Otte at the Back of Beyond: Après Garden Walk

Thursday evening was a success! Well, apart from the weather. I found myself wishing I'd brought gloves along, and I know several people wished they'd put on socks.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

First up, I spent a good deal of Thursday preparing cakes. I had planned for Wednesday to be the day I decided which recipes to use and make sure I had the ingredients I needed, and then Thursday to be baking and nothing else. Well, apart of course, for the garden walk itself. This meant I was actually able to have a pretty stress-free day.

So I made some oatmeal cookies with nuts and chocolate chips and then concocted a lemon roll by combining a few recipes. That was a very successful experiment; so much in fact I will have to right it down as a recipe in its own right. (And perhaps even make a few people happy by giving it to them.) And then mum helped out by making a chocolate cake. I had actually had ambitions of making a third cake myself, but in all honesty, if I had made a third, I'd not have had the energy to go to the walk itself.

The first garden was started about 12 years ago, and contained a tree, one box, a red tin shed, and grass. And the red tin shed was pulled down real quick, and they set to work. Their main problem is the wind. The garden is on part of the ridge on the island, so there's wind from every direction. But they have made a number of rooms in the garden, and put in lots of roses.

This portal-cum-pergola is going to be a spectacular sight before long; just a run of warmth and sun. And a good deal of the shrubbery behind is roses, more roses, and some aquilegias.

Around the sides of the decking they have built raised beds containing strawberries, herbs, and spuds.

Yup! That length of raised bed below, by the zinc trough, is a spud bed.

Unfortunately the weather was at its worst while we were here, so the lighting is a bit off on these pics, and we also did get a bit wet.

You know you're having problems when the camera insists on using the flash while taking pics outdoors.

Then we headed off for the next garden, in a somewhat more urban area. This time, they have had the garden from 1978 or so, starting from a newly developed plot. Over the years, the requirements for the garden have changed, so there has been recent rescaping. Many of the older plants are from an old vicarage garden, and then there's the 40 odd different roses, many of which are more recent additions.

View of the front garden, with a glimpse through the opening leading into the back of the garden.

Once through the green arch you are in a corridor of green with a row of old apple trees, leading on further into the garden.

A view from the central area in the back into the most secluded spot, now with a fireplace.

A neat detail which I may well end up copying: the roses had been hung with small wood signs bearing the name of the rose, the type, the breeder, and what I take to be the year it was planted.

The final garden was more informal than the previous. It has been created to be able to manage itself in some ways. The owners can go away on holiday for several weeks and come back to more or less the same garden; no massive weeding required, or watering. The most formal part of it was a small vegetable patch.