4 June 2014 - It's a RECORD!

By Ian Morris

It's a new record!

£4,220

Being the amount of profit generated by the recent Open Gardens Weekend on Saturday 31 May and Sunday 1 June. (The previous record was £3,808 in 2013).

Over the 17 years of this event, the OG has raised nearly £42,000, for the benefit of our 13^th Century church, the Village Hall, the village and a variety of good causes.

A very BIG thank you to everyone who contributed in whatever way to ensure the event was such a success, especially those from outside the village who willingly gave up their weekend to help.

We received nearly 200 feedback sheets from the two days, out of 543 paying visitors (an increase of 11% on 2013); which is a very high proportion (36%) when one considers that many of the individual sheets were from couples. A quick scan of the sheets reveals overwhelmingly positive delight, enjoyment and praise for such a great weekend – here are some of the quotes:

“Very good event, the weather helped. Quintessential English village. Nice tea, good service. Pretty church – thank you to the organist and to the bell ringers. Thank you to the gardeners!”

“Super tea!! And sunshine too!! A very, very pleasant experience. Beautiful gardens – lovely people too – will come again tomorrow and next year!!”

“Fantastic, lovely village – how good old England should be. Please keep it this way – a welcome oasis compared to where I live.”

“Wonderful afternoon – excellent silver band. Lovely to spend time in a traditional English village – the villagers were very welcoming.”

“Very nice and yet a strange experience – we do not have this type of event where we live in Denmark. The afternoon tea and cake were very nice.”

“I enjoyed it very much indeed. Well- organised with facilities and entertainment and refreshments. A warm welcome received from the gardeners. Well-maintained gardens and the opportunity to purchase plants.”

“The highlight, as every year, is indulging in a cream tea!”

When I have had time to collate the data and analyse, I will share with everyone .

I will also put together a report reviewing the event and identifying opportunities for next year.

If YOU have any views, feedback or suggestions, PLEASE let us know. Similarly, if you have any photographs, please send them to us at OpenGardens@outlook.com

Meanwhile, thank you once again on behalf of all of the OG team!

29 May 2014 - 9 Brookside & Little Thatch - Pics and a tip ...

By Jane Scott

Jane’s pics from today:

Thanks to Mike Daly and Claire Grice for tidying up all of the verges around the village and for the matting and straw to help protect the entrance to the field, which will act as a car park for our Open Gardens Weekend on Saturday & Sunday.

Jane's gardening tip - "I put rings of Vaseline on stems of Lupins and Red Hot Pokers to keep the slugs from eating the flowers, it worked!"

28 May 2014 - The Old Post Cottage - Rain, rain go away ...

By Jennifer Metcalfe

What can one do in all this rain? Not much, so plenty of time to plan for a sunny day where I can sit and relax. This is just what I have done over the past two weeks.

Fields surround my garden so it is quite exposed and can be very windy. However, I eventually identified the ideal spot to create a small sun terrace, the only problem was that there was a flowerbed in the way - but that wasn’t going to stop me.

Hunting for ideas on eBay I found a circle of mixed colour stones and with a click of the mouse button, they arrived. Well, it was very nearly that simple.

The delivery truck drove up Brookside, which is very narrow, and the driver informed me that he was only allowed to unload at the kerb of the house – no further. Taking that rule literally it would have meant dumping a very heavy pallet in the middle of the road! After a lot of persuasion he did eventually agree to leave it in a small layby opposite my house.

The next day, instead of going to the gym I practised my tricep curls by carrying all of the stones to the top of the garden. I then left the rest of the project to Greg who spent two days laying the patio. I must say, the finished sun terrace is a work of art. So now I am really waiting for the rain to stop and for the sunshine to break through the clouds, in order to christen the patio with a glass of bubbly or two.

The weather promises to be good for our Open Gardens Weekend on this coming Saturday and Sunday.

26 May 2014 - 9 Brookside & Little Thatch - A busy time ...

By Jane Scott

The rain has made everything grow like mad and the organic compost mulch seems to be doing its magic and keeping the weeds back, although never completely!

Last week I was hosing every evening as things were beginning to wilt and the vegetables were suffering but now everything has perked up with all this rain, apart from the carrots which are really bad. They will be seriously expensive carrots having made a special frame for them which now looks rather ridiculous. We have just had our first picking of strawberries which have come on well after fleecing them up earlier to bring them on. We have also picked some artichokes that seem to thrive with a thick mulch of compost, however it is a constant battle with snails who love the young succulent stems.

Last year I asked the artist blacksmith, Nick Packham, to make some little metal plates to put the metal legs of the old garden seat in, which is on the lawn. These will be essential after all this rain, as last year I watched with dismay as two people sat on the seat and it slowly sank into the ground and they were left embarrassingly  with their legs in the air! He has been doing some artistic work on my copper and iron former bird bath, he will bring it back for the weekend and I am looking forward to seeing what he has done when he is here demonstrating in my garden. I am going to ask him to make an interesting grab handle for the studio as it has a couple of steps up to it. Visitors may be able to see him making it this weekend.

The rain has driven me into the greenhouse and we replaced broken glass and had a well overdue tidy up. The tomatoes and cucumbers are coming on and the earlier yellowing cucumbers have recovered with a change of soil as I think it was probably too rich and, maybe acidic, as I had made it myself. This year I have planted directly into the greenhouse bed rather than using grow bags. I have potted on seedlings of Cosmos and Verbena but other annual seeds did not germinate at all.

All of the tubs have been planted, some of the plants have survived from last year and so there are some particularly big plants along with the new ones. The Tamarisk looked a fantastic blaze of pink last week but will be over for Open Gardens which is a shame. However, I took a photo of the owl sculpture with this lovely pink backdrop. The owl too has a pinkish glow because there was a lovely sunset the evening I took it. Just as I was focusing the shot, a Sparrow Hawk did a fly-by just above my head, I wonder if it was checking out the owl? In fact the sculptor told me this sometimes happens with real owls.

Today, we have had a couple of steps repaired as they had suffered with frost and water damage last winter. That’s the thing about Open Gardens coming up, it focuses the mind on all those little jobs you never get around to doing and you look at the garden with fresh eyes as if you were a visitor.

30 April 2014 - Glebe Farm - Re-designing ...

By Dave Hilliard

Apart from the standard maintenance of grass cutting and digging of borders, I have been potting on seedlings in the greenhouse (sunflowers and cosmos). I started to sow broad beans and runner beans in pots, while planting on leeks, onion sets and sweet corn.

 

My main project for this year has been to re-design two perennial boarders using plants from the garden however, I have added some plants purchased from two NGS - National Garden Scheme – gardens:

 

Jan Saunt at Plovers Hill, Buckenham Road, Strumpshaw, Norfolk NR13 4NL and

Sally Ward & Richard Hobbs at 16 Witton Lane, Little Plumstead, Norfolk NR13 5DL

 

Saliva - Sclarea Var Turkestanica

Scopolia – Carniolica

Brampton Stock - Matthiola Incana

Penstemon - Marjory Fish

Linaria - Dartmoor Sunset

Iris - Sommer Revels

Iris - Xiphioides (Latifolia)

I will be starting a new seating area over the early May Bank Holiday weekend.

26 April 2014 - 9 Brookside & Little Thatch - Lots to do ...

By Jane Scott

This week we have been digging through the flower beds and trying to get rid of the Celandines which are trying to take over. All the beds are being mulched with lovely rich black horse manure compost which helps to suppress the weeds and feeds everything else, although care has to be taken with young seedlings and tender new shoots. We have sixty or more bags to spread over the garden which we do every year.

The vegetable raised beds are all dug over with manure mixed in. Potatoes are planted in barrels and as the green leaves come through they are covered with compost and protected with covers overnight. The carrot bed has been planted and a frame made with fleece all around it to protect from cold, cats and carrot fly - the three Cs!

Runner beans have been planted in the ground and also more seeds in pots in the greenhouse. Also, tomato and cucumber plants are coming along in the greenhouse which only has a little Parasene heater going at night. However, the lower leaves of the cucumber plants are turning yellow and two of the plants have died with some stem rot or disease. More have been planted and maybe the same fate awaits them.

The tulips are looking terrific with more blooms than I have ever seen. Amazing considering they were planted in the ground seven years ago and have had to contend with two of the coldest and wettest years since records began. It really shows there is no need to lift them. They initially came from Waddesdon Manor where they were dug up after flowering to clear the borders and donations given to charity. I put them straight back in the ground and they have been a joy ever since. I wonder if this happens at Waddesdon every year as they were a real bargain. 

The owl tree sculpture has been treated with Danish Oil, just before the rain came, and it is now gleaming in the evening sun.

Hazelborough and Bucknell Woods at Silverstone are a carpet of bluebells. So, a walk in the woods is an absolute must.

22 April 2014 - The Old Post Cottage - Many hands ...

By Jennifer Metcalfe

All hands on deck today.

Most of the morning was spent assembling the beds and we laid out what looked like six very large coffins on the lawn and then man-handled them into position.  We then dug out the paths around the beds and threw the extra soil into the boxes. The beds were then made secure by the stakes. We then spent the next 4 hours – yes, you might have guessed - shovelling sh*t (the horse muck and more compost) and not forgetting the topsoil.  Time for a well-deserved long soak in the bathtub!

(The photo is of me on a much better day)

18 April 2014 - The Old Post Cottage - Builder's yard ...

By Jennifer Metcalfe

The outside of my house is beginning to look like a builder’s yard. There is a stack of timber, a large bag of golden gravel and a large bag of topsoil plus lots of small bags of manure.  I have spent the last few days filling sacks with horse manure.

My back hurts, my boots stink, my car needs a wash but I’m sure it will all be worth it in the end. Tomorrow I am hoping a friend or two will arrive with lots of muscle power to get the ‘show’ in the garden.

13 April 2014 - The Old Post Cottage - Planning ...

By Jennifer Metcalfe

The golden rule when creating raised beds – make sure you can easily reach all your plants from the paths next to the beds.  Decision made - beds all around 3m wide and paths a min of 500cm so easy to walk up and down. Plan drawn out carefully and then wood 5cm x 30cm high ordered to length from the local timber yard, not forgetting the wooden stakes to support the corners and the extra-long screws.

12 April 2014 - The Old Post Cottage - Where to start ...

By Jennifer Metcalfe

Where do I start?

At Christmas my brother gave me the book, “Organic Gardening - the natural no-dig way” by Charles Dowding. What a thought - lots of lovely vegetables with no digging.

I have always grown vegetables but here at Lillingstone Lovell it is really hard work due to the clay soil – not to mention a body which is not getting younger! So first I am planning my raised vegetable garden and making it a no dig zone. Today I have spent several hours in the garden with a tape measure and sticks trying to plan it out. This was followed by more hours on the internet looking at tips on, ‘How to make raised vegetable beds’ and admiring everyone else’s work.  The problem is the more your read the more ideas you get and then you don’t know what to do. 

Tomorrow I will decide.

10 April 2014 - The Old Post Cottage - Reclaiming the garden ...

By Jennifer Metcalfe

Today we said goodbye to childhood as the local farmer with his forklift removed the Tree house at the top of the garden. What was once a pretty cottage garden with secret rooms, an abundance of flowers and fruit bushes, with seedlings and tomatoes packed into a greenhouse, had become a playground, initially for my young son and in later years for the new arrival, “Rufus” the dog. Now that they are both teenagers it is time for a change.

Yes it is time for me to reclaim my garden!

Setting up our BLOG

In the past, many visitors have shown great interest in the year-round work put into all of the gardens, effecting the changes that one sees from one year to the next. So in this 17th year of our Open Gardens Weekend we asked some of the gardeners to share their "happenings" in the final run up to the weekend on Saturday 31 May and Sunday 1 June.

The word BLOG is formed from BL and OG; the OG coming from Open Gardens, but what about the BL? Someone suggested, "Blooming Lovelly Open Gardens" (as in Lillingstone Lovell). What do you think - any suggestions?

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