Once
again, Janella came up trumps and organised another wonderful trip for us this
year. I think I can speak for all of us
when I say we thoroughly enjoyed the day, ate our fill of cake, admired the
gardens and were like children in a sweetshop when faced with the range of
plants on sale.
Our
first stop was Ellicar Gardens where we were greeted by Sarah who offered us coffee and
scrumptious cake before visiting the garden.
As well as the geese, hens and a rather large sow, there is a natural
swimming pond complete with hot tub in this beautiful garden.
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| The parterre |
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| The children's garden |
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| The swimming pond |
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| The wildflower garden |
The playground
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| Sanguisorba 'Tanna' |
We were in good company as the editor of
English Garden, Tamsin Westhorpe, arrived while we were there. Laden with our purchases from the nursery, we
returned to the coach.
Next
stop was Norwell Nurseries. Andrew and
Helen came to this plot in 1994 from a terrace house with tiny garden near
Spaghetti Junction. They have worked
hard on their clay soil which is in a frost pocket to produce a stunning garden
and nursery. Andrew gave a short talk
followed by a tour round the garden, happily and knowledgeably answering all our
questions.
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| The shade garden |
We finished with tea and
cake; it would have been rude not to! Again
we returned to the coach armed with plants galore.
Final
stop was the National Trust Garden Clumber Park. We arrived later than scheduled to view the
lovely walled gardens and hothouse. Some
of us felt that the signage was poor, over 100 species of rhubarb were left to
go to seed and we couldn’t find the cafe which was a six minute walk from the
gardens.
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| This is the red section of the walled garden; the other two sides were white and blue |
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| He wasn't with our group |
Our
thanks go to Janella for her hard work in planning the day so well and to Ken
the driver of the Dalesman Coach who cheerfully stowed our many plants, hazel
stakes and obelisks in the hold and calmly drove his coach in traffic jams,
under low bridges, through narrow gates and along country roads. Although I purchased some interesting plants, my wish list has grown even longer.
Notice
Board
Our
own Kate Van Heel is appearing on Instant Gardener BBC1 Friday 4.45.
Next
Meeting
7th
August: Forum
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