A day at Sulby Gardens

 



A new garden to explore is always a joy isn't it? A weekend wander around a garden with cake and coffee at the end of a visit is a pleasure for so many of us.

 

To get a chance for a private visit to a garden with two friends who happen to be gardening experts, and enjoy a ramble around with the owners, is even more of a treat.

 

That's why I loved going to Sulby Gardens, to record a programme for BBC Radio Leicester's gardening programme, "Down to Earth" doing just that. Derek Cox and Josie Hutchinson , from the programme's panel of experts were with me.

 

Tucked just inside the Northamptonshire side of the border with Leicestershire, Sulby Gardens consists of twelve acres of formal gardens, kitchen gardens, orchards, a wood and even an ice house.

 

 

 

 

Alison has lived here since 1976. She and her husband Chris were fired with enthusiasm after reading John Seymour's 'The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency' and were inspired to buy a walled garden and live in the Head Gardener's Cottage there.

 

There were glasshouses and old storerooms which still bear the pencilled notes on the doors detailing how many fruits and carrots were picked in the early 1900's.

 

 

 

 

Part of the old apple store is now a conservatory where expertly trained (according to Derek) grapes festoon the ceiling.

 

 

There's a rather large glasshouse from 1904, which was the original carnation house.



 A place to sit out of the rain, looking down to part of the kitchen garden

Alison's husband Chris died nine years ago at the age of sixty. However he's left quite a legacy and they both have amassed a wonderful collection of sixty three varieties of apple trees .

There's a certain romance to the names of the old and new varieties of apples grown ...and there's also a dozen varieties of pear trees .We tasted two or three varieties as we munched our way around the kitchen garden and then found ten varieties of plum trees on the verge of ripeness.

Bill Barker has been the Garden Manager here for twenty years or so, and he too has played an important role in the development of the garden, especially since Chris's death. In fact Alison says he's an important reason why she has been able to stay here - she simply couldn't have done it on her own.

On the right hand side of the walled garden, glass houses previously abutted the walls for a couple of hundred yards or so.
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And that's why Sulby Gardens is so interesting...because the gardens belonged to a minor stately home built in 1792 and designed by Sir John Sloane. Echoes of its gardening past are all around, but the house itself is no more. It was demolished in the early 1950's .

We winced and shuddered as we heard this - having seen photographs, it was a beautiful building. Yet we were able to admire what remained of the more formal area of gardens

It's ironic, because so many owners of old houses have, over the years, sold parcels of their estates or gardens for housing or development. Alison and Chris did the exact opposite, they managed to buy extra land to increase their garden, to build a wood and seven ponds.

 With the wood, they inherited an ice house. I was dying to see this...Josie walked over it without knowing at first!

 

This dates from the late eighteenth century and is listed.







 We all trooped down the stairs and inside in single file, the temperature immediately dropping as we did so. No torches, but fortunately I had my trusty iphone to light our way



This was where tons of ice, were hacked from the stream running through  the gardens by the gardeners, and thrown into the hole. Meat, game and fish, butter and other foods were kept here on the ice until needed for the table.

By now, we had spent two hours wandering around the gardens, enjoying the views and the plantings. We'd also admired the way that Alison, Chris and Bill have enhanced the gardens over the years and developed flower meadows and wildlife habitats for mammals, insects and birds.

By now, the drizzle and wind had died down and we were able to relax on a garden bench in the sunshine.

Left to right...Bill Barker, Josie Hutchinson, Derek Cox, me and Alison Lowe





Such a lovely day and such an interesting garden, with so much to see . You can hear the programme we recorded by clicking this link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05gydwf

You can also see the gardens for yourself as they are open on Thursday 12th October from 1 pm to 4pm and again on  Friday 13th October from 11am until 4pm...

Alison and Bill will be around, and you've got the chance to buy some bottles of fresh apple juice too, which is pressed and bottled by Bill, but only sold to garden visitors at open days for the National Garden Scheme. There's plenty of apple cakes to taste too!

Here's just three of the varieties, and Sunset, the bottle I have tasted is absolutely delicious and addictive.

Sulby is worth a visit any time of year though and opens regularly....so do check with the Northamptonshire branch of the National Garden Scheme to find out next year's dates. You will be so pleased you did!
 

Days enjoying other gardens and helping to raise money too

I can't tell you how lovely it is to see the sunshine  these days. With the soil growing warmer and more colour in the garden, it's time to head out to other people's gardens  for inspiration, to appreciate what they've achieved, and to relax with a piece of cake after a nice walk .

Yes, the Open Gardens season has begun....

The Yellow Book details hundreds of gardens all over the UK which open each year for charity, and since its foundation, the National Gardens Scheme has donated over £45 million to nominated beneficiaries, of which nearly £23 million has been donated within the last ten years.

That's a lot of money, which is shared between charities such as Macmillan Cancer Care, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Carers Trust, Parkinsons UK and others.

There's a garden not too far away from me, just across the county border in Northamptonshire in the village of Clipston which has opened for many years. I've been meaning to go and see it for ages, but never quite seeming to get around to it. Well, on Easter Monday, I made a special effort to get there...and I'm so pleased I did, because it was the last time it would be open for the charity.

The garden is called The Maltings, and it lies to the side of a lovely red brick cottage, on a gentle slope.

To the left of the garden behind the house, there's a beautiful spring garden, a mass of colourful primroses and spring bulbs.

Two ponds are connected by a stream

And the owner Julia Connell has erected lots of signage,

 

and oh so helpfully, there are masses of plant labels, which is not only useful but an outright necessity when there are over forty varieties of roses in the garden, as well as sixty types of clematis.

There's also some amusing and interesting features...including this owl, which was used as a decoration for the one of the obstacles on the cross country element of the eventing completion at the 2008 Bejing Olympic Games.

And many of the visitors were admiring this unusual planter....

At the top of the garden, as well as a large lawn, there was a large barn, where the useful in a garden became quite decorative too.

I must confess I like looking at the utilitarian parts of a garden....the strawberries grown in hessian bags, the raised vegetable beds, and the old greenhouse with a very productive peach tree.

And then it was time to sit in the sunshine with a cold drink, admiring the magnolia , and everyone else's choice of cake. There was a fair selection of delicious looking cakes and good size portions too. My mother and I rather regretted having had so much to eat at lunchtime.

The main thing I regret though is not having visited this garden before. I now won't be able to see the seventy varieties of clematis or smell the scent of the forty types of roses there in summer.

The owner of the Maltings Julia Connell has created a wonderfully diverse garden here

and she and her team of helpers have raised a staggering amount of money during the years the garden has been open. Over this Easter weekend alone, 1046 visitors came to see the garden, and in total during the  ten years that Julia has been opening., there have been 8,895visitors. This has meant that altogether, Julia has raised £25,000 for the National Gardens Scheme and nearly £10,000 for local charities too.

 That's what I call good news...and a lot of hard work. Sadly, the Maltings won't be opening again, but in the meantime, there's so many more gardens to see and enjoy which will be open this year. I've promised myself that I'm going to be visiting a fair few. Why don't you do too?