Bonython estate gardens

 On our recent holiday to Cornwall we discovered  some lovely gardens.  Bonython estate gardens was one of the ones we visited. It is situated on the Lizard peninsula a few miles south of Helston. The house is a private home and the gardens have been under restoration for  the last few years. The grounds cover 20 acres and include woodland, a walled garden, herbaceous borders, a potager, orchard, and lakes.

When we arrived at Bonython there was no-one on the entrance desk, just a sign telling us to pay the gardener in the walled garden.  We didn't see a gardener in the walled garden, but there was an honesty box for our money which we duly paid.

The walled garden has huge colour themed herbaceous borders, a pool and pool house.  There was a border alongside the pool full of verbena bonariensis and another full of blue perovskia.  Both very striking and light and airy looking. There seemed to be a lot of blue, purple and pink flowers here.

This seemed a very deserted place, no one around, just one or two other visitors, no sign of a gardener, but obviously well looked after .  I loved the succulents in pots around the pool house, they reminded me of my own back at home, although mine are much smaller!  My husband pointed out to me the lovely azelea in the corner.  I looked and all I could see was a striking blue hydrangea.  Ah well, he does appreciate plants, but he just can't remember the names!

From the walled garden we went through to another garden which was oozing with flowers, mainly pink. There were several raised beds which all had  an overgrown look to them, which you often get at this time of year. There were  masses of sweet peas, phlox, dahlias and herbs.  We wandered around with me spotting plants I knew--oregano, mint, rosemary.  I was trying to work out if this was a scented garden, because of the sweet peas, phlox and herbs, but then there were other plants which weren't scented. Then I read the leaflet, I should have done that first of course, but oh yes it was a potager! That made sense--herbs, vegetables and flowers for picking. There was a propagating house with an area for plant sales ( another honesty box) and a massive fig tree in one corner. I'd like a fig tree in our garden, but having seen the size they can grow to I'm now not so sure!

Through the gate, beyond the potager was an orchard of cornish apple trees which led down to one of the lakes, a beautiful view and a perfect place to sit.  Refreshments were set out in a sort of large summer house with a thatched roof. It was a help yourself area with an urn, cakes under covers and a box to put your money in. There were birds nesting in the eaves of the summer house and I did wonder about this as I helped myself to cakes and tea, but they were all covered up and I am still here to tell the story.

We sat whilst I had tea and cake ( a must for me, but not for my husband!). We watched the swifts darting about, took in the view of the lake  with the massive gunnera and planned our route around the rest of the garden.

A stream ran from this lake to the next lake (Lake Sue). 

We walked along a path which bordered the lake and it was here that I was stopped in my tracks by the most amazing display of hot coloured plants. There were ornamental grasses with soft, swishy, feathery flower heads which  gave a pink hazy effect, orange cannas, yellow rudbekias and  heleniums, pink echinacheas, red dahlias, crocosmias, persicarias and lots more plants I couldn't name, but I had a good go at plant spotting.  It was a wonderful kaleidoscope of late summer colour, which had a tropical feel to it. I've since found through reading the leaflet ( I really should do that as I go around ) that there is a South  African theme because that is where the owner is from.

I've been trying to improve the late summer colour in my garden and this colour and planting scheme  gave me some ideas. There was no separation  of  colours here, pink flowers were next to orange or yellow flowers and it worked. Maybe I can do something like that on a smaller scale in my garden.

The path led to another lake named Quarry Lake.  There are steep rock sides  around the lake, the stone here was used for the building of a nearby manor house in the 18th century.  It was a very restful place and it was here that we finally saw some gardeners. They were driving a tractor and trailer full of garden rubbish.  They looked very happy in their work.

 

We walked through a woodland area with lots of tree ferns.  I loved the tree ferns, they looked so upright  and, well, just ferny! They made me think of a group of people singing with arms raised in the air.

 

The walk took us around the other side of the lakes where we saw swans and ducks and another view of those lovely hot borders.

We missed the path for the car park on our way out so we ended up back on the road and down the main driveway for the house, which wasn't the way we came in with the car.  This was a good thing because we were able to view the long driveway bordered with blue hydrangeas which was a wonderful sight.

We loved Bonython, it was very uncommercialised, obviously well loved and cared for and a place we would go back to

A Soggy day

Today we went to Fleetwood to watch our daughter Sarah run a half marathon. The weather was awful, wet and very windy.  Who would want to run on a day like this?  It was the sort of day you would not bother to venture out in normally.  But she went to run and we went to support her.
 

We saw her off at the start of the race. She was about 4 rows back here!

 Then we all walked up the prom and found a cafe where we could have a warm drink and dry out.

 We met her as she was arriving back.  The guy running alongside her is her husband!!

She ran her race in 1hour 51 minutes.  I don't know anything about running but I believe that was good. We were really proud of her today, but we're also proud of all that she's achieved this year.  Her amazing weight loss, her determination and commitment has inspired others including myself to lose weight. You can read about her journey on her blog http://soggous.blogspot.com/2011/03/losing-weight-sog-way.html

Yummy rhubarb

When I picked some rhubarb from the allotment the other day, I remembered that years ago I used to make a lovely spicy crumble. I searched my recipes and was amazed to find I still had the original recipe in an old and battered scrapbook. It really is delicious especially with cream, but also lovely with custard, ice cream, or on its own. So here it is, sorry there are no metric measurements, but it is an old recipe.

Spicy rhubarb crumble

Ingredients

1-1 ½ lb rhubarb

1oz brown sugar (demerara or light brown, not the very dark kind)

¼ teaspoon ginger

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

For the crumble topping:

3oz flour

3oz brown sugar

2oz butter

Pinch of salt

¼ teaspoon ginger

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 400 gas mark 6.

Wash and slice the rhubarb into 1inch lengths then put this into a pie dish

and sprinkle with 1oz of brown sugar and ¼ teaspoon of ginger and the same of nutmeg.

For the crumble top, mix the flour, sugar, salt and spices together, add the butter and work together until the mixture is crumbly.

Then spread it over the rhubarb in the dish so that the fruit is completely covered.

Place in the oven on a baking tray and cook for about 30—40minutes or until the fruit is cooked and the top well browned.

Serve warm or cold.

I've since realised that the crumble mix ingredients need to be doubled in order to completely cover the fruit

Cheese and Vegetable Bake

I found a great recipe today for a vegetable bake which used most of the vegetables I had picked recently from the allotment.  It was delicious and got the thumbs up from my husband, so I thought I would share it with you.


Cheese and Vegetable bake


  Ready in 1 hour 30  mins

Ingredients

Serves: 4

• 4 to 5 potatoes, peeled and sliced
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 50g (2 oz) butter
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 (200g) bag curly kale
• 1 leek, sliced into rings
• 1/2 (300g) bag trimmed green beans
• 1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
• For the cheese sauce:
• 15g (1/2 oz) butter
• 1 tablespoon plain flour
• 250ml (8 fl oz) milk
• 200g (7 oz) mature Cheddar cheese, grated

 

Preparation method

Prep:30  mins | Cook:1 hour

1.

Preheat oven for 180 C / Gas mark 4.

2.

Place half of the potatoes in a large baking dish. Sprinkle the chopped shallots over the top, along with knobs of butter. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the curly kale, leek, green beans and cauliflower.

3.

To make the cheese sauce, heat the butter over medium heat in a frying pan. Add the flour and stir with the butter to combine well. Slowly add the milk to the pan, stirring constantly to ensure a smooth mixture. Reduce heat to low and add half of the cheese. Stir until cheese has melted, remove from heat and pour 3/4 of the mixture over the vegetables.

4.

Layer the remaining potatoes on top of the cheese sauce and vegetables. Cover with the remaining sauce. Sprinkle remaining cheese over top. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, or until vegetables are tender and cheese is crisp.

I halved the quantities because there were only 2 of us, but used the same amount of sauce and it was enough but not too much, so you may need to increase the amount of cheese sauce for 4 people.

I didn't have the green beans so I substituted with broccoli.  Also I parboiled the potatoes for a few minutes, just enough to be able to slice them, because they can take some time to cook.  I think you could adapt this recipe to use  any other vegetables.

Roots

The other day when we were down at the allotment there was a family there-- dad and 4 young children  all helping dad to harvest his spuds.  They were very noisy, but full of enthusiasm and keen to help.  The children came over to talk to us and I gave them some of our broad beans. Their dad said he might give them some space to grow their own  stuff next year.  That got me thinking about encouraging children to grow things and  I wondered if  gardening knowledge and enthusiasm is passed on through families.

I've often thought about my own passion for gardening and where it came from.  Well I think that one of my grandfathers was a  gardener. My two older brothers developed a very keen interest in gardening when they bought their own homes and so did I. I think I caught the bug off them.

I remember when we were young we didn't have a garden, just a back yard.  My mum had a hardware and ironmongers shop (my dad died when I was a baby and she carried on running the business) and she sold gardening stuff and seeds in the shop. One year we thought we would sow some flower seeds in a couple of raised beds in the yard. To this day, virginia stock, candytuft, cornflower, larkspur, calendula, nasturtium, all remind me of my childhood.

From the time my twin daughters were toddling around the garden, I tried to get them interested in gardening.  We had a lovely good sized garden and they spent a lot of time out there.  They had to really because that's where I spent a lot of my time.  We sowed flower seeds of annuals together, they helped me harvest fruit and vegetables and they grew things themselves.  I often wonder if they remember the glut of runner beans we once had.  There were so many we couldn't pick them fast enough and lots of them were stringy because we had left them too long before picking.  I've never been able to eat runner beans since!

As the girls got older they were more reluctant gardeners. The first signs of revival I think was when one daughter was at university and sharing a house.  She took a pot of mint back with her for the garden area, which survived all sorts of trauma living in one of the worst areas of Leeds.  The mint is now back home where it started off its life and is still going strong.  The said daughter now has her own home,  garden and allotment and  I was so proud and  quite moved  when I saw the tiny garden in the first house that she and her  husband bought,  which she had planned and designed herself and they built together.

My other daughter was the one who I really had no hope for. She was the clumsy one who was always standing on the delicate seedlings, trampling over plants, just being generally clumsy and not much of a gardener.  That all changed when she had her first house. It just had a back yard, but she filled it with pots of plants raided from my garden. She has since moved to a larger house with a  good sized garden, has some wonderful flower borders, shares an allotment with me and can tell me a thing or two about how to grow tomatoes and courgettes.

Now my daughters have their own children and are encouraging them to take an interest in gardening. I also like to help my  grandchildren to grow  things in the garden.  I suppose it's all about sowing seeds early, which may take some time to establish roots, but which will become strong.  I'm not talking here about the normal types of seeds but the seeds of knowledge, love, enthusiasm.
 

Who taught you how to garden?  Feel free to leave a comment.

What a difference 2 weeks makes

I was longing to see the garden again as we returned from holiday a few days ago.  There were some lovely surprises, the sunflowers, dahlias, heleniums, anthemis, liatris were all flowering.  The helenium and dahlias were new plants this year so it was good to welcome them into the garden.

The pink border was looking pink and the yellow border was was looking yellow, so they were behaving themselves well and I could see gaps where more colour was needed. There are still more plants to flower, like the sedums and the rudbekia which will enhance the colour schemes.  I'm quite pleased that the colour effects I'm trying to achieve seem to be working. Maybe a trip to the garden centre is needed to fill in those gaps.  Some plants looked as if they had grown about 2 feet taller, like the marguerites and the phlox.

At first as I wandered around I thought there was loads of work to do,  2 weeks growth, made the garden a bit jungle like and overgrown.  But on closer inspection everything was doing well and all that is needed is some deadheading.

The only casualty seems to be my 'Margaret Merrill' rose whose leaves have  gone brown and another one 'English Miss' whose leaves are going a strange colour. Don't know what's going on there, but I've never been very good with roses.

The birds seemed to have deserted us.  Before we went away the garden was full of bird life--on the feeders and tables, in the hedge and trees and generally hopping about everywhere.  Obviously once they'd emptied the feeders, they went to find food elsewhere.  But in the last few days since we've returned there are birds gradually coming back.  I've seen blue tits, the robin, the sparrows, doves and the magpie.  And as I write this blog, I can see a lot of activity on the bird table and a female blackbird perched on the garden chair.

There seem to be a lot of butterflies about now, peacocks especially.  We have a buddleia bush which they love and there are other flowers soon to bloom which will attract more.

So generally, everything in the garden is looking good and we can do what one should do at this time of year--wait for the sunshine and sit back and enjoy!