School visits and more at Falconhurst
It is lovely to see visitors once more enjoying the garden and none more so that our Chiddingstone Primary School class this week. Thirty of the most delightful children learning about growing things and asking intelligent, thoughtful questions. It feels more important than ever that we teach our children to understand where their food comes from and how it is produced. We visited ‘The Patch’ and observed ‘the hungry gap’! The children tried many of the different leaves that go into our salad bags: buttery Clarion and Lolla Rossa lettuces; peppery mizuna and mustard and the sharp lemoney sorrel leaves that are the favourite of my grandchildren. We are now desperately needing warmer, wetter weather to grow on many of the popular summer vegetables such as spinach, chard, beans and beetroot. This year we are trialling new French Beans including a climbing Cobra that is the favourite of a good friend who is probably the best cook I know.
The cold bright dry weather has preserved the last of the daffodils and kept the tulips looking stunning against the honesty and forget me nots that are allowed to self seed through the beds. One of the key parts of our gardening and the skill of our gardeners is the select what we keep or pull. Too many forget me nots will stifle the plants and will prove to be a real nuisance when they to seed (beastly sticky seeds that are impossible to remove from jumpers); too few creates bare dull patches of earth. We are keeping a close eye out now for all the pretty opium poppy seedlings, foxgloves, verbascums and sweet rocket. An onopordum left in the wrong place will grow to a height of six feet in a trice and be a thug to remove; allowed to grow in the right place (towards the middle or back of the border) and it will be seen as a stunning architectural plant.
We are still struggling with our plants being unearthed overnight. This began with our tulips but the beast has now moved onto dahlias. So upsetting. Is it a badger? Or is it a wild pig?? I have heard word that there are some pigs roaming wild. Has anyone else seen them? Tonight I will be fixing our sonic alarms in the borders and sprinkling chilli powder in vulnerable spots. I would be interested to hear of other solutions or possible suspects.
