Category Archives: Garden

Thankless tasks……..

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photo (2)Autumn is here with a vengence. The nights are drawing in and it seems strange to be preparing supper each evening with the normally beautiful view of the garden masked by complete darkness.

While the treees are stunning and a mass of yellow and russet tones, collecting the leaves is a thankless task. It doesn’t matter how often we tidy up, we get up the next morning and the grass is completely covered again.

Last year, we had to ignore this as we were up to our neck in renovating the property and the lawns suffered greatly as a result. This year however, we can’t afford to ignore and so we’ll just have to keen raking……………..

Jam making at The White House

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The weather here at The White House Dulcote seems very Autumnal and at the weekend our thoughts turned to jam making.  Our shelves are now groaning with Blackberry jam following my foraging trip with my good friend Ros (and more later about her bravery when Bob attracted the attention of a fieldful of young cows…..)

Sunday saw us turn our attention to the ancient plum tree in the kitchen garden and I’m pleased to report that the jars of plum jam have now joined the blackberry ready for our next guests to arrive and taste them.

Lucy and I gathered a huge basketful from the lower hanging branches with the aid of a step ladder but we had to enlist Rod and a lacrosse stick to reach higher hanging fruit.  Me thinks he enjoyed hitting me on the head with a load of plums just a little too much…………………

Darlek invasion of Wells

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After an energetic day in The White House garden yesterday, replenishing all of our pots, I settled down with a cup of coffee to read the Wells Journal.  Imagine my surprise to hear of an imminent invasion of Wells of those old Dr Who adversaries, the Darleks…..  According to the Journal, intergalactic messages have been intercepted, indicating that an army of Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors and Pig Slaves  will invade Wells on Saturday, August 15, in the Market Square at around 11am, and moving onto the Bishop’s Barn at around noon.

Here’s hoping they don’t make it up to Dulcote!

Read more: http://www.wellsjournal.co.uk/Daleks-ready-invade-city-s-market/story-26806943-detail/story.html#ixzz3f5nmW4tg

The White House Kitchen Garden

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Back in March I began to plan out our kitchen garden and the vegetables are really taking off.  We have a huge range of vegetables growing and so far have been able to pick broad beans, broccolli and spinach.  We have so much spinach I’m beginning to think its vampire spinach – we cut it right back for supper and the next morning its right back, as big as the day before.  So much so the family are rebelling and refusing to it more!  Anyone for spinach???kitchen garden 1kitchen garden 2

The White House Garden and Dinder Open Gardens

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Its beautiful here today in Dulcote – hot and sunny with lots of bird song.  The garden continues to amaze me blue flowers frontage– when one lot of blossom fades, another is ready to take its place.  The frontage of the house is covered in lovely blue flowers now and looks gorgeous, and my to do list continues to grow with “must learn the names of all of our plants and shrubbery” now added to the never ending list.  But talking of gardens, its the Dinder Open Gardens this weekend with nine gardens open for public viewing as well as a large wildflower meadow.  All welcome on Sunday afternoon.  I did suggest to Rod we joined in but he has told me I’m not nearly professional enough to compete yet…….

 

grotto

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The renovations at The White House took their toll on Mags, our lovely black and white cat. She has been terrified to go outside for months and has needed a lot of love and attention to help her feel safe. It was such a joy this afternoon, not only to see her venture out into the sunshine but to climb the magnolia tree to get a better view of all the exciting sights in the garden. well done MagsMAGS

Kitchen Garden at The White House

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Our new piece of land at the back of The Old Barn is coming along nicely.  Over the past week we have planted a wide range of fruit and vegetables in our kitchen garden including parsnips, carrots, broccoli, courgettes, pumpkin, spinach, peas, green beans, blueberries, cauliflower and beetroot.  Our car park has been laid and all that is now needed is decorative topping, and we even have a piece laid to turf.  Instant grass!  And my daughter, Lucy, has also planted a wild flower garden.

Very much looking forward to watching all of the plants grow over the coming weeks.