Wisteria and Cow Parsley

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T20:25:00.000Z

Wishing all my dear friends a very Happy Halloween!

The Noodle now eight months old.

Alas I have had no time for the blog of late. Family commitments have kept me from it, but The Noodle and I have visited a few gardens this year including Great Dixter (at last). I hope to post a few pics from our adventures just as soon as I have had the time to sit down and look at them myself!

Whilst I have not had the time to visit blogs and forums over the past few months I have not forgotten you all and think about you often,

much love,

RO xxx

Wordless Wednesday: Summer Jazz

2011-08-03T07:45:00.000+01:00

Salvia horminium Claryssa

Explosive in pink!

2011-07-04T21:47:00.002+01:00

July Fireworks - Valerian (Centranthus ruber)

Just a few quick words to wish my American friends a very

Happy 4th of July!

Hummingbird Hawk Moth (Macroglossum stellartarum) on Valerian.

I nipped out into the garden at 7am this morning before it got too hot to snap a visitor to the garden who is rather taken with the Valerian. The first time I saw a hummingbird hawk month I thought it was a real hummingbird and was a little disapointed to find that it was a moth. However, as it is such an amazing sight to behold I am always thrilled to see it.

Hummingbird Hawk Moth on Valerian.

Thank you for all your lovely comments about The Noodle. He is doing really well, growing oh so fast and keeping me very busy. I love every minute I spend with him even if he does like to keep me on my toes! Last week I took him for his first stroll around a garden. He absolutely loved it, giggled and cooed the whole time; so I have high hopes for him on the gardening front -OK OK I know he is only 4 1/2 months old but you have to start them early right?

The Noodle in his chariot on our first garden visit together :o)

More to come on our first garden visit together soon...

A New Shoot.

2011-03-22T12:11:00.000Z

It is about time I gave you an update really isn't it? Well that is what I have been told anyway. Lucy asked me for just one sentence. I'm not sure I have the energy for that much. If I was going to be awkward I would type just one word and leave it at that...

TIRED!

I suppose you could add a few very's at the front of it if you wanted to get closer to how I am feeling right now.

What I should tell you about is the arrival of my new shoot. He was late. Enjoying himself too much to come out I guess, but he did eventually arrive on the 24th February in the late afternoon (weighing 7lbs 2oz). The labour is not something I want to dwell on ever again. It did not go well. I don't remember the last 12 hours of it, my mind has completely blanked them from memory. All I know about it is what I have been told by my dear mother who was there throughout to hold my hand. The bit I do remember at the end though is when she quite literally slapped me into consciousness to tell me to wake up for 'skin to skin' with my little boy, Edwin.

He was rather blue and quite grumpy when he first arrived. I know exactly how he felt!

Then he turned a worrying shade of yellow and had a good snooze.

Unfortunately we did not have the smoothest of starts and for the first two weeks of Edwin's life we moved around the hospital between maternity, the neonatal special baby care unit and the children's ward. We have however been home for just over a week now and are finally enjoying our time together and relaxing into a routine. So I am at last finding time to take pictures of tiny fingers and toes.

Tiny fingers

Tiny toes (huge feet!)

I cannot tell you how over the moon I am with my wonderful little boy. He is keeping me very busy though so I won't be blogging for a while. Love to you all, and thank you for all your friendship and support.

RO xxx

Hello from The Noodle!

Are we nearly there yet?

2011-02-07T09:42:00.000Z

Well the answer is yes! I am just one week away from the arrival of my little boy. Life as I know it is about to change forever...

Ill health has sadly meant that I have not managed to maintain the blog very well over recent months. I hope that as I adjust to motherhood I will start to post again in due time, but I am afraid I will be very quiet for a while. I still have many visits from last year I have yet to share with you and hope to update you on Tumbledown as the season progresses. It is all rather grey and windy here at the moment and I am currently struggling to get my socks on let alone get outside with a camera! Roll on spring...

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments and well wishes. I will do my best to let you know when the little beastie arrives.

RO xxx

My little squiggler back in December -he's a lot bigger now!

An Apology and Memories of a June Visit to The Garden House.

2010-11-19T12:35:00.000Z

The Long Walk, The Garden House, Buckland Monachorum, Devon.

My dear friends, thank you so much for all your kind messages I have been quite touched by all your well wishes and support. I really must apologise for the distinct lack of posts over the last few months. Sadly unlike the flowers I love so much I have not "bloomed" this summer with pregnancy but succumbed to every ailment going. However I am very happy to say that I am now nearly seven months pregnant and very much looking forward to the arrival of my son in February. Unfortunately the morning sickness never went away and I am still a miserable vomiting wretch! My little munchkin on the other hand is growing strong and regular hospital visits keep me reassured that all is at least well with him, even if I feel rotten. I have felt so zapped of energy that I have struggled to keep up with my usual joys and so my blogging and photography have come to a standstill at the moment. I do not intend to keep it this way, although for the next few months I fear I will not have the zeal for it with my ever increasing bump causing havoc for me!

Stipa gigantea

I have rustled together some images from my visit to The Garden House in Devon way back in early June of this year when I merrily plodded around several Devon gardens blissfully unaware that my life was about to change forever!

The Long Walk

The Garden House, a Georgian mansion built in the 1830's was the replacement for a medieval vicarage used by the vicars of the nearby village of Buckland Monachorum. In the 1940's Lionel and Katherine Fortescue bought the house and founded the garden that exists today. Lionel, a master at Eton was keen plantsman and grew a wide range of plants in the garden including many Rhododendron hybrids.

The Cottage Garden

My main interest in the garden here was not with the Fortiscues early work but with that of Keith Wiley. Keith Wiley was appointed as head gardener by Lionel in 1978. With their blessing he undertook an expansion of the garden onto six acres of adjacent land. Over a period of ten years Keith sculpted the landscape and planted it with his own unusual style known as "New Naturalism." The results were truly spectacular. Wiley has a magical way of creating earthworks densely planted with trees, shrubs and perennials which looks as if they have always existed there, even if they are in fact highly unusual combinations.

The Cottage Garden

I understand that in 2003 Keith Wiley and his wife Ros who had poured their life's work into The Garden House over a 25 year period were made to leave by the The Fortescue Garden Trust who had taken over the ownership of the garden after the death of the Fortiscues in the 1980's. Whilst there is now a new and very talented head gardener at The Garden House it is undoubtedly Keith's extensions of the garden that hold all the magic. I found his work truly inspirational and whilst I am not a trained gardener myself I will be so bold as to say that I think this man is a genius. The way he has crafted the landscape into a seemingly wild floral heaven has to be seen to be believed.

The Cottage Garden

Keith and his wife Ros have managed to buy a small plot of land just a mile away from The Garden House. He has begun work there on a new garden, The Wildside. I did of course visit The Wildside and will share my visit with you in a later post. I shall not ramble on much more about The Garden House but let you see the photos for yourself. As I have previously confessed the images are biased towards the areas created by Keith such as The Long Walk, The South African Garden, The Quarry Garden The Cottage Garden and The Wild Flower Meadow as these for me are the most exciting.

The Cottage Garden

The Cottage Garden with view of St Andrews church, Buckland Monachorum.

The Cottage Garden

The Magic Circle

The Cottage Garden

The South African Garden

The Quarry Garden

The Wild Flower Meadow

The Ovals Garden.

The Ovals Garden was an interesting area for me. It stood out in stark contrast from the wilder parts of the garden. It was designed in 1992 by Keith Wiley as a way of improving links between the different terraces in the older part of the garden. I found it quite visually intriguing and the little summer house/ hut at the top called to me to go and sit in it and look out over the garden below. What I did not like about it was the planting which consisted entirely of Ophiopogon. I puzzled for some time as to why such a dull and uninspiring plant dominated the area. It was not until I got home and read my little guide book that I found the answer. This was in fact not the original planting but a recent introduction. The garden had originally been planted with shade loving plants including a 'river' of blue Corydalis. I must confess that I would have much rather seen the river of blue Corydalis!

I really must thank Anna and VP who both urged me to find out more about Keith Wiley when I asked earlier this year which gardens I should visit. Visiting his gardens was a wonderful treat and I am delighted to have discovered such an innovative and intriguing gardener.

Remains of the tower belonging to the old medieval vicarage.

The Bottom Terrace of the old garden.

This summer I have mostly been growing...

2010-08-18T11:02:00.000+01:00

Gloriosa rothschildiana

This summer I have been growing a few new things. My favourite has to be the Gloriosa rothschildiana. It is a rather unusual climbing member of the lily family, native to South Africa. Earlier in the year I was delighted to spot a tuber for sale in the local garden centre, I quickly snapped it up and took it home. I planted the tuber about three inches deep in a pot and gave it pride of place on the windowsil. We have watched with great delight as each glossy green leaf shot up with intricate curled tendils at every tip, then as clusters of buds appeared and exquisite flowers started to unfurl to form bright and exotic flowers of red and yellow.

The other new thing I have been growing this summer is...... a baby!!! Yes it was with great joy earlier this summer that I discovered that I am expecting my first child. Sadly I have been plagued with horrendous morning (noon and night) sickness and severe fatigue which has meant that I have had no energy for blogging. So many apologies to my regular followers for the lack of blog posts over the last month or so. I hope very much to be feeling better soon (fingers crossed) but I'm afraid posts may be a little sporadic for the next few months.

A new shoot!

RO xxx

The Stone House

2010-07-09T13:43:00.001+01:00

Last month I had the pleasure of visiting a rather delightful Cotswold garden with The Galloping Gardener. The Stone House is a 2 1/2 acre privately owned garden on heavy acid clay. It is located in the small and very picturesque village of Wyck Rissington, Nr. Bourton on the Water, Cheltenham.

View of main lawn with herbaceous borders.

The garden is open all year round by appointment. It was a real treat to have the garden to ourselves when we visited. We were able to explore at leisure without being disturbed by other visitors which made for an incredibly peaceful rather indulgent afternoon.

Astrantia.

The lawn area was surrounded by several herbaceous borders packed with an array of interesting plants and shrubs. It soon became clear as I began to explore the garden that a great deal of care had gone into not only the design and care of the garden but also in the choice of plants. This was the garden of an enthusiastic plantsperson.

View of main lawn with herbaceous borders.

Rudbekia occidentalis "Green Wizard"

Stone arch leading to the pool area.

Aquilegia

The garden was made up of a number of rooms, each with delightful details of stonework, paths, sculptures and urns. Alchemilla mollis frothed out all over the garden spilling from borders and stonework steps. Beautiful shrubs such as buddleja alternifolia kept the bees and butterflies busy and recognising all the delicious perennials such as Silene fimbriata kept me occupied.

Dog sculpture

Rose

Swimming pool

The pool was immensely appealing, carefully concealed behind walls and trellis work covered in roses and clematis. On that hot afternoon the cool blue waters seemed to be calling to me. What a wonderful spot to relax in!

Cobbled path leading to paddocks.

I adored this pathway leading to a gate to the paddocks. It had beautiful decorative cobblestones with detail of rabbits hopping along the path. On either side of the path box cubes provided an interesting focal point with roses, hostas and alliums planted in between them.

Detail of a rabbit from the cobbled path.

Blue and white campanulas.

Summer house.

Chickens in the paddock.

Meadow walk.

Every which way you turn in this garden there are little details and features that catch your eye. The garden was alive with wildlife too. Birds bashing snails against the stonework, dragonflies darting about, and baby frogs lounging in the sun around the pond side all made me smile when I spotted them.

Seat near paddock.

Peony with Alchemilla mollis.

Pond

Gillenia trifoliata

Eryngium

Urn with bergenia.

Peony

Shade garden next to stream.

At the back of the house was a small stream and shady gravelled walk. A sculpture of Medusa spouts water into a small pool and array of architectural plants create a very calm, shady retreat from the hot afternoons sun.

Lonicera brownii "Dropmore Scarlet".

Path leading to house with box pyramids.

Pink wisteria.

The Stone House is an exceptionally pretty garden crammed full of unusual plants and detailed features. It is without doubt worth a visit if you enjoy plants and country gardens. It is a garden that is much loved which really comes across as you make your journey around it. I for one am very pleased to have found it. It made for a very enjoyable afternoon in contrast to some of the larger very busy tourist packed Cotswold gardens.

Cytisus battandieri

The Eye of the Garden.

2010-06-23T11:17:00.001+01:00

Kiftsgate Court, Gloucestershire.

A pool is the eye of the garden in whose candid depths is mirrored its advancing grace.

-Louise Bebe Wilder

Arty Farty

2010-06-20T17:28:00.002+01:00

Beetle on Cornus flowers based on photo taken at RHS Rosemoor, June 2010.

All quiet on the blogging front from me at the moment I am afraid. I have managed to escape Tumbledown Farm for a short time and have spent the last week in sunny Devon. I have visited some pretty inspirational gardens and must confess to being completely blown away by Keith Wiley's gardens (watch this space for photos coming soon!). I have managed to go a whole week without the internet -shock, horror! It was a bit of a shock to the system at first, but I survived! It did have some funny side effects mind you, one of which led to me playing around with my photographs a little more than usual. I have put a couple of the arty farty results here!

I am alas another year older today... sob! It has been a quiet affair with me drowning my sorrows in plants. I always find a bit of HRT (Horticultural Retail Therapy) gets me through the difficult times. Although I shall not be saying no to a glass of wine later ;o)

So I am still roaming the country for a few more days, indeed I think I can hear The Cotswold's calling to me now. Lots of garden visits will follow soon, I promise!

RO xxx

Alium christophii detail.

Prances with Goats: June at Tumbledown Farm.

2010-06-11T12:08:00.000+01:00

Old garden bench near the orchard.

Time has got his running shoes on again and I'm damned if I can keep up! The month of greenery and growth has been and gone, swallowing parts of the garden with it. I failed miserably to provide an update on events at Tumbledown Farm last month. Kiddings and flower shows are largely to blame. The rain is coming down again this evening, the wind is howling and Aged P No. 1 has put the heating on so I best retire to my armchair and tell you what has been happening in darkest Lincolnshire.

Bird Cherry (Prunus padus)

Of May I must just mention one thing from the garden that I did not get to share with you: the bird cherry tree (Prunus padus). Ours is a monster. It stretches towards the sky like a flailing octopus with tendrils over 30ft long. For much of the year it is a fairly insignificant creature, but in May it awakens and is smothered in delicate white flowers which, on a warm day have a deliciously sweet almond smell. This has to be one of my favourite spring trees and makes such a refreshing change from the usual fluffy pink cherry blossom in so many gardens at this time of year.

The other thing May was full of was this...

Delphi just after she was born being cleaned up by her mum Dianna.

Back in April I introduced you to the quads. Well since then we have had several kiddings, some went pretty smoothly like little Delphi's pictured above, others did not. We have had eleven babies in total this year but sadly two died the evening before I went to the Malvern Spring Show during a very difficult kidding involving a second set of quads. Little Max and Rosemary, the kids who survived have already found new homes on a smallholding in Kent with their mother Ruby. Since Aged P No. 1's operation back in April we have been struggling to cope with the number of goats in the herd and so sadly Ruby, Jorga another of our milkers and the two kids have set off to pastures new. The coming and going of animals is all part of having a smallholding, but there are always moments of sadness when you have to say goodbye to old friends, but losing babies that have barely had a chance at life is utterly heart breaking.

Dahlia

As a working smallholding we cannot keep every kid that is born in the herd. We are however lucky enough to have animals that are of a standard that can find good homes reasonably easily. We have six babies left now. Pixie one of the original quads, and one of my favourites (sniff sniff) left us a couple of weeks ago to start a fantastic new life on a smallholding in Cornwall with a show herd. I know she has a super new home, but I do miss the little girl, she was always the first to give me kiss in the morning and loved to sit on my lap for a tickle. She is happy though and has sent me a letter and some photo's already telling me all about her new surroundings and friends. Dahlia her sister will stay at Tumbledown and be part the herd. Her brother Delovelyson will also stay at Tumbledown as a stud male, he has a few weeks grace left to play with the other babies before he will have to be moved over to live with the big boys.

Dee Dee, Delphi and Delovelyson.

The babies have all been bottle fed since they were about a week old. This has meant a tremendous amount of work making sure that they have had bottles three or four times a day every day. When they were tiny this was quite a pleasurable task, they would sit on my lap and take their bottles with little fuss. Now however is a different story. They have grown. They each have their own cheeky little personalities, and get rather impatient that I cannot feed all six of them at once. This usually results in me getting nibbled and jumped on and nutted in the shins until it is their turn to get a bottle. Delovelyson is the worst. He is a hair puller. Oooch! We have had words about his behaviour, which he has ignored.

Hold onto your ears! Babies running in the paddock.

Once they have had their milk they all become happy little beasts again and give me kisses and come for a fuss and a tickle behind the ears. Posing for the camera however is not something they like to do. They are eternal fidgets. They do not stay still for a moment. Getting a non-blurry picture of them is nigh on impossible. Well actually I freely admit it, I have given up trying to even take pictures of them now. Letting this lot near my hair is bad enough, letting them near my camera requires a large cup of camomile tea beforehand and something even stronger afterwards.

Stilton, Ruler of the Universe.

Stilton is not that impressed with the babies. He likes to keep his distance. This usually involves him sitting up one of the apple trees and looking on in disgust from a comfortable distance. He frequently gives me filthy looks as if to say "Why on earth are you playing with those things Mum?"

Asparagus pea in the veg plot.

The veg plot has been a little neglected this year. I have found it a struggle to keep on top of everything with having to cope with all the kiddings and caring for mum after her operation. Her recovery has not gone well after the knee replacement. In fact she has been told that she is not recovering as she should. She has very little use of the leg, far less it seems than she did before the operation. After several frustrating visits to the hospital we are STILL waiting to see her consultant who has been off sick for over a month now. In the meantime we have to deal with the fact that mum cannot walk, and nobody seems to be able to help her which has left us feeling very worn out and disheartened.

Broad bean in flower.

The broad beans have been full of flowers and bees and the peas have been absolute stars. I went out the other afternoon and picked my first crop of peas in a shower of rain. I returned indoors with a basket full of fresh peas and herbs for a fresh summer salad and it was utterly delicious. All the more so for the rain!

My favourite! Peas :o)

Sage in the herb bed.

The herb bed has been doing tremendously well; everything I planted last year seems to have thrived, everything that is except for the rosemary, which died. I never seem to have any luck with rosemary, in recent years it just seems to keel over at the first sign of cold weather. Is it just me? Or is rosemary far less hardy than it used to be?

Bronze Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum').

The bronze fennel is looking particularly lovely at the moment. It is one of my favourite herbs, not just for taste but in looks too. I love it in the herb garden but have enjoyed growing it in flower borders in the past. When I lived in Wiltshire I used to grow Allium christophii up through it, which was a combination I adored. One new herb I am trying this year, which I am very taken with, is Salvia 'Golden Delicious'. Those that know me well enough know that I have a 'thing' for salvia's. Salvia 'Golden Delicious' has very bright golden foliage and has traditionally been used as a bedding plant that produces vivid red flowers in the autumn. This little gem however is staying in my herb bed. I wondered with a name like 'Golden Delicious' whether it was possible that it could taste like an apple and when I nipped off a leaf and took a nibble I was amazed. This plant really does taste of apples. It is fantastic in salads. It has completely won me over... I love it!

Sweet Rocket (Hesperis matronalis) in the herb bed.

Titch inspecting the herb bed.

Other new things I am trying out this year are asparagus peas (Lotus tetragobolonus), which have the most beautiful red flowers and tree spinach (Chenopodium giganteum). The asparagus peas are a very old vegetable thought to date back to the 1590's or earlier. They produce unusual small pods that are supposed to taste like a cross between peas and asparagus. The young leaves of the tree spinach can be used in salads and the older ones treated as ordinary spinach. I was drawn to the beautiful magenta centres of the leaves, they are very striking and I am all for a bit of jazz on the veg plot!

Tree spinach (Chenopodium giganteum).

Blackcurrants.

Fruit seems to be doing well this year. There are large numbers of blackcurrants, gooseberries, strawberries, and raspberries forming. My small rhubarb plant that I put in last year is going strong and looks ready to offer up its first stems. The apple trees are bearing lots of tiny apples and the kiwi is smothered in hundreds of tiny kiwis. So fingers crossed there are going to be some very tasty fruit salads and puddings this year!

Gooseberries

I fear I am starting to ramble already. There is much to see in the garden at the moment. We are currently on Liriodendron watch as it looks like just maybe (fingers crossed) that it is going to flower for the first time. Something we have waited a VERY long time for. Yes I really am that excited about a tree flowering! I haven't got time to show you everything in the garden. I've picked out a few favourites to share with you.

Bee on Geranium phaeum 'Sambor'.

Under the shade of the old greengage tree are great swathes of hardy geranium phaeum 'Sambor' and 'Lilly Lovell'. These are two of my absolute favourite hardy geraniums and look just beautiful with the dappled afternoon sun on them. They provide some marvellous early colour and the bees love them, even if hanging onto them is a finely tuned balancing act! Other favourites with the both the bees and myself are the real garden staples, foxgloves and lavender.

Foxgloves.

Lavender 'Victory'

Paeonia lactiflora

I'm anyone's for a peony! They only last but a fleeting moment, but oh they are so beautiful...I could go on but for your benefit I will stop myself. This year I have grown rather fond of schizanthus. They have provided an exceedingly pretty faced presence in the flower border and have not failed to make me smile whenever I have passed by.

Schizanthus

Last of the garden flowers for June that I just really can't get enough of is Abutilon vitifolium 'Violacae'. It is simply divine I could look at it for hours!

Abutilon vitifolium 'Violacae'

Leo in an apple tree.

Sorrel in the hay meadow.

So that is just about it for this month. The hay meadow is starting to grow tall. Stilton and I went for a stroll in it earlier in the week. It was full of insects buzzing around and pheasants flying off in fright as they heard us coming. The cow parsley was flowering and the grass swayed in the breeze. It was a blissful afternoons escape.

Bee on cow parsley.

Grass in hay meadow.

Nature is my Medicine.

2010-06-03T14:05:00.001+01:00

2 spot ladybird (Adalia 2-punctata) on cow parsley.

Chelsea: The Show Gardens.

2010-06-01T12:04:00.009+01:00

The Laurent-Perrier Garden designed by Tom Stuart-Smith

I was lucky enough to get the chance to visit the Chelsea Flower Show last Tuesday. It was the first time I have ever been to the show and it was quite an experience! The coverage of Chelsea has been very good this year so I will not bore you with pages and pages about the gardens. I did not have one overriding favourite although there were several gardens that appealed to me. I have included a few snaps of the show gardens that sung to me the most.

Astrantia in The Laurent-Perrier Garden designed by Tom Stuart-Smith

The Laurent-Perrier Garden designed by Tom Stuart-Smith (complete with the film crew that just wouldn't bugger off!)

Tom Stuart-Smiths garden was very beautiful, well it would have been if it had not been continually full of film crews every time I fought my way to the front of the crowds to view it. It was a garden that conveyed calmness and serenity. It consisted of a small grove of Betula nigra on one side of the garden with two hedges of cloud-pruned Buxus sempervirens. Fresh spring woodland planting including grasses, euphorbias, Cenolophium denudatum, and blue Iris sibirica was used under the trees and around the pool. It was soft, sensual and delightfully unassuming, my only real problem with it was, more or a niggling worry about what the garden would be like when the spring flowers had died back? I was a little concerned that this was very much a one hit wonder, beautiful for a fleeting moment and then rather dull for the rest of the year.

The Kebony Naturally Norway Garden designed by Darren Saines.

The Kebony Naturally Norway Garden designed by Darren Saines was another very calm, peaceful garden. It was designed to reflect the natural beauty of Norway with the goal of being contemporary, durable and environmentally friendly.

Peony in the Kebony Naturally Norway Garden.

It contained a huge 40 year old stunted pine tree set in larvikitt rock at its centre. I was particularly drawn to the glass installation in the pavilion in this garden and loved the use of colour and the way it was echoed in the planting such as the Aquilegia 'Black Barlow', and Meconopsis betinicifolia.

The Kebony Naturally Norway Garden.

The L'Occitane Garden by James Towllis

Another garden to incorporate a large tree at its heart was the L'Occitane garden designed by James Towllis. The garden recreates a little bit of Provence beautifully. It has incorporated herbs and flowers found in the the products of the natural beauty company into the garden. I trotted up to the garden to find a very jolly rather excited gentlemen in a hat explaining that they had rescued the enormous olive tree at the bottom right of the photo above from a building site and that they had it shipped over here especially for the garden, they thought it must have been at least 300 years old. The gnarled old tree looked very much at home in the garden which was as pretty as a picture. I must admit I was rather fond of this garden, it made me happy, just like the jolly chap in the hat who turned out to be the owner of L'Occitane (no wonder he was jolly)! I also thought the garden provided some welcome inspiration for gardening on a slope when almost every other garden in the show was flat.

The L'Occitane Garden by James Towllis.

The Childrens Societies Garden by Mark Gregory

One of the gardens I was looking forward to seeing before I arrived at Chelsea was Mark Gregory's garden for The Childrens Society. It was designed as a garden for teenagers to spend time and unwind with friends and family. When I saw the garden it certainly looked like a very sharp, well constructed place to hang out but it did not really do much for me, but hey I am not a teenager! Although I do very much admire the concept of designing a garden around young peoples happiness.

The Foreign and Colonial Investment Trust Garden designed by Thomas Hoblyn.

The Foreign and Colonial Investment Trust Garden was designed on the theme of Voltaire's Candide by Thomas Hoblyn. It was if I am honest a rather strange affair. It had some wonderfully bold and exotic planting, which I rather liked and thought was more adventurous than many of the other gardens. However for me and many others viewing it the garden was just too gaudy. There were too many sculptures of naked women or bits of naked women and overall it came across as excessively busy -so sadly hot it was not!

The Foreign and Colonial Investment Trust Garden designed by Thomas Hoblyn.

The Daily Telegraph Garden designed by Andy Sturgeon.

Verbascum bombyciferum 'Polarsummer' in The Daily Telegraph Garden.

Andy Sturgeon's Mediterranean inspired gravel garden for The Daily Telegraph took best in show and understandably so. It was a dream to observe, full of tantalising colour combinations and textures that drew you in and made you want to walk up and down running your hands through the Stipa tenuissima.

The Daily Telegraph Garden designed by Andy Sturgeon.

Salvia nemorosa 'Caradonna'

His use of Corston Steel screens created a dramatic focal point which was cleverly tied into the garden with three large containers planted with the rust coloured Iris 'Action Front.'

The Daily Telegraph Garden designed by Andy Sturgeon.

Kazahana (A light snow flurry from a cloudless sky) designed by Kazuyuki Ishihara.

I was looking forward to the mossy one! Kazahana (A light snow flurry from a cloudless sky) designed by Kazuyuki Ishihara was however not quite what I was expecting. It was for me far too cluttered. I had hoped for more simplicity from this Japanese garden. There were some beautiful elements to it but alas for me all to many of them, there was so much going on I struggled to know where to focus in on. It was a pretty and very colourful jumble (I have followed Anne Wareham on Twitter talking about "Plant Zoo's" and when I looked at this garden I could not help but think of just that).

Kazahana (A light snow flurry from a cloudless sky) designed by Kazuyuki Ishihara.

I loved the moss, the cobbles, the Acer's but hated the Brachyscome 'Royal Blue' dotted all over the garden it really did not work for me. I was not entirely sure about the dicentra in the walls either...

Kazahana (A light snow flurry from a cloudless sky) designed by Kazuyuki Ishihara.

The Tourism Malaysia Garden designed by David Cubero and James Wong.

Finally the garden I most wanted to climb into, sit in and relax in was this cool and leafy number by David Cubero and James Wong designed for Tourism Malaysia. It looked like the perfect place to escape the sun and Chelsea crowds. A real bit of tropical magic.

ONE (from the heart).

2010-05-24T12:19:00.020+01:00

ONE whole year of Stilton Ruler of the Universe...

....and tales from Tumbledown Farm.

I cannot believe it has been a whole year since I started the blog, I do not know where the time has gone, it seems to be moving so quickly.

I was not sure whether to celebrate the passing of this event or not, but I am feeling nostalgic today so I will. I started the blog last year at a very difficult time in my life. I felt somehow that the real me was no longer there, just a person carrying out a daily routine, getting up every morning going to work, doing a monotonous job chasing people up and pestering them for their paperwork and constantly nagging them for it when it never appeared. No one ever saw me, I was just my job and nothing else and had been for years. I could have been a zombie, no one would have noticed.

I used to be such a happy bubbly person, but that girl was lost. When a colleague came back from holiday with a fridge magnet for me with "This IS my happy face..." on it like the one above I smiled and put it on my desk, but inside I cried and cried. Is this what I had really become? It was just not what I had hoped my life would be by the time I turned thirty...

So last year I took the very tough decision to leave my job, and take a break from archaeology: my dear mother had had a bad fall at work and had lost her mobility, she was struggling to cope with the smallholding and I felt I needed time out from my own life that was making me unhappy on so many different levels. A gardening friend (JaneRowena) suggested to me that I should start a blog, to keep a diary of my new life to help me through the move and so that is how Wisteria and Cow Parsley came about.

I am not from a horticultural background, nor am I trying to seek fame and glory through my blog, I am just a girl who felt a bit lost and wanted to learn to express her creativity, to find a voice, to feel passionate about life and feel the grass under her feet again.

I have learnt to pick up a camera and explore the world through a lens. It has given me the creative output I had been craving. It has helped me to explore my passion for plants, gardens and design in greater depth. But the thing that has amazed and delighted me the most is that so many people have joined me on my rambles around Tumbledown Farm, tours of gardens and wanderings through the countryside. I never imagined anyone would ever show an interest beyond my friends and family and I feel deeply honoured that you have.

The Temple, The Courts Garden, Holt, Wiltshire.

Thank you so very much to everyone who has stopped by to read the blog, to those who have left comments and sent messages of support via forums, twitter, Facebook and e-mail. Thank you to all those who have picked posts through Blotannical. You have no idea how much a cheeky comment from someone like James or Esther can lift my day, or when Deborah or Cenya mentions my photography in one of their posts that it really does mean the world to me. Or how happy I am when a garden designer e-mails me to say how much they enjoyed the photos I took of their garden at the the Malvern Show.

I have never ceased to be amazed by the generosity of the other bloggers, to have my day brightened by the arrival of beautifully designed cards from Karen or that Dan Pearson book I had been hankering after for so long from the Happy Moufftard.

All these things make keeping the blog so special, knowing that not only do I get the chance to at last feel more creative but that it is giving pleasure to others too and that I have made so many new friends along the way. So thank you all for stopping by over the past year and supporting me in my follies, it really has meant so very much to me, it really has.

RO xxx

The Japanese Garden at Iford Manor.

Lilac Perfection

2010-05-19T10:39:00.000+01:00

Tulip Lilac Perfection

The Malvern Spring Show 2010: The Floral Marquee.

2010-05-13T20:22:00.007+01:00

Tulip 'Rococo' from the Broadleigh Gardens stand.

Aside from the show gardens and watching the wonderful antics of the 3 Men Went 2 Mow, the stars of the show were of course the plants. I spent many hours wandering around the floral marquee lusting after strange and unusal beauties. There was so much to take in. Surprisingly I bought very few plants, but I did make note of several nurseries I would like to visit in the future. Here are a few of the things I saw on my stumblings around the marquee...

Iris 'Logo' from the Broadleigh Gardens stand.

Tulip 'Barbados' from the Broadleigh Gardens stand.

There was a stunning array of tulips on display, many of them on the Bloms Bulbs stand which attracted a great deal of attention. The display was quite something and took me a long time to take in.

Bloms Bulbs Stand.

Tulip 'Happy Generation' from Bloms Bulbs Stand.

There seemed to be something for everyone, whatever your tastes from delicate alpine flowers to bold and beautiful peonies. I even spotted Princess Anne taking a tour of the Marquee.

Princess Anne in the Floral Marquee.

Chrysanthemum 'Green Mist.'

There were magnificent displays of chrysanthemums, lilies, fuchsias and pelargoniums.

Chrysanthemums Misty Lemon and Feeling Green.

Lilium Oriental 'Robina.'

Lilium Oriental 'Cherbourg.'

There were several displays of hostas. Oh how I love hostas! My favouite hosta stand was Park Green Nurseries. Blackmore and Langdon's bushy blue delphiniums made me stop and smile too and I adored Pops Plants auriculas.

Park Green Nurseries stand.

Delphinium 'Faust' on Blackmore and Langdon's stand.

Delphinium 'Darling Sue' on Blackmore and Langdon's stand.

Pops Plants Auriculas.

Epimediums proved to be very popular, especially a rather striking orange variety called 'Amber Queen' which sold out in the blinking of an eye. I was quite fascinated with uvularia's which were a new discovery for me. Lilly of the valleys also seemed to be popular, particularly a variegated variety called 'Vic Pawlowski's Gold.'

Edrom Nurseries stand.

Epimedium 'Amber Queen' from Edrom Nurseries.

Uvularia grandiflora var Pallida.

Convallaria majalis 'Vic Pawlowski's Gold.'

Another of my favourite stands was Hampshire Carnivourous Plants. I could have looked at their amazing plants all day. Sadly there was not time, but I did manage to take a few snaps before being swept away in the crowds.

Sarracennia x cv. 'Juthatip Soper' Pitcher Plant from Hampshire Carnivourous Plants.

Sarracennia x courtii from Hampshire Carnivourous Plants.

Sarracennia purpurea from Hampshire Carnivourous Plants.

So that is it for me and Malvern for this year.

I hope you have enjoyed the tour.

RO xxx

The Malvern Spring Show 2010 Show Gardens Part II: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

2010-05-11T19:38:00.012+01:00

The Youth of Old Age Garden designed by Mark Draper. Gold and Best in Show.

As promised here are a few more photos of some of the Malvern Show gardens. Sadly the weather was grisley, but some of them still managed to shine through. I have already shown you my favouite garden by Mark Everleigh in a previous post. In the interests of balance I have included a range of the gardens from the show here. I must confess however to not liking all of them. I can appreciate that a lot of hard work has gone into them, but hey you cannot please everybody all of the time! There were some cracking gardens on display, some of which I sadly just could not get near enough to photograph properly. The Youth of Old Age garden above was the only other garden to win a gold medal in the show and took the overall title of Best in Show. It is a garden designed for a mature couple who enjoy outdoor life. I thought it was a very clean and beautiful design. It was easy to see why it proved so popular, not least because it has elements that can be easily applied to many peoples gardens at home, but if I am truthful it did not give the same warm fuzzy feeling that the The Wellbeing and Recovery Garden did!

Losing Control, Releasing Nature by Foundation degree landscape and garden design students at Otley College. Awarded a Silver-Gilt.

O.K. so this is where I am going to show my garden design ignorance. If the word "garden" had not been attached to this piece of work and it was displayed in an art gallery I believe I would have found it quite a clever reconstruction. However, I looked at this in the early morning drizzle (admittedly I hadn't had my coffee) and I just thought to myself "You have to be kidding? How is this a garden?" For the garden Losing Control, Relasing Nature the students of Otley College have recreated a piece of derelict industrial land located near a residential area in Suffolk. My question is, is this really a garden?

Halcyon Days designed by Andy Tudbury.

I am afraid I asked the same question when I reached the Halcyon Days garden shown above. Is it really a garden? Its a very pretty bit of habitat reconnstruction for sure. I think it must be too subtle for me as the inner me is shouting "Its just a bit of sand with a beach hut on it!" I know, I know I'm an uneducated yob where garden design is concerned, I honestly felt that these two displays were habitat reconstructions and not gardens, or are they the same thing? What do you think?

The 25th Aniversary Garden designed by James Steed, Alex Bell and Claire Potter.

The 25th Aniversary Garden was rather a large affair, it was pleasant enough, I could quite happily have sat and had my lunch in it and the swathes of Stipa tenuissima were quite splendid. I shall refrain from making any comments about Teletubbies and the second half of the garden...

The second part of the 25th Aniversary Garden designed by James Steed, Alex Bell and Claire Potter.

Planting from the Illusions of Man Garden by Frances Dunham. (Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scholarship)

There were several gardens that were part of the Chris Beardshaw Mentoing Scholarship. They were a bright and unusual mix, but sadly few appealed to me. The theme appears to have been circus' and does not seem to have translated well into many of the gardens. Whilst the overall design of the Illusions of Man garden did not grab me, its yellow, green and purple planting was very eye catching. It also had a wonderful stream of sedums and sempervivums (see the last photo in Karens post). Jenny Chandlers Roman Gifthorses garden inspired by the Roman Circus was interesting and had tried to incorporate edible and medicinal plants know to have been used duing the Roman period into the design.

Roman Gifthorses by Jenny Chandler. (Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scholarship)

Lyra's Garden by Kate Bratby. (Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scholarship)

There were two gardens that I really just could not bond with from this group. It is not until now that I have realised that they both have something in common in that they both contain rather silly floaty textiles in them. I am not sure if this is part of the reason I do not like them but for me Lyra's Garden by Kate Bratby is too loud. I really do not get on with the explosion of plants or the colour and every time I look at it I hear the music from the Bodyform advert (so sorry Kate)! The other garden is Water Pirouetting for a Colourful Audience by Maria Luisa Medina. Again I think there is just too much colour for me and the wrong ones, especially in the textiles used. It is like something that has escaped from the early 1990's. I am sure these gardens will have appealed to many of the show visitors, they just were not my cup of tea. I will be interested to see how next years mentorship scheme theme of "Atom" will be represented.

Water Pirouetting for a Colourful Audience by Maria Luisa Medina.
(Winner of the Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scholarship)

Juggling the Balance by Barry Chambers. Silver-Gilt. (Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scholarship)

For me one of the most interesting of the scholarship gardens was Barry Chambers' Juggling the Balance garden. It is a community garden with the aim of fusing the concepts associated with both traditional and modern circus. The planting was like many of the circus gardens, rather unusal, but not without appeal. Its edges started off as weeds and moved to more common herbacious perennials with I think some edibles at the centre.

Juggling the Balance by Barry Chambers. (Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scholarship)

The Morgan Garden by Craig Hamilton-Smith.

ReSource Garden by Alison Miles. Silver-Gilt.

The Woodland Edge Garden by Mark Walker.

I was rather fond of The Woodland Edge Garden by Mark Walker for the Woodland Trust and particularly liked the way he built the design up around one of the trees already on the showground.

Aquilegias and heucheras from The Woodland Edge Garden.

The Quaker Meeting Place Garden by Matthew Jackman.

Another favourite was the Quaker Meeting Place Garden by Matthew Jackman which was inspired by his experiences growing up as a Quaker, and going to meetings. It is a peaceful space designed for people to spend time thinking, learning and understanding their role in life and the people around them without prejudice. I thought it was indeed a very tranquil garden and loved the simple stonework and planting.

Planting from The Quaker Meeting Place Garden.

A few more Malvern favourites...

2010-05-10T11:17:00.004+01:00

If looks could kill...

I stopped by to watch The Three Men Went to Mow doing a spot of painting for charity at the show. They were given the task of painting a floral display, their work was to be judged by both a professional botanical artist and the audience and then it would be auctioned off to raise funds for the NGS. My favourite photo of the enitre show is not surprisingly of a plant or show garden but is the one above taken at the moment that the botanical artist (sorry I've forgotten your name already) announced that James' finger painting was his favourite. Dear smouldering Cleves face was priceless (click the pic to zoom in and see the utter look of contempt)!

"Fritillaries Blue" by Emma Hardicker

There was far more than just plants to see at the the show. I must admit I was really very pleasantly surprised by some the craftsmen and artisans exhibiting. Their work was incredibly beautiful and if I had the money... *big sigh*

My favourites were the very lovely and talented Emma Hardicker, Sarah Jones and Marie-Therese King, and Cynthia Lea.

"Beautiful Deadheads" by Sarah Jones

Ceramic Sculptures by Cynthia Lea.

I'm busy travelling today so I'm afraid you'll have to wait a little longer for my promised grisley show gardens in the rain post. I may even go and skip around a garden this afternoon if the sun keeps smiling like it is. In the meantime I suggest you take a peek at Ryans blog as his photos are fantastic, he seems to have had a much better photo day than me.

RO xxx

The Malvern Spring Show 2010 Show Gardens: The One That Caught My Eye.

2010-05-09T13:55:00.004+01:00

I managed to drag myself away from Tumbledown Farm for a few hours this week to take a peek at the Malvern Spring Show. As usual, despite the crowds of people and grisley drizzley weather I took lots of photos. I will try my best to post some of them over the next few days for those of you who could not make it to the show.

The garden I particularly liked probably appealed to me the most because it reminded me very much of home. From a distance it looked like a shabby old shed with a rickety fence. On closer inspection it was still a somewhat rickety fence and reclaimed chicken house but it was planted in such a way that you could not help but be charmed just a little by it.

A selction of cottage garden style plants were corralled in by the fence but the edges of these were blurred by wildflowers and weeds making it difficult to tell where the garden started and the wilderness finished. You could imagine fields and meadows, perhaps an orchard laying beyond it. A clematis snaked around the fence like it had always been there and the whole garden had that air about it, like it had always been there, rather than something that had just been specially constructed for the show. If it had been picked up and left in a quiet field somewhere I could almost hear the birds squabling noisily in the hawthorn and see a robin confidently flitting about in the veg patch.

The garden is called The Recovery and Wellbeing Garden. It was designed by Mark Eveleigh to promote the allotment project currently being organised by the Birmingham and Solihul Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.

One of my favourite elements was a path laid with the most beautiful hand made tiles. The 150 terracotta tiles were all made by users of the Birmingham and Solihul Trust. I really felt that they added an extra special twist to the garden lifting the feeling of it being just another quaint vegetable plot to one with a good dusting of contemporary style.

The garden was one of only two at the show to win a gold medal. It really did deserve it. Very subtle, very clever, I loved it!

Nature will bear the closest inspection.

2010-05-05T18:58:00.003+01:00

Nature will bear the closest inspection.

She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.

~Henry David Thoreau

A Spring Delight: Ridleys Cheer.

2010-05-03T23:32:00.015+01:00

View of Ridleys Cheer Garden from upper terrace.

O.K. O.K. so who hit the fast forward button? Is it me or is time just flying by at the moment? I am feeling like I am terribly behind with everything. The quads are running me ragged. They are growing so quickly and demanding bottles every five minutes. Their bounces are very nearly perfected along with their excellent hair nibbling techniques. It is my own fault I suppose for having long unkempt hair that looks rather like hay. If I don't give them their bottles quickly enough it gets nibbled. Ooooch!

So here I am realising it is May already and I have not even shown you where I visited in April....*hangs head in shame* I better get better get a move on I suppose as we have two more goats due to kid this week and if I carry on losing hair at this rate I am not sure I will be aloud out next month!

Lathyrus vernus

Back on the 11th of April I visited an exceptionally charming, rather special little garden. The name caught my eye from the start. Ridleys Cheer sounded such a jolly place, not what I would ever have expected a garden to be called, so I decided that I should go and see exactly what was so cheerful about this place! Unfortunately on the morning I went to visit I was not feeling very cheerful, neither was the weather. I had had a difficult morning and my head was in the clouds, which were in abundance along with a rather chilly April breeze.

Acer Triflorum

The garden is privately owned by Garden and Landscape designer Anthony Young and his wife and is not normally open to the public, except for NGS days and by special arrangement. By chance I had been visiting Wiltshire on one of the Gardens NGS open days. I scurried along on this blustery April Sunday morning in need of a bit of garden therapy to pick my spirits up, but when I arrived at the very empty car park and gingerly made my way out of the car to read the sign at the entrance I realised with horror that I was several hours early, as the garden was not scheduled to open until 2pm. "Oh bu**er" I thought to myself "That is just typically me, can this day get....?" but my train of thought was interrupted by Anthony who had spotted my arrival and came bounding up to greet me. He assured me that he did not mind that I had got in a muddle with the times and although he was still getting things ready for the afternoon he was more than happy for me to wander about the garden.

Despite being exceptionally busy moving tables around for afternoon teas and setting up a stand of plants for sale Anthony took the time to talk to me about his garden with great enthusiasm, pointing out what was looking particularly good at the moment and showing me plants that were dear to his heart such as an Acer he had grown from seed he had collected from the wild in Korea. He has spent over 40 years carefully tending Ridleys Cheer and it really shows. This is a garden that even in early spring oozes charm and character. Every little twist and turn has something to take in; unusual plants, interesting stone troughs and an array of unusual trees all provide welcome distractions for the visitor.

Euphorbia

Beautifully trimmed box shapes offerd a structural focal point to the area close to the house but this was wonderfully counterbalanced by the self seeded euphorbias in the patio and walls nearby which hinted at a slightly less formal spirit being present in the garden too.

Euphorbia

Akebia quinata

A well established chocolate vine smothered the side of the house and was covered in deliciously delicate purple flowers. The garden boasts fifteen different magnolia trees, many of which were just coming into flower on my visit. One of the most beautiful was the yellow Magnolia "Butterflies".

Daphne

Trillium

Epimedium x versicolor 'Sulphureum'

Pulmonaria

White Snakes Head Fritillaries (Fritillaria meleagris var. unicolour subvar. alba)

Wood anemones

Primroses

Pheasants Eye Narcissus

Magnolia

Primrose

Ridleys Cheer is an enchanting garden, it was clear from my visit that much time and love had gone into it. I must confess I would like very much to return and visit it again in the summer. It has a two acre arboretum and three acre wild flower meadow and an extensive collection of roses. It is the sort of garden that every time you visit it you will discover something new to fall in love with.

Magnolia

Dances with Goats: April at Tumbledown.

2010-04-22T19:51:00.010+01:00

Well a stroll around Tumbledown Farm is long overdue. I have finally retrieved my laptop from the strange mumbling techy guy in the darkened little shop somewhere on an industrial estate in Peterborough, but alas he could not save my hard drive. I lost everything on it. Luckily most things were saved to disk although I fear some were not. I am trying not to think about those. I am extremely happy to have it back. However since its return, I have barely had a chance to use it.

Blossom on the Greengage Tree.

Spring has arrived at Tumbledown kicking and screaming this month, and I really mean SCREAMING!

It all started last week. I had been visiting friends in the West Country at the weekend and I did not return until Tuesday. The Aged P's had gone on a jolly outing to the district Hospital for Aged P No 1's weekly ~~dip in the pool~~ hydrotherapy session when I arrived home. I slowly extracted myself from the car and stretched my legs after a rather slow and extemely vexing four-hour car journey. I decided to cheer myself up with a visit to the greenhouse. I was half way across the veg plot when I heard the all too familiar shriek of a baby goat, it was making the sound it usually makes when its loving mother steps on it with her size nines. "Hmmmmm" I thought to myself as I started sprinting back across the veg plot and into the goat house "I'm sure we're not supposed to have any of those yet!"

What I found was that Delovely, one of mums favourite milkers had rather sneakily decided to have her kids a week early whilst everyone had gone out for the day and since no one was expecting her to kid she was out in the day area with the rest of the herd. So there she was in the middle of the goat house having carefully removed all the straw off of the floor trying to clean up four babies on a freezing cold stone floor. So before I even had a chance to think about unlocking the house and relaxing from the long drive etc. etc. there I was in the middle of it trying to help the poor girl out who to be honest was somewhat in shock.

She kept counting one, two, three, four.... then looking at me as if to say, "I can't cope with that many." So she made an executive decision, she cleaned up the boys and ignored the girls. This is typical goat behaviour and I expected nothing less! She tried her best, but well, four is hard work you know, and working out where is safe enough to put your feet without stepping on one of them is even harder!

All the babies are doing just fine. They get along together very well, there are two boys and two girls. One of the boys is booked to go to a herd in Scotland already, the other we are planning to keep as a stud male here at Tumbledown. The girls we shall keep here at Tumbledown and see how they develop. If the are promising then they will remain here, if we find that they are not quite up to show standard we may look for pet homes for them later in the year.

At the moment they are growing faster than I can keep up with them. I am having to be their mummy now. Delovely decided it was all a bit much like hard work and left the bottle-feeding to me. So now I am in a constant state of tiredness and slightly nibbled around the edges.

I told my little brood yesterday that they now have blogging obligations and a photo shoot would be required. So at just a week old the quads went for their first stroll outside for your benefit yesterday. The sun was shining and the grass they tell me was rather good. Although they seem to prefer nibbling my trousers more.

Stilton of course came out to supervise us, although he didn't think much of the nibbling kiddies and kept his distance.

All was going well until Delovelyson (don't talk to me about the name!) decided to do his best Forest Gump impression and started running, running to where I don't know, but he did not want to stop, he just kept on running. I've never had any formal Rugby training but I must admit I am rather proud of the tackle I eventually caught the little ~~bu*$$%er~~ angel with.

The garden is springing to life so quickly I am not sure I can keep up with it now. It just explodes at this time of year. There is so much to see and do, and what with mum and the babies to look after now I seem to have even less time. There are a few things that have caught my eye so far though that I must share with you. Things I really love...

Aquilegia viridiflora "Chocolate Soldier"

O.K. So this is not going to be everyone's cup of tea but I am thrilled with it. This is the first flower just coming out on my Aquilegia "Chocolate Soldier". I have fancied this plant for a few years now and never managed to find it in a garden centre so had to grow it from seed. It feels like I have been waiting a year and a day for it to flower -I sowed the seed the Christmas before last and this is the first year the plants have flowered for me. I just adore the delicate, sweetly scented chocolate brown flowers and the green sepals. To me this is a really special little plant, all the more so as I have been waiting so patiently for it.

I do love my greens and browns. Spring can be so brash with its Kerrias and Forsythias bursting through and frolicing all over the place. Sometimes it is plants like this little Euphorbia cyparissias that really make me smile.

Even the new growth on this heuchera is looking good with the sun behind it at the moment.

Helleborus x ericsmithii

I must admit I am rather partial to this hellebore too. It is a beautiful pale white that turns to the most wonderful dusky pink over time. I love its dark stems, gorgeous!

Pulsatilla

...and another favourite!

Everything in the greenhouse is still merrily growing away. I love to go in there and see how everything is doing. I also have a small collection of Auriculas in there I have not yet shown you. They really jolly the place up. I am rather fond of them, and they smell surprisingly good too. Just don't ask me their names...

Of course the most beautiful thing in the greenhouse without a shadow of doubt is dear Stilton. He tries to keep up the pretence of making himself useful, but quite frankly he is fooling no one!

So I have rambled on for long enough, yes indeed I can here Destiny calling. He's a noisy little git! He must be wanting another bottle, a mother's work is never done. *Sigh*

The Trees are Waking.

2010-04-17T09:23:00.000+01:00

The Awakening.

Fruity Friday: Kinky Kiwi.

2010-04-09T10:33:00.000+01:00

Fluffy

Kinky

Twisted

Complicated

Easter at Tumbledown.

2010-04-03T23:23:00.002+01:00

My goodness I cannot believe it is Easter already! I have spent little time online over the last couple of weeks having had to look after dear mum following her knee replacement. She is home and well but progressing very slowly in terms of mobility. Last week we had the added trauma of Titch our aged Devon Rex cat having yet another stroke. He has been extremely poorly and we did not think he would make it, but to our amazement he has perked up over the last few days, although he now has the new name of Mr Wobblehead. After his last stroke his head hung at a slightly odd forty-five degree angle to his body, now it just rather disconcertingly bobbles back and forth. This week the little chap has regained his movement and appetite and is once again causing his daily ten minutes of chaos between power naps.

The photo above is of Eros. A long-term family member and Tumbledown garden dweller. Mum and dad rescued him from a skip in South East London more than thirty years ago. He has travelled around with them ever since.

We have a habit of collecting things at Tumbledown. Dad is a collector: a collector of well just about anything. His eclectic collection includes the watering cans below; just don't ask me how many of them we have...you really do not want to know!

The daffodils are all out this Easter. Jolly and yellow. I am usually not a fan of acid yellow in the garden. In fact I have murdered more than one forsythia in my time, but this week has been so cold, wet and miserable that I am clinging to their yellow show as the only sign of hope for sunnier times to come.

The fields around Tumbledown are full of daffodils. This area grows large numbers of them. The farmers have been suffering with the weather this year. The cold spell at the start of the year delayed the flowering season and meant they missed Mother's day. They seem to have been struggling to make the Easter market too. The field next door is full of people busily picking the daffs this morning, frantically trying to get a few more bunches of flowers before the end of the Easter weekend. I hope its worth their while. I must admit I love living in a flower growing area and getting to see whole fields of flowers out of my window.

Forsythia (The one that got away!)

Muscari armeniacum

Since the weather has been so horrid this week I have spent most of it like a caged animal inside the house or in the greenhouse. The seedlings are all doing well.

As a bit of fun for Easter I even created a mini succulent garden inspired by the wonderful Kathy Brown. Yes I have been indoors far too much and sadly my laptop has died (I fear I may have overloaded it with photos...sob). I even resorted to photographing some more of the Tumbledown clutter...

Of course it would not be a proper Tumbledown report without the cats. Although it was hideously windy the boys did come for a stroll down the field with me one afternoon. Well when I say a stroll I mean that Leo came on the off chance that there might have been a pheasant or two to catch, but he soon disappeared off into the long grass in search of feathered friends.

Silvi did his best to come and join in, but well he is Siamese and a bit delicate and did not really take to the spring breeze. After a few minutes of shouting he retreated to the comfort of the house and his favourite radiator bed.

Stilton being a true gardening cat was out enjoying the daffodils and keeping an eye out for the Easter Bunny.

Happy Easter from everyone at Tumbledown,

RO xxx