A Secret Corner

As this year begins to ebb away our thoughts turn to cutting back and mulching in the garden at Norton Conyers. This week we have cut back and weeded the iris border, a bit hard on the knees but worth the effort as it now looks very tidy, we do this to cut the wind resistance of the fans down in case the tubers get torn from the ground. The rest of our time we spent weeding the red currants and gooseberry bushes preparing for when we put the mulch down, there is no point in placing a weed suppressing layer over entrenched thugs like bind weed! This is all very well but it doesn't make for very interesting reading, so I'll tell you about my visit to Harlow Carr yesterday. I thought I knew the place pretty well having studied there for two years but on Friday I discovered a secret corner. I was making my way through the woodland happily indulging my passion for fungi, rummaging around under conifers and getting my new jacket well and truly caked in green muck when I came across a little path previously unexplored. It is way up behind the old bath house, beyond the bird hide and along the course of the stream that runs down the valley, and there I found a charming little shelter set amongst some lovely trees. I got the impression that nobody goes there much which seemed to make it my little place, see if you can find it too when next you visit.

"The man who can keep a secret may be wise, but he is not half as wise as the man with no secrets to keep"
Edgar Watson Howe