It’s the height of summer and the garden is running away with itself; armfuls of veg to be picked, hedges needing to be trimmed and lawns to be mowed. In his magnificent garden at Lewis Cottage, Richard Orton admits that he sometimes feels overwhelmed by it all. But the sheer bountifulness of it all easily pushes those feelings aside and allows him a little time to appreciate the little triumphs and successes of the year so far.
Last month the owners of Lewis Cottage celebrated 10 years of opening their garden in support of the National Gardens Scheme, an organisation that has been encouraging the public to visit privately owned gardens since 1927. Here Richard Orton reports on how the scheme has not just made a huge contribution to health charities but has motivated him and his friend Michael Pell to continue developing their special garden.
When Lewis Cottage Garden opened to the public over the May bank holiday weekend, Richard Orton was not just surprised by the number of visitors but the wide age range of the people who came. Here he reflects on the joys of sharing your garden with others and what even those with the smallest outdoor spaces can learn from such visits. The garden is open to the public again on the weekend of 26/27 June.
The owners of Lewis Cottage are busy preparing to open their delightful garden to the public this weekend (29, 30 and 31 May) as part of the National Garden Scheme. The garden will open again on 27 and 28 June and, after a disappointing year when they couldn’t open at all, they are hoping to welcome back their regular visitors as well as plenty of new ones. But it is not just human visitors they are welcoming this year at Lewis Cottage, as Richard Orton reports.
As the insects and plants at Lewis Cottage spring into life, they are preparing to welcome back visitors to their garden by planting along the banks of their long driveway. Among his gardening tips for May, Richard Orton urges us to be creative if we can’t get the plants we want at the garden centre.
Snowdrops in abundance, daffodils blooming and the hedgerows starting to green up - the signs of spring are everywhere. Richard Orton reports on preparations for the new season at Lewis Cottage.
February may be a bleak month for many gardeners, but for Richard Orton it is a window of time to dream and plan. Here he reports on his hopes for this year and preparations for opening the Lewis Cottage garden to the public, which include building a viewing platform for a new pond. And in his top tips for February, he includes a simple growing project for little ones - to make a cress egg head.
If your garden is looking messy at this time of year, don’t worry. The garden at Lewis Cottage is also a bit of a mess and Richard Orton confesses he likes it that way. In his latest update Richard describes his own regime for tidying and pruning in winter and urges us to make up our own rules.
At this time of year, as the days shorten and time spent out in the garden becomes increasingly precious, Richard Orton likes to pause and reflect on the gardening year at Lewis Cottage. His beautiful garden is regularly open to the public during the summer months, but in this exceptional year he has decided to open it during the winter as well, to enable those who are feeling isolated to enjoy the benefits of being outdoors with like minded people.
The weather can be pretty unpleasant, the days are short, it seems to get dark far too early. Maybe it is hard to get inspired about your garden in winter, but for keen gardener Nancy Murgatroyd this is the time to dream and plan. Here she shares some ideas about how to plan a garden project.
If you are fed up with weeding your veg plot, why not have a go at the ‘no dig’ method? It’s not only easier and quicker, but can actually make your soil healthier and more productive, as our gardening expert Andy Colquhoun explains.
While many of us are wondering what to do with the apples in our gardens, at Lewis Cottage they are dealing with a bumper crop of some more unusual fruits - mulberries, figs, quinces and medlars. In the second of his blogs one of the creators of this special Mid Devon garden, Richard Orton, shares some ideas on how to use these fruits, a recipe for mulberry jelly and some tips on growing figs. He also shares his list of garden jobs for the autumn.
