Garden work this week

The Jubilee weekend is nearly here and we are working to make sure the gardens are as good as possible for our visitors. The bunting is going up, cakes have been made in batches of 10s, the stallholders have all been allocated space and our new teatowel to commemorate the event should arrive today.

In the gardens the lush green grass has got the better of our medium sized mower which has given up unexpectedly so we have hired one for the week, we are planting out vegetables, annuals and herbaceous plants as fast as time allows. We are also looking ahead to make sure the colour continues well in the summer after the June rush.  The wisteria and irises are in full bloom and birds and bees are busy around their nests.  Steve is in the shade in the woodland walk doing battle with the weeds but at least he has the consolation of seeing how fine our Solomon’s Seal looks this year.

One combination that particularly struck me today was the hawthorn with alliums growing right up against it.



We look forward to seeing all our visitors old and new on Sunday and Monday. A full list of activities is available on the website.

Arriving Swallows

This awesome picture of a swallow returning to feed its young was taken by my husband Fred, two summers ago. In the top right hand corner of the picture you can see a U-shaped cut in the door. This is how we let the swallows in and out of the sheds throughout the gardens to breed.

When we first started work to the gardens there was only one nesting pair left. Now there are 4 pairs. We have also become an important staging post for swallows moving south. In September the sky explodes with swallows and house martins feeding in the tops of the big trees in the gardens and park or diving low over the meadows and the little river.
Yesterday, for the first time, we saw this phenomenon  in the Spring. Clouds of swallows fed over the gardens all day. Very exciting for us and a lifeline for migrating birds.