Through the Garden Gate--July 2023

July has been a very wet month. After a spell of very hot, dry weather in June we went to constant rain, which the gardens needed. But the rain has hardly stopped and I now feel it's overstayed its welcome. We have done a lot of dodging showers to try to get our garden and allotment jobs done. There doesn't seem to be any sign of fine weather yet. 

The borders always look a bit dull at this time of year when most of the flowers have died down. I've been out when the weather allowed cutting back the earlier flowering plants, deadheading and tidying up the beds. We get a lot of mare's tail weed in the garden and I've spent quite a bit of time pulling this up. Once I'd done all those jobs there were quite a few gaps in the borders so I thought I would  buy a few summer perennials to fill up. These all went in the big raised bed which gets a lot of sun.

I bought a lovely Rudbeckia called 'Sunbeckia Sarah'. I had to get it when I spotted the name as one of my daughters is called Sarah! 

The bed looks much more colourful now with the Rudbeckia, a Gaura, Verbena, Echinacea, Penstemon I also have a big pot of pink lilies which are in flower now and I just plonked it in the bed still in the pot rather than planting it. It was a bit heavy though and Richard had to help me. It took a few moves around the bed before I was satisfied which was the right place for it, so I wasn't very popular when I kept changing my mind. It has a very strong perfume which we can smell even in the front garden. 

The Hydrangea in the front garden is full of pink blooms which I have been cutting for the house. I haven't had to buy any flowers for weeks now, the garden has provided me with plenty of flowers for cutting. Even just a few little stems can brighten up the house.

At the beginning of July we had a few days away in North Wales. We stayed in Betwsy Coed which was not far from Bodnant Garden. You can read all about our visit to Bodnant on my blog here.

We seem to be always complaining about the weather, we still want rain of course to keep the plants happy, but as we move in to August I'm hoping we will get fewer rainy days and some more sunshine so we can sit and enjoy our garden more. 

I am linking this blogpost to Sarah's blog at 'Down By The  Sea ' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post.

Bodnant Garden

I first visited Bodnant Garden eighteen years ago when my eldest grandson was a baby. We had a holiday with our daughter, son in law and the baby in a lovely old cottage in the depths of the Welsh countryside near Conwy.  My daughter and I went off with the baby one day to visit the gardens. We had a lovely day and really enjoyed the gardens. Ever since then I've wanted to revisit the place and as my husband didn't go with us the first time I thought he would enjoy the garden too.

The opportunity came recently when we were trying to organise a few days away. Where should we go? So I came up with the idea of staying somewhere near Bodnant Garden so we could visit.  We ended up staying in Betws y Coed which was a good base for a few other places we wanted to visit and was less than 30 minutes away from the gardens.

Bodnant Garden covers 80 acres and has about 8 miles of paths to explore, some of them steep, uneven and with steps.We picked up a map when we went in which gave us a couple of options of easy routes to take. A blue path and a red path. So, between the two of us having arthritis, foot, knee and back problems we went for the red path which was on fairly level paths, no steps and was the shorter route of the two. 

 This path took us round the formal areas of the garden. We started our walk near the house, which with its sweeping lawns dominates the formal part of the gardens. The hot border greeted us as we entered the garden. There were the reds, yellows and oranges of Crocosmia, Red hot pokers, Dahlias, Rudbeckias, Lilies and more. There were some lovely yellow ones which I couldn't identify.

We came across a fountain with  flower beds radiating from it to form a circular bed. I wasn't very impressed with this, there was nothing very striking about the flowers to enhance the look of the fountain. It was quite  dull looking as all the flowers had gone over. Perhaps it needed other flowers to follow on to keep it looking good.

There are some very old, interesting trees in the garden. I love trees, especially old ones which have developed a character with unusual branch structure. We found one which was propped up, another which had a sign on saying, 'sorry, no climbing'.  I thought about our grandchildren and how when they were younger used to love a good climbing tree. Another tree had a lovely red bark, very tactile looking. It was so tempting to stroke it but it was labelled 'please do not stroke the bark as it could cause further damage and shorten the life of the tree'. I didn't want to knock any years off it's life so I admired it from a distance.

I was pleased to see my favourite 'Gertrude Jekyll ' rose in the  big rose garden. Here large beds were filled with different varieties of roses. I'm not usually a fan of rose gardens but this one was good it was well laid out and smelled lovely and not just of roses.

In this area was a series of terraces. At the bottom of the rose garden we looked down onto a lower level which wasn't on our red route, but our legs were feeling ok so we descended the steps to have a look. This was not just to look at the lower level  but also to move away from a conducted garden  tour which we kept getting tangled up with.  

Down to a another terrace garden where a rill flowed to a big, formal pool in the middle. I thought there may have been black dye in the water as you couldn't see below the surface. On the surface we spotted water boatmen swimming around and mayflies flitting backwards and forwards. Also on the surface waterlilies were in flower. My garden and allotment ponds are too small for waterlilies so I love to see them when I visit other gardens. 

We looked over the wall and down below on the next level looked very interesting with more water and a building which the map told us was called the 'Pin Mill'. I wanted to see more of this but we decided to carry on following the red route and find a way down to the Pin Mill later.

We came to a shady area with huge groups of hostas and followed the path through a woodland area. The path doubled back on itself and we came off it to find a way back to the Pin Mill. We could see how steep the garden was at this point as we looked down to a beautiful area called 'The Dell', which had the river running through. Down in the Dell was an old mill, which seemed to be doing refreshments. It was a good toilet stop and we thought we might be able to get some lunch. No such luck as they were closed for lunch!  However it was a very scenic area and a nice place to sit down for a few minutes. It was a bit of a steep climb back up to the path, but our legs were still working. 

This path brought us to the Pin Mill where there was another water feature with more waterlilies and colourful herbaceous borders. This was another good place to sit, have a rest and take in the beautiful surroundings. 

From here we headed back to find somewhere to get some lunch. On the way we came across a pond (there seemed to be a lot of water features at Bodnant). The pond was circular with a brick edge and the garden around it was really colourful, almost tropical looking. We had seen it from a higher level when we were walking along the lawn area earlier and I had wondered how you got down to it.

We found the National Trust cafe next to the garden centre and had a very nice lunch of soup and a cheese scone. 

One place which I remembered from my first visit years ago was the Laburnum Arch. We hadn't come across it so far on our meanders and it wasn't marked on the map, so we asked for directions. The arch is apparently quite spectacular when the laburnum is in flower, but it was July so we had missed it. It is quite a long archway and we could imagine how amazing it would have been a few weeks earlier when the laburnum was in flower.

We had done a lot of walking and our legs were beginning to give up on us, so it was time to go. Before that I had to look around the garden centre because I do love a good plant centre.  Of course, because  I can't resist a plant, I bought a couple, a gaura , I love them and hadn't seen any on sale near home and a decent sized pot of rosemary which I had only seen in small pots at home and I use it a lot in cooking. I don't normally buy plants when we are on holiday because I think they might not be suited to our garden conditions up here in Lancashire. But I decided anything which will grow in the Welsh mountain areas will grow in our garden. Next to the garden centre and shop were some craft units selling paintings, pottery, jewellery etc. I do like a craft shop so I had to look of course. 

We enjoyed visiting Bodnant Gardens but there was still a lot more to see. That gives us a good reason to return another time and see more. Perhaps we can time our next visit for when the Laburnum arch is in flower. Bodnant Gardens is owned by the National Trust and is near Colwyn Bay, Conwy, North Wales

After the rain, the harvesting

We've continued to be busy with allotment jobs. I've kept wondering when will we ever get to the end of them. The answer if course is that you never do, there will always be plenty if work to do. 

We have at last got everything in the ground for now which needs to be planted and sown. I am doing successional sowing with salad crops, lettuce, radish, spring onions, beetroot. I have sown bulb fennel again, although I keep saying I won't. It doesn't grow well for me. After planting  kale, purple sprouting broccoli and more cabbage the beds are full. I am looking for space to plant some more leeks in a couple of weeks.

The tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and aubergines in the greenhouses are doing well. There are plenty of tomatoes to ripen and we are already picking cucumbers. I offered a new plot holder down the lane my spare tomato plants but she didn't need any. It was nice to get to know her and her friend and I came away with two melon plants.  With two already very full greenhouses I didn't know how I was going to squeeze them in, but I did and I hope they will be ok. I've never grown melons before, so that will be interesting.

After a really long dry spell we finally got the rain we wanted. The water butts got filled up and it was good though to have a break from allotment jobs while it was raining. Now we are harvesting a lot of our produce, potatoes, lettuce, cucumber, spring onions, kale, courgettes, peas and broad beans. Lovely!