Garden & Nursery open to to the public

every Wednesday to Sunday 11 am – 5 pm  with refreshments available.

Garden open for NGS charities – supper buffet with wine available

Sunday 28th August 11 am-5 pm

Garden open for NGS charities – soup, sandwiches, cakes, scones etc available

Philip and I ate our bowls of weight-watcher’s 1 point tomato soup as we sat thinking about what we wanted to share about the garden. Despite the welcome sunshine after such a long cold and wet winter it was still lovely to be inside in the warm. We decided we were looking forward to the additional benefits of longer warmer days and more gardening time and how we anticipated this would support our continuing quest to maintain the weight loss we had achieved last year and establish an ongoing healthy diet!

Deciding how we were feeling about the garden at this time of year we came up with a range from overwhelmed to excited. Yet one more time for us to remind ourselves that despite the daunting task ahead we have usually got the garden to an acceptable stage by the time garden visitors come to the garden. Our B&B guests have always been both interested and tolerant as we clear up after the winter and start the weeding in the spring that continues through till the winter. We always smile each year when we recall recognising emerging plants we had forgotten about and how we keep hoping, despite the signs, that some of the less hardy plants such as Verbena bonariensis and the Erysimum, (perennial wallflower) will have survived. The winters of 2009-10 and 2010-11 have been the coldest and most difficult for us since we started the garden in 1995.

We are 205m above mean sea level and therefore we expect the garden to be later in ‘coming back to life in the spring’. The prevailing winds are from the west and we have heavy clay soil. Over the years the shelter belt we planted back then has helped. The years of adding farmyard manure from the Bradley’s farm next door and our own compost have improved the heavy clay but the ground still gets very wet and therefore delays us starting work in February/March.

Despite this past difficult winter we made great strides tidying what had become an overgrown area at the bottom of our land where we planted an orchard about 20 years ago. We also dug what is to be a pond and shaped some enormous mounds of earth (into our version of the Yorkshire Dales) from foundations that were dug many years ago. I say we but what I really mean is Philip has by strimming down years of established weeds, clearing the ditches and cutting back overgrown hedges. Paul plus his great machine came for a couple of days and levelled out ruts from tractors dumping manure, cleared out the dyke and improved the shape of the pond and mound of earth around it. Our next step is to plant more varieties of crab apple trees, species roses and more varieties of foxgloves. Our aim is to keep to the original concept of a walk down the field to the orchard surrounded by the plants and trees you might expect see in such a setting but some more unusual varieties.

After dark, looking back at the day plus a quick reminisce

Back at the table eating a fantastic (and low-fat) fish pie Philip made for us for supper and listening to the news about alleged alien sightings in the North of England we are reminded of the day aliens visited the garden at Cold Cotes.

In telling this story Diana, a member of our extended family, will probably cringe with embarrassment but it was really amusing at the time and still makes me smile. Diana was into a phase of writing stories about spies and aliens — she is now quite grown up at 14 and has taken many of the garden photographs on our website including the great pictures we used on the 2010 Christmas card — but back to the story. One day some years ago I was weeding in the middle of the garden and Diana came up behind me and warned me not to move. She explained that I was surrounded by aliens but that I shouldn’t worry as she could communicate with them using a toy voice distorter and as long as she was there she could protect us all. It obviously worked as we haven’t been bothered by aliens since, well at least that we know of!

The day in the round — It’s been a good day in the garden today. We managed to get a bonfire going and burn the 3 foot high pile of Hawthorne cuttings from the hedge that surrounds the house. It took Stuart from next door four hours to cut down at the weekend but took Diana and I the whole of Sunday to clear up. Hawthorne is very prickly stuff!

I carried on weeding the big beds prior to getting the mulch on them, well-rotted manure this year rather than the shredded bark we used last year. Philip has been splitting the Miscanthus grasses in the big borders and has added some to the two new borders at the top of the lane on Cold Cotes Road. This was a suggestion from the Yorkshire in Bloom judge to give people an idea of what was to come as they turned into our lane.

Talking of the lane those who visited last year will remember we planted a native hedge along the new fence that replaced the old ‘falling down wall’ that ran the length of the lane. There are many signs of life in the hedge so we are looking forward to seeing how much it will grow this year.

What’s urgent in the garden? — Everything, as ever, but particularly we have some work to finish in plant sales before April when the garden and nursery will be open for visitors Wednesday to Sunday with refreshments available in the Barn.

We have attempted to improve the drainage and Ed has created more capacity for us to display the plants for sale. We are hoping we will be able to propagate enough plants to fill these new bays and generate income to recoup the cost of the improvements. Ed is also going to put up some poles to support some additional signs to make it easier to see the entrance to plant sales and the garden.

A quick trip round the garden in terms of what’s out and looking good.

Galanthus and Helleborus in the shady wood and down the crab apple walk
Iris –a beautiful group of Iris ‘Katharine Hodgkin’s
Primula
Cornus mas (Cornelian Cherry)
Cornus sanguinea ’Flaviramea’
Cornus sanguinea ‘Winter Beauty’
Pulmonaria rubra
Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’

The gardening year has certainly begun!

Wishing You a

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

from all at Cold Cotes

A Time of Reflection and Looking Forward

We have had a busy year with bed & breakfast, celebrations, weddings, garden visits, Sunday afternoon teas and even a painting workshop. We also expanded our plants sales area, adding a new display bed for shade loving plants. It has been a wonderful 2010 and we look forward to 2011.

The photo on the front of this year’s Christmas card shows you the site of our next major gardening project. Once through the gate your walk will be lined with more crab apple trees, roses and grasses in naturalistic and wildlife-friendly plantings, leading down to the orchard and pond at the bottom of the property. It is a lovely spot to watch the ducks and perhaps even deer on rare occasions.

Next year’s National Garden Scheme Open Garden dates are Wed 13th July and Sun 28th August. The gardens will also be open every Wednesday to Sunday from May through September with plants on sale and refreshments available. We will also continue develop the nursery and increase the varieties of plants. We are creating greetings cards with pictures of the garden as well as Ed’s art and poetry, and plan to introduce candles and bath melts made using Cold Cotes botanicals.

Sadly we lost 3 of our much-loved pets this year, Mouse, the bigger of the 3 ponies; Chief, Chris & Joanna’s dog who had moved over with them from Texas and Missy, Penny & Ed’s cat. All three of them had led long lives and are very much missed by us all.
We really do enjoy seeing you all and hope you will visit again soon. Wishing you Peace & Joy for the year ahead from all at Cold Cotes.