SPRING GARDENS TO VISIT WITH MUM ON MOTHER’S DAY (MAR 10)
Garden splendour and cream teas will make it a day to remember, says HANNAH STEPHENSON
If you’re worried about what to buy your mum for Mother’s Day (March 10), the gift of a day out exploring a beautiful garden might be just the ticket.
From glorious gardens set in the grounds of castles and priories, to historic parks, woodland walks and private gardens that open on specific days for charity, there is a wealth of opportunity for on Mother’s Day visits.
Here are just a few of the horticultural gems on offer.
BELSAY HALL, CASTLE AND GARDENS, NORTHUMBERLAND
Explore 30 acres of stunning gardens, through ravines cut out of rock to the Jurassic-feeling Quarry Garden, which has is own microclimate and features a variety of exotic plants. If you want a pit stop, there’s a new café in the old stables of the castle. There’s also a recently opened art installation by Turner-nominated artist Ingrid Pollard, which runs until July.
STOURHEAD, NEAR MERE, WILTSHIRE
Drifts of glorious daffodils will be on view in the gardens surrounding this Palladian house, set in 2,650 acres of countryside. On the weekend of Mother’s Day, visitors can make Mother’s Day bouquets (£10) with spring flowers, to make as a gift or simply do as a family activity. Alternatively, just explore the world-famous landscape garden and lake and admire the classical temples surrounded by trees.
DOWN HOUSE (HOME OF CHARLES DARWIN), KENT
This idyllic spot is not only a place of international scientific importance, but a wonderful place for a Mother’s Day outing with plenty to explore both inside and out. After admiring Darwin’s study, where he wrote On The
Origin Of Species, take a walk around the gardens and greenhouse where he made observations and conducted experiments.
CASTLE HOWARD, NORTH YORKSHIRE
If you’re short on gift ideas, there’s a floral basket workshop on Mother’s Day where you can take away your own hand-crafted basket (tickets £65 inc hot drink and ground entry), or alternatively treat your mum to afternoon tea served in the historic Grecian Hall. This could follow a stroll through the majestic gardens.
POWIS CASTLE AND GARDEN, POWYS
Look out for a new daffodil called National Trust ‘Joy’ which will be blooming in spring, among the many thousands in the garden at this medieval castle. In March, naturalised daffodils bloom across the lawn and flood the aptly named Daffodil Paddock with vivid yellow.
There’s a floral basket workshop where you can take away your own hand-crafted basket
BOSCOBEL HOUSE AND THE ROYAL OAK, STAFFORDSHIRE
Once a picturesque hunting lodge, this beautiful property is most famous for hiding Charles II from Parliamentarians during the Civil War, a pivotal point in the history of England, celebrated to this day by more than 500 pubs named Royal Oak. The quaint tea room, housed in the old stables, was revamped in 2020.
HOME FARM, GLOUCESTERSHIRE
Opening for the National Garden Scheme on March 10, this is a perfect woodland walk setting featuring carpets of spring flowers over around a mile. It’s set in an elevated position with terrific views, while there’s also an enclosed garden with a fern border, a heather bed, white and mixed shrub borders and a sundial.
THE cost-of-living crisis has forced most people to cut down their food budget. Taiwaneseborn British chef Ching-he Huang first learned to cook on a shoestring when she was just 11.
“My mum had to go away, back to Taiwan [from north London] to work, to try and make ends meet. My dad looked after us,” the 45-year-old says.
Her parents had paid everything they had for the expensive visa to move from South Africa to the UK in 1989, and then a recession hit and they “pretty much lost everything”.
Without her mum, cooking and meal planning fell on a young Ching-he. “My dad’s a very bad cook. To this day he can’t cook fried rice even. So my mum would teach me how to cook, then I would cook for him. Every time she’d come back, I would learn a bit more.”
Ching-he, who has just released her 11th cookbook, Wok For Less, all about budget Asian cooking in 30 minutes or less, says the recipes she includes “are the sorts of dishes that I made for my dad growing up”. Think chop suey, stirfries, fried rice and clever hacks to turn leftovers into tasty meals.
Born in Taipei, Ching-he’s first big influence when it came to food was her Chinese grandmother, whose farm she lived on until the age of five. “I was given to my grandparents to live in the countryside with. The norm was to be shipped off to the grandparents while parents are busy working in the city.” She’d watch her grandmother cook for 25 family members, “Breakfast, lunch and dinner – it was quite something”, says Ching-he. “Even though there wasn’t much on the farm, everything was seasonal, everything was fresh, [we] used fermented ingredients like soy sauce or miso to give flavour.”
Her family emigrated to South Africa at a time when Taiwan was offering grants for residents to leave and travel for career opportunities, and Ching-he moved from one farm to another outside Johannesburg. “We’d never had an avocado before, we’d never had things like biltong or yoghurt. My mum missed home and there was one Chinese supermarket in Jo’burg, a very small store, that had soy sauce, tinned abalone... I
As long as I’ve got a cleaver, a wok and a chopping board, that’s all I need Ching-he Huang
remember very vividly her getting very excited. We’d go once a week to stock up on supplies.”
All of the recipes in the book use what she calls a ‘pared-down’ pantry. “I used £48 to buy all my store cupboard. I tested the whole recipe book and I still have so much left, it lasted months. With a little investment upfront – and I’m not saying everyone’s got to go out and buy all of them in one go – just £5 of them is just fine, and you can cook and eat well and wholesomely on a budget.”
While air fryers might be all the rage, she’s a traditionalist.
“As long as I’ve got a cleaver, a wok and a chopping board, that’s all I need.” Plus, a wok is cost-efficient. “Traditionally, it’s very little gas, very little oil and the dish is done in less than five minutes.”
And all those odds and ends in the fridge? Chuck them in a wok. “It’s an Americanised-chinese way, but in essence [it’s] using leftover ingredients, throwing bits and bobs that you have to make everything ‘chop suey’ – a handful of bean sprouts, chestnuts from another dish, red or white onions, chicken or ham. A little goes a long way.
Even in hard times, like a costof-living crisis, “We just have to remind ourselves that actually you can still eat well and cook”.
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