The Anniversary

It was a breezy but thankfully bright morning on Saturday after the wash out of the early week, so whilst we waited for the grass to dry out for mowing, we gave the lavender bushes their annual trim. It was pleasant grasping handfuls of the seed heads as the essential oils were released wafting that distinctive English aroma over us. Whilst we methodically worked our way through the bushes I realised that I've been working at Norton Conyers for a whole year now, a year of good and bad weather, hard work, satisfaction and many many beautiful plants and flowers. I'm privileged to be able to continue working there and to help to contribute towards the life and history of the garden.

"Ladies fair, I bring you lavender with spikes of blue, sweeter plant was never found growing on our English ground" Caryl Battersby

Nerine bowdenii enjoying the autumn sunshine

A Problem

A very obliging peacock butterfly on Alchemilla molis

We are slowly getting into a rhythm with the new course at Harlow Carr, but three weeks in and we have already had a change of tutor. Her name is Jo Makin and she's had a tough job pulling all the paperwork together so we can start the curriculum. This morning she raided her own garden and brought us some samples to identify, good fun, I always did love a quiz. Later we were given a list of autumn interest plants to locate around the garden and I was pleased to find some of the names familiar, so some of what I learnt last year did stick! However when telling us her plans for our next lesson Jo presented me with a dilemma, she intends to run the soil testing at Craven College's site in Skipton and of course I don't have a car. The only bus leaves Harrogate at 9.45am, far too late and non of my classmates live anywhere near here. I have had an offer of help from James though, he lives over Leeds way and has suggested I travel through on the train and he will pick me up and take us to college. They do say all roads roam to Leeds, or is that all roads lead to Rome?! It is a strange way to get to Skipton but an offer I will gratefully accept, thanks James!

"The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame your mother, the ecology or the president. You realise that you control your own destiny"
Albert Ellis

WET

I watched the weather with a baleful eye on Sunday evening, there was no doubt about it Monday wasn't going to be a pleasant working day. I hung on as long as I could before leaving to catch the bus, ever hopeful of a last minute phone call to say work was cancelled, of course it didn't come, so I donned my waterproofs and trudged off. I suppose I could have rung and cried off but I didn't want to be accused of being a soft townie. Up until lunchtime it was just about tolerable, we were cutting down shrubs and climbers from the clock tower walls, but afterwards the rain became steadily worse making our next task of lifting sodden strips of turf from the paths exceedingly unpleasant. Shandy had become increasingly miserable as the day progressed until finally Giles relented and popped her back into the van, lucky thing! We carried on until half past two at which point Alyson ans I mutinied and fled home to hot showers leaving the boys still working. I bet they went home too as soon as our backs were turned!

"Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative" Oscar Wilde

Bad News, Good News

RIP Bisto

In time honoured tradition I'll start with the bad news, dear old Bisto has gone to the dog kennel in the sky. Not unexpected news I know but sad all the same. I'd become rather fond of that lumpy, bumpy, slobbery, friendly and to be frank smelly old dog and will miss him, Shandy seems quite down in the dumps without her rabbit chasing chum too. I wouldn't be at all surprised to catch the odd glimpse of him haunting the garden occasionally, it's that sort of place.
 
Now for the good news, at the end of this month my years training course is complete and I have decided to become self employed, however I will continue to work at Norton Conyers on a free lance basis. I'm so glad the Grahams want me to stay as it is such a special place and has become an important part of my persona, so thankfully I'll still be able to regale you with tales from the garden. By the way, if any of you live in the Harrogate area and require an RHS trained gardener for any job big or small please get in touch, my rates are very reasonable!

"Memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose" Kevin Arnold

Autumn Sowing At Spofforth

Diana and I did a little autumn sowing today, funny time of year to be doing that sort of thing you may think but there is method in our madness. We were sowing green manures onto the raised beds, this has the triple benefit of suppressing weeds, covering the soil and preventing the nutrients from being leached out over winter, and then adding goodness and improving the soil structure when you dig it in come spring. I've not used it before myself so I will be very interested to see if Diana's crops improve next year because of it. As soon as it germinates we will remove the netting protecting the seed from hungry birds and wait for it to do its stuff, more pictures as things progress. By the way don't be fooled by the pretty flowers pictured on the seed packets, you dig it in before flowering, if you let it set seed you'll never get rid of it!

"Let us permit Nature to take her own way. She better understands her own affairs than we.
Michel de Montaigne

Snip Snip

I took my beloved secateurs for an overhaul on Sunday, after a year of working their magic on just about every plant in Norton Conyers garden they were dull and stiff and apt to chew rather than cut. However the nice people at Daleside Nurseries soon had them back to perfection having changed the blade and tightened the mechanism they were once again a joy to use. I felt pretty pleased with myself when called upon to prune the fig in the vinery yesterday morning as I knew the job would now be a breeze, and indeed the new blade cut through the fig stems like butter, a pity they also cut through the wire I was tying the fig to, I didn't notice until everything went floppy! That meant yet another trip to see Giles cap in hand to admit my latest mistake, as usual he took the news with equanimity thank goodness. I guess when you stop making mistakes in life you also stop learning.

Bisto was too poorly to come to the garden today.


" A man's errors are his portals of discovery" James Joyce

Wrestling With The Wild Wood

We went straight into the wild wood yesterday morning to check some of the trees we planted last winter, if you leave it until after leave fall it is very hard to tell the difference between what is alive and what is dead! I'm not surprised they call it wild, we were hard pressed to find the trees through the sea of nettles and balsam that towered over our heads, just pushing through the undergrowth resulted in multiple stings and cascades of balsam seed pinging down our necks. When I got into the shower later I found enough seeds to grow a balsam forest of my own at home gathered in my under garments! Luckily most of the saplings we planted appear to have survived. The rest of the day was gentle in comparison, trimming the lavender bushes and small cotoneaster hedge, then planting out strawberry runners. The only downside being that Bisto seemed most unwell, I gave him a fond pat as I left as I'm not sure if we will meet again.

"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit" Edward Abbey

Old Friends And New

Now is the best time to see the main borders at Harlow Carr

It was a pleasant feeling to be walking back into the Bramall Learning centre at Harlow Carr yesterday, a bit like meeting an old friend after a summer away. I knew there would be a classroom full of new people to meet, it's always a joy to converse with someone who enjoys the same things as yourself, but I wasn't expecting our tutor to be the same Richard who guided us through the gruelling theory course last year. I'm delighted that it is so, now I know we can expect a thorough grounding in the practical side of things from a guy who really knows his stuff.  He has already warned us to be suited and booted for our next lesson, as I remember last years students didn't make it outside for for weeks! This bodes well for another year of fun.

"Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose"
Tenessee Williams

Healing Hedges

The boys started at 7.30 to get to this stage when I arrived an hour later

There are magnificent twin yew hedges along the main borders at Norton Conyers, the rich dark green foliage acts as a perfect foil to all the colourful perennials that display throughout the year. Taxus bacata is not just a good evergreen hedge however, the new growth contains a cancer busting chemical that the medical industry use to produce drugs, and our task yesterday was to trim the hedges and collect the clippings to sell to that industry. Thankfully the boys were in charge of the actual cutting, not a job I would relish perched up a ladder with a heavy petrol trimmer in hand, that meant I was barrow monkey for the day. I'm not sure how many trips I made out to the car park where the bags were sitting, but I reckon it was a fair distance and a fair weight I carried. At the end of the day when the clippings were collected and weighed they amounted to half a tonne, a pretty exhausting days work, thank goodness it only happens once a year!

"Love your neighbour, yet don't pull down your hedge" Benjamin Franklin

Renovation Day

Bumpy hedge, bumpy old dog.

Sometimes when you're gardening you have to be cruel to be kind, ultimately to improve a failing or wayward plant. Giles and I set out to amend two such specimens yesterday. The first being the small box hedge which runs from the entrance to the apple store, it had become badly misshapen with bulges and splits everywhere, admittedly it hadn't been helped by the old eucalyptus tree falling on it during felling last year. The only way we could correct it was by cutting it in half and allowing for re-growth, pretty drastic action but I think it actually looks better than we expected, although it will be some years before it is whole again.

Secondly we had to help out one of the apple trees, burdened with a heavy crop and susceptible to wind rock the poor thing had just keeled over. We cut out a lot of the top growth and propped it up with a natural stake, hopefully if we give it a high phosphorus feed it will grow stronger roots and stay put.
Monday is yew hedge cutting day and I've been warned to have a big breakfast!

"Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong" Leo F. Buscaqlia

Success!

I'm astonished and delighted to report that I've passed my exams as follows;
Plant Science-commendation
Pests and Diseases-commendation
Propagation-pass
Ornamentals-pass
Fruit and Veg-pass
Garden Design-pass (goodness only knows how!)
Soils-pass
Protected Cultivation-pass
YIPPEE!!!!!

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing you will be successful. Herman Cain

A Surprise

I had a surprise the other day when one of my neighbours enquired whether it was me pictured in this months copy of The Garden magazine. I had to confess that I had no idea as I hadn't had chance to even take it out of its plastic bag, however when I investigated further I found out he was right. There I am on page 83, top left hand corner, What an honour!

"The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us. Ashley Montagu

A Generous Donation

Not much of import happened at Norton yesterday and there's only so much you can say about five hours of weeding and three of mowing, so I'll bring you up to date with what's happening in my own garden. I've all but given up on the brassicas due to slugs and cabbage whites who still managed to get under the supposedly insect proof netting I'd used, so I've uncovered them and will try picking off the caterpillars as I see them, here is the first collection. I pondered for a while as to what I was going to do with them, I considered the bird table but didn't want them crawling away, so in the end I donated them to the council! Elsewhere the nasturtiums are looking good like these ones which just appeared growing out of the compost bin, if I'd sown them there they never would have flourished but nature always manages these things better than us lowly gardeners!





"The butterfly, a cabbage white
(His honest idiocy of flight)
Will never now, it is too late
Master the art of flying straight.
Robert Graves                                                                    

Down Behind The Border

before the cut back.........

Well we've nudged over into September at long last and already the garden is looking a little autumnal, although it is still very handsome if one can overlook the more obvious weeds entwined around the plants we cannot reach. If any of you are passing by in the next week or two we are still well worth a visit especially as all the plants are now buy one get one free. I filled my boots and came home with six new hardy perennials to shoe horn into my little patch! Our main task in autumn is the cutting back of the borders but of course everything still looks too fine for that, however the yew hedges are due their annual trim and Alyson and I had to cut a path along the back edges of the main border so we can access them properly. This task too up a fair chunk of the day but will be well worth it in terms of income for the garden, I'll explain more on the day!

"September: It was the most beautiful of words he'd always felt, evoking orange flowers, swallows and regret" Alexander Theroux

And after, phew!