Open day success is music to our ears!
A large garden in Newcastle Emlyn, Wales, with themed areas and a vegetable patch.
We only had 12 dry days out of 30, so getting everything done for June’s open days wasn’t going to happen – not even with a kind friend’s help to make the pergola border look somewhat presentable. I didn’t manage to get all the borders weeded and tidied.
However, we did have a steady flow of visitors on a Sunday afternoon, and those who came enjoyed not only the garden, but also the afternoon teas and live music from yours truly and my music partner Nick (also known as ‘Doreen and the Dude’). We raised £247 for the local first response team, which is good.
During the following dry days I did attack the rest of the unattended borders, so all I have to do now is keep them tidy as most of the hard work has now been done.
The annual plants I’d put into the borders a few weeks before the open weekend have been munched by slugs and snails, and all my broccoli and cauliflower plants broken off by the winds that came with the rain, but I’ve sown a few more seeds and will hopefully get some greens to take me through winter.
The sugar snap peas are really doing well and have already been frozen in tubs for winter use. It’s great timing as I’ve just finished off last year’s harvest that I’d frozen. Cucumbers are also growing madly, so I don’t have to buy any for a long while. Tomatoes are setting as well, but the other fruit isn’t quite so good – a few apples on the trees and the soft fruit is very sparse. Even the strawberries haven’t set and there were masses of flowers on them!
But the roses in the Music Garden are fantastic and a mass of blooms. I’ve come to the conclusion that roses like a lot of water, as the ones further down the garden are a bit pitiful in comparison. The water butt at the side of the house has its overflow pipe running down to the Music Garden. So even when the butt is empty, one hour of rain fills it in no time.
And we’ve become proud grandparents, too! Our call ducks have hatched one chick and there are two eggs left. No 1 is so cute – a bundle of yellow fluff and growing fast!