As the leaves turn golden and Ferns Lodge garden starts to nod its head and get ready for the long sleep, the plan for the winter is set and we have started…!
Barbara has been ever present with secateurs for cuttings as we are planning an epic plant stall for next year’s NGS opening, and she owns a piece of equipment that I covet very much. It’s called a greenhouse! However, she hasn’t stopped there, last weekend I sampled the first of the Ferns Lodge Red Relish. Made by Barbara and jolly good it is too.
This and other delights made from green and red tomatoes here and lots of other lovely things will be for sale on our NGS opening and at the private openings in aid of the NGS that we hope that people will wish to book.
Dan, our tree man, has also been to Ferns Lodge and made a terrible mess! From the imagery below you may just be able to make our plan…
Behind the big house was just too thick to get into. The laurel has been peeled back to reveal a jolly big area which one day will be vegetable garden and it will also have that wondrous piece of essential garden equipment – a greenhouse!
In the meantime, a small Dutch barn is being built now which will make its home here next to the old water pump where it will host all manner of gardening gear, but the big news here is that there will be a window and workbench… This looks very much to me like the start of a potting shed and I can’t wait to see him installed and to start potting!
Of course, there is decades of debris and a skip will be ordered in time. To start with we will try to remove all the plastic that has found its way into this place. There is a sad dead oak which will become a habitat stump and next to him, his brother has a drainpipe growing out of him!
As if this wasn’t enough, at the bottom of the garden by the bottom meadow, we have disturbed the bees to cut back and rescue a wonky oak and to reveal a fantastic mound of goodness knows what, which is now home to periwinkle, ferns and which will look wonderful once sorted. The rather alarming brambles (some of them the size of my arm) have been defeated. There is also an overgrown Monterey pine stumpery which deserves to be seen.
Massive projects – lots to do – can’t wait!
Contact sue.grant@fernslodge.co.uk.