Enjoying the Golden Hour

* I was invited to the Gardeners’ World Live show and provided with a pair of tickets to the show, therefore all my posts will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

I’m not sure if it’s just because I’ve recently finished my pink and orange embroidered pouch, but I seem to be talking a lot on here about my favourite colour scheme of pink, orange and yellow. And that’s continuing with this beautiful border from the 2025 show.

I didn’t realise it at the time - the pink and orange genes clearly run deep - but I suspect that’s what drew me to this space designed by Ellen Tozer, that and the magnificent planting.

But first that arch, it would truly feel like you were entering a different space walking through that wouldn’t it? And that could be just what the designer intended as the accompanying blurb says this “is a space for reconnecting with your true self and escaping from the hustle of daily life.”

No doubt you’ve gathered from its name that its inspired by the golden sunrise and sunset hours, but there’s also three key features in this garden which encourage daydreaming and letting go.

They’re the warm earthy tones of the flowers and foliage in hues of amber and orange, which is proven in promoting relaxation. The wild and free planting encourages you to reject formality and adopt a more relaxed approach, and that circular arch is to signify the sun and renewal - so not the stepping through it to a new, more chilled you as I thought - though I still think it’d be pretty chill to have something like this in a garden.

But it was really the planting that I was drawn to.

It’s just glorious and full of flowers that I already love, and some of which I have or have been acquiring for my garden. I have foxgloves, though I’m not sure I’ve seen any evidence of them this year; I have an astrantia too, though mine is the paler white/pink version but seeing these deep burgundy flowers I think I need some of these too. They are really beautiful flowers aren’t they?

I also have an iris that is similarly coloured to the one photographed above, though I missed it flowering last year as that coincided with our holiday, so l I hope there’ll be a repeat this year. I haven’t checked on this either - my focus in my garden at the moment is weeds, and getting rid of them - but it’s still snug in its overwintering sheltered half-in/half-out of the bush position, and is getting ready to put on flowers just as beautiful as these again this year.

Fingers crossed.

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was quite a show! I’ll be sharing more from my visit to this year’s show throughout the year - I hope you enjoy them as much as I did the show.

More from the Walled Gardens at Scampston Hall

I surprised myself at the end of the first post exploring the walled gardens here by how few I’d managed to cover in that post, I’m hoping that we’ll cover many more in this post. Though I’ll admit I’m probably cheating (a bit) as I’ve split out some of my favourite parts, like the potager and the still to come gardener’s yard into separate posts!

But anyway, leaving the cut flower garden behind us we wandered amongst the three metre squares of box, flanked by more traditional herbaceous borders of garden 6, enjoying the decaying flower heads as we went.

When the flower heads get to this stage, they’re still beautiful aren’t they - but to me now almost sculpturally and architecturally beautiful, and they were a great palate cleanser for the Silent Garden (garden number five).

You know how much I like topiary, well after the large three metre squares we’d just walked past, to then come across 24 round columns of yew was a delight. These are permitted to grow to a height of three metres before their tops are levelled.

They certainly have impact.

In the centre of the garden there’s a rectangular pond and the yew columns reflect majestically in this, and their symmetry is divine. It’s clearly a minimalist garden - so while I enjoy it, it’s probably not for me in my own garden - and it exudes calmness, and that low bench was a great place to sit and just be.

Though much of my sitting and enjoying the garden also included trying to work out if that was a plank of wood in the pond - it was - and wondering where it had come from. There’d been a bit of a storm the night before so it was relatively easy to work out how it got there, but it wasn’t obvious where it had come from though I think it had probably travelled a fair way.

We headed back towards the borders with the large box borders, the spaces are edged with beech hedges so you can just imagine how great they look as the seasons turn to winter and as their leaves turn bronze.

I could spy more topiary in the distance, and so as it was calling me we jumped the structured and numbered order of the gardens again this time making our way to garden 11, named the Serpentine Garden. Named so because it has six serpentine hedges of clipped yew - what a joy!

The clover shaped beds as you entered this garden were also full of spent flower heads which gave a hint to their fabulousness when in full flower.

Behind us we spotted The Mount (garden 12) and not one to turn down an invitation to explore further we headed straight up the steps.

And oh, what views across the garden.

The guide to the garden suggests that this is where we should leave the garden, but as we’d skipped gardens along the way that wasn’t our plan. Instead we retraced our route past the serpentine hedges (which reminded me of the hedges at the Thames Barrier park) and garden 10 which had the same three metre squares of box as garden 3, bringing symmetry to the overall garden design.

We walked past the Katsura Grove but didn’t spend much time here, but this picture of the exhausted colchicums (or autumn crocuses) made me smile, and reassured me too as mine in my previous garden always seemed to be more horizontal than vertical.

What drew us away from the Katsura Grove was the showstopper of the garden, even in autumn - the Perennial Meadow, located in front of the Conservatory. The Perennial Meadow, or garden seven, is pure Ouldolf and the naturalised planting has been chosen to give a long season of interest, and that certainly works doesn’t it?

The garden notes told us that ‘the form of each plant - leaf, flower head and stem - is just as important as its colour and scent.’ We also noticed that none of these plants were staked, and that again is down to the choice of plants alongside the maintenance routine in this part of the garden,

And as great as it was on our visit, I can’t help but imagine what it’s like in both spring and summer. No doubt it’s full of butterflies and bees, and it’s easy to see why.

So looking back we have covered more gardens in this second post - seven in total, but there’s still the conservatory and the gardeners’ yard and more to share so look out for more posts on those soon.

New to my craft room in March

Like last month it’s been a mixed month for the arrivals in my craft room; there’s been some essentials, some bargains and quite a few bits from my mum’s ruler box, and a bit of a splurge - but it was worth it and totally gorgeous!

The essentials were replacement sewing machine needles after breaking two making the impromptu flying geese tote, and it’s good to have these to hand in case I suffer any more breakages, and actually I probably should get into the habit of changing my needle - both on my sewing machine and for my hand embroidery - more often.

After seeing my shabby chic rosettes mum was quite keen to have one herself and so I pulled various pinks from my stash and made her one. While I was doing that I thought I should probably get some more brooch backs and hair clips to finish this and the ones I’d started at the Newark Quilt Show, so that’s almost an essential purchase too right?!

Now most people would have bought a tote bag pattern before they actually made a tote bag, not me - clearly for me the right time was immediately after I finished my flying geese bag! In my defence I saw it on Instagram and was smitten, I searched for it online - it comes with options to make three different sized bags - and put it in my online basket. A few days later another site was offering 25% discounts on all patterns, and checking this one was included - so it would have been rude not to buy it, wouldn’t it?

The cheerful Union Flag fabric is a fat quarter I couldn’t resist from a stash rummage at my patchwork group, and it’s 50p well spent. The skein of wool is one of a kind dyed by Vicki Brown as part of her annual 100 skeins project. I’ve bought one of her 100 skeins for many years now, and they are all stunning - and each one is different. You get an option to state colours you like (and dislike) and I’m really pleased with my mustard, pink and orange request this year.

At a recent visit to mum’s I finally got to look through her ‘ruler’ box, and to help myself to the ones she no longer wants. So I’ve added some quilting stencils and a hole thing to my ‘to play with pile’ along with a ruler for Cathedral Windows and a Dresden Plates template - and yes the price ticket on it does say £4.15, mum’s clearly had it for a while (and it is open even though it looks as if it’s not).

Something using the Cathedral Window design has been on my long-term list for quite a while, though my idea was to use denim and I’ve had many raised eyebrows each time I moot the idea, so I’m guessing it’s not ideal because of the thickness and stiffness of denim, so I probably should take that advice when it actually makes it onto my list.

My splurge item is these Type/ography 10 inch layer cakes by Lori Holt of Bee in my Bonnet for Riley Blake, and you may recall seeing these before as they have immediately made it onto my list of quilt plans for this year as my Word Star quilt.

As I said in that post, it shouldn’t have made the list but it has - and I’m not sad about it.

There’s more than just the red/white and white/red varieties, and I think that together they could make a great ‘star’ quilt but I haven’t really looked at the how yet - I’m still in the admiration phase!

I’ve even had them out of the packet so I can admire them even more closely, but not for long! They’re stored away safely for now, while my thoughts percolate and research takes place on how I can make this happen.

So that’s another month in my craft room, check out my previous updates for earlier additions, and remember to let me know below what you’ve added to your craft supplies this month.