Dandelion is a persistent, perennial weed of lawns, borders and hard surfaces. It’s difficult to eradicate dandelions by digging alone as the deep tap root can regrow and fluffy seeds are readily spread by the wind.
Well, I think dandelions are lovely and I’m pleased to find that Garden Betty agrees with me!
We made our first visit to Burton Agnes Hall in the mid-1980s and it’s been a pleasure to watch the garden develop over the years. There’s a maze in the northeast corner of the walled garden which was planted in 1990. We saw the maze for the first time shortly after it was planted with 700 yew bushes. It’s a pity we didn’t make a note of the layout because now the hedges are so thick, once you’re in it’s hard to find your way out.
One of my most vivid childhood memories is seeing for the first time the monkey puzzle trees at Sewerby Hall. They’re still there; just taller! The walled garden at Sewerby Hall is a blaze of colour in the summer and the rose garden is bee-heaven.
We’ve only visited Scampston on a couple of occasions, most recently in 2009. The garden is a stunningly beautiful contemporary garden designed by the renowned Dutch plantsman, Piet Oudolf. The garden opened to the public in 2005 and features a modern, perennial meadow planted alongside more traditional areas.
Scampston June 2009
I’m sure we’ll be visiting these beautiful walled gardens again soon. But there are so many other walled gardens in Yorkshire that we haven’t been to look at yet. Top of the list is the walled garden at Helmsley ; and the gardens at Newby Hall look fabulous too.
We visited Sledmere walled garden a few weeks ago. In the main grounds it was the height of the daffodil season and there were carpets of primroses under the trees.
The walled garden was cleared and ready for the new season. This is the same walkway as the first photograph in my blogpost; just from the opposite direction.
Sledmere March 2017
The vegetable garden was waiting to be planted:
Sledmere March 2017
And this path to the summer house will be a blaze of colour later in the year, I’m sure.
Sledmere March 2017
Sledmere August 2014
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My garden is quite small and more than half is covered in gravel. This is because our house was constructed about fifteen years ago on a brown-field site which was used by agricultural machine engineers for decades. Some parts of the site were solid concrete and just gravelled over.
The part of the garden which is soil is of poor quality and very chalky. As a fairly lazy gardener I keep things basic and simple. Last year I decided to re-plant one of the flower beds and I looked on gardening websites for plants which were easy to grow and would make a comeback each year.
I also wanted plants which were attractive to bees and butterflies.
These are five of the plants I selected. They seemed to settle in well last Autumn and are already starting to show signs of growth.
1. Geranium
2. Astrantia
3. Echinacea
4. Gaura
5. Scabious
My colour theme for the flower bed is cream, white and shades of pink.
I planted:
4 pink Geraniums
3 cream Astrantia
3 dark pink Echinacea
3 white Echinaceas
3 white Gaura
3 dark pink Scabious
3 pale pink Scabious.
I bought the geraniums from a local farm shop and the others from an on-line plant supplier. They were delivered as well established plants in 9cm pots and all survived the journey as the packaging was very good.
Hopefully in the Summer there will be a good display of flowers and lots of bees and butterflies.
Thanks for reading my blog today.
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When we visited again a couple of weeks later, the daffodils were fully out and looked spectacular.
