Shortlisted in a Nationwide Competition

 Today we heard that the garden has been shortlisted in The Nation's Favourite Garden which is being run by the English Garden Magazine.  Our little rural cottage garden is up against the 'big boys' in the horticultural world as many great and glorious gardens are competing.  We desperately need votes and they can be cast here:  

VOTE HERE!

Participating in The Gardens of Wichenford 2021

 It goes without saying that the lead up to our biennial village open gardens is always hectic - to say the VERY least!!  We borrowed tables and chairs with accompanying cloths and napkins, urns and even a giant coffee percolator!!  We had been slaving in the garden for days and even managed to overcome a major pond problem as a pipe had partially fractured which lead to emergency repairs the day before.  Lawns were manicured, last minute spot weeding and much sweeping and tidying - despite high winds and scudding clouds.  Cake numbers started to mount up as friends made deliveries.

On the 1st day, the weather looked anything but settled but at least we had ladies to serve coffees and afternoon teas which was just as well as 177 visitors trickled through the garden gate.  This year, we chose to use disposable tableware which, again was a wise decision as, the following day, visitor numbers increased to 308!!  At the absolute 11th hour, several, local ladies came to our rescue, donned on aprons and served teas from the garage. 

On Saturday Richard Goldman played Greg's old (and now rare) yachting piano - much to the delight of visitors sitting on the terrace.  Click on the photo in this link: Richard on Greg's old piano. It sounded so fab and even attracted 4 ponies which arrived at the garden gate!!

As well as thanking every single person who made cakes, delivered cakes, parked cars, served teas: a special thank you to Janine Fox who provided the star prize for our garden Treasure Hunt and the one and only (often elusive) Chris Pugh - without whose help, the garden wouldn't look the way it does and who roped us into this open garden lark in the first place!!!!

Looking back, we were incredibly lucky with the weather and the event raised a staggering £6,400.00 for our local church and for the Nora Parsons Day Centre (which provides activities for our local elderly residents).  Once again - a MASSIVE thank you to all helpers - it simply couldn't be done without you!!  

Checkout the link below!

                                                   Photos from The Gardens of Wichenford

No Wheelbarrows were actually hurt !

 

Most of Saturday was spent hedge cutting, pot tidying and moving and then doing the dreaded pond work.  Chris donned on the waders and  looked as he's heading out into unknown and dangerous territory as he waded out!   did battle with overgrown water lilies, irises and oxygenating weed - Ceratophylum demersum alias Hornwort.  

It's a bit of a villain and practically filled the entire pond!  Having discovered that we ow an amphibious wheelbarrow, we filled 5 of them. All rubbish all ended up on the compost heap and, at the end of the day, with the pond water level topped up from the well, it all looked neat, tidy, clear and actually much larger!  The fish certainly have a lot more room and can actually be seen again.

More Garden Visitors.

 It's been a busy BUSY week in the garden!  We had a visit from Cleobury Mortimer W.I. on one of the hottest evenings of the year.  It was far too hot for tea and coffee so we served Prosecco with a selection of homemade cakes.  Even though we were practically all melting, it was a successful evening and more money 

raised for the National Garden Scheme.  They certainly enjoyed a fabulous sunset and were all lined up taking photos!

Edging the Old Well in Style!

 A very long time ago, Chris (Pugh) brought us a HUGE pile of beautiful old Victorian path edgers and they've been sitting in the Creosote Yard for ages and ages and A-G-E-S.  We were waiting for both inspiration and the skills of a certain Chris Genever !  Last week both arrived!!

A circle to frame the Box hedge around the well with differing heights, slopes and levels!  In fact the ground slopes in every direction and working in a circle around a hedge means you can't work to a line or even see where you started or where you need to finish!!  It really did require the genius of Chris Genever! Not only did he lay them perfectly but he came up with the even more genius plan of cutting all the damaged tops off and using the remaining tiles for pavers.  This meant an edge that I could cut with long handled shears and use a half moon - the very thing I was worried wouldn't be possible.

The pièce de résistance  is the far side as we made the date in Roman numerals using bits of cut roof tiles and framing it in yellow floor tiles edgeways up.  It really does look amazing!  We're waiting for that to dry out so that I can use some dilute brick acid to just finish off the details.

Even with all the cutting, it was all finished and looking fantastic in a couple of days!  Of course, he did have his trusty apprentice on hand!! See Framing the Well! for more photos.  Meanwhile, a BIG thank you to both Chris's!!

Hebes for Herbaceous!

 Having had quite a dramatic revamp, this new herbaceous border is beginning to take on much more colour.  We removed some old and very woody Hebes, moved the Dragons over by a yard and transplanted all the roses underplanting with Pulmonarias.  We now have two herbaceous borders either side of the Well Path that sort of mimic each other.  When sitting in the conservatory (usually when it's too wet to be gardening!) we can now see our own garden and not just Rob's lovely orchards.

Funny how the term 'herbaceous' ie pertaining to herbs has come to mean a planned mixed border containing  mixed perennials usually reducing in height from back to front.  How did that ever happen?

It's a jungle out there!!

 With all the log splitting, lugging and stacking followed by a most welcome surprise of a huge load of wood chip, last Saturday was occupied barrowing loads to and fro and then all round the garden!!

All this meant that shrub pruning, hedge cutting, strimming and edging was all pretty desperate this week!  Needless to say, Chris hardly stopped and when he left, everything was tamed once again and looking immaculate for the next week's garden visitors. I'm not allowed to say that Chris likes to keep his balls well trimmed!  Being so ladylike, I always refer to them as spheres!  

The warm, wet and humid weather means that just everything is still growing at 90mph!  We have a sever outbreak of bindweed down in the lower border and somehow, it's managed to sneak up on us!  (Note to self - must be more alert!) 

The beech hedge around the Henclosure not only enjoyed the close attention of Chris's hedgecutter but earlier in the week, Chris Genever came to install additional fortifications! the electric fence needed elevating and tensioning.  Chris's brilliant solution was to fix lengths of batten between the posts and attach the insulators to the battens. The post finials were then attached at each joint. GENIUS!  The battens won't stay girlie pink for long as Simon kindly agreed to give them a coat of creosote tomorrow.