Can’t quite decide about August, some glorious days, but quite a lot of the wet stuff too! Still at least it meant less watering and the ability to work the ground up on the terrace beds occasionally as they weren’t like concrete all summer.

We have been busy having groups visit the garden this summer including the NGS Day, Aberaeron WI and two visits from different age groups at local charity DASH’s summer holiday programme.

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Teddy Bear’s Picnic

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NGS Day

If you would like to hold an event in our garden or use it for your group please contact us either by phone or email tyglyngardener@yahoo.co.uk.

Really pleased with the terrace beds this year which are starting to reflect the amount of work we have been putting in and the replanting made possible by your donations.

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Donated Crocosmiia possibly ‘Severn Sunrise.’ We have been broadening the planting up here to include more unusual and tender plants in this more sheltered part of the garden. The hot colour scheme is also working well and looking up at the terrace, particularly at this time of year the vibrant colours are very enticing.

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Of course once you are up on the terraces don’t forget to look down!

We have been battling through the problems caused by theft whether it be theft of newly planted stock, or theft of crops while they are still in the ground. This year we again lost half of our onion crop and half of one variety of potato, the mess left behind is as annoying as the thefts;

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Potato Ulster Sceptre uprooted with unwanted tubers scattered around.

We do our best to keep on top of harvesting our produce for sale to visitors, but this is balanced with providing a display for visitors and the simple demands on the time of our small, but hardy, team. Ironically if the people who take the time to come down and steal, became volunteers instead we would be on top of these jobs! We do have lots of produce for sale now by the Gardeners cottage, money into the stone cairn please, which goes straight back into the garden.

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L-R top to bottom Runner Bean Streamline, French Beans Cobra, Selma Zebra and Purple Teepee and Courgettes.

We have now lifted first and second early Potatoes Ulster Sceptre, Lady Christl and the blue fleshed Salad Blue. The remaining Maincrop potato is still in and looking attractive as this year we have not been bothered by blight as yet.

The Productive Gardens have come in for some much needed tidying this week as Borage has finally gone over after a bumper season and English Marigolds were looking tired too. The Dahlias now have space to come out and dazzle us into Autumn.

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I think I removed 4 barrows just of Borage from the veg garden.

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We will definately be growing more Kale ‘Nero di Toscana’ next year which has done very well for us this year adjacent the Rainbow Chard.

A new plant we trialled in one of the wettest beds in the garden, (previously infested with Garden Mint) is the large leaved Telekia speciosa with it’s lovely yellow daisy flowers.

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Regular visitors to the garden will note some changes to the Woodland Walk that runs around the outside of the Walled Garden. Due to a dispute over the garden’s boundaries with our neighbours the section of the Woodland walk encompassing the Lime Walk is now closed to visitors. We are currently in negotiations and I will keep you posted as to how these go and the changes which will be made to the garden.

We are now beginning to look at purchasing spring bulbs ready for our Valentines Day NGS Open Day where we will be showcasing the garden’s collections of snowdrops, spring bulbs and other winter interest plants. I have a personal collection of Snowdrops (or Galanthus) and will be bringing some into the garden to display for visitors, hopefully including some yellow and heavily green marked flowers depending on what is looking best that weekend.

I am not sure where this summer has gone, it doesn’t seem like 5 minutes since we were wondering if we would have any Nasturtiums in the Veg garden as late frosts had wiped out the first round of self set seedlings now we are constantly trimming them back to keep the paths open. We are still well worth a visit though as the Phlox plants we spent much of last Autumn putting in are now starting to bloom extending our interest period further.