Goltho Winter Closure

We are still open until Sunday 19 December but I was really surprised to see two customers walking around the garden this morning, it did look lovely but really cold -4. They did go into the teashop for a lovely hot chocolate to warm them up after their stroll.
I was hoping to get plenty of work done in the garden before Christmas ready for us re-opening at the beginning of February and as last year we have two charity days for the NGS on 17 & 18 February hope it is better this year than last.
Well again Happy Christmas to all our customers, friends and family see you in the New Year.

Christmas Greetings

Things are progressing very slowly on the new Teashop as the weather keeps on holding up the work, I suppose they have a point that -18 is too cold to be stood on a roof! Work has started again this week but snow is forcast for Thursday onwards so it will in all probability grind to a halt yet again.

I have not done anything in the garden for a couple of weeks at least as it covered with snow, the only one to enjoy it is Raffy the dog and Matthew my young nephew seen in the photograph 'helping' to clear the way in to the carpark.

The sloe gin and blackberry whiskey which is delicous and well worth doing are both now bottled and standing ready for the Christmas onslaught. I would like to wish a Merry Christmas and hopefully a prosperous New Year to one and all.

A Bargain at Goltho Gardens

It is wet and windy today and blowing all the leaves down, this Autumn has been the best we have ever had with the colours of the leaves on the trees, shrubs and even the herbaceous perennials being exceptional.
It has gone very quiet here and as from November 1 the price to go around the garden is a bargain at £2.00 and there is still plenty to see. I am being kept busy at the moment with leaves that are falling all over the grass and cutting back keeps being put back as it seems such a shame to clear away plants that are still looking lovely, either with late flowers or coloured up foliage.

Birds, Berries and Blackberries

Here is a photograph of the new Teashop that was started a couple of weeks ago and will be finished ready for next season.

It is blowing a gale today so will probably have blown all the leaves of the trees, but what a crop berries we have this Autumn. It must be because the summer was so good that all the seed and berries have ripened well - the birds will have a good winter this year as they fill up on all the hedgerow faire. Talking of which this year I have made some Blackberry whiskey for the Christmas season to go with the Sloe gin I make each year as it always gets finished up. I even made two lots last year and still it all went. Hic!!

Still Spring Cleaning

We are busy at the moment clearing up the stock area at the back of the tunnel, getting rid of the old pots that have nothing in, cutting back all the Spring plants and anything else that has finished. It has given us loads more room so when this is finished we can begin to split the herbacous plants and get them ready for next season. I really love doing this as it makes me think of next year and what it will bring.
The Autumn colours are still glorious as the weather has been kind and not brought down all the leaves yet, although there do seem alot when I am mowing!!
I walked around the garden today with some family visiting from Kent and you can definately see where the frost has affected the hostas and other delicate leaved plants.

Building Work Commences

It is quite exciting here at the moment as we have started work taking the roof off what is to be the new Teashop which will hopefully be ready to be opened by next season (March/April). Lesley is pleased as this means when it is finished she will get her house back and no longer have it all in her conservatory and dining room.
The bed and breakfast here at Goltho Gardens is going well and we have had several guests already and have not even advertised yet. They have all been really delighted with their rooms and say they are returning soon, we look forward to welcoming them again and all our guests to come.

Autumn Tints

Summer has finished with avengence this last week, with Wednesday and Thursday being lovely warm days to the weekend being really cold and dropping about 7 or 8 degrees. This has brought out some of the Autumn tints in the shrubs and trees, bring them back into the foreground after months of being green they are all colouring up really well. Some to look out for are the Euonymus they have gone either bright red or pink depending on the variety, also the berberis are always a dependable shrub for colouring up, if like me you are on neutral soil.

Winter Warmers

This week we have been sorting out the pots ready for the winter and next spring, we have found that if you have one good pot and then put in liners with a sucession of different bulbs eg early daffodils followed by tulips and then on to summer plantings this works very well.
The cyclamen are looking fabulous at the moment, I forget how spectacular they are and each year they come up no matter what the weather and they are spreading and seeding themselves nicely.
I have picked my blackberries to make some blackberry whiskey ready for Christmas, as last year we drank all the sloe gin and most of the rosehip vodka that I had made. I have also picked some elderberries to make some cough syrup, although the recipe says that it good for an evening drink The sloes are not ready yet so sloe gin at little later.

Autumn Bliss

It has started to feel very autumnal just recently, this is maybe because the michaelmas daisies are starting to come out, only just mind you. Autumn is one of my most favourite times, I know June is the time gardens look at their best, but I still prefer September and October.
We are loaded down with tomatoes this year which is a good thing as the vegetable garden has not gone well this season the weather has been against it, I only hope the winter brassicas made an effort now it has cooled down abit.
I am hoping to put a few plants in the garden this week as the ground is now quite moist but still warm and they will start to get roots down before winter arrives.

House Proud at Goltho Gardens

We have a bad case of whitefly in the vegetable garden this year, as you walk in clouds of them fly up off our poor old brassicas, unfortunately there is little that can be done to get rid of them, we have even had the vacuum cleaner out trying to suck them up! They have really enjoyed the warm, dry weather that we have had this year. The vegetables in general have not done too well because it has been so dry and it has been jolly hard work getting what we have, the tomatoes are now gearing up to full crop protential and also the courgettes, that most reliable of vegetables. We have planted another crop of french beans and some peas for later as we are a little concerned we will not have any brassicas if the whitefly have anything to do with it. Ahh well that is gardening!!

Garden Revives

We have had a couple of plant saving down pours of rain and now the garden is starting to revive, it is looking good for August with the Praire border in full flower and the roses gearing up for a second go. A rabbit has managed to get past the fencing that we have all round the garden and take up residence somewhere in the garden and has taken a nibble or two at a couple of the new michealmas daisies in the Autumn border, but most of them are starting to fatten their buds ready for next month.
The ponds are still ridiculously low, with the poor fish just about managing to stay under water, we have started to feed the large Koi in the lower pond and now they come up every day, it is so good to see them regularly.

Dry Times at Goltho

I have not published anything recently as it has been so dry that nothing has been happening, I have eventually cut back all the old geraniums, astrantias and other early flowering perennials as it would be too late if I waited any longer, but they have 'sulked' as it was so hot and with not a drop of rain they did not want to grow again.
We have a strict no watering policy here at Goltho Gardens, but we have had to back down from my principles as some of my shrubs have badly drooped. We have got the quad and trailor out and bucketed water on to these poor things as we would have lost them. There is still no rain forcast, what a year!!!
We have finished the new bathroom so are ready now to receive guests for Bed and Breakfast,
we have two double bedrooms available.

Rain at Last

At last it is raining whether we will have enough is anybodies guess, it is so dry here that although we have a no watering policy I am seriously contemplating doing just that, The poor plants are looking all dry and withered, but if this rain carries on all night it will start to make amends.
As the weather has been so hot I have not been so busy in the garden just could not take the heat so have been potting up and pricking out at least that is all caught up with.

Help for Heroes

We had our Help for Heroes annual event on Thurday and what an evening we had, the weather was perfect, the garden looked stunning and the company was excellent what more can be said
other that we raised a goodly sum too for this very worthy charity.
The weather continues to be hot which means the roses are not lasting long and my poor French student has to go out each morning to dead head them and anything else that is finishing. We had 8mm of rainfall last night which was very welcome as we were again dry as a bone and the lawn was starting to go brown, hopeful of more at the end of the week!

Midsummer Madness

The weather has been all over the place - on Saturday it was so cold I had on my fleece and a jumper and today it has been really warm, the forcast for the rest of the week is also good, so our Help for Heroes Midsummer Evening should be a roaring success.
Our new french student arrived on Monday her name is Domitille and she is working very hard, we are hoping she will show us how to play boules as we have had a set for several years and not used them.
The roses are looking absolutely fantastic this season they must have enjoyed being cut back drastically in the Autumn and we have sprayed them for blackspot this year it has made a great deal of difference. I will cut the rest of the old growth out again this Autumn and they will be like new!!!

Summer at Goltho

It has been a really busy week with booked visits in during the day and in the evening, the weather has been very kind and been warm and sunny just how you would imagine an English summer should be but usually isn't.
Market Rasen had its annual Gardeners Fair last weekend and Goltho Gardens had a stall, this is the third year I have been there so it was nice to catch up with old friends and a chance to chat and make some new ones.
This weekend coming we have a group of classic cars calling in to the teashop for lunch on their way to a local show, so if you are here on Sunday 13 around 12.00pm you will be able to see them in the carpark, they are wonderful to see and a credit to their owners.
We are holding our Midsummer Madness in aid of that worthy charity Help for Heroes again this year, on June 24 at 7.00pm so anyone wanting tickets had better get a move on as not many left.

Charity begins at Goltho

We have been very busy this last weekend as we had a Charity Open Day and for the first time a Craft Fair both on Sunday, it went really well with lots of visitors only the wind was the unfortunate problem with stall holders struggling to put up gazebos. I think if we do another we will have it in the big barn!

The garden looks very lush at the moment, which is a miracle as it is extremely dry and the small amount of rain we have had has been dried up again by the wind. The roses are very nearly out and looking good from the 'haircut' that they had last Autumn. They were in need of a some severe pruning and general TLC.

I have posted a picture of the Wisteria which is looking absolutely wonderful at the moment.

Apple Pie Beds

We must have been busy as I have missed two weeks blog tut tut.

The lawn at Goltho takes a lot of ware and tear with the amount of people walking on it all the time and to keep it in good order, this month we have treated it with a broad leaved weed killer to get rid of some of the weeds, this made it look really bad with the weeds popping up and looking curled up and wizend. We then cut it and for two weeks scarified it we then gave it a feed, it certainly looks alot better. When we get a decent amount of rain we will then spike which will airate it but it is a bit too hard at the moment to do so.
The pond is alive with tadpoles I think we have all of them in the world as it is a seething mass of little black wriggling bodies all different sizes, no doubt the fish are eating some but I think we will have plenty of frogs this year.
Here at Goltho we go to great lengths to make sure we get plenty of apples in the orchard and the recent frosty weather has not been a problem to us, out we go at 9.00pm to 'tuck up' of little orchard by covering them with duvet covers to prevent the frost spoiling the flower buds and ruining the harvest.

New Arrivals

In the garden this week we have new arrivals the first being the frogs spawn, it has hatched and now there are tadpoles all swimming around in the pond, trying to keep away from the fish who would like to eat them. The other arrivals are some more silky chicks, they were very difficult to photograph as they kept trying to hide underneath one another. They were supposed to go under a broody mum but she got fed up with waiting and went back out with all her friends.

It has been a slow start in the nursery this year due I suppose to the weather, but this last weekend it was alot busier now the plants in our gardens are starting to grow it shows what has been lost after the cold winter but it is nice to see our plants going to new homes either as replacements or something new.

Rain stops Play

The weather is certainly all over the place, really hot Saturday and Sunday, but raining today I can not say I am sorry as the ground was starting to get abit hard where I was working so it will now be a little more workable. Weeding is going slowly, I seem to be really up against it this year but no doubt it will all get done.

Work on the garage is still on going, it is felt and battens next so nearly there, not today though because the rain has stopped play. The new shower that is for Bed and Breakfast guests has benefitted from the bad weather, and is now moving on towards tiling, so if you are looking for some where to stay later in the year we will be able to accomodate you!

Daffodil Spectacular

Work at Goltho is once again progessing on the garages, the last bay is now having its roof re- tiled. This was started last year and the first two bays look really good and even have cars in them, this last one is the largest and in the worst condition but once done we will be looking quite tidy.
As I walk round the garden at the moment it is very yellow as all the daffodils are out at the same time. We have over the years planted several hundred possibly thousands of different ones to have a lovely continutity of flowering, but this year they are looking quite spectacular. Yellow is the colour of the motif of Goltho Gardens as Goltho means ' where the marigolds grow' the marigolds is this case being marsh marigolds or Caltha and so we have plenty planted around the ponds and they too are just coming out.
Weeding is progressing slowly in the garden and I do find it difficult to know whether to work in the garden or keep potting up for the nursery, this time of year is very hectic!!

Nursery Beds

It was have decided to tidy up the nursery beds this year. We have a system of capillary matting covered in a thin black plastic with holes in, this is to aid watering by retaining water in the matting and the plant roots then grow down and take up the water from the matting, but unfortunately it is a case of the theory is better than the practise as there is still plenty of watering to be done.
The black plastic was torn and flapped about in the wind so we have replaced it with a thicker one and covered it in pea gravel it looks really good and now it is being covered with newly potted plants from the stock area.
I must confess that I have not been in the garden this week as the weather has been so awful rain, wind and even sleet, typical Easter weather. I looked back at my blog for this time last year and we wanted rain as it was really dry.

Home Alone

It has been heads down and grafting all the way this last week getting ready for Easter. I have managed to get out in the garden on a few days to carry on weeding but at a weak moment a couple of months ago I allowed Mum and Dad to book two weeks away on holiday this month so most of my time has been spent in the poly tunnel potting up and looking after the nursery and even on a good day customers.
Easter is early this year but even so looking at the weather forcast just the same old cold weather that we always get. We are not as far on as we usually are for this holiday, but we have a quite a few nice plants now in the nursery all growing on well, looking for a new home.
I have cut the grass again and some of the mole damage is now starting to blend in, thank goodness, although I am sure that is another hill popping up over there!!!

Post Holiday Digs

This week it is back to the grind after our holiday we are putting in a new fence across the car park, you might think it is to hide all the piles of sand, gravel and hardcore, but it is actually to give us a little more room in the stock area. As I buy more plants on my travels to other gardens and nurseries I then split them all up to make several plants for the garden and then when they have made a large enough display, I put some in the Goltho nursery.
The fence had been really hard work as we have had to punch through the concrete then dig an 18 in hole through the hardcore, but we have got all the posts in now just got to put the panels up, hurray!!
Last Saturday and Sunday was Discover Lincolnshire weekend run by Lincolnshire Tourism and we were very busy for the time of year and we had loads of new customers who 'Discovered' us for the first time.

Goltho Gardens at Niagara Falls

This looks like the Goltho Gardens staff outing. It is actually myself and my two daughters Kirsty and Emma on our holiday to Canada, Sean took the photograph I thought I would put this in as there is so little happening still in the garden at the moment.
We have got our first daffodils out they are supposed to be a very early variety and are usually out at the end of December begining of January. The snowdrops are looking lovely now and some of the hellebores are finally out.
I have spent this last week in the tunnel trying to pot some plants up ready for selling over Mothers Day and then Easter, some days the pots never thawed out which made things very difficult. I have it on good authoritythough that Spring is starting Wednesday next week. As long as it does not snow!!

Snowdrops where for art thou?

We had two open days last week on Thursday and Friday on behalf on the National Garden Scheme (NGS) the plants in the garden are so far behind that we felt we could not charge an entrance fee so it was just donations to the charity. Is Spring ever going to get here? I do not think it is just us I think it is country wide, when it does finally warm up it is going to be just one big colourful explosion.
We are having our family holiday at the moment and have picked Canada this year, it is like home from home, in fact Manchester airport had more snow when we left than when we arrived in Toronto. It will be straight back to work when we get back, but after catching 6 moles this last month hopefully we will now have a lawn, the weather should be warming up and the grass growing (with luck not the weeds), so the first cut could be imminent.

Water Gardening!

I must say I feel abit of a fraud at the moment writing a gardening blog, as every day I look out of the window and it is either raining and we are very wet or frozen solid. We have managed to cary on doing some semi pollarding in the Nut Walk. The hazel trees need thining but we do not want to totally loose the height by completely cutting them to the floor so just taking out any old and knobbly bits.
We are now open again and it is nice to see a few people braving the winter weather to visit Lesley in the Tea Shop. As yet not too much to see in the garden as the snowdrops have just stopped and even the aconites are only just popping through, they are usually well out by now.
I have to say a very big thank you to all the lads on the island of Masira which is just off the coast of Oman they have collected a large sum for our on going charity 'Help for Heroes' Well done and thanks again.

Heavenly Hellebores

The snow has finally gone but according to the weathermen more is on its way - oh good, I think we have had enough now. I have got into the garden for the first time this year, the sun was shining it was lovely to be outside again. I cut back all the Hellebores and fed them, some were even flowering but most were just starting to peep through the ground, they have slowed down considerably since we have had this cold weather. A few early snowdrops are flowering but the majority are still coming through so a few weeks yet until we see the sheets of white throughout Lincolnshire that make you think of Spring and the better weather.
The seed packing for the Hardy Plant Society will probably finish this week so will be able to get out into the garden more often - lovely!
Do not forget we will be opening again of 3rd February so get those wellies out.

Its Snow Joke Anymore

Not alot happening here at the moment, apart from looking at seed catalogues, watching the birds on the bird table and generally wandering around the house. I really need to get out into the garden and start to do abit of weeding and cutting down, but can not, the snow is lovely to look at but we have had enough now!!
Lesley and I have been asked to go in to BBC Radio Lincolnshire on Sunday to do a question and answer stint as the usual person has double booked, so listen out for us - hope nobody asks any hard questions, our usual 2 minutes slot is also on so we are getting full coverage.
Have started a twitter page 'Golthogardener' so if you are a tweeter give me a tweet - not really sure what I am doing so please help out.