I’ve just got back from two weeks holiday with a little garden visiting thrown in – I know, I know it sounds like a busman’s holiday and in a way it is. But, and it is a big but, getting out and seeing what other people do in their gardens is both interesting and informative.… Continue Reading
September 2018 – Apples
September is the start of autumn – if you are guided by the meteorological calendar as opposed to the astronomical one. So we are now in full harvest mode both in the Kitchen Garden and with the apples. Courgettes are turning into marrows the minute I turn my back and the beans, greens and beetroot… Continue Reading
August 2018 – Plants for hot weather
What a year this has been so far. Winter seemed as if it was never going to end and it rained so much I thought we would be living in a sea of mud forever. Fast forward to the end of July and as I write the ground is parched and we are desperate for… Continue Reading
July 2018 – Right plant, right place
Pretty much all the annuals and dahlias are planted and it’s all hands to the pump to keep on top of the weeding and the deadheading so the displays keep flowering. It is calming down now as everything settles down from spring growth madness into a steady summer beauty. I love walking round the garden… Continue Reading
June 2018 – A riot of colour for your borders
We are absolutely in the thick of it here at Helmsley Walled Garden. It’s that stage of the year (I feel sure you’re familiar with it) when everything grows like mad, including the weeds and there are still lots of plants to go in the ground; annuals, dahlias and so on. The ground is like… Continue Reading
May 2018 – Laburnums
Well the sun has finally come out after a very long holiday and we are all pleased to see it here at the Garden. Everything has been so behind but is now thankfully starting to catch up. It always does in the end. One of the highlights of May for me is the flowering of… Continue Reading
April 2018 – Working in the Physic Garden
Well hasn’t the weather been putting a crimp in our gardening year? Here the ground has either been under snow, frozen solid or waterlogged and it has at times been impossible to do any work in the Garden. Still, there has been plenty to do with chitting potatoes, seed sowing and pricking out and potting… Continue Reading
March 2018 – Pruning dogwoods
Well things are really hotting up here, everywhere I look someone is cutting back old herbaceous growth, someone is jet washing benches. The sound of clipping comes from the Garden as all the hedges are trimmed back. I can hear the tapping of a hammer as someone else makes some lovely new planters for the… Continue Reading
February 2018 – Pruning Your Apple Trees
Well hopefully we’ve seen the last of the snow here although it has been useful to have some cold weather. Some plants, including apple trees, need a spell of cold weather to go into dormancy and later to kick-start their flowering process, this is called vernalization. Plants with vernalization requirements need a certain number of… Continue Reading
