The Garden Year: November 2022

Hello there and welcome back to my garden linky, which opens at the start of each month and stays open for the whole month - meaning you can link up at any time. You’re welcome to link any posts that have a garden theme - this could be your garden, the plants you’re growing or the gardens you visit, or anything in between - just so long as it’s related to gardening.

Plants in their prime this month

  • Chrysanthemums

  • Alstroemerias

  • Holly

  • Fatsia

  • Mahonia

  • Rosemary and Bay

What to do in the garden this month

  • If your ground isn’t wet or frosty it’s a great time to plan new fruit trees and bushes.

  • Dig over and weed empty parts of your vegetable beds, adding rotted organic matter to give your crops next year a really good start.

  • Sow broad beans to over winter and get ahead start if you have space.

  • Sow sweet peas in cardboard loo roll inners ready for the earliest of flowers next year.

A dried fallen leaf on top of the barbecue cover
“TheGardenYear

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Post Comment Love 28-30 October

Welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked and share some of that love. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’re here.

I’m struggling to believe that October is almost done, but yet we have temperatures similar to those of summer (a normal summer, not the summer we had this year). Though it has been nice to be out without a coat, though always with an umbrella close to hand - just in case. Luckily I’ve missed most of the heavy downpours, and an umbrella feels like overkill for the drizzle.

Yesterday I was up in central London and ended up walking from Victoria, past Buckingham Palace and onto Trafalgar Square as the weather was so lovely. I’ll share more about my trip into town in a separate post - but it was totally blissful and relaxing. My photo is from the hotel foyer which had the most amazing floral display in the central lobby, using multiple glass vases and autumnal blooms and greenery. Absolutely gorgeous.

A floral display on a smoky glass table in a hotel foyer, the display is made of blooms in varying sized glass vases clustered together

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Please ring the bell

There’s been a couple of things that have led me to post about Hunte’s Garden this week. Some friends are currently in Barbados and visiting this garden was one of my ‘must do’ recommendations, then later in the week after my Access Bars session I was reminded that Hunte’s was probably the most spiritual garden I’ve ever visited. At the time I think I wrote it took my breath away as I descended into the midst of the garden, but in truth it had me at the entrance.

And it’s those photos I’m sharing today while I process the full experience of the treatment session I had in town yesterday. I’ll share more about that in a separate post soon, so look out for that to find out more about it.

Hunte’s Garden is the first garden we’ve visited where we’ve needed to announce our arrival, though at Bosvigo in Cornwall there was an entirely self-service entry process. And so, we picked up the bell to say we were here.

A handwritten sign on the right asking people arriving to ring the bell, there's a brick floor a stone urn and planting in the background

Our taxi driver had been plenty of times before of course, and was more than happy to sit and wait and enjoy the garden too, while we explored this way and that, up and down and round and round, and even while we enjoyed a small rum. And it was easy to see why even though we hadn’t even scratched the surface of what we were to find.

A wrought iron gate, turning green, with tropical plants in front
a bed full of green and red tropical leaves rising in front of us

The garden was full of curios, vistas and the most amazing plants. I remember feeling quite overwhelmed as we stepped down into the main part of the garden, a feeling I’ve not previously experienced so strongly. If you said to me I could visit again tomorrow, I’d jump at the chance - though I might negotiate a little on exactly when that visit could take place, as we already have plans for tomorrow!

on the left as you enter there's a large metal sculpture of an old tool (unsure what the tool is) set in among the tropical plants
Ahead of us across a bricked area, standing in the bed is an epauletted man statue beckoning you into the garden further
Another area of the entrance has much history with an iron inlay with the inscription "1917 TO WEIGH 10 000 LBS H POOLEY & SON LTD BIRMINGHAM & LONDON No 525

The weighbridge above has certainly travelled a distance, and I’m sure has a rich history and somehow doesn’t feel out of place here - though I’ll have to admit I had no idea what it was when we first saw it.

The experiences this week have reminded me of how I felt when we visited back in December 2019 - it’s definitely true, you remember how things make you feel, and even looking at the photos those feelings resurfaced. I’ve more photos to share, but in the meantime if you want to see more of the gardens here’s some posts I’ve already shared:

Oh, and before I finish you’ll be pleased to know our friends have been to Hunte’s too - I’ve seen their photos on Facebook. I’m waiting to see if they’ll be going to Fish Friday at Oistins, which was my other ‘must do’. Hopefully they’ll enjoy both recommendations just as much as MOH and I did.

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