London Week

 What a week in London!  I started the week at the house of the US Ambassador to England.  The house is known as Winfield House and is located on the outer circle of Regents Park.  It is a lovely estate located in the bustling city of London.  I got a tour of the well maintained garden which nicely transitions between the formal rooms next to the house and the informal beds that line the estate boundaries.  They are introducing more meadow into the garden which adds to the country house feeling of the garden.  After leaving work that day I walked home through the park checking out the Queen Mary's Garden in the park as well as the elaborate bedding of the boardwalk.  The head gardener at Winfield house set up a week full of visits allowing me to see several of the largest and most famous private gardens in London.  On Tuesday we went for a tour of The Queen's gardens at Buckingham Palace.  The head gardener of the palace gave us a tour of the grounds.  It was truly amazing being in the palace gardens and being so close to the palace itself.  To the right you will see a picture of the palace with a flag flying this flag symbolized that the queen was in residence that day how cool!  No pictures of the garden though sorry for security reasons.  After the tour I was off just down the road to the garden museum some place I was before but this time I got a tour from the gardener trainee who works there and then got the opportunity to give them a hand with some gardening.  The trainee I was working with helped out a British landscape designer named Nigel Dunnett at the Chelsea Flower Show and he designed a new garden which was installed just outside Buckingham Palace we went to check it out.  Nigel Dunnett was there and this was the occasion that he was officially presenting the garden to the queen.  So not only did I get to meet Mr. Dunnett I also got to see the Queen of England!!!!!    

Wednesday was another visit this was to the Royal College of Physicians garden located near Regents Park.  This is a garden that highlights plants that are used for medicinal uses.  I got a tour of the garden which included a really good synopsis of the plants and their uses.  I spent some time helping them with plant labels and then did a bit of weeding.  After finishing work I decided to take stroll in the London Zoo.  Being a big fan of the animals I had a wonderful time; I really enjoyed the penguin exhibit. 

  Thursday I was off to Lambeth Palace the London home of the Arch Bishop of Canterbury.  It is amazing that these people can have such nice private green spaces in such a sprawling city.  This garden had several lovely features a pond, terrace, and chapel garden.  I spent most of the day attacking a pampas grass which was quite the task.  I was really impressed with the composting practices on this site with limited space they had an amazing compost system.  The garden was looking superb the chapel was looking exceptionally good with irises, lavender, and calamintha. 

I ended the week back at Winfield house with a recap of the week and another critical overview of the property.  It was an amazing week to look at the private gardens of London and analyze them.  I couldn't have asked for a better week I got to work at some amazing gardens and saw her majesty the Queen!

Malham

 What a day Malham was.  Malham is a small community in North Yorkshire with some lovely scenery surrounding it.  All in all we did a circle trip starting from the town and returning at the end of the day.  We stated out by walking to Malham Cove which is an amazing formation formed by glacial movements.  This is also one of the locations from the Harry Potter Film the Deathly Hallows pretty cool huh.  We walked up the steps that climbed the rocks to the top where the limestone rocks are.  While on the trip it was cool to see some of the natural flora that is suppose to inhabit the area; heart tongued fern, Geum, and orchids.  After the cove we walked on to a tarn which is a mountain formed by glaciers.  We ate a quick lunch by the tarn and then we were off again.  Next was the Gordale Scar which created a gorge and waterfall after the glacier went through.  There was a steep rocky descent to the scar and once we got there we realized the only way to get down to the gorge was to climb down a rock face with handle holds and foot perches.  Climbing up the rock face would be difficult but going down made it that much harder.  It was amazing fun to climb down but I'm not going to lie, a bit scary as well.  There is a picture below of a man in a blue shirt climbing down which is what I did.  Once you reached the bottom you were in the gorge and you followed the stream that runs from it back to town.  It was an amazing day full of excitement and some gorgeous scenery.  I truly enjoyed the day out. 

Warmer Weather Finally

 I think spring/summer has finally arrived here in North Yorkshire.  Warm weather (about 70 degrees) means its time for planting.  While working with the productive team I have been doing some harvesting of asparagus and radishes both of which I was able to take home and sample.... amazing.  Also we have been doing reseeding so after harvesting the radishes I resowed with more radishes.  The nursery is at max capacity so it is key that we start getting plants into the garden  so we have been planting lots of beans, peas, and herbs.  With the warm weather everything has come to life including the living willow wall which I was in charge of stripping the bottom clear of new shoots to maintain the screen visitors can look through.  In the fall they will top the willow wall to prevent it from getting to high.  They have a dye bed where they grow plants that can be used to make dyes which I planted some hollyhocks in.  In the teaching garden we have been doing a lot of work vegetable wise as well.  We have been doing loads of planting, topping up potatoes, and harvesting herbs.  In one of the beds I planted the three sisters sweet corn, squash, and beans.  It has been really nice to have some warmer weather to get out into the garden and do some planting. 

York Gate

 Another garden visit I went on was to York Gate a garden in a nearby town.  It is one of my favorite gardens I have visited.  Though it is a relatively small garden they packed it full of plants and ideas.  Because the garden was subdivided into several small rooms (gardens), usually divided by hedge walls, each having their own theme.  One of my favorites was the white border they created which looked really nice when I was there having tulips and peonies.  They had a lovely old potting shed that even came with a window to look out at the garden from.  It was truly an inspiring garden for how much they had created in the small area. 

National Gardening Scheme Visits

 


 The national gardening scheme is a program in the UK that allows people of the community to open up their gardens to the public.  They are called open gardens and for a few pounds you are able to visit certain peoples back gardens and proceeds raised are donated to charity.  Over the past few weeks I have gone to two open gardens in towns near by.  It is pretty incredible what people can create in their back garden.  The British are very good at taking what natural landscape they are given and turning it into something truly amazing.  In order to open up your garden to the public a member of the NGS comes and visits your garden to see if it qualifies; the garden has to be able to hold a visitors attention for at least 40 minutes.  I told Philomena the lady that I am working with that we have get her garden ready to be a garden for the open garden scheme.  I have been doing a bit of work in her garden.  I have been able to bring some extra vegetables home from work which I have planted in the garden.  Also I have been working on edging some beds and some weeding.  Back to the open gardens the first one I went to was very manicured almost spotless.  They had some very nice plants as well as some very interesting ideas on growing fruit.  The second garden I went to was located near the dale and they used that landscape to create an almost North American garden.  They had a lovely stream running through the garden and a really nice rock bed.  At each garden they serve refreshments (tea of course and coffee) and the most amazing cakes as well.  The garden visits are worth it just for the amazing cakes.  Also many sell plants they have propagated from their garden which you can relatively cheap. It is an amazing concept and if people in America improve their gardens would be a nice program to have in the US.