Garden Visit to Swindon House Farm, Kirkby Overblow

Penny Brook (on the right) welcomed us to her garden at Swindon House Farm,Kirkby Overblow, which is set in the beautiful countryside of North Yorkshire. Penny moved here over 30 years ago and we saw photograph of when the plot was just fields. Since then she has worked hard, planted trees and native hedges and made the garden into what we saw today.

Penny is passionate about wildlife and we reached the garden through wildflower meadows in which she has erected poles for the owls to perch on and hunt for voles and stoats. The large pond is home to many frogs and newts, there are hens strutting around in one of the fields and any prunings are left in piles for the wildlife.

 Compost area

The garden is divided into areas, some with mixed perennial borders, there is an orchard, raised beds with herbs, fruit and vegetables including figs, gooseberries and rhubarb and a cut flower patch.

We thoroughly enjoyed the visit and the cream tea and will take away many ideas for our own gardens.

Next Meeting: 17^th July – Friday Forum Summer Show. Details can be found on the Flower Show page.

“Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as paint and the soil and sky as canvas.” Elizabeth Murray

Peter Williams thoroughly entertained us with his talk called Plant Portraits.

Peter talked us through some of the HPS seven special interest groups with expertise, humour, photographs and illustrations by the artist and gardener Twink Addison.

He discussed Geraniums, Peonies, Ranunculus and Variegated plants amazing us with stories and facts of each group. We hope that Peter will return and talk to us about the other groups at a future date.

For more information on the plants discussed, Peter recommended:

HPS website HPS website

Instragram of David Bruce's for photos of Peonies(1) Instagram    

and John Grimshaw (1) Instagram

Display Table

 

Dorothy brought Zantedeschia, Penstemon, the new Sweetpea Pink Pearl, Dianthus Raspberry Ripple and another pink one, Salvia Cerro Potos, Abutilon and a Marsh Orchid

 

Dorothy’s pot of Oxalis grew from the odd shaped corms which Norma found when clearing out one of her plant pots

 Kate brought Astrantia: Maxima, Buckland, Shaggy, Gill Richardson variety and a white one, Rosa ‘Gertrude Jekyll’, Kalimeris ‘Charlotte’ and ‘Antonia’

 Kate also brought an Acer grown from seeds given out by Peter Williams on one of his visits to Friday Forum

Sue brought Peony ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ which was given to her by late member Jenny, Allium nigrum, Penstemon, yellow Potentilla ‘Rector’, Penstemon ‘Alice Hindley’, Polemonium and Alstroemeria

 

Maggie brought poppies and herbaceous Clematis ‘Pangbourne Pink’ for members to propagate

Next Meeting

 Next meeting on 3rd July is a garden visit to Swindon House Farm in Kirkby Overblow

*Booking essential as numbers limited*

Meet at 1.30pm at the garden.

Full details sent to members via email

17^th July: Summer mini show

From 1.30 to 1.50 there will be 20 minutes to set up your entries before judging begins.

Categories can be found on Flower Show Page

Garden visit to The Old Vicarage, Whixley

 

Biddy and Roger welcomed us to their beautiful garden which they started from a virtual blank canvas 57 years ago. As its name implies, The Old Vicarage belonged to the historical church further up the lane, which is also worth a visit. Biddy attended a course at Askham Bryan college and has transformed the space into several delightful areas which gives all year interest. There are many species of rose and Biddy credits their tiptop condition to the application of Uncle Tom’s rose tonic in Autumn and Spring.

Recently a former nearby storage space which receives full sun has been planted as prairie garden an orchard and vegetable patch.

 This pot of Phyteuma received a lot of interest

 These beautiful floral arrangements were on the dining table where tea was served

The weather stayed fine and we had a most enjoyable afternoon doing what we like best; wandering round interesting gardens with friends followed by tea and cake.

Next Meeting

19th June: Presentation - Peter Williams. Plant Portraits

The Adventurous Gardener

 

Hilary Hutson gave us an interesting talk on
The Adventurous Gardener.

This will be the fourth or fifth time Hilary has come to talk to us but this was the first time in our new location.

Hilary showed us lots of pictures of lesser known plants.  One of her top ten plants is AQUILEGIA Fancy Finch.

She talked about cross pollination, vagaries of the weather and how fences, walls and other boundaries don’t always shield plants.
 She advised us of the importance of knowing your own soil and how to get hold of unusual plants.

This was a most absorbing talk by Hilary who had put an enormous amount of work into it using graphs, charts and illustrations in her presentation.

Display Table

 Ann’s vase contained Paris – quadrifolia, Arum, May Lily and purple Lamium

 

 Kate brought Deutzia gracilis 'Nikko', Silene fimbriata, Geranium nodosum 'Blueberry Ice', Persicaria bistorta, Geum 'Lemon Drops', Lily of the Valley, Cotinus 'Royal Purple' and Actinidia 'Kolomikta'

Next Meeting: Friday 5^th June. This is a garden visit and members are asked to meet at 1.30 pm. Details are given below.

Plants are solar powered air purifiers whose filter never needs replacing. ~ Khang Kijarro Nguyen.

 Houseplant forum

Houseplant Forum

Members brought in a wide variety of indoor plants and spoke about them.

 Amanda’s Billbergia 

 

Judith’s Pot et Fleur at bottom of photo; a Victorian idea which combines living house plants with cut flowers, allowing you to create sustainable floral arrangements in one container. Judith has Dahlia Moonflower, Coleus, Heliotrope, Geranium and a Kalanchoe

Norma brought a Begonia at top of photo with colourful leaves which she first saw gracing the hearths at Burton Agnes Hall. She demonstrated how to propagate this plant by making slits in a leaf, placing on compost and weighing down with a stone until rooted.

 

Derek’s Golden Barrel cactus, grown from a seed picked up in Tenerife. Derek told us that, just because a cactus or succulent can survive in a dry climate, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t water or feed it regularly and his plant is proof of this.

 

 Maggie’s Echinocactus fictus which, obviously, doesn’t need watering ever!

 

 Carol brought an Episcia cupreata Strawberry Fields

 Ann brought a Calathea/Prayer Plant

 Linda’s Asplenium antiquum (the Bird’s Nest Plant) and was told to water it more frequently to avoid the leaves turning brown.

Display Table

 

Dorothy’s bouquet included double white Lilac, Aubretia, Clematis Montana, Acer palmatum atropupureum, Centaura cyanus, Spanish Bluebells and a white Bluebell.

 Trevor brought his five bulbs of Narcissus Baby Boomer which have only just flowered, although not all of them!

Next Meeting

15^th May: A presentation by Hilary Hutson called “The Adventurous Gardener”.