The last few weeks have seen every possible sort of weather – driving rain, gales, snow and glorious warm sunshine. I think that it was Mark Twain who said – if you don’t like the weather – wait for 10 minutes! NGS Garden Ferns Lodge has been confused with light & warm, cold & wet – and of course, the frost doesn’t help either!
Amongst all this, on a glorious spring day, I collected all the NGS paraphernalia for our opening on the 28th and 29th May, from Elizabeth Walker, our regional organiser, from her impossibly well sorted and well trimmed garden. So here it all is – waiting to find homes in nurseries and wherever people are kind enough to advertise our opening.
Back here at Mission Control, we have broad beans in the vegetable allotment and the rhubarb is putting in an appearance. We even have some radish plants peeping above the surface and we wait for spinach, carrots, leaks and all manner of lovely things. The area has been sorted for the season and as things start to germinate I remember that this is my happy place of watering and gathering veggies for the kitchen on glorious long and sunny (or not so sunny) evenings. Very exciting are the plants that we are bringing on for the plant sale and we even have some new arrivals from kind gardeners who have donated them for the sale. We hope to have something that you would like to buy – from Foxglove to Iris, to Daisy, Geranium, Roses and stacks more.
The new shrubbery is mulched and the Azaleas and Camellias are coming into flower – it is going to look totally fab in time…
The top garden is coming into life with Forget-me-not everywhere and the giant Pieris on the drive is amazing in pinkish red, cream and light green. Very cool.
Also excitingly, we have taken delivery of a 7-foot metal Fern crafted by Peter Clark. He is lovely and sways in the wind and glows in the sun. We also now have a ‘Spring Surprise’ in the bottom meadow which I absolutely love, but you will have to visit to see him and decide what you think. We now await another 7 tons of soil to level new areas and to repair the damage inflicted on the grass in the garden by our battalion of very persistent moles!
For sure spring has sprung, as Ghillie’s Caterpillar has now ventured outside and joins him often on his forays into the garden and I must admit that this has knocked some of the stuffing out of him and he is already looking rather the worse for wear!
With less than 2 months to go and masses to do, we’re looking forward to seeing you all and showing you the next chapter in the restoration of NGS garden Ferns Lodge. A belated Happy Easter to you all.
Contact sue.grant@fernslodge.co.uk.
