to return to admire once more.

The route took us higher into rocky outcrops and vantage points to take in the scenic views.

Before opening out into a lush green lawn, with secret tunnels.

And a large pond with water lilies in bud.

Across the lawn and past a trompe l'oeil decorated temple, the path led us to the Italian style courtyard and Rose gardens.

I have to find this plant...the bees loved it!

There was also the greenhouse to explore before bidding farewell and moving onto the next gardens.

In all we managed to visit (or look at the 'peep over' gardens) around 8 gardens and visit a tea room.  I would love to go next year and maybe find a little b&b so we can do both open days...there were so many more to check out!

If you haven't already visited, I can thoroughly recommend it, and at just £4 per adult (kids free) for over 30 gardens, what's not to love?

Bees-a-buzzing

We've had heavy showers for 4 full days now.  The short dry spells that intersperse the rain see all the birds and insects busy searching for food (and TMTC and I reaching for the camera).

I love this shot by the pond.

The one below is a bee sheltering in the rhododendron in the front garden.

Plenty of flowers still coming into flower

Two peonies continue to swell.

This Alpina clematis above has gone completely rampant. No little blue nodding bells yet but the plant has more than covered it's alloted space.  I may have pruned it at the wrong time actually, but it was necessary to separate this one from the other later flowering clematis to assist pruning in future.

Below a neighbour's rose has mingled with the apple tree lending a further scent

It feels like the calm before the storm.  There are so many plants that are about to flower.  It could be quite spectacular if we get the right weather conditions.

If you don't ask...

...You don't get.

We have had a glorious few days weather-wise, high temperatures and lots of sunshine which has brought the plants on a treat.  Wherever possible we prefer to use collected rain water in the garden, which meant we were soon facing 3 empty waterbutts and contemplating using pond water to sustain at least our acid loving plants which prefer not to have tap water as it contains lime.

After an agonising couple of days that saw almost everywhere else but our part of South Yorkshire face heavy rain, the heavens finally opened for us late Friday afternoon.  And boy did it rain!  The waterbutts were full in less time than it took me to drive home from work.  The pond was overflowing a wee bit and there was a very welcome freshness to the air.

At lunchtime on Saturday, TMTC and I took a walk around the garden, pulling a weed here, tying in a clematis there and nipping off any flowers that were spent to promote further blooms.

In the Yen we had to change the water in the pool, remove the snail eggs from beneath the water lily leaves and rehome the two ramshorn snails in the main pond.

The rain moved in again to replenish what we had used today from the waterbutts.  We might have to think of adding another.

The first rose petals are unfurling on r. Special Anniversary despite the rain and I can tell you it smells heavenly!

Summer's Arrival

A couple of days ago it was more than 10 degrees c colder here in S.Yorks. The warmer weather is now coming up from the southwest. Yesterday was very humid but overcast until the evening.  It was a great day to spend in the garden pottering about.

The remaining two pots were made up using petunias in white with a deep blue centre, lilac and white nemesia and white trailing lobelia. The larger one has an unusual upward facing fuchsia to bring a dash of pink down from the planters which have each had a pink osteospermum, pink petunias and white trailing lobelia added.

Bumblebee decided to make up a planter of his own with an unusual splashed effect petunia, midnight blue trailing lobelia, blue violas and lilac and white nemesia.

His display knits together quite nicely with his 'Star Wars' plant which is flowering again after having a bit of a trim.  He has a good eye for design and despite being colour-blind, needed minimal assistance in the garden centre, happily running about with a flower from the splashed petunias to make his decisions. 

Today began mild but misty. By 10am the sun had burned through and wall to wall sunshine was enjoyed for the remainder of Sunday.

The Calibrachoa have really enjoyed the raise in temperature in both the pot and the mangers below the kitchen window.

And we've added mangers below the shed window again containing begonias, pelargoniums, lobelia and fuchsias.

A minor adjustment was made moving the watering cans back to the shed mangers.  My trial of using weed membrane as a liner worked extremely well last year so I've replicated it in both mangers.  I may in future use it on hanging baskets!

The hanging basket is filling out although not much flowering yet.

Below the basket is this tall pot from which grows what I believe to be a clematis Nelly Moser.  Now it has its permanent home, The Man That Can has installed a simple fan of wires for it to scramble up. This fence panel has a trellis top so once it's reached that, it'll have a good backbone.  It won't necessarily be at its finest this year, but watch this space!

And before we step into the front garden, a quick peak at the Pink Garden to the right and the Yen Garden to the left, looking down from the patio.

*****

Round into the front garden, I don't really know where to start! It's almost all looking fabulous

One pale flowered Aquilegia was sacrificed behind the rose 'Tall Story' as it was blocking the view somewhat. TMTC spotted this vibrant salvia which will contrast really beautifully with the young yellow roses before they fade to white.

These osteospermums are loving it here. We have butter yellow ones at the back to complement r. Maigold, and stronger orangey-yellow ones in the foreground. A clump of verbena bonariensis is beefing up, along with a small flowered lilac hardy geranium.  I believe there are also some rudbeckias in this small area.

A couple of issues on this side of the path.  Firstly the bigger birds (wood pigeons, collared doves and magpies) appear to have flattened this soft pink hardy geranium.  Come the autumn, I'll pop something a little more robust here, split the plant and replant further away from the bird feeders. I'll pop another section of the split plant in the Pink Garden. 

The other issue is this pink foxglove. It's not that I don't like it, but it's a case of right plant wrong place.  It can stay for the time being, for the bees, but I suspect it may get damaged as it's growing over the path.

This Hibiscus was a coerced buy. It didn't do very much past this stage last year. I'll see how it fares. It may end up being rehomed if it doesn't do well. I'll give it another couple of years.  I usually wouldn't consider something like this in a garden this far north, but the lady at the Botanical Gardens assured me the parent plant flowers in her garden a wee bit more north from us.

Time to sit back with a cuppa and enjoy the garden....that is of course what it's created for!  

Watching the Countryfile weather, top UK temperatures today we're 28c (in Wales).  Monday for South Yorkshire remains hot and sunny.  There's a chance the storms may not reach us...which is a bit of a shame since all 3 waterbutts are pretty much dry!

In an ideal world it would rain after sunset...