Seasonal Sunday - Garden snaps

The start of the new cutting garden and a May full of Roses

Hello my flower loving friends, despite the rain I’ve managed to be in either my garden or someone else’s quite a lot this week. I love visiting open gardens with The National Garden Scheme. You can pick up quite a lot- glean information from fellow gardeners, get inspired to do something different, some have plant stalls and then there’s the cake! Plants and cake- I keep telling my daughters that this is the most perfect combo ever. This week it was rose and pistachio, sorry I’d almost eaten it all when I remembered to take a pic, it was so pretty too.

So the past four Sundays I have been writing about how I started A Bunch Of Wild. It’s the first time I have dedicated time to writing/publishing regularly, not one to love routine I never set these goals or if I do it’s not for long. Yet strangely I found myself looking forward to it and I didn’t want it to end. I think it’s because of two reasons- I love my garden, growing/arranging flowers and I love sharing it, I love the changing seasons. The other thing that I realised was how much nicer it was to slow down and spend time on writing about these things and taking photos and publishing them myself on here instead of Instagram. Instagram is just too fast! It’s too throw away and it doesn’t encourage a simple way of living. So, I’ve decided to stick around with my Sunday posts. I hope they will inspire you and I hope you enjoy them. Now back to the important stuff… Cake.

When I look back at May it really has been all about the roses, they seem to of started early this year in my little part of Bedfordshire. As I sit in my studio and write this I can see Pauls Himalayan Musk rambling in full bloom over the french shed (the open sided cabin in the garden). I’m going to take some cuttings, would you like a video on how I do this? Let me know if you would. My peonies were throwing a strop this year, I moved them from our old garden and I don’t think they noticed last spring as they were glorious, this year they are in a complete sulk and I’ve hardly had any flowers. I know they are planted just right so I’ve just let them get on with it, we’re all allowed an off period from time to time. I’ve been pondering over peonies or roses for the entrance to the new cutting garden and I think Roses. They smell gorgeous and are generally well behaved so long as they have lots of muck at the start of the season. I do find that key, lots of well rotted manure, a very generous mulch in late winter and I don’t have to feed them or do anything much after that except enjoy them. I’ve been cutting lots for the house and have a single stem of Gertrude Jekyll on my side table in the living room, it smells incredible!

This area is the start of the new cut flower beds, entertaining space and right at the back is where the greenhouse is going. I’m so excited as it’s being delivered on Friday eeek, I’m not as excited about building it though. We’ve lifted turf and are laying this membrane that will eventually be covered in a small gravel held in place with steel edging. I’ll probably plant another layer out with lavender to soften it further. I wanted to keep the two beds at the entrance low and the others will be double height. There is so much to be done, but I can see it finished in my mind and a year in- trust me it will look lovely. It will just take a bit of time to weather down. The gravel garden where I concentrated all my efforts on last year is looking absolutely beautiful, it doesn’t take long to establish something that looks like it’s been there for a while.

At the minute there is only one bed for dried flowers but I’m already thinking that next year I’ll do a lot more. The dahlias are over in an old bed at the moment and that’s working well. I started them so early indoors that they have got quite tuff to slugs. If you have dahlias in pots and are struggling with slugs, I would move them into the house every night if you can until their leaves turn a dark green and they’re not so tender and juicy.

It sometimes feels like there isn’t anything happening and I have to check myself to not be in such a rush all the time, after all, A Bunch Of Wild has been ticking by so slowly for the past couple of years that one more won’t hurt me. Today I’m off to Tom Stuart Smiths garden as part of the NGS, I’ve had my tickets booked for ages, it’s always my favourite garden to visit every year! On Monday I’m heading off to beautiful Orford in Suffolk for a few days. I’m packing the watercolours and I’ve a trip planed to Orford ness, I’m looking forward to seeing all the wild flowers and birds, I will of course take lots of pics!

Below is a little video clip of the gravel garden which is up by the cottage and I think is looking rather lovely right now, it reminds me to slow down! So I’m going to leave you with that.

Happy gardenening.

Emma x