Sunshine After the Storm at NGS Garden Ferns Lodge

As I sit at my desk to write this blog, the door is open to glorious sunshine. Ghillie and caterpillar sunbath on the lawn outside – and life is good! It has been sometime since I posted and since then we have opened the garden at the end of May for the National Garden Scheme and sold industrial quantities of scones with lashings of cream and jam and have also opened for the U3A Gardening Club in Romsey on the 1st June. No wonder Ghillie needs a snooze – it has been frantic! And so now the garden returns to its normal rhythm of gardening, watering, vegetable growing, battling with moles (I am afraid that they haven’t gone anywhere – in fact, we think that they have brought in reinforcements!) and planning the next projects in the garden.

A huge thank you to all those who helped us to show 170 people around the garden to raise money for the NGS – which will go to hospital charities. A short list…

• Anne – Our ace scone maker.
• Isabel – Financial controller assisted by Josh.
• Barbara – Plant lady.
• Lawrence – On web/social media.
• Sue and Michael White – On anything that needed doing from kitchen to chipping.
• Simon – My amazing gardener.
• Julie, Simon and Adele on feeding people.
• Cameron – Who lent the field/car park.
• Karen and Robin – Amazing cake makers.
• Elizabeth – From the NGS, who is in charge of Ferns Lodge and who is unfailingly encouraging about this funny little place.

…and to many others who baked, supported, donated plants and just listened to all my wittering about the openings – you have all been brilliant so THANK YOU all. We were able to send around £1,400 in total again to the NGS, which is deeply cool.

Thank you to everyone who visited – and particularly to Derrick Knight who took these amazing photographs when he visited – check out the scones!

derrickjknight Galley – https://derrickjknight.com/2022/05/28/ferns-lodge/

It is now very much mid-summer and the oxeye daisies and forget-me-not have had their day. The foxgloves now look like gangly teenagers flopping all over the place, but they will stay until they have given their precious seed which will make foxgloves for 2024. The roses are in bloom, agapanthus on its way, salvias are growing hugely. In the vegetable garden we have broad beans, spinach leaves, new potatoes, currants, strawberries and the tomatoes are starting to ripen. It has been super dry so there is an industrial amount of watering to do to keep everything going, and in areas the grass is somewhat parched….

However, the new grass is doing well and ‘Spring’ in the bottom meadow is now surrounded by lovely new grass and he looks fab. We have had woodpeckers bringing up their young in the top garden (and what a racket they made!). The raptor is still very much in evidence and the rabbit population in the big garden is feeling her presence!

So now we have the rest of summer to look forward to, with much gardening, planning and snoozing in the sun for Ghillie…

Contact sue.grant@fernslodge.co.uk.