Christmas is coming to Houghton

My last week at Houghton of 2013 and the time has flown by.

Father Christmas (well a tree type, FC type, person) made a surprise visit this week following the Snowman's visit last week. Big FC helped me clear the shrubs near the Peacock garden which were really overgrown and needed a trim. Lots of clearing this week and Rose pruning in the walled garden. Some of the Roses climbing the walls were reaching up and over the top of the wall so a ladder was needed for some serious hacking back. They look much better and we will hopefully reap the rewards next year when the Roses come out.

The garden is looking very bare and you can gain a sense of the structure of the plants and trees. Much easier to see what needs doing. The Crab Apple trees still have beautiful red fruits dangling from them and you can see new life coming at the base of the Perrenials, waiting to spring into life in a few months.

I made a few more Gourd bird feeders and the birds are darting around from branch to branch.

It has been a huge learning curve but I feel like I am a long way from the allotment holder of last year. I have my RHS Certificate now and feel much happier approaching plants and even know some of their names! I feel I have a sense of plant sizes and have been able to see plants at their height in Summer appear as a skeleton in Winter. My Allotment feels tiny by comparison to the work undertaken at Houghton Lodge and that is something I could only have gained through experience.

Looking forward to more fun next year and the change of season again, when we can sow seeds and grow from scratch.

Autumnal hues galore

A beautiful day at Houghton today in the mist and fog and it was cold. Andrew and I spent the day on the Long Border (and it is long) snipping, clipping and tidying away til all became clear. The Border is huge and requires a lot of attention. The Roses along the back wall are seriously out of control into the Clematis and we happily chopped down Sedum, Echinops and Roses amongst others.

The Sedum present beautifully intricate tight bundles of new growth at the base and look very pretty.

The spiders had been out in ernest and their webs were everywhere hanging delicately and the colours are wonderful, oranges, deep greens, blue-green, dark browns, I love it!

I also managed to come up with a plan for an area of garden in the shade, a Fernery, so hopefully that will happen in 2014 before I go!

John had planted up some of the Hydroponicum with Strawberries which will be lush before we know it.

More tomorrow.....

Creatures

Mainly quiet days at the garden this week, beautiful scenery, birds calling and hiding in the shrubs, colours aplenty in the leaves but yesterday was noisy with the wind rattling around.

A week for Moles, I learnt to set duffus traps and we caught one on the main lawn which has done tremendous damage in a huge sweep towards the river. I tried to catch another across the meadows down by the river but no luck yet. Good practice. Andrew showed me some huge rabbit warrens down by the trees near the river, never seen anything like it, hiding near the roots under the canopy of leaves. We also got to check out Badger damage and found the Chafer bugs they were

looking for. All that damage from a Badger and the grubs are tiny weeny.

I used a petrol mower to collect leaves and did some Rose pruning. We also tried to put our Peach tree to bed but the wind has probably pulled the fleece away by now.

I have been asked to design an area of garden in front of the house, hidden from the public (probably just as well!) and so I tried to measure the area, which is kind of overgrown in places and will have a think about what would look nice in a shady spot between two walls. I am going to draw my first ever plan and see how we go. So exciting thinking about choosing plants. I popped to Hillier's for some inspiration and boy was it beautiful there today, so much going on. I particularly liked the Gunnera which have been put to bed under their own leaves and look like alien life forms huddled together.

The grasses in the Centenary Border are stunning too rustling in the breeze, my faves are definatley the hairy ones, Miscanthus.

The apple trees at Houghton in the orchard are displaying apples like Christmas baubles, leafless stems with jewels hanging down. Gorgeous.

The Dragon got a new woodchip path and is looking really neat and happy.