I hope that you all had a Happy Easter. Here at NGS garden Ferns Lodge it was great to be able to dispense cups of tea (or better) to visitors and to enjoy the spring weather and to see the garden really coming to life. It is a wonderful time of year, with birds nesting, we have a couple of pairs of nuthatches rushing around and making ready for an imminent housewarming party. The badgers are very much in evidence and the bees have plenty of brood, and are collecting lots of pollen against, we hope, a successful and honey full season! The camellia, campion, primrose tulip and magnolia are all blossoming and the pieris at the top of the drive is just coming into bloom. The broadleaves are budding but not yet in leaf so the bones of the garden are still very much in evidence.
Last week, I picked up the yellow posters and other paraphernalia that goes with opening a garden for the National Garden Scheme. We’re set – 5th and 6th June and we will be doing it. All the guidance says that all things being equal there will be people, tea and masses of cake! And so we start the rush to be ready and to share this place with lots of wonderful people and to invite them to drink tea, eat cake, buy plants and to enjoy. For those that may have visited before, we want to be sure that they will see the changes, updates, improvements and elbow grease that has been expended in dollops since the last opening (many moons ago…).
New for 2021 is the woodland area by the bottom meadow. There are more new plants for this year, mammoth amounts of weeding and chip, and a new home for the bees. The big garden is, I hope, a little more kempt than before (not helped by all the creatures that share it with us). But of course, by far the biggest change is the vegetable garden – more of an allotment in the making – on the site of the old Victorian vegetable garden.
Since last writing, the vegetable cage is a gnat’s breath away from completion, and we have fruit – cherries, mulberries, apricot and plum, ready to blossom. The rhubarb is in, as well as some enormous pots of potatoes, and gooseberries ready to plant… The polytunnel (which is a lot more complicated than the instructions tell you) will be up next week, and Dan’s wall is cleaned up and there is a plan for him… The whole area has been levelled, more builders’ rubble removed and is ready for rolling… Very much a work in progress, make sure you come and see how we have done at the NGS opening in June…
Contact sue.grant@fernslodge.co.uk.
