Rainy Bank Holiday Weekend

There was welcome relief from the droughty conditions this weekend; well, of course there was: it was a Bank Holiday and as any Brit knows, that means rain!


A contingent of the New Forest Harley Owners Group arrived for a visit on Sunday, a great opportunity to look at some wonderful vehicles, as they parked outside the front of the house which glammed us up a bit!

It was sad that the summer thunder-drenching arrived just as the Bath College Gamelan were setting up for their performance in the cloister, but the hardy visitors who had evaded the storms were very grateful for the performance and enjoyed being up-close to such beautiful instruments and music.



(sorry, dreadful photo)

By contrast, today brought drier, warmer weather, and our visitors were treated to another free concert, this time from the young musicians of Kingswood School in Bath. Three-to-tea concerts are free to garden visitors, and provide an opportunity for local performers to enjoy playing in a beautiful venue, after which everything stops for tea.

The rain also brought good news for green energy enthusiasts as the river is back up so our hydro-electric plant is running more efficiently again after a few weeks with a low river. And of course, gardeners across the region will be enjoying a respite from watering those freshly bedded-out plants. Oh, and the Japanese cherries are out.


Still, roll on summer – let’s get the warm weather back soon please!

Summer Round-up

It was a really busy year, and we decided to take the summer off from blogging to allow us to get some other projects underway (details of those to follow). But now we’ll be back to regular updates here on the blog. You may also like to check out our Facebook Page.

Garden Borders

This year has seen the redevelopment of a further set of borders as we continue our four year project to bring the softer, floral elements of Harold Peto’s garden up to the quality which his buildings now deserve.

Working with garden designer Alison Jenkins, the annual border from last year (which was an emergency measure owing to a late winter!) has been replaced by the planned perennial border. And following a prolonged summer, it came into its own bringing colour right through to the end of October.

Next year it should be even better as the hardier, slower growing plants will have established themselves properly.

Iford Arts - Cloister Centenary Season

This year was the 100th Anniversary of Harold Peto’s Cloister, a remarkable building from 1914 in the 12th Century style, which today houses our performances of opera, jazz and other events.

This year the season was entirely Italian in style. Productions included the charming love story of Puccini’s La Rondine, Donizetti’s comedy La Fille du Regiment (reworked brilliantly by Jeff Clarke to be set in a troop of Californian bikers) and an emotionally intense production of Monteverdi’s Ulysses. Keep an eye out for next year’s programme or sign up to the mailing list on the Iford Arts Website.

Wisteria Season - all year!

A most unusually dry, warm summer, ensured that the wisteria flowered not once or twice, but sporadically all through the summer, only losing its last flowers on the First of October.  Who knows whether this will be repeated next year, but we can only hope!

Hydro Plant Update

The downside of a great summer is that there's no water in the river from which to make electricity - so the Hydro Plant has been almost completely dormant for 5 months.  In recent weeks we have got it turning again and now we are back, thankfully, to generating some meaningful power.  We will still probably manage to make this an average year (the first quarter was jolly wet, after all), but it's a relief to have it running nevertheless.

Visitor Numbers

We found ourselves on television earlier in the year, as the garden designer Paul Hervey-Brookes asked the BBC to film his Chelsea Flower Show introduction here, which was very kind of him!  As a result we saw more visitors to the garden in June than in recent years, and a much larger number of 'pilgrims' who had travelled from across the country specifically to visit the garden.  

It is always humbling to be reminded of the meaning and value which people place in the gardens here which we seek to maintain true to Mr Peto's ethos.

Tea Room Success

Iford's Housekeeper, Sarah (The Crafty Housekeeper), made a great impression this year in the tearoom with a new range of cakes and tasty bites.  The Rocky Road was a particular favourite and one member of the family (yours truly) had to start exercising more as a result.

Other Events

Butterfly Day 2014 was a roaring success; various charity walks and sponsored events came through; our tiny caravan site has welcomed a small number of rallies and casual visitors; we hosted three motocross events; it was a busy year on the farm dealing with new cattle housing; we removed our crop of Miscanthus which was under-performing for various reasons; repairs to the cloister became urgent as was suffering some ground instability under one corner; and this morning the 350 runners on the annual "Over the Hills Race" forded the river and ran the half mile up the drive on their 8 mile cross country run.

Roll on the winter!  I wonder what it will bring.

Garden update - wisteria

The wisteria is really showing off.  It's out in force on the front of the house, on the casita and by the central entablature of the terrace.

  

Summer... catch it while you can

Storms forecast for this week (much needed for the water, but you know what it can do to blossoms...) so don't miss out on the Iford summer colour. 

As readers of the blog will know, we have been undertaking a historic replanting this year which will be a three year project. The border work on the terrace, despite the long winter is really paying off, and Alison Jenkins' terrace scheme looks splendid. This is phase 1, and the rear of the borders here will be done next, with other borders around the garden following. 

 In other news, fans of Wisteria will want to know that there is a 'token' second flowering out in the upper garden, less so at the front of the house.

Make hay...

Make hay while the sun shines, they say.  So we did.  

With the combination of a late spring, a wet start to the summer and this unusually warm, dry, sunny spell, the grass is coming off in a perfect state - thank you, weather gods!

Bedding out

Until the last few weeks the non-hardy borders have looked decidedly bare.  Finally with the warm weather we have been able to 'bed out'.  This year Robert, our gardener in charge, has produced some strongly scented displays with geranium and pelargonium and some less common additions.

Staking:

Tying in:

Spring / Summer Collection

This year the wisteria has been simply remarkable, and it continues to be so.  

 

Perhaps this is due to the late chill through March and April, which set the plants back and seems to have intensified the flowering.  Thankfully there was no frost to kill the buds - always a threat in late spring.

 Here are some images of the wisteria so far and if you haven't visited us yet, this coming week is the prime time for the wisteria in 2013.

 

 

Wisteria Update: 21 May 2013

For those in the know...:

Casita will be 'prime time' this weekend (25/26 May)

Next week for the standard wisterias (27/28/29 May)

The plants in front of the house are a little later (first week of June)

Historic Replant update - filling out...

 Phase 1 of the replant is now filling out with the warmer weather.

Ah, the sweet scent of summer

Cities have their benefits, for sure. I cannot be alone, though, in deriving great satisfaction from the first smell of clean country air on returning from London.

Last night as I got out of the car I was almost knocked over by the powerful scent of the vibernum carlesii, standing just a few feet away. A powerful honeyed scent that just screams  "Summer is icumen in".

MG Rally

Well, thank heavens for the nice weather arriving just in time for the arrival of the MG Owners Club at the weekend.  Some wonderful vehicles, and a great afternoon for a drive.

 

Warm evening sun in the garden

There are few occasions that I can recall the scent of wisteria and summer blossom being so overpoweringly irresistible; a true force of nature.  Today in the 25 degree warmth of a truly perfect day, we were enveloped by floral scents wafting right through the house, into the tearoom, throughout the garden and valley.

Half an hour ago, to take advantage of such a rare evening, I went out to hear the evening concert from the songbirds and to take some photographs to share with the world (some a bit 'contrasty', I'm afraid - haven't much time to sort that out today).  I hope you had a lovely day wherever you are, and if you didn't perhaps you can borrow a piece of our lovely day.