Mill Dene Autumn 2007

What a year it has been  We had the most beautiful April and May then it started to rain in June and did not really stop until September.  Maybe to compensate the Autumn has been wonderful for colour and berries and the leaves are still hanging on.

Mill Dene was pretty severely flooded on that Friday in July.  The mill pond flooded into the Dining Room, then overflowed and filled the sluice cut, which then overflowed into the cellar.  The water knocked over the locked cellar door, breaking it down, trashed the potting shed and the office then careered into the wheel-pit area knocking over the central heating boiler on its way.

The villagers think it is very funny that the Dares lost two boxes of wine which were washed into the wheel-pit and under the drive down into the brook behind.  My son had to put on waders and walk down the stream to my neighbours who gave them back, rather reluctantly we thought!

 
Happily the only bit of the garden which is damaged badly is the bog area is the back.  It was just coming into flower nicely and getting established.  Calla lilies, astibiles, ligularias and loads of primulas and ferns were all beginning to ‘put on weight’.

Never mind it is a challenge, an opportunity.  Right now we are putting all the summer pots to bed as the first frost of the Winter is with us.  I do hope the Plectranthus and heliotrope  especially will survive with us.  They usually do.  We keep them just frost free in the greenhouses.  Then we will have to re-make the walls of the brook  where it flood broke them down and re-plant.  That lovely moment will have come again: What to choose.  I think that re-designing and re-making beds in the Autumn is perhaps the best time of the whole year.

Our main escape this Autumn has been lighting the garden:  it really does look magic.  Paul Gwilliams of Lights4gardens has been doing all the work and the results are terrific.  Come to our evening opening and enjoy it with us.  (See the Whats On page)

 Mill Dene in June and July

June 21st 2006

We have been rather pre-occupied by our orphans! The fox ate their Mother, a beautiful Gloucestershire Appleyard Duck, called Elizabeth. Her chum, Philip, could do nothing to save her so we were left with 11 day old chicks. Today, seven of them have survived and we have let them loose on the mill pond. So far so good. Anyone want an Appleyard? 

We are just putting out the last of the over-wintered pots. We have found one lurking in a corner and frankly forgotten about which is quite lovely. It has a dark maroon ivy leafed geranium and an echevaria in a turquoise glazed pot. Andrew has put it by the front door to join the other pots. I always try to get things there which are scented to knock over scent buds as we go in…or out.
Heliotrope is doing a grand job right now. 

Then there are the ‘scratch and sniff’ jobs. Plenty of different scented leaved Geraniums all over the garden in pots, but mostly in the Herb Garden. We have really worked on the Herb Garden this year: pretty well all the plants are named now, with their uses and their families. They fall into the usual catagories of culinary, medicinal, vermifuge, plants for dying (no, Silly, changing the colour of things!), and, eh…..aphrodisiacs. Jo, who works on our Reception desk has written these up and this can be purchased from us. (The booklet, I mean, not the aphrodisiacs!).
So: there are all sorts of interesting
smells to be encountered up there!  

May 2006

Spring has definitely sprung at last!!  That is despite having an inch of rain last Monday.

The air is heavy with scent: Osmanthus burkwoodii,  Ribes odorata, Virburnum ’Park hybrid’, Wallflowers, Euphorbia chamycyperis, ‘Fens Ruby’ to name but a few of the ‘smellys’.

Memo to me: colour combinations that have worked 
Tulipa Princess Irene. which is orange and Euphorbia Griffithii Fireglow, which has orange bracts, together with blue Brunnera.  This is quite good especially with the golden leaved philadelphus behind.

The brachyglottis (Senecio, for the unreformed like me) has the unfortunately named clematis ‘Willy’ growing through. The grey of the Senecio and the pink of the clem is pretty, especially as we can see them nodding at the window.

Tulips, Golden Apeldoorn and White Trumphator are backed with primrose wallflowers quite effectively, even though they are supposed to be white!  These are all the way down the Rose Walk path. 

Tulip ‘Queen of the Night’, has Euphorbia chamycyperis ‘Fens Ruby’ at her feet.  The dark, dark red of the tulip is a good contrast to the lime green/yellow of the euphorbia. 

Individual plants that are joining the party
The Prunuses (Prunii?) are flowering like mad in the Arbour bed: gloriously white with lots of white arabis nearby. The apples and the Malus are gloriously pink with Bluebells underneath.

The aubrietia is purpling all the stone walls; the dark pink Bergenia, ‘Balawy’ is definitely a good ‘doer’ sitting over the bridge over the brook.
Dicentra is still breaking its heart amongst the forget-me-nots in front of the kitchen and up the path to the north garden.

 What plant is this:
I got this narcissus from Unwins many years ago and have lost the name.  Can anyone help?

And now I’m off to try some Rachel’s Ice Cream – a new delivery this morning and Maple and Pecan is looking very tempting….. mmmm