This Week in The Walled Garden: Spring Unfolding

Spring is finally unfolding, and the garden is coming alive with colour, buds and birdsong! This is one of the most magical times of the year as everything begins to awaken after winter’s quiet rest, so lets show you a closer look at what’s been happening in the garden this week.

The beauty of the silver birch border

One of the highlights of the garden at this time of year is our silver birch border, which never fails to delight! The beautiful yellow narcissi float along the grass band, alongside treasures like hellebores, woodland anemones, pulmonaria, and cheerful primroses, each bringing its own splash of spring colour.

Birdsong and Blue Tit chicks

The garden is now alive with birdsong, making every visit feel like you’re earwigging into conversations between the birds. Among the feathered visitors, we’ve had a particularly exciting discovery, two blue tit chicks have been spotted in our bird boxes! It’s always a joy to see the garden’s birdlife thriving, and we’ll be keeping an eye on these little ones as they grow.

New buds

Another exciting development this week is the arrival of buds on our Amelanchier and magnolia trees. These buds are full of promise, and we’re eagerly waiting for them to burst into bloom in the coming weeks.

We’ll keep you posted as they start to open!

Greenhouse update: sowing & growing

Behind the scenes, the team have been getting busy in the greenhouse, a new growing space for us this year! Inside, we’re sowing lots of hardy annuals, which will bring more blooms to the garden later in the season. We’ve also started sowing vegetable seeds as part of our new kitchen project, which we can’t wait to share more about soon.

Adding to the greenhouse’s charm is our 170-year-old grapevine, which has been thriving in this space for generations. It’s a living connection to the garden’s history, and we feel lucky to care for it as it continues to flourish.

Edible delights from the garden

With wedding season finally kicking off, we’ve also been harvesting some of the garden’s edible plants to create beautiful touches for our welcome drinks. It’s incredible how much of the garden is edible! This week, we’ve picked fragrant pelargonium ‘attar of roses,’ lemon curd thyme, violas, and primula/cowslip flowers.

These edible flowers and herbs add not only flavour but also a visual flourish to our drinks, making them as pretty as they are delicious.

In the months ahead

With the seasons changing, each day we step into the garden we notice something new in bloom. We’ll be sharing more updates soon, so stay tuned and follow along as we continue to celebrate spring in the garden!