The garden at River Cottage HQ

Today we are finally going to look around the garden at River Cottage HQ, and although it actually took place and I was actually there in November I'm still excited to share these pictures today. This post has been a little longer coming than I anticipated, even from when I showed you around the yard and the yurt recently, but well Easter came between us, and I'm sure you were busy too...

After that quick glimpse that I told you about before I finally made it into the garden, and it was just as good as I'd hoped it would be. Heading past the small shed-cum-outbuilding I paused to consider the slate plant markers and terracotta pots. Artfully arranged or left somewhere handy to grab when you need them, I'd like to think the latter, but who knows?

It was November when I visited and I quickly had severe brassica envy, which isn't as painful as it sounds. And as well as an array of brassicas, they were all growing in orderly, neat lines and you'll know that this is one of my long held desires and probably something I won't ever quite manage, but I can but try.  My rows always end up a little wonky, and patchy.  But, if I could do it, wouldn't it look great?

There were still plenty of herbs around and the acid greeny-yellow flowers of the dill really did add some zing to the garden, especially against the gravel paths.

As I reached the centre of the garden I looked back and caught a glimpse of the farm house, the one we're all familiar with from the television - and I rather like it appearing through the kale and cavolo nero like it is.

At the end of the garden - and it's not as long as you think it would be, it's wide, but look at how wide the farmhouse is - the trees foliage was turning yellow, and I'm sure it looked much more dramatic than this at the time.

Amazingly the sweet peas were still in flower. In November. That's quite something, and I expect is partly to do with succession sowing but also because the farm is in a valley and like many other south-western gardens benefit from its own micro-climate. But with sweet peas this late in the year, what's not to like?

The asparagus was done though and its leaves were turning yellow, and it looked good against the purple viburnum, which is a plant I'm adding to my garden wish list.  This driftwood heart on one of the walls summed up my thoughts on the garden, and it was great to be there in person.

The nasturtiums were plentiful, in containers and in the borders. I grew them last year on the allotment amongst the squash and courgettes and it brought some colour to my plot. The good thing about nasturtiums is that they grew pretty much anywhere, and like poor conditions (so that's good!) but be prepared for them to come back year after year, as it's hard to remove all of the seeds. But not a bad problem to have.

The feverfew looked pretty too. Yeap, another plant for my wishlist...

There was another part of the garden that reminded me of our allotment too, and that was the strawberry border. Hugh's is looking much more established than mine, but it's something I'm still planning to make happen over at the plot.  I think I may need to make a mound for my plants though so they can look as good as this.

It was starting to rain by now, but there was no way I was missing out on the time I had in the River Cottage HQ garden - it was one of the main reasons I wanted to visit. I think I was probably one of the few left out there, us gardeners are a hardy lot aren't we. I realised though that having such a pretty kitchen garden is a bit of a luxury and unlikely something I'll have myself, unless I'm very lucky. 

But there were plenty of ideas that I could use at some point- and learn from - in Hugh's garden, and the picture above shows two of those; the pergola and the zinc troughs. One day maybe, I might manage some zinc pots in this garden - not sure I'll stretch to anything this size, but it'll be a while before I manage a pergola though.  

But first I'll have to perfect that strawberry border, I'll let you know how I get on!  Although I think I could be in for a good crop of strawberries this year as the plants I've potted up ready to take to the allotment are already in flower, so now I'm in two minds as to whether or not to move them....

But what a great opportunity to look around River Cottage HQ, I hope you enjoyed this short look around as much as I did. And if you get the chance to visit yourself, then go!

* With thanks to River Cottage and Flea Enterprises for the invitation and arrangements for my visit.

Love this #74: Made in Uganda

You'll know that I'm a recent convert to Homesense following the gloriously fake bouquet of peonies I shared earlier in the year, well today I'm sharing something completely different from their sister store TK Maxx.  I've shopped there occasionally and have had great success with Christmas decorations and notebooks, but until now their homewares haven't tempted me into the store. 

But this "Made in Uganda" range could be doing just that, and I'll tell you why. When I read the press release my eye was taken by the vibrant and colourful designs, you'll know I'm a fan of colour, but it wasn't just that there seemed to be something more to these items - and I wasn't wrong.  

I discovered that TK Maxx has been working with the Rwenzori Trading Company since 2008 and since then have enabled more than 10,000 children to go to school, and every purchase made in the UK goes towards providing skills and employment so parents can support their families and send children to school. There's much more about the work they do, and the products on sale in the stores on the TK Maxx website - and there's plenty more gorgeous items there too.

Image credit: TK Maxx

So if you're looking for some colourful and relatively inexpensive homewares, then these are definitely worth a look. And what's more you'll be helping to make the world a better place too.

Image credit: TK Maxx

I've already spotted some large horn bowls in the press release, which sadly I haven't been able to find a picture of, nor have I been able to find them in my local store either. I've seen though that another store that's not *too* far away is a stockist for these items, so I've a feeling I may be heading their way to take a closer look.

And hopefully I'll leave with the bowls that caught my eye. Or maybe a basket or two, because I'm sure they're like notebooks in once you have them, their use becomes apparent.

What do you think of the range?

* This is a collaborative post, but all views are my own

A revision to our garden plan

It's been almost two years since we went along to Grand Designs clutching plans for our garden and seeking advice on how to deal with the "problem areas" in our garden. And it's been interesting to reread that post as I'm sharing yet another revision to our grand plan. 

Following that trip two years ago we were pretty much set on using upturned sleepers to form a small wall-like seat under the laurel tree at the rear of the garden. We had - and still have - some disagreements on how that might work and we were under no illusion about how much work, and digging, that would need.  But nothing happened, and that area of the garden still resembles a bit of a junk yard and is a handy store for all manner of things. That probably means that neither of us were truly committed to making that part of the plan happen.  

But we know something needs to happen, and I think we've finally cracked it.

Here's a clue to the change: 

Pretty isn't it? Although I'll have to confess it's only a very loose clue. 

Image source: Unsplash

While in Dorset without wifi, I found myself flicking through a magazine and I spotted an image of gabion baskets topped with paving slabs to form a seat and my mind began to wonder.  If we could shape the gabion baskets into a semi-circle, it might just work. So I did what I always do and did some research to combat all the questions that I knew MOH would have.

While I was doing that I found some great examples, including this one from Garden Drum on how to build a curved gabion wall.  I knew though after reading that, that I'd be unlikely to be able to convince MOH to go to all this effort. He's read it too, and says we can't do that as he doesn't have a spare wheel to use to shape the mesh, so as I thought, I've no chance of replicating that.

It's ok though because I never really thought I would. Had I wanted as many curves as they had then I'd have been making a stronger case, but as my motivation is to get something done relatively quickly, I'm settling for 0.5m square baskets shaped into a semi-circle. And like all good plans, I've even got a sketch, something I never quite managed for the upturned sleeper version of the plan.

When we looked at the space we realised that we'd need a partial second row of baskets so that there could be some planting at seat level to soften it a little. We can't raise the soil level by half a metre without them as the boundary wall is the exterior walls of two of our neighbours, but we think if we line them with membrane and fill them with earth, this will do the job. As the baskets are relatively cheap - and we have some soil, as we saved some from digging out the circles in the summer - this seems a good all round solution for us.

We'll fill the baskets at the front with what I'm calling builders rubble, but what I really mean is a combination of bricks, broken paving slabs, roofing tiles and some large pebbles which I saved when we had our patio done a few years ago. The pebbles were in the gully between the house and the patio and I knew at some point they'd come in handy!  Since then I've clearly done a good job of "hiding" them from MOH as he was surprised to learn we still had them.  

I suspect we'll need to buy some bricks, but I've already discovered you can buy them on eBay - how amazing is that? I've also discovered that there's lots of people having work done around us and whose front gardens have the sort of builder's rubble I'm after. If they still have it when we're filling our gabion baskets, I might find myself getting brave and asking if I can help them out with their junk (although I might phrase it slightly differently to that!)

So a new plan, and renewed energy and enthusiasm for making it happen.  And there's a good chance it could happen this year - watch this space!