The sunshine has been really lovely over the last few weeks but is now beginning to outstay its welcome. Everything is really dry, the borders are starting to suffer and the irrigation system is on the the Kitchen Garden most evenings.
We are still interviewing for the replacement gardener to take Richard’s place in the team. We had a good response, and at least 2 ideal candidates so the decision will be difficult.
The martagon lilies at their best (see pic) and are really looking well, helped in part by the dry weather; it is the rain splashes that spread the lily disease infection.
We had a very important visitor last week when the ex president of the Rose Society came to the gardens to have a look at our roses. Debbie had chatted to a speaker at the local garden club and expressed an interest in someone coming to identify some of our large rose collection. Little did we realise we would be welcoming someone so important. The visit took up all the morning and only covered one of the borders. The lady was really enthusiastic and said she would write a piece on the gardens. She was staggered that we have so few visitors, as the gardens are such a beautiful place to visit.
On Saturday morning, a frantic phone call at 7am from Miss Berkeley, ended with myself, my husband, Debbie’s husband and John the gamekeeper all coming to help remove cows from the gardens again. It seems that some unhelpful person has been leaving gates open and cows do like to take any opportunity for a wander....
And finally... I had a power cut sometime on Saturday night; calls to neighbours indicated that it was just Gardeners Cottage. The electricity company came out promptly and were really efficient in finding the problem: when the electricity had been installed in the cottage it had been taken from the substation through the car park, under the cart shed, under our potting shed and down to the cottage all in a straight line. The section of cable right underneath the wall between our potting shed and the cart shed had broken. This meant it took until 10pm Sunday night to restore the power by putting an extra loop in to go round the buildings. Today they were back, digging a trench to install the cable properly. I am using this as an excuse as to why this month’s diary is a few days late... no laptop...
