Lucy Redman's Garden - through the garden gate

Garden Lovers Bed and Breakfast!!

2012-01-27T06:22:00.000-08:00

We are preparing to open in March our new Bed and Breakfast. We have a sunny double room which overlooks the Pebble Parterre. The snowdrops are beginning to flower in the leaves of the parterre which are followed by crocus,Narcissus bulbicodium and delicate Fritillary's finish the show when the surround borders burst into life! If you come in April the Azara microphylla which is now at the same level as your window will scent the room with it's heady 'sweetie' smelling flowers, which my girls love!
This weekend we are making marmalade and our plum jam from last summer is delicous too! Three families are raising three pigs, one of which we are using for our BandB bacon!! Our free ranging chickens will be providing lots of lovely eggs by march and if I can swing the bread making machine into action there should be homemade bread too!!
Do come and see us and I'd be delighted to give you a private tour of the garden and for a small extra fee advise you on a tricky border you may have. Give us a call 01284 386 250. More information on website very soon!!

Jordan's10% Garden Wildlife Challenge

2011-11-20T15:15:00.000-08:00

I was delighted to be invited as part of the Garden Media Guild to the launch of Jordons 10% Garden Wildlife Challenge at Jimmy's Farm near Ipswich. Bill and Jimmy talked us through Jordons initiative of encouraging gardeners and smallholders to have at least 10% of their garden devoted to wildlife. I totally agree and here at Rushbrooke we are all for it. Not only do we have wildflowers here and as they touched on in the launch to encourage gardeners not to be quite so tidy thus leaving areas for animals and insects to find homes to hibernate in. They talked about using plants to attract butterflies, bees, moths etc and also using lots of autumnal/winter berrying trees or shrubs in your garden for the birds so plenty of Sorbus (Mountain Ash), Crab Apples and Hawthorn. I am a great lover of seedheads and our 20metre Celtic Racetrack houses a collection of Agastache Liquorice Blue with its tall brown flower spikes which not only look fantastic throughout the winter in the snow and frost but provide seeds for wildlife. Our free ranging chickens are also enjoying scratching around in the fallen leaves.

It was fantastic to meet Bill Jordon who started Jordans cereals and I thoroughly enjoyed the tour around Jimmy's Farm which I last visited two years ago when a fantastic violinist I follow - Seth Lakeman was playing at Harvest (If you like 'Raw' dramatic violin playing he's your man!. I also hadn't seen the beautiful barn Jimmy has converted into a stunning restaurant and farm shop. It was a fun and delicious morning and 10% Wildlife Challenge is a good initiative I also back!

Welcome back to my blog!

2011-08-08T03:55:00.000-07:00

METALLURGI is born. Having worked on the estate for 29 years Dominic is being made redundant as the farm is being contracted out. As well as being an organic farm advisor he is setting up a business making woven metal items for the garden, one of which being this tree seat which surrounds our Apple tree. It is ideal for small trees and makes a pretty and longlasting focal point from which to view your garden. See his website for costings www.metallurgi.co.uk
WE ARE IN THE AUGUST EDITION OF THE ENGLISH GARDEN MAGAZINE. Rachel Warne's photos look superb and we are grateful to the English Garden for covering us again following Marcus Harpur's beautiful images in May 2007. The article is resulting in lots more visitors for the garden and interest in our Gardening courses (see website)
CALLING ALL GARDENERS KEEN TO LEARN PRACTICAL SKILLS. We are running an Autumn Practical Gardening course where we will visit each students gardens armed with gardening tools and under my instruction will show the group how to prune, propagate or split various plants. Bulb plant etc. See website for details.
GARDEN OPEN EVERY FRIDAY TIL SEPT 30th 10-5. We would love to welcome you to the garden - it is looking pretty lovely with all the Agastache flowering in the 20metre long Celtic racetrack - the bees are loving. See above photo.

How lucky am I!

2010-03-29T16:49:00.000-07:00

What a diverse and lucky life I lead. Just thought I'd fill you in on the last couple of weeks and what a mix of lovely people I have met through the wonderful world of plants.Thursday March 11th - Took a great friend - Christine Lavelle or Haggis as I call her to the lovely Beth Chatto's Garden, Elmstead Market, Essex. We were met by a warm mix of nursery staff and gardeners, who were all very chatty and friendly even down to the sweet lady in the cafe. Sadly caught a glimse of Beth when we were having lunch but she was gone by the time we finished.
Delighted however to say hello to her and Asa at Dan Hinkleys talk at Writtle Colllege on Friday 12th March - absolutley fantastic presentation. He had a split screen presentation of the globe spinning in one corner an image of the garden and video with birdsong - wow - Mackintosh is amazing - must try to up my game!!
His garden near Seattle looks superb - what a setting on the cliff overlooking Pudget Sound.
On Monday 15th I spent the day cutting ornamental grasses back in the garden - Gardeners Question Time on Radio 4 said not to cut Stipa tenuissima - they must be mad it loves a quick short back and sides!
On Tuesday I taught at my girls Primary School - we were removing a wildlife pond which takes up precious space and the headmistress feels would be better turned into a scented garden. The children loved heaving the mini bullrush up out of the muddy quagmire (or however you spell it!)
Wednesday 17th I drove upto Brandon to give a multi sensory talk to a group of adults with learning difficulties and some patients in the Nursing home. It was a humbling experience. I took Daphne bholua Jacquleine Postill and Lonicera fragrantissima for superb strong scent and Contorted Hazel for its wacky stems and catkins as a lovely sign of spring. I so enjoyed it and I think they did too!
Thursday 16th - went back to my old High School at Hadleigh to work with 3 sets of 30 children in year 7 (age 12) to fire up their interest not only in gardening but trying to get across how we can use our garden as a cross curricular space - so somewhere to perform drama, exhibit sculptures/try to recreate historical elements like turf tree seats etc. I have a pile of thier designs to put togetrher and come up with a garden for them. They loved using my measuring wheel and transfering our measurements onto the drawing board - it really brought maths to life - into the real world.Am heartened to hear that they are going to teach Agricultural Science - bring back Rural studies and link to healthy eating/living.
Gardening at Rushbrooke again on Friday. Then on Saturady lecturing to 100 members of the U3A (University of the Third Age) as part of their day long Garden Study Days where I was one of 4 speakers - it was a fascinating day listening to talks on Garden History and how climate change will effect our plant choice.
On Monday 22nd I ran a one day Plantaholic Course for 5 people based at Rushbrooke. This was a lovely day teaching 5 ladies how to construct a border and showing them around the garden.
More Primary shcool teaching on Tuesday at Great Whelnetham and Wednesday at Tudor Priamry School in Sudbury. We were busy seed sowing in their beautiful new raised beds which are a tribute to parent power and a couple of very proactive teachers - fantastic.
Two nights ago we went to a superb talk by the very lovley Tom Hart Dyke whose enthusiasum I love. I drovw down to Kent to hear a talk given by my other great plant hero - the god of gardening - Roy Lancaster (Beth being the Goddess!) gave at Lullingstone Castle and it was a delight to see the two great plant enthusiasts together - I was on a high for several days after that!!

The 'other girls' admiring my Parterre weeding!

So in the last couple of weeks I must have taught about 300 people and have had a real treat listening to other people and hearing their experiences - it's not a bad life!!

Flori's best flowers and vegetables

2010-02-22T09:17:00.000-08:00

It is quite tricky to keep control with the garden my best big one is the Rose, I am Flori I am 6.
I do gardening at school with mummy.my best little plant is the daisy.

Tilly's vegetables

2010-02-22T08:50:00.000-08:00

Hello I am Tilly (8) , I am very proud of my fine mum, Lucy she has helped me whith my gardening skills and I am now making\designing my own vegtable patch. I will be growing pumpkins,sunflowers to give it a bit of colour, aubegerine, swiss chard, broccoli and potatoes. my sister, Flori is keen to have a patch too. I will start growing my delicious vegetables when the stupid weather has got better!

What makes us plantaholics so enthusiastic?

2010-02-21T07:57:00.000-08:00

I love wallowing in plants with fellow plantsman. People with a true passion for plants are a delight to listen to and can enthuse even farmers like my husband into the garden (most farmers just want to plough the whole lot up!) The Goddess of Gardening in my opinion is the great Beth Chatto whose garden I have been visiting since I was a child, being taken by my mother (who sowed the seeds this illness!) Many years ago we went to an exibition in Hadleigh where Cedric Morris's paintings were being shown and Beth gave a wonderful talk. He managed to blend the love of gardening with a passion for painting and of course inspired people like Beth. I think of Cedric when I look at our delicate little Narcissus 'Cedric Morris' which braves the weather at this time of the year, giving us hope that spring maybe in the air soon. I think that the love of all the arts is very much linked to gardening. Indeed in our garden here at Rushbrooke we have included art in many forms. Firstly using plants to soften the base of sculptures, picking up on their colourings or contrasting the texture of a rusty metal plough breast with not only whispy grasses but also prickly Sea Holly like Eryngium Miss Willmotts Ghost. We also used the art of willow weaving to create a willow urn and tunnel which adds height and acts as a division between a more formal area and a more curvacous relaxed one! The copper verdigre of Cary Norman's 'Pod' looks fantastic as a centre piece picking up the bluey green cabbage leaves. Whether it's reclaimed galvanised watering cans or gates from the council dump or original art, I love it. We hope not to have any mass produced obects in the garden or any features that I have seen elsewhere. Your garden should be as original as you are, which in my case is pink haired with lots of rings - so colourful maximalist planting with lots of decorative objects!!

The God of Gardening is in my opinion Roy Lancaster who I have heard lecture many times. He is absolutely bubbling with his keenness for the plants he's seen on his travels around the world. I remember one memorable afternoon at Lullingstone Castle where the lovely Tom Hart-Dyke took a group of us around his fascinating World Map Garden and then Roy gave an inspirational talk afterwards. You couldn''t get two more plant mad lovely people- I was in heaven.

I have had the joy of showing dear Beth around our garden in May 2008, which has made my life. She and her head gardener spent four hours here walking around the garden discussing every plant and enjoying a lovely lunch together. It gives me great pleasure to know that I am now on 'kissing terms' with my great hero. I must say that when the Hardy Plant Society came to see the garden last year I did scan the group for that familiar shock of white hair that is Roy Lancasters, but sadly he wasn't with them.. I wanted to impress him with my Plants of Asian Origin Border which were sourced through another great plantsman Rupert Eley of the Place for Plants nursery. The plants where slected from his book Travels in China - which one day I would like to go to but Dominic asked me to marry him, then having two lovely girls has put pay to my travelling plans for a while!!

Cary Norman's Pod in Dominic's Potager

This is meant to be my first short blog - whoops! Must get out and finish trimming the stone parterre - more of this anon.

Posted on 21st February 2010