Preparing for judging

Here we are getting the garden looking good for judging by the Daily Mail Judges. I'm just recovering from a major abcess in my tooth, had finally got to sleep because of the pain, when I get a call from the Daily Mail can the judges come and see my garden next week....panic, if you'd seen the garden a week ago you'd have been shocked, in parts it was full of 3' high stinging nettles and other general huge weeds. Luckily my friend from my RHS class Jayne, agreed to come and spend the afternoon helping.

The beds over by the summerhouse were some of the worst for invasion of couch grass and nettles and creeping buttercup, luckily the candelabra primulas look so wonderful . (Can't see them in this photo I know)

The woodland garden is non existant, the pots of azalea and rhododendrons awaiting planting have added some much needed colour, I must get them planted.

The gateway through to the woods I always looks inviting, its like being in another world once you pass over the threshold.

Good News and Bad

The good news in that Elaine has been chosen as one of the final eleven in the Daily Mail Gardener of the Year competition and the judges are visiting next week.

The bad news is the judges are visiting next week so all our friends and relatives and even people we have met on the street are going to be helping out with the weeding.

Plus I have moved the site to another server so some pictures may be missing for a day or so.

Visit to Abbey Dore

This was the first time I came across a Scillia 'Peruviana' it is absolutely stunning. There are many of them dotted around the gravel area's of Abbey Dore, and its on my 'must have plants' list, unfortunately there were none available here.

I love Abbey Dore gardens and have been several times this year all ready. Its one of those gardens you can keep going back to, there is so much interest here. I love all the peonies in this walled garden, its remarkable to think that all this garden is looked after by an 80 year old. And new areas are still being developed, and I'm pleased to see she has a taste for rusty reinforcing steel too.

This view of the garden is taken from over the other side of the river, where we are having the carpark for the open gardens. I find it a good place to look at the garden as its not one I see very often so get to see it as other people do.

Another view of the garden that I'm not used to, this is from over the bottom wall, it gives me a good perspective and I find areas I've not noticed before, as when you're working in the garden you just get so used to things, you stop noticing problems, and these views highlight the good and the bad.