Stoned

The Silver Vixen and Urban-cub have had bees in their collective bonnets regarding the build-up of blanket weed in the rill. The Gorse Fox clears it every few weeks, but the cobbles have become slimy and stained over the past few years.

This afternoon it was clearly time to address this. Large receptacles were found and, stone by stone, all the cobbles were removed and stored.

The plan is, apparently, to bleach them and re-use them. The Gorse Fox pointed out that this was a problem as the wastewater needed to be disposed of carefully. Certainly nowhere in the garden is available. We would have to use the drains at the front of the house... but the containers full of cobbles are too heavy to move easily, and will be even heavier when filled with water.

Once cleaned and the water has been filtered out of the rill and the rill cleaned, we will replace everything and add some treatment to the water to try and keep the water clear. Fingers crossed.

Soil

Apparently, the answer lies in the soil. Now, the Gorse Fox isn't quite sure what the question was, but at least he knows where the the answer will be... but back to that later.

It was another gorgeous Spring day and a lovely day to get out and play some football. The Gorse Fox headed across to Worthing and met up with the "lads". We had a good turn out and ended up with 9-v-9 (three of the players were guests from the Worthing club and one asked to join us on a long term basis - which was nice.

The came was bit like ping pong with so many players on the pitch but it was all played in the best of spirits. At half time the Gorse Fox's yellow team were 2-1 down, but soon clawed things back in the second half. We got the score to 4-2 in our favour before conceding two late goals. An honourable 4-4 draw it was then.

Back home, the Silver Vixen had started doing best and pieces in the garden. The rill had been cleared of the winter weed and leaf detritus and she had started to prepare a hole for one of our roses. (Yes this is the answer). The Gorse Fox helped finish the hole and remove the rose from its pot and seat it perfectly in the hole. Then the appropriate amount of back-fill and mushroom compost was applied, the horticultural fabric replace, and the slates replaced. Hopefully this will now allow the rose to flourish.

The Gorse Fox has contacted a garden services company. One of our trees has obvious taken a battering in the winter gales and is leaning at quite an alarming angle. Hopefully these lads can come along and get it sorted out and staked properly.

Hampton Court

We were out the door before nine. Meeting up with neighbours, we headed up to the Hampton Court Flower Show. It was nice that, for a change, the Gorse Fox didn't have to do the driving.  It wasn't a bad journey and we were parked soon after eleven.

A coffee was the first priority, but after that, we split up with the intention of getting back together at lunchtime. There are plenty of places to eat at the show, but we had chosen the restaurant by the bridge across the Long Water.

We started at some of the small gardens. They were only about 4 metres square, but had a lot packed in to a small space.

The Silver Vixen managed to end up chatting with the designer of one of these. He seemed little more than a boy and the Gorse Fox wondered if his parents knew he was bunking off school.

The Conceptual gardens are always a bit of an eye-opener.

They are not necessarily the sort of gardens that inspire the Gorse Fox, but always interesting. This year was no different. Pyramids, Red String, Butterfly Dome (with a very long queue), a wave of black plastic, a "burial bound" with black plastic collapsing scaffolding.
The photo shows a garden that was built to raise awareness of cancer survival rates.

Lunch was taken at the Palace Room. There was much debate over the menu, but when we actually went to collect the chosen meals we were disappointed and ended up having to make alternative selections. The Silver Vixen's choice was wisest - a ham hock salad. Chris, Maureen and the Gorse Fox ended up with baguettes. Tasty enough, but not what we had chosen.

After lunch we split up again. The Silver Vixen and the Gorse Fox headed for the Floral marquee. This huge marquee houses hundreds of exhibits showing flowers and shrubs of every imaginable type.

We always wander round the whole display, but are drawn particularly to the Acers, the Fuchsias, and the Orchids.

The manufacturer of our garden furniture had an impressive display. On their stand, Bramblecrest, had the recliners, footstools, and a side table that matched our existing furniture. This was on offer and discounted by a third. This was a significant saving and having negotiated a free-delivery, we decided that it would be foolish to pass up the opportunity to complete the garden seating. This will take several weeks to arrive - but there is no hurry.

We all met up again for a cup of tea, to review our day and check whether there was anything we needed to go back and check, see, or purchase. Content, we headed back to the car and joined the traffic. The satnav was kind to us and selected some good routes and we made good time (considering it was rush hour). We stopped for a pint at The Gribble then got back in time to watch the Wales-Portugal game at the Euros.

A perfect day - it is only a shame that our other neighbours, Trudy and Ian, were unable to join us.

Stake it

It was bright and sunny, though a little breezy. There were tasks to complete in the garden, so the Gorse Fox set about the mental list.

We have a lovely Cryptomeria Japonica which is taking quite a battering from the winds, so the first task was to get that staked up properly. A club hammer and damp soil made that a fairly simple task. We had decided that the Japanese lantern was in the wrong place, so that needed moving to a new home. This made way for one of the new planters which would house a lovely white hydrangea.

The Gorse Fox then set about the Acers - several of them needed a bit of tidying and shaping. The Silver Vixen meanwhile planted up the new Acers and hydrangea into the new planters. There's still a bit more to do, but we have exhausted our supply of compost until we take a trip to the garden centre.

(I notice that it was 43 years ago yesterday that we moved in to our first house - that was a lovely three-bedroom residence in Hoddesdon. Such exciting times.)

Gold

Hillier Gardens won a Gold Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show this year. Today we had the chance to go along to the local Hillier Centre to see one of their managers talk about how they go about putting their display together. It was an excellent talk and fascinating information. They have several teams with up to about 40 people working on the site for 12 days. Huge lorries are dispatched to arrive at 9, 10, and 11 day after day. In the end they sent some 4,500 plants, using about 2,500 thereof; there was 35 tons of rock, 7 tones of bark, and heavens knows what else. The chap also talked about some of the specific stars of their display - Acer Moonrise, some dianthus, some hydrangeas and so forth. It was an excellent couple of hours.

Leaving Hillier we found that a couple of new acers had leapt into our trolley.

The afternoon was spent with a touch of pruning the existing acer s, then up to the study to rebuild "peregrine". The rebuild, using the new configurator, took about 30 minutes from scratch. Next step will be to automate the backup of the database before the Gorse Fox starts to build the blog.

Kinda Blue

The Gorse Fox has been helping out in the garden. Now, calm yourselves, this had nothing to do with horticulture. This was maintenance of a trellis built several years ago. Wear and tear, sea spray, and friction from the climbers it supported had rendered the colour pale and wan. The Silver Vixen had decided this needed sorting and so the trellis-work was released from its frame and attacked with paint brushes and blue paint. A further coat will be needed on the reverse side tomorrow, but it's looking smarter already.

A little dynamic re-design has been called for as the original frame clearly had some flaws due to the softness of the wood and weight of the vegetation. A trip to the nearby DIY emporium has seen a selection of wood obtained to fulfil this redesign as soon as possible.

Hedging bets

Mellors and his brother-in-law have arrived to treat the hedge to a haircut. It's a bit overdue, but he seems to be doing a good job.

Parting Views

Some parting views of Rosemoor. The Gorse Fox loved it.

As they left the Silver Vixen was waylaid by an Embroidery Exhibition that had been lurking by the door... so we wandered round that for a while. As we approached the exit a matronly woman entered, followed by her husband who muttered something soto voce. She turned and demanded he repeat what was said.

"I said, 'If I lose the will to live, you'll find me outside, impaled on a pitchfork'".

The Gorse Fox smiled and caught his eye as it rolled out of sight. 

We left the exhibition and hit the plant shop (which we, somehow, escaped empty handed).

We got back onto the road and made our way back to Sussex. It had been a fun few days.

Lakes and streams

Gorse Fox loved the area closer to the lake. The small rill that cascaded down amongs the ferns and gunnera towards the lake. The mix of depth, colour and texture made it hard to drag the eyes away.

Diversion

The route home was not what you might call direct. We diverted into North Devon and stopped at the RHS Gardens at Rosemoor near Great Torrington.

Having spent time at Wisley, this came as a bit of a surprise. It's on a different scale, nestling in a secluded wooded valley a few miles from the North Devon coastline. It was well worth the diversion.

As you leave the entrance there is an area of formal gardens which melt away to fields, a lake, and quiet woodlands.

These first few photos are from the formal parts of the garden... which the GF really enjoyed.

More Garden Pictures

A few more pictures from the Sherfield-on-Loddon garden

Gardens

The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox were again visiting Betty and Barney Rubble.

Lunch was enjoyed at the Jekyll & Hyde on the Reading Road. A wonderful chicken and bacon salad to start and then a rack of excellent ribs (though not quite as tender as GF likes).

From there we stopped off at another house exhibiting under the National Garden Scheme. This one at Sherfield-on-Loddon was about one third of an acre and subdivided into a number of smaller garden "rooms".

Garden melee

What the photos don't reveal is that degree of popularity afforded to the gardens. They were absolutely heaving with people, and each of the photos was the result of immense patience or sheer luck finding a nanosecond when nobody was pushing through or blocking the view.

In summary several of the gardens were very nice but most were fairly average, and the whole event was rather spoiled by its own success and the number of visitors that were milling around and queuing for garden after garden.

Quirky

An article in The Times recently began: " Hidden in the seaside town of Worthing, behind a busy high street, is an easily missed gem. Ambrose Place, a beautiful row of white, balconied Regency terraced houses, is known locally for two things: it is where Harold Pinter wrote The Homecoming and it is home to a group of people who, for 25 years, have opened their gardens to the public, as part of the National Gardens Scheme."

Ambrose Place is a wonderful Regency terrace with long narrow north-facing courtyard gardens. Normally you would expect the a north facing garden to be cold, but here on the coast the protection that the terrace provides from the strong sea-born wind has allowed some nice gardens to evolve.

But then you see a feature such as this and realize maybe they are cold after all.

NGS

It was a bright, though very breezy day down on the coast.

The morning was dedicated to catching up on some coding chores and helping the Silver Vixen select a paper bag supplier (GF assumes they will arrive in a paper bag).

In the afternoon we headed for Worthing to some gardens that had been opened under the National Garden Scheme.