Daft English Sport at Easton Walled Gardens

October half term starts on Sunday which can only mean one thing.... the return of amateur sport to Easton Walled Gardens. Now, for those of you that imagine this is just for the kids, try again. Dads get very competitive over this but it's not about strength... you need skill, you need judgement and you need....er.. a pumpkin.

The terraces at Easton fall away to the river, and during the summer are a tasteful and creative melange of wildflowers, chirping crickets and droning bees...


The Venue

 but by the end of the summer all this has been mown away and general pumpkin mania is unleashed.

The rules are simple: no overarm, the pumpkin must touch the first terrace, furthest one wins. Collapsed pumpkin = instant disqualification.

There is only one caveat..if the river floods, you might have to bring a wetsuit to get your pumpkin back.

Pumpkins are supplied from local Lincolnshire growers making this an all round eco-friendly, local and slightly mad sport, come and give it a go. More information on half term activities for kids can be found by clicking here.

The Giants of the Gardens

 

In our Cedar meadow, where the giraffes are now, we have four fine specimen conifers. Despite their size I think they were only planted in the nineteenth century.

Sequoiadendron giganteum, better known as The Giant Sequoia or Wellingtonia arrived in Britain no earlier than 1847 and the Cedars possibly replaced some much larger specimens. In the 1880's the winters here were so severe that the ancient trees were killed outright. I think the plants we see today are the successors.



only visible with a magnifying glass the
tips on these needles are translucent.



It has taken me sometime to identify the Cedars correctly as they are closely related to the better known Cedar of Lebanon. Thanks to Hugh Johnson's book 'Trees' I finally got out there with a magnifying glass to spot the only sure difference: A tiny translucent tip on the end of the needles which requires very close inspection. Ours have this and therefore are definitely Atlas Cedars (C.atlantica).

We have two fine specimens of Sequoiadendron giganteum, Wellingtonia or Giant Sequoia but, up until now, no specimens of the even taller Sequoia sempervirens or Dawn Redwood. So I started at the bottom and grew this baby (below) from seed. We have two and they are now around 7' tall. Draped in ghostly fleece all last winter they should now be strong enough to go it alone. You can see them near the carpark.

Sequoia sempervirens

I'm not alone in wanting to grow these magnificent trees from seed and this site http://www.redwoodworld.co.uk/talltales.htm provides some lovely anecdotal stories from around the world.



The Giraffes arrive...oh, and a couple of gratuitous zinnia pics.

In May I bumped into these two at the Chelsea flower show. For some time I had been looking for a sculpture that would fill the space at the end of the long terrace without costing a five figure sum. Being on the plebeian side of art appreciation, cones and helixes didn't speak to me but these guys did. They arrived today and look perfectly at home looking dreamily over the park. I fear that, like the teas, they may become a bigger draw to the gardens than our carefully crafted planting schemes. Since I am mad about them already that suits me fine .

At 13' tall this fellow could do with a name, any suggestions?



Zinnia prob. 'Aztec Sunset'
(it's a long time since the spring sowing)



Zinnia profusion 'Coral Pink '



Autumn Country Market

This years' Autumn Country Market on September 11th  (11.00 -4.00 pm) looks to be our best yet. With 30 stallholders throughout two courtyards, the newly renovated coach house and for the first time, the old stable block, it promises to be a great day out.

The decks have been cleared for action and we look forward to welcoming local craftsmen and women and local food producers. Other stallholders include a retro or vintage section including pretty decorative items and cup cakes.

Coach House cleared for action!

The beautiful International harpist Eleanor Turner and her students will be playing for charity and there is face painting for little ones.



Eleanor Turner



Laetitia Maklouf, garden author and broadcaster will be joining us for our Question and Answer Gardening Session and  signing her book 'The Virgin Gardener' so if you are new to gardening she is the one to talk to.
Lucy will be talking vegetables and cut flowers and Ursula Cholmeley will be answering your other queries.

Of course, the tearoom will be open offering light lunches and teas.

We are keeping our fingers crossed for good weather but with 12 acres of gardens to explore including the Yew tunnel to shelter under and almost all the stall holders under cover in the event of the odd drop of rain, we hope you will come and see us this Sunday.

Our friends from Africa

The arrival of the flycatchers in May is always a big deal for me. They have come as far as the swallows and they have massive understated charm. They sit on twigs waiting for insects to pass, dart out, grab their prey and return to the branch. They have bright deep brown eyes and are a pale brown with attractive, delicate markings. They are touchingly unafraid of humans. They nest near buildings in the most ridiculously open spots. Here is a photo of a brood of four chicks that successfully fledged about a week ago in a nest we passed everyday. Now that we have done our job of keeping predators from their young, the whole family has gone off to another part of the wood.

The swallows continue to display in the gardens amazing us with their ability to fly in and out of the pop holes we created for them in our sheds. They bring so much activity to the gardens and any minute will be joined by crowds of house martins and swallows from the north. As they move south they use the gardens as a staging post to stock up on insects before they press on again.

Sweet Peas: what to do now

Its sweet pea time of year again and the scent is filling my house, the office, the gardens, the tearoom... Its a hard life. For those of you that are searching for some answers to your sweet pea questions, hopefully this may help: 

If you have Sweet Peas looking a bit weedy remember that they love a deep root run and are quite greedy feeders. 'Well, thanks for that' you say 'but its a bit late now, they are in my poor soil and will have to get on with it.' In which case, you can use a foliar feed when watering and you will find they reward you by picking up speed.


L. odoratus 'Mars'

 Support your plants on drums of sheep netting or against poles. Remember though that the tendrils need something thin to wrap themselves around and will need tying in initially. They cannot grip onto bamboo canes so add some pea netting over your structure.
Keep picking the flowers as they appear, not too difficult a task. Once a sweet pea has set seed, a message goes to the whole plant to say its job is done and it will stop flowering.
If you havent sown any sweet peas this year and find some small plants in pots at a garden centre, it is not too late. You will have to wait until September for the flowers but it will be worth it.

Lathyrus grandiflora mixture

Cutting and arranging: Make sure you use a pair of scissors rather than a knife which tends to pull on the plant and damage it. You cant get a duff posy of sweet peas and I think they look best on their own. For the short stemmed types use a little narrow necked container like a vintage medicine bottle. For big long stems you can use a flared vase.

If your sweet peas are looking a bit ropey this year, feed them, keep deadheading and give them time, it has been a particularly difficult start to the season, with dry weather and late frosts.If you have any questions post them here and we will do our best to answer them.

If Sweet pea growing has evaded you for this year, come and see ours. During Sweet Pea week you can pick them too.

Sweet Pea Week at Easton Walled Gardens runs daily from 3rd-10th July.

The Velvet border

Built on the rubble of the old front drive in the driest part of the garden, the Velvet Border did not have a prepossessing start. It is sited just below the gatehouse and is about 15m long. Originally I planned a red border but soon got fed up with the restriction and decided to focus on texture instead. The colourways resulting from this have been far better than I could have hoped. Deep reds and blues vie with dusky yellows and the palest furriest leaves.

This border has finally come into its own this year. The delphiniums and the oriental poppy 'Pattys Plum' have got their roots down and decided to show what they can really do. Supported by the great Onopordums at a mere 9' tall and the purple hue of Cotinus we feel this is a border worthy of a Chelsea showing. Its not much of a shot, my gardening skills are better than my photography (I hope) but you can at least get a feel for the lushness of the planting.

As the gaps appear in midsummer we have Tithonias and Coleus 'Black Dragon' on standby to continue the theme. Hope you have time to come and see it x