National Apple Day

National Apple Day has been celebrated here in the UK since 1990, and I'm only too happy to join in the celebrations for such a wonderful fruit.

I don't know about you, but I couldn't manage without apples in my diet. They're not only scientifically proven to be good for you (yes there's truth in the old saying "An apple a day keeps the doctor away), but growing them is good for all of us too .

According to Common Ground, the organisation which created this day in our calendar, it's important to recognize the importance of orchards to our landscape in the sheer diversity of our local varieties of apples and in our culture.

 As a child, my mother and father had a mini orchard of apple and pear trees in their suburban garden and I have vivid memories of all the apple puddings we polished off over the years.

These days I have only one apple tree in my garden, which is rather lax about when it is going to fruit. I don't know what variety it is, but it's just sweet enough to pick off the tree and crunch away, but is also delicious when baked in cakes and puddings.

Our village apple tree fruited before mine, so at the beginning of September my two year old  grandaughter and I went to collect our first locally grown apples of the season. 

Apple picking 

For the last month though we've been picking and eating our own apples

I've prepared pounds of apples in the freezer ready for pie, tarts, and crumbles through the winter, but today, on a rainy Apple Day, I've collected the last lot off the tree and some windfalls. They will be needed.

 

Earlier this week,  Angie came around for supper. She's new to the village and is staying with our next-door neighbour until she can go home to Ukraine. We thoroughly enjoyed her company and she absolutely loved the apple crumble I made for pudding. I can't ever remember a time in my life without a crumble, but I suspect she won't forget her first one. One helping was followed by two more and she loved the tartness of the apples combined with the sweetness of the topping. 

 So do we, so I suspect it will be apple crumble ago go for Angie and us from now on, until the apples run out that is.....

Happy Apple Day to you all.

A day at Chenies Manor and Gardens , Buckinghamshire

Just over two weeks ago I was on my way to Chenies Manor, a former Tudor Palace in Buckinghamshire. The click-clack, click clack of the windscreen wipers kept up a constant rhythm as the rain fell on a crowded motorway, miles of roadworks and rather cross looking drivers.

As I entered Chenies Manor though, it was as if I was entering a parallel universe. The sun was shining on a house and garden of timeless beauty. I felt like Tom in one of my favourite children’s books, “Tom's Midnight Garden” by Philippa Pearce. Where, set in the 1950s,at the stroke of midnight Tom opens the door of the flat in an old house where he's staying stays and miraculously finds himself in a beautiful garden at the turn of the 20th century. Since then, I've found out that this very garden featured as the garden in the film of the book back in 1999!

What an entrance to Tudor times,

and such ornate brickwork and chimneys

Meanwhile, I was walking through five acres and five centuries of garden history. The sunken garden here is a jewel which draws your eyes immediately and as walked down the right-hand side path, I came across this beautiful statue 

 I sat down on the step to admire its perfect form backed by trees, bushes and arches in vivid shades of green and pretty pink pops of dahlias.

At the other end of the sunken garden, there’s a different view of her with the stunning backdrop of the house itself, which stands imposingly as befits the former seat of The Earls of Bedford,

Let’s talk about the gardens though. 

There are over 2,000 dahlias on show at Chenies Manor and all of them are dug up every autumn before the first real frosts, stored in November, and propagated, then planted out the following spring. Labour intensive yes, but when you see the planting and positioning of the dahlias such as Rebecca’s World, Ambition, Sandra, Labyrinth and Red Labyrinth and cafe au lait rose, it is so well worth it!

The result is stunning, yet with friendly informality.

I had to linger on this pathway, to savour the rather wistful and romantic feel before making my way to the Physic Garden.

Apart from the kitchen garden, this would have been one of the most important parts of the garden in Tudor times. Plants were there to heal, to soothe, herbs to flavour food, and to add scent indoors. These would have all been a necessity in any self-respecting still room, but there's also more sinister plants...plants to poison and perhaps to kill. 

This physic garden hasn't been here since Tudor times though. It was designed back in the 1970s by Elizabeth Macleod Matthews who along with her husband Charles had bought and restored the Manor twenty years earlier and Dennis Tweddell. The original would still have been within the walled garden though.

The more formal topiary and this beautiful, intricate gazebo draw your eye back towards the house and the historic Queen Elizabeth Oak, which Elizabeth  I had reputedly climbed .She was obviously less accident-prone than me- as it was,I  wouldn't have got out of the maze for hours if it hadn't been for other Garden Media Guild members in the maze at the same time.

I did manage to make my way over to the kitchen garden and orchard which lie behind the labyrinth.

There's a very relaxed feel here, espalier pears lining the potager were still bursting with ripe fruit, some were attracting some lazy wasps, and the best of the produce had been harvested.

Asters provided a welcome burst of colour, 

and I couldn't resist a sneaky peek inside the potting shed. There was no one from the house was around in the kitchen garden.or in here....it felt like a gardening equivalent to The Marie Celeste, as if everyone had just decamped.

I admired the old pump standing in the afternoon sun

before making my way to the St Michael's church which stands so close to the Manor House..

 As in the garden, the echoes of the past were all around me and it was near here that I listened to a very interesting talk about the house and those who lived here. My imagination was caught with tales of Anne Sapcote, the heiress who married three times in the tudor period. She became the Countess of Bedford after she married her third husband Sir John Russell. They built Chenies up to be an equal to Hampton Court, but then moved to a new family seat at Woburn Abbey.

By now I was itching to get into the historic house itself, to see where the people I'd heard so much about had lived, and where the current owners Boo and Charles Macleod Matthews now live. Unfortunately, due to covid restrictions this wasn't possible. Hopefully next Spring the house will be open once again.

 I absolutely adored seeing this garden, which even in mid-October had so much to seduce the members of the Garden Media Guild on our visit here.

All too soon, it was time to leave Chenies Manor, to walk out this magical place, get the car and drive back reluctantly to reality and the modern world. As I did so, I made plans to return next spring, The chance of seeing the house being open and with over 10,000 tulips in the garden is a temptation that I will be powerless to resist.

There's still time to visit Chenies Manor before it closes for the winter. It is open for the new two Wednesday and Thursday afternoons in October.Make sure you leave time to stop for tea, coffee and cakes...they are very good.

 For further details go to www.cheniesmanorhouse.co.uk

 

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!