Michelmas Day

This weekend I escaped from Goltho and went to Worcestershire on a gardening weekend. I mainly wanted to go because one of the gardens to visit was Old Court nursery and garden and it holds the national collection of Michelmas Daisies or Asters and I wanted a few more for our Autumn border after its revamp earlier in the year. They were absolutely stunning and we were spoiled for choice, but as we got them out of the car when we arrived home we were really pleased with the ones we had chosen, they looked even better now they were away from all the others in the nursery, so look out for them in our nursery next year!!

Heroes & Roses

The rose garden has been a bit neglected over the last couple of years, so this week with a helping hand from Jason, we have been tackling it. Most of the roses needed an extensive 'prune' and now we can see right across, through the rose garden to the hazel walk. We also had to do a little arborial work as the plum tree in the middle has given up the ghost and is rotten, we have chain sawed the unsafe limbs off, as part of it fell off this morning, luckily Jason was underneath it to save the roses!!
We are praying for rain as it is so dry the garden is like dust, and some plants are certainly drooping. I suppose when it does eventually rain it will not stop. It certainly seems to be all or nothing these days.

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

Oops forgot to post a blog last week, we were busy cutting the Wild Flower Meadow, while the weather was still good. We were later than the usual August this year as we were waiting for the Purple Spotted Orchid to finally dropped its seed, it is really tiny and there are thousands of seeds on each one, so hopefully we will have alot more of them in years to come!
It is hard work cutting the meadow, it has to be scythed first by hand and then raked into piles to be picked up and taken away, then we get the mower out (we are getting to the easier bit) and mow it. We rake it again with the scarifier for the lawn this gets up a lot of the thatch from in the bottom, levels out any mole hills and other lumpy bits and then it is cut again really low, nearly scalping it. It looks really yellow and sickly but within two weeks it is green over and growing away like mad, we carry on mowing it as low as possible until the end of the season. In January the first signs of the early daffodil start to show so no more mowing then it is the Cammassias, the Fritilaria meleagris and then the grasses and wild flowers.

Team Goltho

This week we welcomed two new volunteers to the Goltho Gardens team. Sue Strickland who is from Lincoln, married and has two sons but is willing to give is half a day every other week and Jason Daff who has just finished horticultural college at Pershore who will be here every Wednesday, we are now a mighty team!!
In the garden we are waiting for the Purple Spotted orchid in the Wild Flower meadow to drop its seed and then we can get it cut, it is starting to look really messy and it will be good to get it tidied. The Cyclamen under the Silver Birches are now starting to flower and are again looking spectacular there are just more each year.