Chirk Castle - Wales Road Trip summer 2015

Winter seems to have definitely arrived and whereas last year I could still potter around in the garden because we had a greenhouse and, well, earth, this year there is very little to do outside. So, I thought I would intersperse my normal posts with visits to gardens that we have done or will do in the coming months. Last summer we went on a road trip around Wales. As we are members of the National Trust, we decided to make the most of our membership and chose to visit a number of places in North Wales. 

This post is about Chirk Castle. The grounds are very pretty and we enjoyed discovering its different corners, but what I enjoyed the most is the 1930's (inspired?) kitchen garden. It was so charming, and it got me itching to get back and start growing new veg. I might try and put something that reminds me of this place when it gets warmer.

I am obsessed with these seed pods! If you know what they are, please let me know!

The kitchen garden

Plans for container gardening in 2016

I have kept well inside this weekend!

One of the things I enjoy doing the most during the dark evenings and wet weekends of winter is planning what I am going to plant and grow in the year to come. I collect and store the catalogues and magazines I receive until there is literally nothing to do out back and I pour over them, circling and adding them to a notebook with a title of the vendor as header of a new page. Then the process of adding to the Wish List begins.

I have also been looking for planters and ladder-like constructions to get some height in the backyard. I have found a website of a small company called Ladderallotments that do them at a decent price and they also look sturdy: I am strongly considering getting one or two for Christmas. This first one you can see below is an Urban Planter, which would be great for herbs and salad leaves. The other structure I have my eye on is the Urban 3 tier, which will give the courtyard height to add interest to the garden at a different level, rather than having all my pots all at ground level. I will be sure to update as and when I order them.



I am also in the market for a cold frame/mini greenhouse. I am struggling to find one that will be sturdy, classy and not exorbitantly expensive. I have had a look on a major DIY website, but what they have does not convince me. My over-the-fence neighbour has a similar sized plot and has 2 mini-greenhouses that look amazing. I might pop a note through the letterbox and ask where they are from! That's not too creepy, is it? Also, can we just take a moment to remember the amazing one we saw on the Levernshulme Open Garden Day? So inspiring. They made it themselves, I asked.

In terms of produce, I have been pouring over catalogues and books. The two books I have invested in are Patio Produce by Paul Peacock and Vegetable, Fruit and Herb Growing in Small Spaces by John Harrison. I have also been perusing the website Pomona Fruits and my trusted Suttons Seeds.

So far, this is my rather extensive list of what I would love to grow this year:

Specifically for growing in containers:

• Patio raspberry Ruby Beauty. 
• Blackberry bush Reuben.
• Blueberry bush Sunshine Blue.
• Pepper Mohawk. Apparently, it grows well in pots, so it is one to look out for. Redskin is also a dwarf variety and might be worth a shot. 
• Cucumber Baby. Another patio variety, ideal to grow in pots. 
• Courgette Patio Star. I am not a fan of courgettes really, but my mother-in-law loves them! 
• Gourmet Potato Patio Growing Kit. I grew potatoes in sacks last summer and they delivered. One variety suffered from under-watering, I think, so it was my fault. I am going to try a different variety as soon as the small option is available. 

Not specific for growing in containers but I would like to grow them nonetheless:

• Rainbow Mix Carrots. It is not indicate it's suitable for growing in pots, I successfully grew some in deep pots last summer, so I might try my hand at these as well.  
• Mangeout Multicoloured. Following the line of colourful carrots, I love the look of these purple mangeout! I grew some green snap peas last summer and they were really tasty, so I think I will also grow these to sling into the stir fry. 
• Chard Bright Lights. Can you see a pattern developing here? I have never grown chard, but I am fairly certain I have eaten before, potentially in a salad...? I think I could grow them in the Ladderallotment :)

For scent as much as for culinary purposes:

• Dill. 
• Lemon Grass. 
• Basil Summer Surprise. Can you tell I like purple...?

Planting bulb: tulips, narcissus and crocus in pots - 15.11.2015

A productive few hours outside today. I really must invest in some sort of waterproof something as there's not much glamour in sitting on a spread out bin bag or folded cardboard box in the middle of the yard while I try not to get too wet and the neighbour's cat is constantly trying to sit on my lap. She doesn't seem to understand one tends to use both hands when potting up plants.

I received my tulips, daffodils and crocus this week, so that is what I have planted. When growing bulbs in pots it's worth researching the time of year each type appears as that will in turn help you when doing the "lasagna". Essentially, crocus come up the earliest, followed by daffodils, then tulips. So, you pop in the bulbs that will appear the latest first. i.e. layer of grit, then some compost, then tulip bulbs, some more compost, then daffodil bulbs, more compost, crocus, more compost. At the top, people normally plant annuals in flower such as pansies or violas. I fell short this time around as I thought I might find some in the Artisan Market yesterday, but unfortunately there were no annuals that I could see.

I only put some narcissus and crocus in this shallow pot. Trying to keep to the white and blue theme of the violas, I put some Minnou narcissus and some Blue Pearl crocus. I packed in the violas, and hopefully they will now grow better as they were starting to look rather water logged in their tray.

This pot is much deeper, so I could stack more bulbs. Here I put some purple Recreado and pink Bruinel Wimper tulips, some W.P. Milner narcissus and some Cream Beauty crocus. Again, in trying to keep with the purple and yellow theme. Mainly, I wanted to remember what individual bulbs I was using, so I made a note of the colour of each variety and tried to keep some sort of order that way. Not a massive display of violas but, as I said above, I am hoping from now on they will put on a better display! I can always buy a tray elsewhere in the next week or two. 

This pot is a bit more... improvised. As I had run out of annuals, and I didn't want to leave the soil bare, I am going to experiment with this. I took some cuttings from thyme and sage earlier this summer and they have been hardening off in their small pots since then. I hope the tulips will grow around them and then, in spring, when I would dig the bulbs out anyway, I can then decide if I want to  keep the herbs there or not. First, as always, some gravel and compost, then my last set of tulips, Belle Epoque; I think they will be my favourite. I added a layer of compost and put my last set of crocus, Snow Bunting. Finish with a last layer of compost and water.

I still had some narcissus that I had not planted, so I cleared the bottom of the small bed we have and I planted them at the front of the border; Segovia. I think I will be able to utilise that area later in the year as it looks like a woodlandy site with the buddleia creeping over like that. I have also discovered the way the cats come into our back yard... (Note: see the wonky fence... there's a gap... tut tut)

So far this is what we have. Some pots here and there to bring some green over the winter months.

Weekend colours and textures 08.11.2015

A bit of a quiet weekend on the gardening front. Last week I offered to cut back the buddleia creeping over to the next door neighbour's back yard. In doing so, I also cut back a shrub that had also been growing on their side. When I came back round to my side, I found that there was quite a lot of bare space in the bed under the shrubs, and thought that some underplanting would look rather nice. I have saved some pulmonarias on Sarah Raven's website, ready to order next spring. 

This weekend I was going to plant the tulip bulbs I had dug up in the summer, and such was my surprise, and dismay, that they had all gone moudly and rotten! So I obviously HAD to go buy some new bulbs if I want some colour come next spring. I went to Sarah Raven, again, and ordered the Belle Epoque Collection (I was going to go for the Tapestry Collection but they are out of stock), along with the Narcissi for Pots Collection and the Ice Blue Crocus Collection. So, next weekend I will hopefully be planting those! It's also Northwich's Artisan Market, so I might get my hand on some autumn/winter annuals to have on display until the bulbs make an appearance. 

For now, however, here are some snaps of this weekend. I have been pottering about the garden (read: back yard) and I have been enjoying the colours and textures the plants I bough last week at Marbury are exhibiting. I have also taken some photos of the back yard and will do some measuring so I can find the perfect position for the cold frame, AND the perfect cold frame. I also want some sort of plant theatre, so have some pots on display and not everything is on the ground, giving some interesting views at eye level as well. 

I collected the seed of these pansies from my father-in-law's garden. Chuffed that they're all coming out! I might sow the seed earlier next year as they have only just come into flower now. 

Buds from the hellebore. Promise of more flowers to come!

I liked comparing the foliage of my two hellebores. One has spikes on the edge of the leaf but the other is smooth. The intensity of the green is also different.

 I love the contrast of the purple stem with the white and green of the leaves. 

Hydrophobic leaves make a rainy day all the more interesting. 

 I have never seen a lavender plant grown from a seedling. It'll be interesting to see it's development this year. 

Marbury Hall Nurseries 01.11.2015

Last weekend we went to a nursery that is quite local to us. My father-in-law took me there while I was on holiday earlier in the year and I fell in love with the place. It is a nursery. It sells plants, shrubs, trees, pots and compost. That is it. They pride themselves in not having gifts, cards and the like. The prices are extremely competitive and they have a huge selection of plants.

What I usually do first is I scout around the whole place. I look at everything - and I mean everything. I point out what I like to my boyfriend, he nods while he follows me around, and when I have seen everything I fetch a trolley and pick the plants that caught my attention. I normally go with a specific idea in mind, but something else always ends up in the cart.

I always browse the pots. They have two sections. One with the nice ones, they are reasonably priced but still can be expensive to buy more than a couple at any one time. The other has cast-offs; be it because they have a chip, a stain, they are not completely round, etc. I bought 4 small ceramic pots for a total of £8 and 2 larger ones for £5-£8 each. I also bought a big bag of compost; I went for the one the owner personally recommended to us. He said it was made specially for them and it is the one they use on the site. If it's good enough for them it'll be good enough for me!

Where is it, you ask? It's Marbury Hall Nurseries. The Old Walled Garden, Marbury, Cheshire. CW9 6AT. We followed the satnav and told us we had got to our destination when we clearly hadn't. We kept driving and found it as we were about to stop and "recalculate". It's on Marbury Road.

I love the fact that it is in a walled garden. There is some car park space outside. I'm not sure if it is not that well-known or if we went at a time when it wasn't that busy, but I was surprised that there were hardly any cars there. It's a hidden gem that needs to be publicised!

 As you go in, if you turn right you will get to the shrubs and small trees section. As we only have a courtyard, we didn't venture too far this way.

In the same area, they have the shrubs and the nice pots. I found some pots I liked but thought better of it and restrained myself until the spring, so I can think during the winter of what I want to grow, where I want to grow it, and how many pots I will need!

This is what you see upon arrival. There are some compost bags to the far left (out of shot) and the clearance pots are just behind that red acer, next to the greenhouse you can see. That is where they have the castoffs, "ugly pots" and last season's pottery. They also have an alpine section, in the glasshouse to the right is the till and the indoor plants.

This is the view from the far end. The long glasshouse is where you pay. As you can see, there are 4 or 5 further covered areas with plants. Finally, they have a huge section for hardy shrubs outside.

This is my haul. As I mentioned, I bought some pots and compost. As for plants, my rosemary died from stress-related causes (we don't like talking about it) so I bought a new plant, some lavender (I am worried the plant I have is going to die on me), some hellebores (which I have a soft spot for), an anemone and some pansies to put on the top of a pot until my tulip bulbs come up, some hiacynths for the home, and some shrubs to keep the garden interesting over the winter. We have: Anemone Harmony Pearl, Ophiopogon planiscapus Nigrescens, Pittosporum tenuifolium Irene Paterson, Nandina domestica Obsessed Seika.

Clockwise in their new pots: rosemary, hellebore (helleborus lividus Rose Green), hellebore (helleborus lividus Rose), lavender Rosea

 From left to right:  Nandina domestica Obsessed Seika, Ophiopogon planiscapus Nigrescens, Pittosporum tenuifolium Irene Paterson.

My new bigger pots, Anemone Harmony Pearl and pansies. 

I had a helper while I was repotting the smaller plants. Not sure how much helping she thought she was doing, but she kept me company! Avery sociable cat... Not sure who she belongs to, but we have called him/her Bear; as in, Bear Grylls, "surviving urban wilderness".

Orchid

We have had this orchid for at least 1.5 years. It bloomed, quite profusely, and then it did nothing for at least 6 months. I think we might have got it at a supermarket or as I gift, I can't remember, bu as it created some new leaves, I kept it and cut down the stem. Summer came around and still no signs of orchid reflowering -to be fair, I'm not quite sure what an orchid's life cycle is. My father-in-law recommended a mist he and my Nana-in-law use with their orchids to make them flower.

So, I tried that and I also put it in the bathroom, I thought the mist and humidity might help. It promptly -I think within a month or so, perhaps 6 weeks- it started to grow a new stem and from there it has produced a lot of blooms. I would like it to grow a second stem as it looked pretty with 2, but I am happy it has reflowered at all!