Inside the Potting Shed at Mottisfont

On our way back from our Dorset break at the end of March we stopped off at the National Trust's Mottisfont in Hampshire. It was my first visit there and it certainly lived up to its romantic billing in the NT blurb. I'll share more from our time there over the next few weeks, but today I'm concentrating just on one quite small part of it, and that's the Potting Shed. Which is, as its name suggests, a shed.

And yes I know, it's a vast estate - we walked around a lot of it - and I'm showing you a shed. But, it's a very nice shed!

IT'S A VERY NICE SHED!

You're starting to believe me now aren't you?  

It was the kind of place I could happily have spent a good hour or two in, but I didn't think I'd get away with that so I spent as long as I could. It was also the kind of place that had the right mix of being a real space, but also carefully orchestrated, and I couldn't work out which it was more of. My head said the orchestrated side, but my heart just wanted to pull up that stool and get my nose into one of those books. I'd have preferred an easy chair over the stool, but I think that's probably why there wasn't one!

And is it just me, or do those tools say G & T? 

I like the wooden box for seeds, and make use of some wooden wine boxes in my own greenhouse and they're a great modern day equivalent. I always look out for those on our French trips and so far, have been lucky twice.  

I wanted to rummage through the seed box and sift through the papers on the desk but held back. Just. The notebook telling part of the story was a nice touch and a tactic that Mottisfont used in the property too, where if I'm honest I found it a little too forced, but also the handwriting a little too small and too wordy when the place was much busier. It worked here in the shed though as there was time to read it without someone hovering at your shoulder willing you to move on. 

The rose paintings on the wall were beautiful and reminded me of a herb book I have, a present from  my nan, with its botanical style illustrations. And it's true, I think, the best roses do survive and quite often we rarely know their names, just how they flower, their scent and of course their colour. 

It's hard to believe isn't it, that this is just a relatively normal sized shed, perhaps a little bigger than most of us have, but definitely somewhere to ponder and learn, experiment and succeed. And for all kinds of roses too.  

The "in tray" made me smile too. Not just the old tobacco tins no doubt used for storing seed, but also because it's just the kind of in tray I'd be happy with. I've still seeds to plant right now and so it's a job I  must get on with this weekend. 

Yes, it really was a fascinating place and jam packed with information and treats for the eye everywhere I looked. Even down to what must surely be orchestrated dirt... 

Quite a shed, and it's easy to see why sheds are often a safe haven and places for pottering isn't it? My pottering place is my greenhouse, while MOHs is his shed although lately neither of us have had enough time for a decent potter - we'll need to put that right, won't we? 

Tulip-mania in Dad's garden

We've been in Norfolk for some of the Easter weekend visiting family and clocking up a second visit of the year to one of our favourite counties. I was expecting bulbs to have sprung up in dad's garden but I didn't expect there to be quite so many tulips. The garden was full of red and yellow tulips, everywhere. Even among the chard.

They certainly knew how to find the sun in the garden too. Their petals were glistening in the sunlight, even this one that looks as if it should be in the shade.

Masquerading amongst other flowers - or vegetables - or even jumping over the flower bed edges seems to be a speciality of dad's tulips.

I was keen to see how the "top down" photography angle would work for tulips, and both red and yellow varieties obliged, boldly showing off their dark centres

In one part of the garden, it looks as if some cross-fertilisation has gone on. The red tulips have yellow edges and the yellow one red tinges, and I quite like the look of these. I'm assuming they've done this themselves as these were the only ones that weren't true colours, but who knows for sure.

And a trip around dad's garden is never complete without seeing any pink flowers, and this time is no different. Dad's columnar apple tree is laden with blossom, very pink blossom. There's so much the lower branches are almost touching the ground. And look at the colour of the soil, it's such a different colour to mine, and way less stony.

Out the front the clematis that I spot all over Norfolk is already in flower, and I think it'll be in flower for a long time yet looking at the amount of buds looking as if they're about to burst.

Like many gardens, mine included, the foliage is growing strongly even though there's been less rain than usual. The leaves below are from a poppy, which looks as if it's going to be huge!

The lupin leaves with their distinctive shape are also springing up around the garden. I'd love to be able to grow lupins in my own garden, but my snail population are rather keen on them too. I've tried growing them in pots, but then invariably there'll be a hot spell and I'll lose them through lack of watering.  The toads in our garden do help to keep the snail population down, or at least I hope they do - I have a mental image of being knee-deep in snails without the toads which isn't a great image, but maybe there's just too many snails for my toads. 

This weekend I saw a couple of flowers I'd not seen before, one in dad's garden and another in his neighbours. And just so you know I spotted the neighbours flower when I went to my car and not because I was loitering with my camera ready - just saying.  So here's the pretty star shaped flower in dad's garden, I'm not sure I've seen it before, and I'm not sure what it is either, so if you know please leave me a comment and let me know what mystery flower number 1 is.

MYSTERY FLOWER NUMBER 1

The neighbour's flower is mystery flower number 2 and it's a lilac and egg yolk yellow combination, which is unusual enough anyway, and a combination you might question if you didn't see the picture. But it seems to work, but again I'm not sure what it is. So if you know what mystery flower number 2 is then please let me know.

MYSTERY FLOWER NUMBER 2

And if you know what both of them are, I'll be super impressed.  

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.