The Head Gardener's Office at Scampston

Not only were we able to look around the Gardeners Yard at Scampston Hall, we also got to look ino the Head Gardener’s Office - and while it was set up more as an exhibit rather than a working office, it was still a delight to see.

We made our way in through the Conservatory which was built by Richardson of Darlington in 1894 and restored in 2015 with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund amongst others and now housing a series of exhibition rooms, displays and with a space for community engagement too.

The blue flowered plumbago clambering up the peach wall inside the conservatory definitely drew me in, but turning around the view was just as spectacular and I can see how important it was for the garden to restore the glasshouse to its former glory.

If only all conservatories had this view!

Turning further into the building we found the Head Gardener’s Office, and wouldn’t it just be a dream to manage and plan the garden from here - and I’d especially like that wooden drawer unit to organise my own garden plans.

And while this is a great place for drying onions, garlic and seed heads I think this would be hard to replicate in my own garden setup, and actually I never seem to have much luck with onions anyway, so that’s probably just as well.

But I did see some inspiration on how I could pot up some succulents, isn’t it darling?

Of course I left with some seeds of my own - and actually this post is a great reminder for me to look them out and actually do something with them. I saw some Agastache in the garden centre earlier this week, and I thought it sounded familiar but I couldn’t remember why. Here’s why!

And finally one connection in history that I learnt as we read the interesting information boards around the space. The glasshouse was originally made by Richardson of Darlington, which went on to become one of the glasshouse companies in the Victorian era. It was also the only company to last into this century, rebranding in the 1960s as Amdega. That company finally closed in 2011, but the liquidators sold the brand to Everest the double glazing company, and so the brand lives on with heritage at its heart. I love discovering things like that.

Now I’m off to look out those seeds…

The yew hedges at Powis Castle

Time has flown and it’s hard to believe it’s already over a month since our trip to Wales, and our visit to Powis Castle. I’d planned to get out in the garden as there’s plenty to do out there, but the weather had other ideas so instead I’ve edited my photos of the gardens and hedges at Powis, and well, there’ll be more than one blog post!

But when you walk into a garden and this is the opening view, you just know you’re going to have a fabulous visit, and we did.

The castle was built in the 13th century as a medieval fortress and over the years has changed to reflect the Herbert family who have occupied the castle from the 1570s. The views across the Severn Valley are fantastic, and the gardens retain many of its original features including the 17th century Italianate terraces lined with fantastic borders, and 30ft clipped yew trees. Plus there’s an Edwardian formal garden with century old apple trees and rosebeds and so much more.

As with any garden though it’s about the plants big and small, and in the gardens there was a vast scale from delicate buds, dancing flowers and huge, huge yew hedges.

I told you they were big!

So big I think we can agree with the National Trust when they say giant.

The giant yew topiary was first planted at Powis in the 1680s; then the fashion was for strict geometric patterns or formal gardening, so the yews here began life as a trimmed obelisk shape. By the 1780s garden fashions had changed favouring a natural blending of garden with the surrounding countryside, so the topiary trees that were kept were allowed to grow in their natural shape.

During Victorian times the fashion for stricter controls returned and the National Trust say that yews were shaped using a sickle, while the other hand held onto the ladder - definitely not a job for the faint hearted. Today they use electric hedge trimmers to keep the unique character of these topiary trees. It takes four staff three months to cut all the hedges once a year, with the yew topiary trimmed between late August and early November.

Like many great houses the gardens evolve and reflect both the fashion of the day and the desires of the garden’s supporter. The garden here at Powis owes much to Lady Violet, wife of the 4th Earl of Powis who set out to make it ‘one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful in England and Wales’.

She worked on the garden for 18 years enriching the planting on the terraces and adding new shrubs and perennials. Her biggest contribution was to relocate the Kitchen Garden, including the glasshouses, to a new position out of sight of the castle and in its place she created the picturesque formal garden, complete with a croquet lawn, cottage style flower borders and meticulously trimmed fruit trees.

The garden remained unchanged after her death in 1929, until 1952 when it came under the care of the National Trust. They have continued to pursue her ambitions while preserving its many layered historic structure.

It’s a fantastic space and I’m sure will be even more stunning when it’s in full flower. We visited in early April, and the magnolias were getting going and much of the terraced borders were coming into bud. I’ve so many more photos of the terraces to share, but I’ll save these for the next post.

And the view from the bottom of the garden looking up at the castle, is just as good as the one from the top looking down. Now that’s the sign of a great garden isn’t it?

A quick look at miniature quilts

Unsurprisingly the miniature quilts category at Festival of Quilts was full of tiny quilts, and by tiny I mean small. The flying geese one below is the approximately a hand’s length, so considering the size of many of the quilts on display, it’s teeny tiny!

The category guidance says that any technique or combination of techniques can be used, and the maximum length of any side is 30cm. It also says that in a photo (without any indication of scale) it should look like a full size quilt or wall hanging.

And these definitely do. Though I can’t get over the sizes of the centre geese in this miniature quilt.

GEESE IN A SPIN, JENNY ANDERSON

Would you have known this one was the length of my SIL’s hand? (BTW she has a normal sized hand in case you were wondering!) I’m not sure I would, and I’m also pretty sure I don’t have the patience (or the skill) to create something so intricate and so small.

While there were many miniature quilts on display, I only seem to have captured three of them. I think I must have been so wowed I forgot all about capturing all but my very favourites, and I totally agree with the title of this next one - you can never have too many hearts. Especially stripey ones!

YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY HEARTS, KAREN LLEWELLYN-PARSONS

This final teeny tiny quilt is my favourite. You know I love a rainbow and a Liberty fabric rainbow is even better.

THE RAINBOW QUILT TEENY TINY, FLOWER CHILD

Isn’t it gorgeous.

And I guess that I need to pay more attention to this category when I’m back at this show later in the year, though it’s also quite fitting that it’s a tiny post for a tiny subject matter!