You can now keep up to date with the ramblings of a country gardener on my Facebook page. You'll need to search 'The Country Gardener' (or follow the link bottom right) and 'become a fan'! I'll be posting all the latest photos and news from the garden here, as well as letting you know what tasks you should be doing in the garden. There will be new product updates and special promotions only available to my Facebook fans. Look forward to seeing you there!
March 07, 2010
March 7th. Signs that spring is here.
Signs that spring is here: You WANT to get up in the morning. You open the curtains to see that the sun is shining AGAIN. The dogs find a sunny place to lie OUTSIDE instead of inside on the heated kitchen floor. You take your coat off whilst gardening. The crows are nesting in the Scotts Pines (but pinching the tops off the fruit trees to do so!). The pond is noisy with the sound of geese, ducks and moorhens jostling for position. Some crocuses came up through a cluster of fallen leaves that somehow escaped the autumn tidy up. You end the day with a bad back and dirty fingernails but finally some colour in your cheeks!
December 08, 2009
Dec 8th. Willow weaving workshop.
The amazingly talented artist Julieann Worrall Hood is going to be spending two days in the garden here at North End Place next year on Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th April. She will be taking a small group of not more than 10 people on each day and guiding them through the process of wire & willow weaving. You can make a heart or a hen during the day to take home and learn a technique which you can use to make any shape you like in the future. Julieann will bring examples of her work along to inspire you.
The course will run from 10am till 3pm and includes all equipment, materials, lunch and a chance to have a look around the garden before it opens to the public on Sunday 25th April.
The price is £120 per person but if you book before the end of December and pay by cheque (payable to The Country Gardner) you can secure your place for just £100. Hurry though as places are limited. A place cannot be reserved without payment.
September 09, 2009
9th Sept. Bulb planter offer.
Whenever a magazine features an item from our website I buy in extra stock to make sure we have enough to cover the increased demand. Sometimes the expected demand doesn't materialise and we're left with too much stock. This is the case at the moment with our hand held bulb planters. I thought sales would rocket after a feature in Gardens Illustrated last year, but I was a little too optimistic and now have lots of these lovely bulb planters waiting to go to good homes.
Now that bulb planting season is upon us I thought I'd offer my blog readers a third off their usual price of £15. By entering code BULBPL5 you'll get a lovely fiver off your bulb planter. Offer will end on Dec 1st.
NB They come in nice boxes making them easy to wrap up for presents!
September 01, 2009
Sept 1st. Last open garden success.
Sunday was the last of our open gardens here for this year. I hope to open again next spring for those who missed it this time round.
I had a fantastic group of helpers who kindly offered their time to help out on the day. In the picture is Lucy (8) who made a lovely chocolate cake and helped out for two of our open days.
Again we had over 200 visitors in one afternoon and raised over £1000 for charity! I'll post details of next years openings as soon as I know them.
August 14, 2009
August 03, 2009
August 3rd. Jeanine Mason superstar!
The reason we holiday in Miami so often is not just because it's the coolest place on Earth, or the amazing weather, but we have some great family friends over there, The Masons. They are little B's godparents and one of the nicest families you could ever meet. Whenever we have spent time with the Masons over the past 12 years their daughter Jeanine has always been coming or going to dance lessons or staying up late into the night to study. We always knew she was going to make it big one day, and now at just 18 she has become the name everyone is talking about in America.
Over the past few months I have been spending a lot of time on You Tube following Jeanines progress on US TV show 'So You Think You Can Dance'. It's like X Factor but aims to find Americas best dancer. Unfortunately we can't get FOX TV over here but the whole show is available within hours courtesy of You Tube. This week is the final where Jeanine is the favourite to win the show against another three contestants. I have just discovered 'Skype' which enables me to vote from the UK. So this week I won't be getting much sleep!
Please have a look on Youtube at the many hundreds of videos of Jeanine dancing, she is so amazing. Search 'SYTYCD Jeanine'. And if you are able to vote please do so, every single vote counts.
followup: She won!
June 30, 2009
30th June. New discovery.
Whilst searching for a supplier of a tree I saw in Lord Heseltines garden recently (Pterocarya insignis) I stumbled across an amazing little nursery called Pan - Global plants. Nick Macer the owner spends the winter months traveling to remote far away places to bring back new and exciting plants. I can't wait to get to his nursery and garden to have a look (and bring back some plants of course). You must check out this website too where Nick has posted some stunning photos from his last trip to Mexico.
Unfortunately Nick didn't have any of these trees for sale (he has three of his own!) so if anyone knows where I can get one please let me know.
June 16, 2009
16th June. Garden open again.
On Sunday we opened the garden here for the third time this year. While numbers were slightly down on our spring opening it was still busy enough! The weather was quite hot so I think lots of people would have been in their pool or BBQing instead. Our visitors made themselves at home though having a nap in the sleeping garden and taking a swim! Everyone I spoke to commented on the view from the garden to Felsted. By pure coincidence this field was ablaze with poppies. It belongs to a local farmer who has a reputation for not being able to grow anything successfully - maybe he should try wildflowers.
June 15, 2009
15th June. Lord Heseltines garden visit.
Another busy weekend out of the way. On Saturday I trekked (not literally) across the country to visit Lord Heseltines garden on the Oxfordshire / Northamptonshire border. It took a lot longer than anticipated to get there after the Sat. Nav. decided it wasn't going to help and the absence of any kind of road map in the car! We had to rely on the old fashioned method of reading road signs, sitting in traffic jams and screaming at each other! After a lovely lunch we had calmed down and enjoyed a nice stroll around the gardens.
While not entirely my thing (landscape garden mostly), there were lots of features in the garden I liked.
Firstly my Fontaine Aixoise - found in only the grandest of gardens! looked stunning amongst a bed of rolling clipped box. Unfortunately box blight had got to much of the box in the garden, this planting is the least affected.
The house itself was stunning, with it's symmetrical proportions and huge windows overlooking the surrounding landscape.
In the woodland areas three were many fine specimen trees including Cornus covered in milky white bracts, Davidia involucrata (pocket hankerchief tree) and the amazing Pterocarya Insignis which I cannot find (to buy) anywhere!
The walled vegetable garden has to be the grandest I've seen with many wierd and wonderful features like the huge aviary, the auricula theatre, strange gazebo like structures all over as well as lawns and box hedging. There was a lovely Georgian 'gardeners cottage' on the edge of the garden for which I'd be very happy to take on the role of head gardener!
For more photos of the garden at Thenford click here.
