York Gate Gardens

I discovered York Gate Gardens on the outskirts of Leeds last year and it is now one of my favourite gardens. I remember a small garden at the Chelsea Flower show one year which was inspired by the gardens and loving that garden too.

It is only a relatively small garden, around one acre, which was created by the Spencer family between 1951 and 1994. It was Frederick Spencer who laid down the main structure and design of the garden, and his wife Sybil who did most of the planting, but after Frederick's death in1963 his son Robin carried on developing the garden. Robin died at the young age of 47, whereafter Sybil added to the considerable plant collection. Sybil died in 1994 and the garden was given to Perennial which now maintains the garden.

It is basically a series of garden rooms but it is all linked together so beautifully and everywhere you look there is a lovely view.
You start off coming in the driveway of the garden, where there is a small tea room and shop. There is a pavement maze in the driveway. You enter a lawned area with a pond.

There lots of garden structures throughout the garden.

And lots of seated areas, including this one backed by a beautiful copper beech hedge.

You go through the pergola into the pinetum, a garden full of conifers, not my favourite bit but introduces a new range of plants.

Another seated area created using three weeping conifers which are joined together to create a covered area.

Another folly.

You then walk into an are with a stream with bog planting.

I love this weeping copper beech with the sunlight coming through it.

The nut walk with arches of Hazel.

The canal garden with some impressive yew topiary.

 
The herb garden.

The Alley.

I want a potting shed like this.

The greenhouse, stuffed to bursting with amazing cacti and pelargoniums.

Espalied pyracantha.

Alpine and rock garden.

Everywhere there are glimpses of each of the separate garden rooms.

 

At the end of the garden is a border with hot coloured flowers.

A beautiful part of the garden is Sybil's garden, which is a very relaxing space. It is a circular garden split into two halves, the grass is in the sun and the planting is in the shade. There are borders round. It looks like a garden you might see at Chelsea.

A Holly Blue butterfly on its host plant!

A just find the garden so inspiring and lots of ideas for small gardens, its formal yet with beautiful planting. A garden to visit at any time of year.

Visit the website for more information and note the opening hours as it's restricted.
http://www.perennial.org.uk/york_gate_information/index.aspx

A new local nursery discovered

Today I went to visit a garden and nursery near Halifax, I've been meaning to go since I moved here , its only about a 20 minute drive from my house. You can pay £2.50 to look round the garden which I did, it is not a huge garden, about a third of an acre, but it's packed with plants, mostly perennials and grasses.

There are gravel paths round the garden and it is subtly divided in a couple of places, with some yew hedges, preventing you seeing the whole garden in one go. It has a variety of perennial and grass planting and has a long season of interest from spring to autumn. There also a number of well-placed seats to get good views of the garden.

Unfortunately the rain started when I got there but it didn't stop the garden looking stunning. One of the first things I noticed was that the garden was full of bees and especially butterflies, nearly every step I took disturbed one and they were flying around even in the damp weather. But thats because most of the plants in the garden are ones loved by butterflies.

There were a number of star plants, just coming out were the Echinaceas, in pinks and whites.
Steely blue Eryngiums

The tall spiky flowers of the Veronicastrum. The aniseed scented foliage of Agastache, my favourite is one called 'Black Adder' which the bees love. The dramatic flowerheads of the Monarda. The variety of flower colours of the Phloxes.

This plant had dramatic dark purple foliage and was used throughout the garden and the flower spikes looked amazing.

Some plants were allowed to self seed, such as Verbascums and the annual daisy Erigeron annuus.

They had used the daisy Erigeron in various pots around the garden which looked good. There was also a larger variety called Erigeron sommerneuschnee which when I went past was covered in butterflies, looked spectacular.

There was a lovely delicate Geranium which was used as edging.

The flat flowerheads of the Achilleas, in many different colours. One of these was used in a beautiful plant combination. Three plants, Achillea 'Salmon beauty', a very dark purple leaved Sedum and one of my favourite grasses Hordeum jubatum which I have in my garden and have grown from seed.

At the start of the garden there was some nice plant combinations with yellows, Achilleas, Heleniums, Bronze Fennel, Helianthus and a dramatic grass edging, not quite sure what that was will try and find out.

There was a lovely planting of two big clumps of the large grass Stipa gigantea on either side of the path which created a natural archway.

Other plants include Catmint, astillbe, Geraniums, Verbena bonariensis, Thalictrum, Sedum varieties, Sanguisorbia to name but a few.
You could see that there were many plants getting ready to flower too later in the season so I'm definitely going to visit again, for the Eupatorium, Rudbeckias, Echinaceas, Asters and more!
Well worth a visit or look at the website, they do mail order plants.
http://www.dovecottagenursery.co.uk/

My birthday garden party!

I've had a milestone birthday this year, according to the old adage my life has just begun!
Had a lovely few days off and on Sunday 3rd July I had a garden party, inviting my friends. Sunday dawned with clear blue skies and promised a beautiful day no need for a gazebo today to protect from the rain. I've been busy preparing the garden, mainly planting all the remaining crop plants at the allotment to give me more room. I had to move some pots around to make room for all the chairs. I was really pleased at how the garden looked and I took some photos before anyone arrived!

My friend Amy had made me some fabulous bunting!

Amy and Tracy also made me an amazing cake, inspired by Annie's Little Plot!

I had a brilliant day, bit chaotic at times and only just enough food but lovely to see everyone on such a glorious summer's day.

My allotment is filling up.

Things are taking off at the allotment and not just the weeds.
I've been busy planting things at the allotment and my two main raised beds which I'm going to rotate are nearly full. I've recently planted leeks for winter, some squash and courgettes, tomatoes, sweetcorn, dwarf beans, cucumbers and celeriac.
So the two beds are split into two, the first half of the bed has garlic, onions, shallots and leeks and then next half of the bed has radishes, carrots, beetroot, parsnip, celeriac, chard and spinach.

In the next raised bed in one half are the legumes, peas (purple-podded and normal), broad beans, runner beans and Borlotti beans. in the other half are the brassicas, I've planted some cabbage, some calabrese, some brocolli and kale. The plants that I covered with netting are growing well again so it was definitely pigeons and not slugs that were doing the damage.

Then I have dug over the big bed in the main area of the allotment, have planted some flowers, sweet peas, cerinthe, Ammi majus, marigolds, Nicosanda and Nigella. In the other side I've planted some more veg, so I've planted Sweetcorn, squash, courgettes, more Kale, tomatoes, dwarf french beans and cucumbers.