Happy January!

Well, Happy New Year to everyone, if it isn't too late to say that.

This being the UK, we'll start with a traditional comment about the weather, which has been mostly warm and wet all winter.  Looking on the bright side, we're off to a flyer here with our hydro electric plant generating lots of green electricity from the high river flow.

 Earlier this month, Rob and Tom took the opportunity of a dry couple of days to get out and start pruning the wisteria sinensis at the front of the house.  This exercise always takes at least a couple of days, removing last year's racemes and breaking off the dead wood.

With Easter so early (garden visitors arriving!), and winter having been generally so warm, we wanted to get it done before the wisteria decided to get growing again.  These wisterias were some of the first to be planted by Harold Peto when he came to Iford, in 1899, so the oldest of them are well over 100 years old.

The Oriental garden has had its annual clean out.  

- Before -

We drain the pond down to a low level, and remove the leaves which fell over the winter, clear undesirable weed, return any stones which have moved over the season, thin out the box, ferns and other plants to allow room for this year's growth, and generally tidy the place up.

- After -

This is year four of our five-year historic replanting of the garden.  After three years of working on the borders with Alison Jenkins' support and the replacement of Harold Peto's roses with help from Robert Mattock, this will be the "year of the rockery".  

Over the coming months we will try to explain a little of how we are maintaining the rockeries in the garden which are such a useful way of filling in the space, transitioning from area to area or opening up borders without leaving them exposed.

So, here's to 2016.  May we wish you a successful year full of happy gardening and garden visiting!

Spring: sprung.

Following months of rain, the grey warmth of the March sun has awakened not only the songbirds and pheasant, but also the early blossoms.  In particular the camellia by the loggia is on fiery form.

  The old, venerable rosemaries...

 and the cherry blossoms are early:

and the beautiful pink one on the lawn will be out in force in a couple of weeks.

 The optimistic shoots are coming through on the great terrace...

 Although the weather has meant that the borders are only being planted out in the coming fortnight, as we continue with Alison Jenkins' exciting planting scheme:

Iford opens for the year on April 1st - we look forward to seeing you!

Winter...

It hasn't been a particularly warm welcome to 2014 from the weather gods.  Our thoughts are with our farming colleagues in Somerset - underwater for weeks now.  At Iford we have had our own challenges to deal with, but not as devastating as theirs.

The river Frome here is very 'flashy' in that it can come up and go back down again in a very short number of hours - this makes it less predictable, but also means that floods tend not to last long - as was the case back in December and again after New Year when we had a couple of fairly deep inundations.  Nothing reached the main house, but the Mill was flooded and of course the pasture which may in time affect our farming (although it might be quite beneficial if the fertility increases. We shall see).

We lost one of the four lime trees in the middle of the garden, weakened (worryingly) by honey fungus, and brought down by gales.

 Here was what was left of the stump.

We lost a Horse Chestnut on the top road to Freshford and this morning we had to bring down a Sycamore and an Ash which had become too weak to support themselves safely.  Recent wind and super-saturation of the soil had meant they were now leaning dangerously on their neighbours. 

Elsewhere the wet weather has meant it has been almost impossible to get any border work done in the garden.  Rob and his gardening team have found plenty of things to do in the greenhouses, repairing paths and such like, but fundamentally we just want to get the plants out in the borders so we have something interesting for April to complement the blossom.

The spring flowers are out in force, and the daffodils even are starting to come out - more on the plants in our next garden report next week.  All we need now is a dry-spell and some sunshine!

Autumn turns to Winter

A lot going on in the garden and on the estate, so watch out for some reports on that - ranging from Peto's rose garden, to Alison Jenkins' new designs for the borders on the terrace for 2014, some stonework challenges, and the excitement of winter garden maintenance.

Meanwhile, here are some photos of the winter transition.  For more, you can find us on Facebook here:

Post by Iford Manor: The Peto Gardens.

  

Spring alleges that it is around the corner; winter pushes back

It's all very pretty, and wonderfully optimistic that Spring is on the way... but with the snow falling outside, and temperatures accordingly low, it certainly doesn't feel quite appropriate seeing at all this blossom in the farmyard.

Come on Spring!

A winter walk in the morning frost

A sharp frost on Monday this week enticed me out with the camera.  Chilly, and owing to the [foolish] lack of a jacket, a distinctly swift walk.

(Click on the images for larger, slightly sharper versions)

A walk round the garden this afternoon

I had twenty minutes spare this afternoon, and the sun was shining.  So, armed annoyingly with the less good camera, I set off into the garden to see what I could find.  Leaves, mostly, and the odd berry.

 

Britannia, the waves, and optimistic birdsong

Last night's rains are just now heading rapidly downstream, and the river is flowing jolly fast, not aided by the 30ft tree which fell into it three days ago and has now lodged fast under the bridge.  Britannia is certainly ruling the waves today!

Weatherwise it hasn't been a great start to the year at Iford, indeed recent days have required the judicious placement of buckets under parts of the roof where tiles have slipped over the winter months (surprisingly common as anyone living under a very old stone roof will attest!).

 This morning, by contrast, I was awoken by nature's own alarm clock: birdsong and sunlight.  It reminded me of just how wonderfully infectious is the optimism held by our native songbirds on a bright winter's morning, as they anticipate the arrival over the hill of the warming rays of the sun.

You can't help but think happy thoughts of summer and the year ahead when greeted by such cacophony of joy.

The cats didn't notice, of course, steadfastly remaining in the warmth of the kitchen, protesting at the poor breakfast service from the staff (us).  Below: the matriarch Lily (right) and her son,11 years old but still a mummy's boy, (left).

Snowfall report

Well, after a couple of days cut off from non-essential traffic, we've dug ourselves out and are now accessible once again!  I even managed to do some Christmas shopping in the increasingly well-appointed Bradford-on-Avon whose shops are positively ideal for Christmas gifts, all within easy reach of free car parks.

This recent snowfall wasn't the prettiest example of the white blanket, but here are a few photos from a couple of days ago.  We'll be hunting for a Christmas tree tomorrow, so crossing fingers for a bit of a thaw!