Visiting the four RHS Gardens this year

This year is my second year as a member of the RHS, and at the start of the year I wondered if I could manage to visit all four of their gardens. Some, I knew would be easier than others. Living in London, getting to Wisley in Surrey and Hyde Hall in Essex are relatively easy and are the gardens I’ve been to most.

The other two, Harlow Carr in Yorkshire and Rosemoor in Devon, I’d never been to, but with relatives in Devon I thought this was do-able. We were in Devon in March and it was on our ‘to visit’ list but our visit was cut short when the snow started to come in. We knew we’d be back later in the year, and so my plan was to sneak in a visit then. That was last weekend and even though the forecast was rain, we made it happen.

Though if we’d not made it to Harlow Carr, made possible by a tactical UK break, then maybe we’d have left it for another year. I’m glad we didn’t though as it’s nice to meet the challenges we set ourselves, even if visiting each of the RHS gardens in a year isn’t the most strenuous of challenges!

RHS Wisley

Wisley in Surrey is the RHS’ historic home and the RHS garden I’ve visited the most. The hot houses are always a favourite spot in January and February, as not only are they warm but they’re full of butterflies and exotic plants. Other usual haunts are the alpine houses and the vegetable garden, and I’m continually amazed by the Bonsai too.

IN THE GLASS HOUSE

THE VEGETABLE GARDEN

SUCCULENTS

THE ALPINE HOUSE

RHS Hyde Hall

I’ve only been to this garden a few times, despite the fact that it’s only in Essex but each time it’s been full of sculptures. They’ve had some building work done and it was great to see the new visitor centre and cafe open on my last visit. And I finally got into the new vegetable garden, which opened a week after my previous visit, bad timing or what?

ON THE SCULPTURE TRAIL

EXQUISITE FLOWERS

DELIGHTFUL DAHLIAS

THE DRY GARDEN

RHS Harlow Carr

My first visit was in July during our week in Yorkshire, and as you can tell from the photos we had great weather. I realised while creating this post that I’ve not shared much from there yet, but on the plus side there’s some sunny posts to look forward to over the winter.

CONTAINERS

THE STREAMSIDE WALK

INSECTS IN THE BORDERS

JUST STUNNING

RHS Rosemoor

The final garden and the last one I visited, after an aborted attempt much earlier in the year. I’m not sure why we haven’t been before when we head down to Devon normally at least once a year. It’s a place we’ll be going to again, and while it was full of autumn colours on our visit it’ll be great to see it in a different season to see how the garden changes.

AUTUMN COLOURS

PUMPKINS

MEDLARS

THE HOBBIT HOUSE

So there’s a selection of photos from each of the four gardens, I’m not sure I’ll manage to get to them all again next year - but you never know. And then in 2020 the challenge increases as the new RHS garden in Manchester is due to open, now that I’ll be keen to see.

Have you been to any of these RHS gardens, or more than one?

2016 items in 2016

Now there's a few things that MOH says that simply fill me with dread; one of them is "we need to have a clear out" because while he says that, what I hear is "we need to clear out some of your junk!"

We have a different philosophy towards things, while neither of us like to throw things that work perfectly well away, I have a tendency to find an alternative use for something, or a reason to hang onto them a little longer. 

Remember my allotment shorts with the hole? Yes, exactly.  

And I do tend to have more things than MOH as well. So it's been building up and I knew it was coming. Then last we he said.

We need to have a clear out... 

To be fair he has a point, but still I'm hearing my version of those words.

I read recently (I forget where) of someone who while decluttering their life committed to throw away the same number of items as the year - so 2010 items in 2010, 2011 items in 2011 and so on - until they reached the optimum number of things for them.

And I wondered how that might work for us. 

Now I'm not planning on making this an annual exercise - or at least I don't think I am - but I am curious as to what the number might be. So with Spring around the corner and the tidy bug rising I'm going to keep a count of the things we get rid of. 

Keeping count

So I mentioned my intention to MOH casually, like you do, and his reaction was that it seemed a bit extreme!  See, I can't win [smiley face].

He (bless him) thought we probably didn't own that many items, or at least that many we wanted to get rid of.  I however suspect we might (that's the Royal we there) but he's just oblivious to it, clearly I could have convinced him he was wrong but well, we all know that in married life it's important to choose where and when to put our OHs right. 

And isn't it funny how we somehow have switched roles?

Now there's a challenge and a number to aim at I'm looking at things in a new light and things I no longer need, won't use again or are seriously past their best (and I can see no viable use for) are being rounded up. MOH soon recovered his position though and is threatening a t-shirt cull - as long as he counts them, I'm fine with that.

A spreadsheet for that

I also happened to mention that I had a very clever spreadsheet to help track the number of items we get rid of and what our new target is. I've kept it simple - it can be a bag of things to the charity shop, as long as I know the number of items it has in it, I'm fine. I don't need to detail every single item, although I did briefly consider it.

He knows me well and wasn't surprised to learn there was a spreadsheet, so we're currently going through the enthusiastic, teasing and annoying stage where I'm constantly being asked if it's in my spreadsheet. I know him well too, and he'll soon get bored and then he'll think it's useful.

So this year I'm going to see how close we can get to getting rid of 2016 items. That can be by giving things away, selling them, donating to charity or if they're past their best throwing them away. 

However tempting it is I won't be including things that we'd normally throw away because that would defeat the object - although if I'm very close to the target later in the year I might revise that!!  We'll see how we go.

I'm also conscious that it's the middle of March already and so I've missed the start of the year but, hey that's where we are and I don't think even I can wait until January 2017 to start this!  

88 items down already

So after a clear out of our bookshelves following their DIY makeover and generally rounding up things already earmarked for the charity shop I've already got rid of 88 items, with another twenty or so at least ear-marked for similar treatment.

So with just the 88 items gone already, my total is already down to 1928 items left to find... Wish us luck - I'll let you know (every now and then) how we get on!

Do you think us brave, mad or is this something you'd consider as well?  Leave a comment and let me know