Visit to Barnsdale Gardens

 I was very lucky to visit Barnsdale Gardens on Sunday, with my friends Katy and Alison.   Geoff Hamilton, the TV gardener, created the gardens and they featured on Gardeners' World for many years, until Geoff's untimely death, twenty years ago.  He was a huge inspiration to me in my gardening and it was through watching him that I thought I might be able to grow things too.
It had been so wet, we wondered whether we would be able to go, and the weather forecast wasn't that great, but in the event, the heavens smiled on us and we only had a couple of showers.  The gardens are about an hour or so away, but I don't manage to visit as often as I would like (I hadn't visited since 2013), so this was a treat.  Thanks to the recent rain, the whole place was green and verdant and full of birdsong.  It was really quite magical.  Also, due to the rain, there weren't that many visitors, so we almost had the place to ourselves.  Above is a lovely wisteria.

 This is one of my favourite gardens, the 'Country Garden', which has some beautiful birch trees and shade loving plants which give a woodland feeling as you walk through.

 The Town Paradise Garden has really matured and was full of lush growth...

 ...as was the Country Paradise Garden.  Hardy geraniums featured in most of the gardens.

 I was fascinated by the structure of this tree (I haven't a clue what it is).  It was quite spiky. (Edited to add: it is a young monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana) - thanks to Amy for this).

 Looking across at the wildflower meadow from the Artisan's Cottage Garden.

 I have always liked this water feature, made from an old copper water tank, in the Recycled Garden.

 A little sparrow was enjoying a bath too.

 The Hosta garden displayed a wide range of green.  We noticed that some of the hostas were un-nibbled by snails, but others were rather holey - we decided this was all to do with the toughness of the leaves.

 The light shining through the leaves of the smoke bush caught my eye...

 ...as did this combination of planting, which contrasted so well and looked very vibrant.

 I liked the pastel mix of the Nigella or Love-in-a-mist.

Dan Pearson's design for this 'Cottage Garden' always looks inviting.  It has fruit trees amongst the roses and other perennials, and a small square box maze.  When the roses on the arches are in flower, they look and smell amazing - a previous post showing them in flower is here.

 I know that Alchemilla Mollis can be invasive, but when it has been rained on and the water droplets collect like mercury on the leaves, it can be forgiven.

 We all liked the Herb Garden with its mix of medicinal and culinary plants.

This was the view when we had a cup of tea and were joined by a robin, looking for some crumbs (which Alison gave him, of course!)  It was so peaceful, listening to the birds, looking at the plants and a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

Barnsdale Visit (part 2)



Here are some more photos of my visit to Barnsdale Gardens.  I wouldn't want you to get the wrong idea - the gardens didn't all look perfect and there were areas which needed weeding, plants which needed cutting back and some places which looked unkempt.  However, these areas made me feel as though the gardens were real, not show gardens, but changing and growing gardens.  (Of course, I am a little protective about them, as I really enjoy visiting, but if you visited, I wouldn't want you to be disappointed!) The photo above is of the Japanese Garden which is not one I usually linger at (not enough flowers), but I can appreciated the meditative qualities it has.  I did think the art work really complemented the garden as it used the same colours and was painted in really thick paint, with whirls and swirls which reminded me of a Van Gogh sky.

 The woodland painting was placed in the perfect location at the end of a garden vista, in front of real woodland.

The painting in the box garden reminded me of an aerial view of a tropical river, such as the Amazon.  The colours really appealed to me too.

 This is a view across the allotment area, through the orchard.

 Another intriguing vista - where does this lead?

 The Ornamental Kitchen Garden was made for the series of the same name and shows how vegetables and flowers can work so well together.  Again, there was companion planting of marigolds.

 Serried ranks of vegetables, from onions up to beans, which created some lovely lines.

 Here were some of the individual plants which caught my eye, from the dainty alpines...

 ...to the giant artichoke (I think).

 This delicate Californian Poppy is from the 'Thai Silk' range and has the most beautiful shading from cream to buttery yellow to blush pink.

 I really liked the combination of the tall stately agapanthus and the swishy, billowing grass which moved like a wave in the breeze.

Finally, to end on a real splash of colour, here is a dahlia, complete with hover fly; the brilliance of the fuchsia pink contrasting with the deep purply green of the foliage.

As you can tell, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and will not leave it another two and a half years before I go again!

A visit to Mum and to Barnsdale Gardens (part 1)

I have been a little quiet over the last few days (an unusual occurrence for me!) as I have been staying with my mum.  I had intended to go and stay in June, but she got a cold, so the visit was postponed until now.  It was lovely to be able to spend some time helping her in the garden, re-potting tubs, planting new plants and pottering.  There was just one thing I definitely had to do while I was there and that was to visit Barnsdale Gardens, which belonged to the late Geoff Hamilton and are run today by his son, Nick.  I used to be a frequent visitor to the gardens, but hadn't visited for two and a half years!  I took a mass of photos, but will split them up into a couple of posts, so I hope they will be enjoyable to look through.  The garden above and following was created by Dan Pearson (something I didn't know), who is now known for his prairie style of planting.  This one shows a productive garden with a mini-maze, and the most beautiful rose 'Crimson Showers', entreating the visitor to enter.

 Isn't the rose wonderful?  I do enjoy looking through an arch and wondering what is on the other side.
Barnsdale Gardens are made up of lots of small gardens or areas, showing many different styles of garden design.  Geoff Hamilton built several of them for television series, such as the Cottage Gardens and Paradise Gardens. I always take a few ideas away with me from all the different areas.

 This garden is a complete contrast to the rose filled one, with muted colours and lots of green.  It was a very calm space, with just the trickle of an unobtrusive water feature.

 There was also some artwork on show in the gardens (always interesting, sometimes controversial!) and this was the first piece I spotted, which looked at home in the wooded area. 

This was a new garden to me and did give the feeling of a coastal garden, with a shingle beach.

 Another lovely arch; really dark inside but with the light tempting me onward.

 A productive apple and pear arch, leading towards the allotment area.  It had a lot of fruit on it.

 I enjoyed the 'mad hair' of this ornamental grass, its exuberance contrasting with the formality of the urn.

 One of the vegetable gardens which was also very productive.  Most of the vegetable areas had been companion planted with marigolds in bright yellows and oranges.  Normally, I am not drawn to those colours, but the planting was so cheerful, how could I resist?

 Beautiful bright and cheerful colours.

 My favourite seat in the gardens.  I love to sit here for a while and listen to the birds and just relax...

This is the view from the seat, looking back towards the entrance, which was lovely and restful.
More from my visit in the next post.

Latest Felt piece - Apple Blossom

Here is my latest felt piece, inspired by a photo I took at Barnsdale Gardens last Spring. It is a view through the apple blossom and did remind me of an Impressionist painting or a Van Gogh, which I think I said at the time. However, I finally got round to creating a piece of felt using it as inspiration. It took quite a while to do the main blending for the background, as I wanted to get the right shade of blue. I then took my time in creating the blossom and leaves, including a small amount of silk fibre on some of the blossom. This photo shows it before felting, in all its fluffy glory.

Here is the 'after felting' photo and I am absolutely delighted with the finished product. It reminds me of a Japanese painting and it has turned out exactly as I hoped it would. This is not always the case with felt making, as the felting process often changes the image slightly. This was an experiment (as first attempts often are) and I shall keep it as the one to work from (if anyone wants to commission one in the future, that is), but also because I am so pleased with it!

My favourite thinking place

This is my favourite place to sit and think, or sit and look at the trees, or just sit when I am at Barnsdale. I always try to make time to sit and listen to the birds when I visit, which I find so relaxing. Sometimes the things that are free in this life are the things we take so much for granted - to look at the sky, listen to the birds or notice the changing seasons.

Tulips

This was one of the small courtyard gardens at Barnsdale which I particularly liked. I do like formality in a garden to a certain extent, but the planting inside the formality needs to be 'floofy' (one of my technical terms meaning informal and exuberant).

This is a close up of the gorgeous tulips. The colour contrast of the tulips against the green topiary was striking.

The blue of the forget-me-nots seems to cool the tulips down, but this was in a shadier part of the gardens. The colour combination still works really well.

Blossom everywhere!

I went to Barnsdale again last weekend and it was fantastic. The sky was blue, the birds were singing and everywhere was covered in blossom.

I took lots of photos and some of them remind me of Van Gogh's or Monet's paintings of blossom against a blue sky. Beautiful!

I really liked the weeping apple tree and took photos from under the branches as well as peeping through them.