My garden in March

Last month there were hints of colour starting to appear in my garden, this month there’s been a lot more. It’s all been about the daffodils and the pops of colour they’ve brought to the border, the wallflowers and the start of the tulips.

Back at the start of the month, this is how it started.

But by the end of the first week, our first daffodils flowered. And the others weren’t too far behind them either.

Not all of the garden is back alive yet though, the fuchsia bushes - but I’m hopeful they won’t be too far behind.

The viburnum though is already flowering, and it’s great to see.

It was great to spot that my new-last-year wallflowers started to show signs of flowering, and I’ve been keeping my eye on them.

But we’ve also had some early blossom from the peach/nectarine tree - it’s not that surprising really as it’s much warmer by the old brick wall. It seems happy here - it’s still in a pot - so it looks as if it’s decided on its long term garden position, which is where I hoped it would be happy!

It was a month of surprises though as some daffodils sprung up amongst the wallflowers, and I’m not really sure where they came from. I’ve not had daffodils in that pot before, and it’s unlikely that they were in the pot with the wallflowers when I bought them, so it’s a garden mystery.

The tulips started to show themselves too, peeking out from their protective leaves. I really need to find a better place for them as if it stays windy they won’t last for long, but wherever they end up I want to be able to see them from the house - it’d be a shame to miss them wouldn’t it?

I had another surprise bulb appearance too. This time a bluebell in my rhubarb pot, this could have been in there a while as we had bluebells in our previous garden, although not knowingly in this pot - but the leaves don’t look like those bluebells, so maybe this one was a present from the birds. I’m happy it’s here though.

The wallflowers have been slow to show their flowers but they are finally starting - they’re a variety called ‘Chelsea Jackets’ and are a mixture of pastel colours.

And what a way to end the month, with the first proper tulip flowers growing taller, but not flowering just yet saving themselves for next month I’m sure.

Thanks for joining me for this month’s update, you can read all the posts in this series, and join me next month to see how my garden continues to grow!

Crafting a New Narrative at Belton House

The Belton Estate is one of the nearest National Trust properties to us, and it’s one we’ve visited a few times - even before we moved up here. The orangery is a favourite of mine, and on the times we’ve visited recently it hasn’t been open, but it was open when we visited last week on the Spring Equinox, but you’ll have to wait for an updated post on that as today I’m going to share more about a new exhibition that’s on in the house.

I first went in the house in the summer of 2021 and as with most things the post-Covid reawakening meant that only a limited number of rooms were available to view, something that I’d forgotten [about our visit] until I read it on my own post! This time though there was much more to see, and the post-Covid timing of my previous visit also explains why I didn’t remember any of the upstairs - I hadn’t been there before!

The exhibition - Artistic Journeys: Crafting a New Narrative - includes previously unseen items from the collection. which will be on display until at least until the house is redressed for Christmas, with exhibits changing regularly. The four artists are:

• Elizabeth Cust (1776 - 1858) a skill oil painter inspired by ‘Old Masters’ to create her own.

• Sophia Cust (1811 - 1882) who documented interior and exterior views of Belton using her favourite medium of watercolours.

• Marian Alford (1817 - 1888) a skilled textile designer and artist who co-founded the Royal School of Needlework.

• Nina Cust (1867 - 1955) a sculptor and poet, whose sculptures were displayed at the Royal Academy and who has published many works of poetry and fiction.

I’m not much of an oil painting fan I’m afraid, and have realised as I’ve been going through my photos, that I have none to share of Elizabeth’s work, and my photos of Nina’s work aren’t good enough to include either - so if you’re here for those, sorry - this isn’t the post for you.

Let’s start with Marian

Marian Alford’s connection to Belton was through her marriage to Viscount Alford, the eldest son of the first Earl Brownlow, and it was in 1984 that Lord Brownlow gave the house to the National Trust.

But Marian’s story took place many years before that. She was instrumental in bringing recognition to embroidery as an art form, and brought recognition to needlework as a respected form of employment for women in all social classes, raising the status of both at at time when seamstresses still worked in apalling conditions.

In 1872 she was one of the three founders of the School of Art Needlework and helped establish the school as a place for formal art education and training, which I think is all the more remarkable as she herself never received an art education, but who developed into a skilled artist and designer.

The embroidery below, along with the sketched pattern. was behind glass (hence the glare) as you entered the upstairs library. The detail of the stitches was amazing, and my favourite part was the thistle on the right hand end.

Downstairs in the Tapestry room there were more examples of her designs this time crafted by Belton volunteers, though as some patterns were incomplete these are creative interpretations of the designs, and no less stunning for that. The original hand-drawn and painted designs are now very fragile having been stored in folios for many years, and sadly can no longer be unfolded without causing damage.

Behind the embroidery hoops draped over a sofa was the most amazing throw - I wish I had more info on this, but I don’t and if it was there I missed it. But look at the detail - this one was carefully behind the ropes, but it’d be great to see this one slightly closer up. And I’d also like a pattern of the designs in the hoops above please!

Sophia’s watercolours

Sophia left Belton when she married, but often returned to her family home and during these visits she created a large collection of watercolours showing the house and gardens, many of which survive today. I particularly liked the three posters on display in the Breakfast room, which had previously been used as an ante-library (when the library was also downstairs) and then when the library moved upstairs a small dining room.

Her watercolours show how Belton looked in the mid 1800s, and is now a valuable resource for the conservation work in the property; they also show how the interior evolved over time with the placement of furniture, textiles and other objects in the rooms. So very much the photos of the day.

Another of her watercolours gave details of Belton’s boathouse which otherwise might have remained a mystery, and her detailed depiction made it possible to reinstate the boathouse, which was originally built in the 1830s. Amazing.

I was also quite taken with the breakfast crockery in the display case, which if you look closely enough at my reflection, you’ll see that I also managed unwittingly to match with my white and lime green striped top!

Two final pieces

Just before we left the house there were two final pieces that caught my eye. The first is this coloured enamel painting on copper, with an iron and silver Art Nouveau frame by the renowned Arts and Crafts enamellist Alexander Fisher of Nina Cust. It dates from 1898 and shows Nina wearing a gold and pink robe holding a cape, and it’s thought that this piece further acknowledged her status as an artist.

Isn’t it exquisite?

The second was this scrapbook - and quite honestly a scrapbook like I’ve not seen before. This was presented to Marian in 1886 as a Christmas gift from the School of Art Needlework. It’s covered in green velvet and embroidered with a gold, metal thread.

Both the house and the exhibition are worth seeing, so do go along if you’re close by or if you’re passing. As I said earlier it will be on for a while yet, and though the exhibits may change the ethos will remain. I’m looking forward to popping back and seeing how it changes, and seeing more detail on the things I’m sure I missed.

And I’ve still more to share, later this week look out for another visit to the Orangery, which now appears to be referred to at the Conservatory - and I think there’ll be another post to come on the ‘bedrooms at Belton’ and there’s some stunners there too!

Planning a greenhouse

At Gardener’s World Live last year one of the things I was keen to look at, apart from all the show gardens and beautiful borders, was greenhouses. We don’t have one here yet, and I’m missing it - pottering about at the greenhouse staging in the garage is ok, but the garage isn’t ideal for germinating seeds, and I really could do with a light, sheltered space for some of our plants to over winter to give them the best chance.

Not too big, not too small

I don’t want a huge greenhouse, though I’ve already doubled the size I first thought of! And I do want to integrate it into our overall garden design.

In our previous house I had the standard 6x8 aluminium Rhino greenhouse, and it was great - but as I’ve said my plans for this garden are a bit smaller. Originally I was looking at a 2x4 patio greenhouse, but given that it needs to be two foot from any boundary for maintenance, that seemed a lot of space for not very much greenhouse at all.

And so I upscaled my tentative plans to a 6x4 - but also preferring the black frame, rather than aluminium. Of course, all of this is just plans at the moment - though I did come dangerously close to buying one of the show greenhouses in one of the sales, but in the end I resisted as I wanted our plans to be a bit more developed first.

Testing it out for size

So would a 6x4 greenhouse work in our space? Well as there’s nothing else really in our garden, apart from the trellis around the heat pump and the small crab apple tree, the answer is clearly a yes, But would it work how I wanted it too, where I envisaged it - or would it dominate the garden?

I decided to try it out using bamboo canes and string. So this visualisation spent a fortnight or so in place in our garden last summer, and no doubt any neighbours that spotted it clearly must have thought we’d lost the plot.

But it worked, well visually of course, not as an actual greenhouse!

It was easy (and easier than it looks in the photo) to see its footprint, how high it would come up the wall, how far it would come into the garden - and most importantly, how dominant it would be from the house. Putting it directly opposite our lounge windows might not seem the most obvious positioning, but I’m hoping it will also help keep it tidy and on the prettier side. I fully intend to retain the greenhouse staging in the garage for the real functional work, and use the greenhouse for what it does best - providing a sheltered growing space.

Of course I spent the time that it was up, looking out of every window to check what it looked like from that vantage point - and I was happy, until of course my temporary structure collapsed a little. But by then it had done its job and confirmed this is the size and location for me.

Now only if the rest of planning the garden was that easy - but more on that another day!