The Wendy Chronicles

Follow me on

March 2010

The Lady and her Garden

She speaks to her plants
as if they were children,
“Stout thing”, “My lovely” and “Naughty”
she calls them.

And proud as a mother
she sings of their praises,
delicately describing
their blossoms, like faces.

She cradles their names
in her voice with such care,
as if to caress them
with lullabies fair.

And to all that pass
through that wrought iron gate
their verdant green virtues
the lady relates.

For even in winter,
when the ground starts to harden,
she pours love like rain
on her secret garden.

Anne Marie Kelley on visiting the garden on 22 May 2007

Mill Dene July 2009

Blossom dearie?

The season has been in a hurry, blossom rushes out in the morning and has faded by the afternoon. The garden is so lush maybe it was the very wet year last year, but it is rather gorgeous!!

The scents have been particularly strong this year, one scent vying with another for attention: and we started with Sarcococa then the Chimonanthus against the kitchen wall in February: it stopped the Postman in his tracks! Then the Virburnums came good.

Lonicera tartarica was quite overwhelming by the steps to the north garden until the lilacs came to join the party. The philadelphus took it in turns to invade the air round the Cricket lawn.

I love the flower scents, so sensuous, but the herb garden is full of sturdy scents... useful smells! Some deter bugs, some cure ills, some improve cooking and some preserve food and some are...aphrodisiacs. I answer no questions! I was not allowed to hold a National Collection of Aphrodisiacs by the officials....something to do with proving they work, I understood!

Dosh!

Mill Dene has hosted some fun charity events: We had Stormy Sam attending the Royal National Life Boat Association Garden Day in June and a little later Peter Gill playing Jazz whilst picnics were eaten on the lawn to raise money for the LINC charity which supports those with cancer in Cheltenham Hospital.

The biggest and noisiest event was without doubt the HELP FOR HEROES DINNER. The Corps of Drums of the Royal Marine Band played round the mill pond and were reflected in the water which was lovely. Dinner was in a large marquee on the Cricket lawn and Major General Patrick Cordingley DSO who was a Desert Rat talked very amusingly about his Army life.

So far about £6,000 has been raised at Mill Dene for these different charities and there are more to come (see events page).

Mill Dene Spring 2009

Don’t even pretend you know the origins of the saying,
’Its raining cats and dogs’.

Well! One of the delights of Cotswolds architecture is the many thatched roofs. I have an old drovers cottage in a terrace in Shipston-on-Stour (Sheep’s town, silly. A drover drove his sheep down from the hills to the market, which may have been some distance away). It is 14th Century and part of the terrace is a pub. Drovers get thirsty. It is absolutely gorgeous.

When built originally, the thatch, which is long reeds tied together, would not have any ceiling underneath them. They made the cottages very warm and snug. So warm that the pets used to find their way up into them, and if it rained very heavily the pets would jump, or even fall down very quickly: hence, ‘Its raining cats and dogs’!!!! See, you didn’t know did you?

AND, what is more: have you ever fancied a bed with a canopy over the top of it? Four posters we call them, and they are still to be found in some old hotels round here.* But why have a bed with a roof, as it were? To stop the other inhabitants of the thatch (birds, mice, flies and, eh, fleas, etc) falling down on one during the night.

Practical lot, us Brits.

*The Victoria and Albert Museum in Knightsbridge, London, has the Great Bed of Ware. The whole family slept in that one.

Mill Dene Autumn 2007
What a year it has been. We had the most beautiful April and May then it started to rain in June and did not really stop until September. Maybe to compensate the Autumn has been wonderful for colour and berries and the leaves are still hanging on.

Mill Dene was pretty severely flooded on that Friday in July. The mill pond flooded into the Dining Room, then overflowed and filled the sluice cut, which then overflowed into the cellar. The water knocked over the locked cellar door, breaking it down, trashed the potting shed and the office then careered into the wheel-pit area knocking over the central heating boiler on its way.

The villagers think it is very funny that the Dares lost two boxes of wine which were washed into the wheel-pit and under the drive down into the brook behind. My son had to put on waders and walk down the stream to my neighbours who gave them back, rather reluctantly we thought!
Happily the only bit of the garden which is damaged badly is the bog area is the back. It was just coming into flower nicely and getting established. Calla lilies, astibiles, ligularias and loads of primulas and ferns were all beginning to ‘put on weight’.

Never mind it is a challenge, an opportunity. Right now we are putting all the summer pots to bed as the first frost of the Winter is with us. I do hope the Plectranthus and heliotrope especially will survive with us. They usually do. We keep them just frost free in the greenhouses. Then we will have to re-make the walls of the brook where it flood broke them down and re-plant. That lovely moment will have come again: What to choose. I think that re-designing and re-making beds in the Autumn is perhaps the best time of the whole year.

Our main escape this Autumn has been lighting the garden: it really does look magic. Paul Gwilliams of Lights4gardens has been doing all the work and the results are terrific. Come to our evening opening and enjoy it with us. (See the Whats On page).

Mill Dene in June and July

21st June 2006

We have been rather pre-occupied by our orphans! The fox ate their mother, a beautiful Gloucestershire Appleyard Duck, called Elizabeth. Her chum, Philip, could do nothing to save her so we were left with 11 day old chicks. Today seven of them have survivied and we have let them loose on the mill pond. So far so good.

Rosa Super FairyThe garden is looking full and 'Juneish'. The new roses on the Rose Walk are getting going. 'Rhapsody in Blue' is a very strong grower with a lovely scent and is pretty disease free. 'City of London' with the most beautiful buds was sadly struck with Black Spot. I cut it almost to the ground and fed it luscious rose food and so far it is OK. I want to see more growth before I would say it is flourishing. The Super Fairy Weeping Standards are excellent!

We are just putting out the last of the over-wintered pots. We have found one lurking in a corner and frankly forgotten about which is quite lovely. It has a dark maroon ivy leafed geranium and an echevaria in a turquoise glazed pot. Andrew has put it by the front door to join the other pots. I always try to get things there which are scented to knock over scent buds as we go in…or out.

Viburnum HilleriThe best ‘smeller’ in the garden is without doubt the Virburnum. I think it is Hilleri and the scent of honey fills the garden. Philadelphus are doing well too. I always associate a June garden with philadelphus.

Herb GardenThen there are the ‘scratch and sniff’ jobs. Plenty of different scented leaved Geraniums all over the garden in pots, but mostly in the Herb Garden. We have really worked on the Herb Garden this year: pretty well all the plants are named now, with their uses and their families. They fall into the usual catagories of culinary, medicinal, vermifuge, plants for dying (no, Silly, changing the colour of things!), and, eh…..aphrodisiacs. Jo, who works on our Reception desk has written these up and this can be purchased from us. (The booklet, I mean, not the aphrodisiacs!).
So: there are all sorts of interesting
smells to be encountered up there!

The Summer HouseThe Herb Garden has turned out to be a nice place to sit protected from the rain by the little summer house with its mural. There are views over the lovely Cotswold hills and there is the sound of water, very gently bubbling in a stone trough, as well as colours in the geometric beds. The back drop is our 11th Century Church. I am going to put a pair of binoculars up there for fun.

Mill Dene in mid-May

May 2006

Spring has definitely sprung at last!! That is despite having an inch of rain last Monday. The air is heavy with scent: Osmanthus burkwoodii, Ribes odorata, Virburnum ’Park hybrid’, Wallflowers, Euphorbia chamycyperis, ‘Fens Ruby’ to name but a few of the ‘smellys’.

TulipsMemo to me: colour combinations that have worked
Tulipa Princess Irene. which is orange and Euphorbia Griffithii Fireglow, which has orange bracts, together with blue Brunnera. This is quite good especially with the golden leaved philadelphus behind. The brachyglottis (Senecio, for the unreformed like me) has the unfortunately named clematis ‘Willy’ growing through. The grey of the Senecio and the pink of the clem is pretty, especially as we can see them nodding at the window.

Tulips, Golden Apeldoorn and White Trumphator are backed with primrose wallflowers quite effectively, even though they are supposed to be white! These are all the way down the Rose Walk path. Tulip ‘Queen of the Night’, has Euphorbia chamycyperis ‘Fens Ruby’ at her feet. The dark, dark red of the tulip is a good contrast to the lime green/yellow of the euphorbia.

... and those that didn't:

The plan was to have pink tulips that would come out at the same time as the espaliered apples in the Fruit Garden. The Bulb companies confounded me completely by getting the colours wrong. It is a mess. I will have them all up next year.

Individual plants that are joining the party
The Prunuses (Prunii?) are flowering like mad in the Arbour bed: gloriously white with lots of white arabis nearby. The apples and the Malus are gloriously pink with Bluebells underneath. The aubrietia is purpling all the stone walls; the dark pink Bergenia, ‘Balawy’ is definitely a good ‘doer’ sitting over the bridge over the brook.
Dicentra is still breaking its heart amongst the forget-me-nots in front of the kitchen and up the path to the north garden.

Anthemis cupanania, thriving in my frost pocket on the west of the Mill and is falling down the mill pond sides and is nearly touching the water. When the ducks are off their nests with their ducklings, they will probably start eating them.

What plant is this:
I got this narcissus from Unwins many years ago and have lost the name. Can anyone help?

And now I’m off to try some Rachel’s Ice Cream – a new delivery this morning and Maple and Pecan is looking very tempting….. mmmm..!