Trentham Gardens - Day Visit - November 6th 2013

We made a visit to Trentham Gardens on November 6th, as it was our Wedding Anniversary and my wifes birthday too. So one of our last trips out this year maybe. It was of course raining, but we still enjoyed the visit. The Trentham estate incorporates an area with retail units, that are made from wood. Interesting shops which are quite individual, unlike the High St shops in most cities & towns these days. The gardens though have been around a long time, though were all re-developed a few years ago, as the former gardens had become tired and untidy. They made a nice "Italian Garden" and this is within the parkland with a cafe within it. The lake has a boat trip to the other island, which has an attraction called "Monkey World", with over 140 Monkeys living within the trees, but enclosed for safe measure. There is also a large garden centre next to the retail park, which is very impressive too.   Although the gardens lacked the colour of the summer flowers, there was still all the autumn shades to enjoy. A nice place to visit for a day out at most times of the year. 

CALKE ABBEY- Autumn Visit for Apples and Sweet Chestnuts- Nov 2nd 2013



Gourds



Unusual Toadstool

Sweet Chestnuts


We visited Calke Abbey grounds & Gardens as they were selling Apples from their old orchards, knowing they would be very nice, having seen them on the trees on a recent visit. Also on sale were gourds in various shapes & sizes. So we stocked up on a few varieties of Apples at £2 a bag . Delicious they are too!
On our way around the grounds we noticed that there were Sweet Chestnuts around, having fallen from the trees. So we collected a lot of those too, which were equally tasty.  It was a blustery Autumn day but such a lovely place to walk and take in the Autumn colours. We spotted this unusual toadstool (The name escapes me!) but it was Red with White Spots......just like those I used to see in childrens books at school. Sadly a clump of them had been trodden on! A shame as they look so spectacular. Though I'm sure quite poisonous too. But well worth the visit just to see those. Calke is always such an interesting place to visit at any time of year.

SQUASHES GALORE!

Gourds

Me with our collection of Squashes

When I planted all my young Squashes and Pumpkin plants back in early June, little did I know how many these amazing plants would produce! Certainly went beyond my expectations and my wifes too, who had persuaded me to grow so many. Such variety and colour and size too.
Some are very decorative indeed and shall be a good addition in our lounge .
The Gourds are not edible apparently, but nevertheless, worth growing just to see their amazing shape. I look forward to the pies and soups that some of these squashes will provide and i'll also save some seeds to use next year!  You need a fair amount of space to grow these, but having two allotments, we can put aside a good area just for these plants.

HARVEST TIME

It's that time of year again! Where on earth do you store everything eh??
We have a "Huge" Glut of Green Tomatos in buckets and trays and we're not keen on Green Chutney!....so a waiting game on the ripening I guess!
Had a massive load of Potatos this year too, varieties of "Desiree", "Cara" & "Charlotte" all did remarkably well. Some very large too.  Also the "Worcester Pomagne" Apples are a good size, the 12 rows of Beetroot are still being gathered gradually.
We are having lots of salads to get through the Beetroot & Tomatos, etc.
Dana picked a big bowl of Blackberries off our garden to make Jam (Photos above).
We also have some unusual "Gourds", which apparently are not edible, but will make interesting things to display in the house (Photo above on allotment).
We still have a lot of Squashes to pick off the allotment later on and more Beetroot and Potatos.
Been a perfect season for most things thanks to the weather for a change!
Next year a bit of a question mark.....Do I keep both Allotments?
Had some back pain issues this year so thinking of cutting down on the workload......BUT I think i'd miss the space we currently enjoy over there.
But plenty of time to decide and think it over!.
Once a gardener, always a gardener I guess!  :)
Thank goodness for pain killers eh?
Happy Gardening folks!

CALKE ABBEY - Gardens - Derbyshire

We paid a visit to Calke Abbey Gardens, which is not far away from us.
It is a National Trust owned property and the main building is also open to the public.
But we just visited the gardens, which were really nice again this year.
The combination of Helicrysum and Heliotrope together is spectacular.
The Silver leaves and the Purple flowers work very well indeed.
The Heliotrope is also known as "Cherry Pie", as its scent does actually resemble it!
Away from the main flower garden are the organic vegetable and fruit gardens, which are also well worthy of a visit.   The pumpkin patch and archway with its climbing squashes are quite inspiring. They grow some very good produce there and the fruit trees were loaded!
The old gardeners storage buildings were interesting too, with the drawers for the seeds and old tools too. Very much a time warp is Calke Abbey, same as the main building interior.
But I can recommend these gardens for a visit.

Very peaceful and there is also a Deer park very close by , where we saw stags and fallow deer grazing in the fields. Picnic area, National Trust shop and Tea Room also in the grounds.