saturday at savill

Last Saturday, G and I followed Jane's advice and headed to Savill Garden. It had been ages since our last visit, and with such brilliant blue skies, we couldn't resist. There were bees and blossom

and magnolias in every stage,

from bud, to bloom, to petals on the paths:

We wandered past familiar favorites,

and found a new favorite (veltheimia) in the Temperate House,

where more bees were buzzing, reminding us we really should be working too:

So we headed back to the Allotments. But on our way out, we spotted new growth on the hydrangeas,

surely the perfect excuse for another visit...

wisley wander, take three

Heading out to Wisley on Wednesday, it seemed cool enough to wear my new wool socks,

knit in madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Nostalgia, a glazed, semi-solid colorway mixing purples, beiges, and grays.

But luckily I wore my cotton socks, as Ali and I soon warmed up, wandering up Battleston Hill, through the woodland gardens, and out amongst the trial beds,

where we discovered fabulous fields of dahlias. While not normally a pink person, my heart is now set on pink pompoms for the plot:

Because surely everything (even weeding) is more fun with pompoms! And hopefully after their course, Ali and Tracy will be able to tell me just what to do, because I'm definitely more skilled with yarn pompoms than floral ones.

chalk cliffs and charleston

Early Friday morning, under the brightest of blue skies, G and I escaped to East Sussex. We made a brief detour to the Birling Gap, where the chalk cliffs drop dramatically

to the long pebble beach below,

then doubled back on the A27 to Charleston, the country home of the Bloomsbury Group:

Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant moved to Charleston in 1916, and over the next 50 years transformed the dilapidated farmhouse into a home and gathering place. Clive Bell, David Garnett, and John Maynard Keynes all lived at Charleston at various times, and Virginia and Leonard Woolf, E.M. Forster, Lytton Strachey, and Roger Fry were frequent visitors.

Vanessa and Duncan, inspired by Italian frescoes and the Post-Impressionists, painted nearly every wall, door, and piece of furniture: there was a nary a blank surface to be seen on our tour. And the painted decoration was complemented by objects from the Omega Workshops, the Bloomsbury Group's design business in London.

© Pia Tryde

© The Charleston Trust

I fell in love with Vanessa Bell's paintings when I was an art student in London many moons ago, and there were works by Vanessa (as well as Duncan) throughout the house:

Vanessa Bell, Iceland Poppies, c. 1908-09, © The Charleston Trust

The tour finished in the walled garden, which was planted with flowers, fruit, and vegetables,

enclosed by box hedges, and ornamented with mosaics and statuary in the southern European style:

G would like a classical head for our plot too, which is fine by me. But he's also suggested livening up the flat with some sponged and stenciled decoration, which is where I think I better draw the line!

wisley wander, take two

Here's a less melty Yogurt Pop with Berries,

a quick treat before heading out to RHS Wisley. It'd been quite a while since our last visit, when we made the mistake of going on a jam-packed Grow Your Own Weekend. But despite the overflowing car park, it didn't feel too busy this time round.

We admired the succulents in the Model Gardens and Glasshouse, which seemed appropriate on such a scorching day.

I thought the rose season had ended, but we strolled past bed after bed of amazing blooms:

And there were more humble flowers too:

But my favorite part, as always, was the 'allotment', showcasing the best methods for growing fruit and veg. There were awe-inspiring espaliers of apples and pears and nectarines and peaches,

as well as a shady grape arbor to shelter from the midday sun:

We're now considering adding apples, pears, and grapes to our plot too. But without a sunny wall or greenhouse, I'm pretty sure we won't be growing our own peaches...or pineapples!

other people's gardens

Saturday dawned so bright and sunny--the sky such a deep cobalt blue--it seemed an ideal morning for exploring. So we headed to Savill Garden, a woodland and ornamental garden created by Sir Eric Savill in the 1930s.

There were still a few daffodils blooming,

plenty of frothy blossom,

and some magnificent magnolias:

After a leisurely wander, we had lunch on the terrace of the Savill Building, just beyond the shade of its wonderfully wavy roof:

this image: Savill Garden website

The garden is part of the Royal Landscape, which is in turn part of the Crown Estate. As our allotments are also owned by the Crown, I was thinking they could perhaps lend us a gardener to help with a bit of plot beautification...hmmm!

daylesford day, part four

On Friday, we drove out to Daylesford for our last course this term: Introduction to Cider and Apple Juice Making. When he's not managing the Market Garden at Daylesford, Jez runs his own artisan cider business using apples collected locally in the Vale of Evesham.

We started the day with crates of apples...

and Jez' own Heath Robinson-esque equipment, into which his assistants gamely fed apples for milling...

and pressing:

Jez talked us through the process step-by-step, then led us in a tasting of juices and ciders made from dessert, culinary, and cider apples. The juices had been pressed outside in the yard just minutes before, and the ciders came from Jez' own 'cider cellar' at home.

I was particularly excited by the bright flavors of the freshly pressed, unpasteurized juices. My favorite was Blenheim Orange, with Newton Wonder a close second.

After the tasting, we had lunch in the Daylesford Kitchen Garden, then piled into minivans for the short journey to Stow Cider, another artisan producer.

Here we experienced the process from start to finish. We shook the orchard trees to bring down a rain of apples,

used long poles to pull off the remaining apples, then gathered them into bags,

which we hefted back to base, where our apples were combined with apples of different varieties to produce the perfect blend:

We worked the mill and press in teams, filling the hopper with washed apples, scooping up the pomace, building the 'cheeses' (wrapping layers of pomace in cloth and sandwiching them between boards), pressing the cheeses, and dismantling the pressed cheeses.

In the end, we each took home 25 liters of juice to ferment into cider. And if you've never seen a 25-liter barrel, that's a LOT of cider!

daylesford day, part three

On Sunday, G and I drove out to Daylesford for our third organic gardening class. I'm now most-definitely determined to add cape gooseberries and borage to our plot:

But the highlight of the day was learning how to transform these...

into these:

After a demonstration by Jez,

we set to work making our own ropes of onions, shallots, and garlic. I was so pleased with my handiwork:

Binding alliums has the restful repetitiveness of knitting, and it gave us a chance to chat with our classmates. One couple was trading their allotment produce for pints at their local pub! And another had just acquired a massive plot on a nearby farm through the Landshare scheme.

In addition to my allium rope, we took away loads of gorgeous seedlings...

and a punnet of heritage tomatoes,

as it was also Daylesford's Heritage Tomato Weekend. A super way to spend a (mostly!) sunny Sunday.