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A little later than planned but finally I’ve managed to catch up with my news from the garden. The sickening events in Manchester last week left me with little enthusiasm for writing garden trivia and it’s taken a while to get back into the mood.

A few weeks back Mrs. Monty and I visited the garden of Tilford House in Hognaston which was open as part of the National Gardens Scheme. The owners, appropriately named Mr. and Mrs. Gardner (I kid you not) have created a wonderful streamside garden of woodland, wildlife and pond areas. A good example of a garden style where weeds are tolerated and even enhance the overall environment. We’re already looking forward to our next garden visit to Culland Hall on the 18th June which has a great plant sale with many specialist nurseries in attendance (be warned, cash only)

One of Peter Gardner’s favourite plants is the Hosta of which he has some 300 varieties. His wife Jean refers to his collection as his “hostalry”. The Hosta is also one of my favourites and whilst I don’t have such numbers I have been creating my own hostalry for the local population of slugs and snails. This is how the menu is looking so far –

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No. 3 April 2017

It’s great to see Big Bill back at the helm at Leatherbritches. Mrs. Monty and I called in to pick up a few plants and found Bill in top form. Our quick stop took an hour and a half (boy can Bill talk, 🙂 ) and we came away loaded with a great selection of plants not to mention some great tips on dealing with slugs and snails. This involved vaseline, garlic and copious amounts of boiling water so probably best not to go into details here!

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Time is moving a pace and signs of Spring are eveywhere. Our winter visitors have departed and the regular summer residents are becoming more noticable.

When I saw this visitor during the RSPB Garden Birdwatch he was a drab brown bird but now that brown cover is wearing off to reveal the deep black head

The Great East West Divide

Strolling round the village this week I’ve been struck by the apparent differences in plants. Whilst the West End excells as the centre of culture and entertainment (  cinema, theatre, indoor sports arena and gymnasium, live music venues, disco, social club to name just a few) it is a veritable barren wasteland compared to the East End when it comes to the flora. Take a look at these samples from the East End and compare those found here in the grounds of Haughty Towers.

The contrast in the Ornamental Currant (Ribes) is quite striking with our specimen looking several weeks behind.

It shows how position, even in a small area like Parwich can make a huge sifference to how a garden performs.

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Spring is fast approaching and our winter visitors are departing, it’s time to start thinking gardens!

After reading Emma’s recent post about the best broad bean and tomatoes seeds to grow in Parwich I got to thinking how much gardening knowledge there is in the village and how little I know! Though I’ve successfully grown both for the last two years I was embarrassed to post a comment as the beans came as small plants labelled “Broad Beans” from Homebase and the tomatoes nicely planted up in large hanging baskets having been grown on in the big greenhouses at Wyaston Nurseries. My gardening experience seems to revolve around rotting rose blossoms, mildewy bears britches, brown spotted broad beans, non-appearing carrots and hosting slug and snail parties.

So now you know my level of gardening knowledge you will understand why I thought it would be a good idea to start a regular gardening post on the blog where we could share the pool of local knowledge with us newcomers/novice gardeners. After all what grows happily in Berkshire won’t necessarily survive in Parwich. There always seems to be people with too many seeds/plants/crops so this could be a useful sharing and swopping point. So welcome to the place where you can ask the gardening questions you were always afraid to ask!

Plant of the Month

The first regular feature is my garden plant of the month (always assuming any plants survive! ). This month it is the Galanthus – the Snowdrop. Our garden seems to be crowded with them at the moment – not planted by me I should add.

I’ve read they should be lifted and divided every 3-4 years, after flowering. We’ve been here for 3 years so I guess that’s a job for me sometime soon?

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