OMG it's cold!

I'm officially fed up with winter now....it's been frozen for nearly two and a half months and even the Snowdrops are looking dismayed. I don't think I can remember a winter quite as prolonged and without respite as this. Sadly there have definitely been some casualties along the way, the Anemones planted optimistically in October have almost all rotted off and still the Sweet Peas are looking dreadful. You've got to keep you're chin up though as it goes with the territory of working alongside nature. I'm sure there will be some pleasant surprises along the way as well doom and gloom.

Yay, hooray the new website for The Walled Garden www.thewalledgardenatmells.co.uk went live this week, we had lots of fun integrating Paypal as a safe and efficient mode for customers to pay for their bouquets. Hopefully it proves to be smooth and easy to use. I almost feel like I have birthed a new child.

At the moment I'm clearing and tidying all the beds in the garden and planning a 100ft rose garden with the view to becoming self sufficient in roses. I have to admit to having rather a wary relationship with roses, generally feeling that they are inhabited with a malevolent spirit intent on causing pain and injury to everyone and to me in particular. In precisely the same way that if there is a stinging nettle within 6ft of my location I am guaranteed to get stung if I find myself anywhere near a rose I end up lacerated and with tears in my eyes. However due to their unutterable beauty and the glamour and romance that they lend to any arrangement and also to their longevity of season I am willing to work on our relationship problems.

Looking at the long range forecast it seems as if these tundric conditions are set to remain until the end of February which means that March will be almost terrifying with its force. There is very little point in starting to sow seed until it has warmed up by a few degrees, at which point everything will go crazy and demand attention. The wait is almost painful.

At least the greenhouse is tidy..the Cornflowers( in shades of blue, black and red) are looking great and I've taken advantage of some of the brief interludes of above zero degrees to plant them out thereby leaving some space for the new seeds as they come along.

Two weeks until opening.....OMG indeed!

Brrrrrr and Happy New Year

Well it's well and truly Winter out there now and having taken a couple of months off over November and December it felt great to get back to work today. The soil was as hard as rock with Do Not Disturb etched into the frost and the Garden was full of Blackbirds fluffed up against the cold , squabbling for birdseed. Although this weather is breathtakingly beautiful I hope we can get some digging done soon.

New Year's Resolution...to update the blog more regularly. Late summer slipped through my fingers last year and it all got left behind so this year I'm going let you know what's flowering at the beginning of each month and post some pretty pictures. I'm really looking forward to this year in the Walled Garden...all of the excitement of last year but with less of the nerves

Sweet Pea Disaster (almost) We very very nearly lost the whole crop this year due to some particularly hungry field mice. The October sown seeds were completely scoffed with one very cheeky mouse family making a nest in one of the empty pots. The devastation wasn't discovered until mid November which didn't leave much time to order new seeds..hrumphh and get them germinated and slightly grown up before the weather turned really cold. On last inspection they were still intact but looking rather vulnerable to sharp teeth and cold nights so fingers crossed they make it through.

Plans Afoot and Opening Times....We'll be open for businesss from the 1st March for online bouquets and at the Walled Garden for Plants, Flowers and Teas . Flowers can be delivered to most of the UK from Tuesday to Saturday and this year the Walled Garden will be open from Wednesday - Sunday 10am to 4pm daily. We will be launching a brand new website for the Walled Garden next month so watch this space.......

What's all the Fussell about?

Any old iron . . . cast around 1860, found in a heritage tool seller's stall in Honiton last week; now landed less than a mile from where it was forged and ground.

http://www.fussells.org/04story.html

http://webapp1.somerset.gov.uk/her/details.asp?prn=23853

Eastnor Castle 2009

BigChill Snapshots:

Festival Time Again

Summer must well and truly be here as we are off to WOMAD, Charlton Park next week to do all the flowers for the artist dressing rooms and hanging out areas. Always something to look forward to, although this year I'm going to try to be more organised and sort the flowers into arrangements before I go, rather than turn up with a Landrover bursting with blooms and then have a five hour arranging stint on arrival. I also promise not to shriek too much as we buggy them around to the stages. Same thing at the Big Chill festival a fortnight later...pleeeease come out and play sunshine.

Frome Festival

Frome is fab I've decided. We don't live there but I'm angling for a move there in the not too distant future. There's always loads going on and this year's festival was no exception. We took a market stall to the Green Fair where we practically sold out of flowers and met lots of lovely people. I had forgotten how much work it is doing market stalls. Since we've take on the Walled Garden we haven't done any this year, a case of not being able to be in two places at once and our weekends in the garden being so busy. It is exciting though, I always get nervous beforehand and am convinced that we won't sell a thing and always come home with a glow and very few flowers. This year Kevin McCloud from Grand Designs opened the Green Fair but seemed to forget to come and say hello, I tried to catch his eye but he probably thought I was just being strange and stayed far away.



Tea Time



Mmmmm look at that chocolate cake. Remember we're open every weekend over the summer for tea, coffee, cordials and cake.

Relax on the straw bales in the sunshine and watch the Bees being busy.





Here comes the Sun
After two years of quite frankly miserable summers this year's good weather is even better than gorgeous. It's been a bit too hot for the young plants in the greenhouse even with all the vents open and the poor things have fried if I've been late with the watering in the morning. I've had to snip off the sunscorched leaves, muttering apologies and promising not to spray water around at midday again.

We've relined the pond....yay, it was just a muddy hole with a cracked liner and about 6 inches of fish poo and looked awful in the middle of the garden. June was just so busy we didn't get the time to deal with it but now we have and it looks great (if a little green).

It was very tempting to get in and have a swim but i kept remebering all those little stones hiding underneath the liner and didn't dare risk it.

I do, I do and I do again
Eight days, four weddings, two funerals and loads of gift bouquets....aaaagh, thank goodness for Rosie helping out. The end of May, beginning of June is Peony time. Beautiful, beautiful Peonies immediately lending a touch of glamour and a subtle, sweet scent. Our first big wedding of the Summer was definitely a Peony wedding, we used bowls of pink and white peonies on the tables, Peony and Sweet Pea bouquets and church arrangements with a beautiful dark raspberry pink Peony throughout.
Then we had Jane and Mark's wedding at Priston Mill, a lovely old water mill that suited our flowers perfectly. We painted up large baked bean tins, dressed them with raffia and filled them with flowers. They looked gorgeous.

We need to gather examples of all our wedding pictures together and put a wedding page on the website methinks....

May