Above & Beneath the Soil!

Having finished mowing, today was the day for lifting our very first new potatoes or, to see if there were any there at all!.  These Arran Pilots were planted nearly a month late due to a freezing cold and wet spring.  The first root yielded just enough for us both to enjoy for dinner and \I promise: they were truly delicious! 

On the way back to the house, I just HAD to stop and admire these lilies (Lilium regale) which are just at their very best exuding their magnificent perfume! They were first introduced from China in 1903 and grown by both my father and grandfather.  I think we have the great plant collector: Ernest Wilson to thank for these.

Just June!

 

I've been SO busy with preparations for Open Gardens, blog posts have been few!  The garden just carries on doing its seasonal thing.  This year the roses are a real show despite lack of rain and the odd vicious storm.  

Chris's Pauls Himalayan Musk is a show stopper and nearly every visitor commented!

Pelargoniums have been planted in the dahlia border as I feel it's just to dry for dahlias.  Instead, dahlias have been planted in a row in the vegetable bed.  It will be very interesting to see how they do compared with previous years.

This week Chirs took out our little willow.  It was shading out a Berberis and we'd almost lost sight of our old Victorian tree guard.  The path to the swing seat now looks immaculate with shrubs in better proportion. 

Meanwhile, Noah the Mower is still enjoying his sabbatical as we're bothing finding time to enjoy proper stripes!  Maybe he'll be re-emplyed when we've mowed our meadow grass?

THE GARDENS OF WICHENFORD 2023 - SUCCESS!

 We're so thrilled to have participated in such a successful event!!  A HUGE thank you to every one who helped to make this even possible.  If it wasn't for neighbours and friends lending tables and chairs, making cakes, washing up, looking after parking, it just wouldn't be possible.  Maybe we should ALL give ourselves a MASSIVE pat on the back!!

RECORD BREAKER!

We were SO lucky with the weather and enjoyed 240 visitors raising a whopping £1897.00 - as a late cheque was received!  A record breaker for Pear Tree Cottage Garden!

A HUGE thank you to Gabby, Paul and Lindy who were all absolutely ran off their feet!!  We hope you've all recovered from you labours.  Thank you also to Brian & Pat Finsh for the loan of the tables and chairs!  We couldn't do it without you!

Lastly, thank you to the 10 clarinettists of Barrels & Bells who came and played so delightfully for us all serenading our visitors.

Harmonies in the Hostas!

 We're really hoping the weather cooperates for OPEN GARDENS next Sunday!  Not only for the garden, visitors and plant sales but also because we have Mervyn Jackson & his fellow clarinettists coming to play for us.

SIGN OF THE TIMES!

Another mini completed project was updating our old garden sign post.. A complete 2 man labour of love as we inscribe the letters by using a router bit in a pillar drill.  One man operating the drill and me pushing the oak around to follow letters - WHICH with ancient and such hard oak is far from easy! Curved letters across the grain are the very worst to do!  Some letters are a tad wobbly but at least it's legible.  Unlike the letters, the distances are highly accurate as they have been carefully measured via Google earth and where appropriate, actually from building to building.

PRETTYING UP CONCRETE SLABS!

 

Last day of April already.. despite the freezing weather and constant rain, much has been hapening in the garden despite only havning been able to plant 2 rows of potatoes! Vegetable seed sowing been stalled by the appalling spring weather!  It's been either too wet ot too cold or both!  

Not to be outdone by the weather, other garden projects have been completed!!  The most needed was soil retention around the summerhouse.  Keeping costs down, were were lucky to have Chris Genever on hand who came up with some unwanted slabs so we didn't have to buy many.  The really genius idea was attaching the leftover tops cut from Victorian pather edgers when we were paving around the well last year.  Chris came up with a seriously cunning plan and having cut off the corneres, he then angles each edging top to fir and alighn all around the summer hous!  After all - concrete slabs aren't much to look st and these look quite pretty for a sort of 'out of the way' spot in the garden. One thing's for certain, it beats having soil against the wooden sides of the summerhouse and makes access for painting and maintenance so much easier!

We liked our look so much, we even wondered if there shouldn't be a market for slabs with a pattered edge.  After all, soil retention is such a common use for them!