This week we will be making several new batches of Lemon Balm and Rosemary cordial. All the herb and flower blossom cordials we have made this year have been really popular and this one is lovely!
BPCG volunteer and signwriter Claire Ganly has kindly made us some really attractive new plant signs about our Echium and Beschoneria for us to mount and set in the Hot! Border of the Walled Garden.
We will be harvesting our colourful Rainbow chard and our kale this week. Tired of all that leafy virtue? Surely not – try this delicious and easy Marinated Kale Salad by Sabrina Ghayour. (Note: If you’d like to send us other good recipes featuring fruits and veg we grow at BPCG, please do! We can start compiling a recipe folder to share.)
We will be harvesting our first potatoes as the plants are starting to die down and the leaves are beginning to go yellow. This is when potato plants are no longer in active growth, so the potatoes, which are stem tubers, have also stopped growing and are ready to be harvested.
We will be tending to the two dye plant beds. Some plants need tying up, some deadheading and the beds need some weeding. We will also do a bit of a ‘stock take’ and report back to Diane who curates these beds but has been not been able to come into BPCG during Covid. She can tell us if we should be replacing some plants in the Autumn.
As usual our ‘hungry’ plants will need feeding in particular the chillis, cannas and tomatoes.
This week and throughout the rest of the summer we will be watering Sol’s Scotch pine. Sol was a lovely BPCG volunteer who died far too young. He grew this tree from seed he collected. We planted it out in the park in January and now in the dry summer weather it really needs regular watering. In general, it is good practice to allow three years of extra watering support when planting out pot grown trees into the ground because it often takes this long for a tree to establish a good root system.
A request! If you are deadheading interesting seed heads at home or at any gardens you look after, that you don’t want to keep yourselves, please give them to BPCG! We will dry them, dye some of them and use them for ornamental dried bouquets and for Christmas wreaths. We’d love things like Love in the Mist, Poppies, Stachys, Alliums…..leave the stalks on! Thank you!
In other BPCG news, iyatraQuartet continue their open musical rehearsals on Wednesday early evenings 5pm to 7pm. You can enjoy the gardens and their ‘absolutely beautiful’ music (Cerys Mathews BBC 6 Music) as you stay outside and they play in the Upper Greenhouse. Book here for this Wed evening and the next two.
Sally’s popular outdoor Yoga continues on Saturdays. There’s 11 to 12.30 Energy Flow sessions and a new gentler class on Saturday afternoons from 2 to 3pm on the decking outdoors at the Greenhouses. This one is suitable for beginners or anyone who’s feeling a bit out of practice and wants a yoga confidence boost. For more information and to book go here
Drawing from the Roots – a new Garden Art Group is starting on Monday August 17th 1pm to 2.30pm. Cat and her colleague Andrea Heath are starting a regular outdoor Monday afternoon workshop for art and nature lovers where you can explore the creative benefits that emerge in a space where art, community and nature meet. To find out more please contact Cat on 07534 273844 or email: cstevens75@btinternet.com
On Sunday August 9th 11am to 12.15pm, Jar and Fern are running a Corked JarTerrarium Workshop on our lower decking. For more information, and to book, go here
