• • Start planting out tender plants such as gladioli bulbs, dahlias, cannas and annual plants that have been hardened off, in well-prepared soil.
• • May is also a good time to start sowing outdoor vegetable and salad such as carrots, swedes, spinach, beans and lettuce.
• • Keep an eye on the weather forecast this month. Always ensure vulnerable plants are protected from late frosts.
• • Remove the dead heads of spring flowering bulbs to encourage your plants to store energy in the bulb rather than wasting it on seed production.
• • Mulch around newly planted trees and shrubs to reduce weeds and retain moisture.
• • Utilise your compost heap and keep adding fresh garden refuse to it. It should be kept damp, and frequent turning is a must so your garden waste is turned into flower food a lot quicker.
• • Continue to remove weeds from your garden as they attract pests and diseases, which can attack your plants.
• • May is a good month to repair your lawn. Begin to cut the grass regularly and fill in any bare spots by slightly loosening the surface of the soil and sow a good quality lawn seed over the area evenly.

Steve Edney, Head Gardener.

The Easter weekend is the perfect opportunity to bring your family and friends to our gardens. Visitors can explore the grounds and the stunning flowers that are in bloom and also relax and indulge in our new Jekyll Style tea room.

The gardens really are a delightful place to visit at this time of the year – there is a vast array of more than 40,000 bulbs to welcome the onset of spring.

We are also holding a FREE Easter Bunny Trail on Easter Sunday from 12pm to 3pm, with plenty of delicious chocolate prizes for the children. For the adults and chocoholics, why not try our famous chocolate cream tea? Treat yourself to our delicious chocolate-filled sandwiches, chocolate scones, brioche and chocolate cake.

The Secret Gardens is open every day over the weekend, and throughout this time standard entry prices to the gardens apply.

Admission to our new Jekyll Style tea room is free, but to be sure of a table, please telephone 01304 619919 to book.

After the cold and snowy winter months, spring is certainly a welcoming arrival… And what a spring we’re having! We are currently undertaking a big tidy up ready for our spring display at The Secret Gardens. The work we are doing involves:

• • Cutting leaves from the helebores to show off their flowers
• • Mulching the borders of the gardens to feed the plants, trees, shrubs and perennials. (But be careful not mulch when the ground is frozen or frosty because this will lock the cold into the soil, and it will take much longer for spring plants to develop!)
• • Manuring the roses – we use cow manure instead of horse manure because our soil is very light

To make your garden look its best this year, you really need to start planning your garden activity early.

• Firstly, create a plan or map of your garden and start plotting where you would like your flower beds and vegetable patches to go. This is also a good time to look at the seed catalogues as most have been published now and which are full of seeds for all year round.
• Start to get rid of the weeds in your garden, in preparation for a weed-free garden all season long. When clearing emerging weeds, make sure you dig out roots to prevent regrowth. Regrowth will happen much faster if a root system is left behind.
• Now is the best time to start cutting your lawn, and if it is looking a bit peaky from the harsh winter weather, a spring feed will be beneficial for it. We use organic feed for the lawn instead of artificial fertilisers as it can kill the grass.
• Start thinking about planting primulas, pots of dwarf irises, polyanthus and pansies, as these are all hardy enough to survive the outdoor weather. Be careful to shelter them from drying winds and ensure they are kept moist. You can also move any flowering bulbs “in the green” as soon as they have finished flowering. Snowdrops, for example, are notorious for not growing well if they are lifted, dried and replanted in the autumn.
• To protect your new spring bulbs from animals, you can use prickly plants such as holly or berberis to put over the soil where your plant your bulbs to deter them. Alternatively, feed the squirrels so they don’t try and eat your bulbs!

The most important thing to remember is enjoy your gardening activities!

Steve Edney, Head Gardener.

At the end of August we will be holding a World Tiddlywinks Championship – are you up to the challenge?

The competition will be open to all members of the public – keep a look out for more information and details of how to enter.

There will be lots going on over the weekend, including cream tea on the lawn and plenty of stalls for you to wander around. We will keep you updated with what is happening!

It will be an ideal day out for classic bike lovers to explore the display of motorcycles and speak to people who share the same interest.

We will keep you posted with new details as and when they arrive. Please ‘like’ our page on Facebook for the latest news as it comes in.

With more than 76 different varieties of Dahlia planted throughout the gardens, there really is no better place to see the flower this summer. Our gardening team will be giving talks and holding workshops on the flowers each day and there will be the opportunity to learn how to grow your own Dahlias at home.

Standard entry prices apply. For full details, call 01304 619 919.

Gates to the garden will reopen at 5:30 for this exclusive event. Join us on the Tea Room decking for a glass of wine as we wait for the sun to set, before being led round by our knowledgable gardening team who will share their knowledge of the various flowers in bloom.

Dusk tours are always extremely popular. Make sure you don’t miss out – reserve your space by calling us on
01304 619 919 today! Tickets cost £12 per person and include a glass of wine on the terrace.

Between March 26 and April 1, we expect more than 10,000 daffodils to be flowering from the 30 varieties planted this winter in The Secret Gardens.

Our friendly gardeners will be out in the grounds and on hand to give tips and advice on how to make your own daffodil display look its best.

After your trip, enjoy a slice of cake and a traditional cream tea in the new Tea Room and collect some souvenirs of your day from The Luxury Gift Shop.

Picture courtesy of Freefoto, Flickr.

December is the month of short days and cold nights. Slowly through the autumn the days have been getting shorter by roughly three minutes until the 22 December when the tide changes and the days begin to lengthen again. There are so many plants that respond to the shortening days and the cold weather and fewer are better or more well known than the dog wood family (Cornus spp). This versatile family includes natives to the British isles and there are not as many native trees and shrubs as you would think! Most are introductions by man; they are trees like (cornus controversa ‘variegata’), shrubs (cornus Alba), groundcover (cornus Canadensis) and a few woody based perennials. Many are grown for their showy flowers (not flowers at all but modified leaves called bracts) some for their variegated leaves or for autumn colours.

But the winter stems of these plants are the stars of the winter show for so many reasons, not least because they come in red but also yellow, orange, black, silvery/white or combinations of those colours.

Cornus Alba ‘sibirica’ has almost unbelievable red stems in winter and although most cornus’ look interesting in winter without leaves, some like this one stand out above the rest for not being too fussy where it grows. It copes with shade and poor conditions as well as heavy soils. The books will tell you it does best on rich neutral to acidic soil, but in our garden at The Salutation they cope well with dry poor conditions that are in places alkaline. Having said this, our soil is deep so I would not recommend them on thin soil with underlying chalk and you can’t prune them as hard but otherwise they do admirably. Now, if you want the best from the albas, cut them back annually to a desired height (you can even cut them to the floor) to encourage new growth which is the brightest red because as the stems age they lose the intensity of colour and that’s what you want from them. However, don’t do this till march. This species also has white flowers in the summer, often followed by white berries hence the ‘Alba’ in the name meaning white so have true year round interest.

Jobs this month

Start planning for the summer in your garden by making a wish list of plants you want to grow from seed catalogues. I can’t think of much better than being in front of an open fire looking and salivating over all the new plants I would like to have and how I might use them in combination together. It will help you remain enthusiastic about your garden even if you’re not brave (or stupid) enough to be out there.
Enjoy thinking more than doing your garden; remember the best gardens are the best gardens because their owners love them and that start in the way you think about gardening!