The Fontana Garden

* I was invited to the press preview for and provided with a pair of tickets to Gardeners’ World Live so I’m marking posts from the show as 'Ad’ - as usual my views and opinions are very much my own. Be sure to check out all of my posts from the show.

This garden is pretty special, and for a number of reasons. Firstly it’s incredibly striking - though I think the blue skies and warm temperatures helped, but also because it was sponsored by 92 year old Derek Bishop whose lifetime ambition has been to be park of a show garden, but mostly because after the show this garden will live on and was gifted to Cornwall Hospice Care. It was designed by Kim Parish with that in mind, and I’m sure it will be a fantastic space for patients, their families and the hospice staff.

The garden uses clever design to incorporate seating and dining areas, making use of the shaded area beneath its main focus, as well as a water feature which I’m sure will be calming both while it was at the show and in its future location. The planting features alliums heavily, along with tree ferns - there’s something about how they sway in the breeze that’s also calming isn’t there.

It’s funny though looking at these pictures a year on and the structures are not that dissimilar to our new garden - well, except that our garden structures are the garage and trellis around the heat pump, but the ribbed cladding and dark colour is similar-ish!

We clearly don’t have the planting, but again this post is a good reminder to be bold and to use plants we love - that’ll be ferns and alliums on my plant wish list then!

The Fontana Garden is a gorgeous garden though isn’t it?

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was as fabulous as ever!

The sputnik in the loos at the Nevile Arms

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a post in the Loo Series, and as you’d expect often I don’t know when I’ll find a loo worthy of sharing. So when it happens, who knows, but here I am sharing a loo from after our circular walk from Kinoulton to Hickling.

At first I didn’t notice what you’ll come to see dominates my pictures, but once I’d spotted the light fitting I was mesmerised. I mean it’s a great light fitting, and it totally gives the small space (they’re mostly a small space aren’t they?!) it’s character.

I told you it was a great light fitting, didn’t I?

The rest of the decor was pretty classic and smart, but the sputnik light fitting added the character. Though while it caught my attention, it wasn’t the only design feature.

Both the cherry blossom-like garland around the mirror and the floor tiles would usually have captured all the attention - and the floor tiles especially are just fab (shame I don’t need any new tile inspiration for my new house!). But the three together - garland, tiles and light - made a small space pretty special.

Here’s to the renewed energy to this series of this posts, who knows when I’ll share one next!

My garden in April

In my previous update I shared how our garden was reawakening, bringing colour with daffodils and the start of the tulips, this month that continued and although the weather hasn’t been great the garden has been stoic - the tulips have done their thing and made me smile during the windier days, and the blossom has been fab. I’ve so many more photos, so that’s another sign that the weather is on the up!

I’m glad I captured the tulips on the patio being blown about - it made me smile, though I’m guessing the tulips weren’t quite so keen! I wasn’t sure if they would right themselves as even once the wind stopped they stayed bent, but after a while they did straighten up again, though some of them stayed a little wayward - as tulips do!

The trees have started to flourish this month, and some more than others but I’ll come onto that. The crab apple tree started with the deepest pink blossom, which faded to pale pink and then white as the flowers opened. By the end of the month most of the blossom has gone - either naturally or helped by the wind, so I’m hoping that we’ll have plenty of crab apples to harvest later in the year.

I had concerns about one of the field maples, we have three in the outside border. The central one wasn’t in leaf as much as the other two and so I sought some advice from the RHS, which I didn’t realised I could do until now. The advice confirmed my suspicions and some remedial work has been needed, so we did that one sunny Saturday morning with much trepidation. It’s early days, and of course the tree is now much smaller than the other two which is a shame, but a healthier tree is a much more preferable result. Hopefully I’ll be able to share more good news on this in future, but for now please keep your fingers crossed.

There’s better news elsewhere in the garden though. The small nectarine tree which I brought home from dad has thrived over the winter, and last month I shared its blossom. This month I finally braved my knot skills and made a frame for it from bamboo canes and twine. And I was quite impressed with how it turned out.

I checked to see how it was doing towards the end of the month, and look, there looks like there may be tiny fruits starting to grow. There’s a few on each branch (but this is the best photo I have), so who knows what I’ll be able to share later in the year.

The potted acer outside our back door is full of leaves now, and I think could probably do with a trim - but it seems happy where it is as I’m not sure I remember seeing so many leaves on it before. I’m not complaining though.

See what I mean about how joyous the crab apple blossom is?

With a brown bin collection due I decided to make the most of that and a sunny morning, and took my secateurs to the buddleia bush. At one point I thought this whole bush would be for the chop, but after seeing how many butterflies and bees it brought to the garden I had a change of heart, so I pruned it instead. And then it all grew back, and so I’ve cut it a little bit harder this time. I’m under no illusion though that I won’t be cutting this again, and again though!

I bought some seedling lettuces at the garden centre this month, and then realised I no longer have a greenhouse. I also realised this again after I sowed some sunflowers, but more on that another time. Of course I know I don’t have a greenhouse, but it’s only when you have small plants (or seeds) that you realise how useful a greenhouse would be. Instead though the lettuces have been sheltering low down in one of the pots we brought with us from London, in one of the more sheltered spots I’d found. I potted them on and then nestled them into place, and they’ve done really well so I’m hopeful we’ll be eating red lettuce this summer.

I love raindrops on plants, especially on lupins - and this month as well as the wind, the lupins we bought at the Newark Garden Show, got to experience that first hand too.

In other good news the silver birch whip which we picked up from our council back in January is alive. I wasn’t sure what it would do, especially as I put it into a pot rather than straight into the ground, but when I checked it I was really pleased to see leaves at the base and midway up the stick of a tree. There’s buds all the way to the top of the plant, so with a few more nicer days I’m sure there’ll be more leaves to come.

The small apple tree which we brought from London is also back in leaf. I’ve been wondering where we can plant this and coming up blank as the gaps we have are a bit too close to the house, or as the tree grows would block views we currently enjoy. Talking through the start of our garden plans with MOH we realised that the back wall might also be an option for this tree, though it is much more mature than the nectarine tree above I’m going to look at it more closely to see if that too can also be trained to grow along a frame. I suspect that it would benefit from refreshed soil and some weeding in any case - as over the past few years it’s been left to fend for itself standing on the step outside our old shed.

While checking to see how the pots had overwintered I was pleased to see the redcurrant plant which hadn’t really thrived in our previous garden was in leaf, but more surprised to see that one of the peonies has already started to grow though its circular support.

I can’t wait to see how our garden develops in the next month, I’m sure I’ll have much more to share next time round.