Rosemary - days of growing Miss Jessopp's Upright

I adore rosemary. In fact it's one of my favourite herbs and the first thing I see and smell as I walk from the courtyard into the garden..

I've only ever grown one variety and that's Miss Jessopp's Upright, which has grown here in my garden for the last twenty years or so.

Here she is, agrowing to nearly one and a half metres in height in her hey day, with pretty, light blue flowers in June and the beginning of July. Her stems stood erect and proud , with the outside stems just the right height for me to pick a sprig as I walked  past , crushed  the leaves and inhaled.


I use rosemary in so many recipes, many involving lamb, garlic and wine. My current favourite marries rosemary with leeks and chard, baked in cream - it's an absolute winner. I also use rosemary to give my hair an extra shine after shampooing and rinsing off the conditioner. I bung a large handful of rosemary stems into about a litre of just boiled water, then steep for about ten minutes. fish out the rosemary and throw over your hair as a final rinse.I've been doing it for years and my hair is very thick and soft, even if I can't get in to the hairdressers until 4th August to have it cut.


Miss Jessopp has not been looking her best for a number of years though. Neglect on my part I'm afraid, and although I've been picking it on a very regular basis. I didn't give her what she needed - a really good pruning. She's been very woody and leggy for ages.

Worse was to come, instead of carrying herself like that the upright and righteous Victorian spinster I imagine her to be named after, she lost her sense of poise. In fact. parts of her became prostrate, and she was looking such an unkempt raddled old dear.I had to put her out of her misery , and it was harder than I imagined. Her roots had grown deep and they were damned hard to dig out.

Mind you there's been lots of rosemary to preserve. A couple of huge bunches are handing from one of the old beams in my aged cottage to dry.

 I chopped four large bags of small rosemary prunings which are now in the freezer for the winter.

  I've also planted a trio of cuttings into a pot...and in a belt and braces move, I've put some cuttings into a jar of water near my windowsill and I'm pleased to say they've taken nicely.

So, Miss Jessopp's Upright will live on, but I also now fancy a trailing variety of rosemary to put in a rockery at the side of the cottage. if you've got any favourites or recommendations...please let me know....

An afternoon of open gardens in Lubenham

Yes, I love going to open garden events through out the summer.

Especially when the sun is shining. Even when it rains.

There's nothing like seeing other gardener's hard work or pinching some of their ideas. Sorry , I meant to write "gaining inspiration" there.

And there's nothing like paying a few pounds or so to have carte blanche to be as nosy as you like , seeing how others live their lives in their gardens.

So yes, last month I was eagerly off to Lubenham where there were over twenty gardens open in aid of All Saints, the village church.

I started off  by viewing the largest garden , just outside the village at Thorpe Lubenham Hall. This wasn't intentional, but a tractor had just pulled up on the village green , ready to take people up there.

 It was hot and as I was feeling downright lazy, I joined the others as the tractor chugged its way up the hill for about there quarters of a mile. The boys sitting opposite were loving their tractor ride, and so I was I especially when we had to duck out of the way of some branches in our way and the boys "oooohed "and "woohed"..

Thorpe Lubenham Hall is a gem of a house....Queen Anne style but built around 1800 and owned at different times by the Cunard family, Lord and Lady Kemsley and Sir Harold and Lady Zia Wernher. Apparently the Queen and her family were frequent visitors in the 1950's. Nowdays it is owned by Sir Bruce and Lady MacPhail who own the hall and fifteen acres of gardens.

 The ancient moat leads to the garden, where the terrace at the back of the house overlooks a large circular pond and fountain which is edged with lavender, alliums and  clipped yew.

 

 

 

 



There's a timeless quality to the gardens here....so no fancy pants modern ideas ...just a quietly serene air

 

Mind you, I did like this gate at the side of the house, the grille made of horseshoes -so effective.

 

|I also appreciated this quiet spot, planted with pale pink roses and alliums Christophii

The other side of the brick wall pictured above is where the swimming pool now is, was this the former walled kitchen garden I wonder>

 

 

 

Teas were being served next to the pool undercover....and  amid the laughter, sounds of crockery clinking and shouts of "How many cream teas?" I had to leave suddenly as my eyes filled with tears.

 

Memories had come  flooding back of an open garden here which my friends and I helped at a number of years ago. There was a gang of us on a British Red Cross committee who used to bake and run open garden events throughout Leicestershire for a while to raise funds. Gill K, Jill P, Alanda, Kim, Lorna, Jackie, Lucy, Lucinda and I were on duty here at Thorpe Lubenham Hall , and as usual we'd had such a laugh...Jackie was in charge of the tea urns and Jill P as usual was the Queen in the counting house, counting all the money raised. Lovely Jill P died suddenly on the Friday before the Lubenham Open Gardens event.

 

So I declined the offer of the tractor ride back and took a solitary stroll  down the hill and stopped to watch the local cricket team playing a match alongside the lane.

 

 

The first open garden I came to was the Tower House, which was originally a Georgian farmhouse until it was enlarged as a hunting box back in 1865 . Stables, and a tower were added to watch the horse racing nearby.

I loved this tree with the leaves as big as dinner plates...it is supposed to fruit, but never has...and I've quite forgotten the name of the darned thing.

There was tea and cake at Adams Farm which was attracting a crowd,

 

but the bees and I were attracted to the border on the right of the garden 

 

 

 



 

 

The afternoon was marching on, so I'm afraid I had to whizz past a number of gardens, to this one on Mill Hill. A large garden with plenty of space to sit in the sunshine and admire the newly hatched chicks.

 



 

 

There were also fruit, flowers, a pond without fish, but with this rather gorgeous piece. I also had a chance to catch up with the garden's owner, Diana Cook, who had organised the whole event. How she found the time to run the event and get her own garden ready I just don't know.

 



 

 

 

 

A few doors away was a small cottage garden which was incredibly busy. Everyone was there to grab a bargain from Peter Shelton who restores old tools. There were rakes, dibbers, spades, forks, all lovingly refurbished and something which looked like an offensive weapon, but was a Victorian tool of some sort.

 



 

 

When I say Peter restores these, that's not his job, he was a biologist, but for a number of years now  he's spent hours and hours doing so to raise money for Lubenham Parish Church. He's good at it too...he's raised thousands on the tools alone.



 

 

What a lovely Sunday afternoon it was, even though there's so may gardens I missed. I didn't miss the Undle Project though which is a three and a half acre co operative small holding. Wow....a wonderful work in progress which I shall write about another time...

 

 

 



 

 

You've got to hand it to the villagers in Lubenham, it was a really good Open Gardens event, with gardens of all different sizes to inspire and interest everyone, and genuine friendliness towards all the visitors.

 

And yes, I will be making a return visit next year ....you should too....

 

#mygardenrightnow for Chelsea Fringe

"What a good idea" I thought when Michelle at Veg Plotting announced this weekend would be a special digital gardening  event  #mygardenrightnow for  Chelsea Fringe.

And here am I skidding in at the last moment to be part of it. I feel this digital gardening event couldn't come at a better time to appreciate the beauty on our doorsteps, to revel in the wonderful colours and plants in our gardens, and to be inspired by other gardeners' creativity.

I know I've been sitting in my garden today, relishing the peace, as I think of what happened in Manchester on 22nd May and in London last night.

I live in a tiny hamlet far away from city life and mine is a county cottage garden,backing onto fields.

Star of the show in my garden is June is this spirea arguta (bridal wreath) ...

On the right hand side of the garden is a long, long four foot wide raised bed, beside the right hand border

There's redcurrants, whitecurrants, gooseberries, broad beans, peas, rocket, chives, rosemary , oregano, and sage...

And a clump of irises which were put there to overwinter about four years ago with some dironicums. A temporary measure only, but four years later they are still there....

Closer to the cottage is the old privy...which I'm pleased to say has not been put to its original use for many many years!

On the left hand side of the garden, there's a sweeping border with an apple tree, roses, hebes, rue, holly and honeysuckle....

Close by is the old cattle trough filled with strawberries



Above, still dominating the lawn is what remains of our old ash tree, a hundred and forty year old ash tree which was irreparably damaged by Storm Doris, which has now been taken over by my lovely terrier Eric and his Mum Boo who use it as a lookout post.

At the end of the garden is the old broken down piggery which I use as  a composting bay, but which is terribly overgrown at the moment with brambles and comfrey

And there's nettles and comfrey too growing like hell in the ha ha.

And back by the cottage, there's a wildlife area, with the last of the bluebells and forget me nots, geraniums , lavender, thistles and poppies. There's also this wiegelia, oh and me.

I've really enjoyed having a nose around everyone's gardens this weekend, so thank you Michelle for allowing us this lovely breathing space in a world gone mad.