A busman's holiday in Berlin

In August Simon and I attended a gardening course in Berlin which followed the recent German love affair with herbaceous plants and grasses. But we couldnot go all that way without a visit to the fantastic Garden Park of Sanssouci built for Frederick the Great. The project began on 10 August 1744 and fulfilled his wish to create a series of vine terraces. It is an incredible feat of engineering with convex centres to maximise the sun light .

It is our great luck that the garden has recently been restored with vines growing along the top of each terrace, in low fashion, while tall vines are trained up each tier of the supporting walls,all interplanted with figs.

The Great Fountain was built in 1748 and the marble statues were added soon afterwards.

It looked incredible from the top. It looked incredible as we walked down all the steps (well over 100) and looked even more incredible from down below looking back up the hillside. I loved the curved centres of the terraces, and the curves of the sweeping steps. The yew pyramids acted as great counterpoints.

The bees have returned

Three or four inches of rain fell yesterday afternoon and evening. We were expecting Chris Lewis to bring two hives of bees, but wondered whether he would prefer to leave them for another day.

But, no, at 8.30pm he arrived...in dank, dark conditions. We had placed five large slabs in readiness besides the native species hedge. Out came the hives. They were placed on bricks, then the straps taken off and the front entrance unplugged. Our Stevington swarm from the end of May had returned! They were really active, we were told. The other from Great Staughton was altogether smaller and quieter.

This afternoon I went to get a photo. Wow..the noise, the hum, the activity. I wasnot going too close! Our swarm was the one on the right.....there was masses of activity and a very loud buzz. Let's hope they want to stay!

Humpty Dumpty

As if a Mondrian Wall is not enough to hide the compost bins, we now have Humpty Dumpty sitting on top...all a remarkable tribute by two x Bedford School boys; the first by our son Jonathan executed some 9 years ago; and the second by Neil Burley who rose to the challenge made only three weeks ago at Hampton Court Flower Show to produce Humpty Dumpty in time for our Mad Hatter's Tea Party. No sooner said than done! What a fantastic talent for someone who has never ever undertaken a commission before. I can't believe this will be his last!

Who stole the Tarts

Our Mad Hatter's Tea Party meant that we had croquet on the lawn, although the flamingoes barely stood still, let alone the hedgehogs. Meanwhile tea trays were flying through the air. All very bizarre. We had lots of fantastic paintings around the garden and also in the Church Rooms where the feast and play took place. Star of the feast were the Jam Tarts which of course were stolen. Actually all 72 of them were very kindly and lovingly made by Hannah's Mum.

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Saturday Ist August came and went like a dream with a feast and play for 55 people! The Mad Hatter's Tea Party theme created a wonderful atmosphere with lots of our guests dressing up in hats and costumes. White roses were painted red, and adorned the two long banqueting tables with pink flamingoes, rabbits disppearing down rabbit holes, mouses in a pool of tears, gravel cup cakes, etc etc all created by the fantastic Masterchef finalist Hannah Miles, was amazing. The theme of the play was who stole the tarts. Simon was the fearsome judge,I was the Queen of Hearts, Suzie was Alice, a friend called Paula was the White Rabbit and three great players from a local amateur drama group were the MC, the Mad Hatter and the doormouse. Oone of our guests called Danny was the Knave and two small children called Belina and Theo were the guards. Hannah of course played the cook.

Peacock butterflies and honey bees in our Monet and Hokusai borders

This has been a magical weekend with bees and butteflies in great numbers visiting the verbenas, buddlejas, blue geraniums and echinaceas.

These photos were taken in our Monet waterlily borders where Echinacea 'White Swan' represent the white waterlilies in Monet's painting in Tate Modern and the blue Gernaium 'Rozanne' represents the water beneath.

Elsewhere in the wild flower meadow the scabious and knapweeds are alive with insects. A fabulous show of native insects enjoying native food.

Yet to walk through the Hokusai borders is mesmerising beyond belief...it brings tears to my eyes every time; flights of Painted Ladies and cabbage whites, meadow browns and common blue just lift off into the air, soaring and fluttering above supping, tasting, feasting on the Verbena bonariensis; so fantastic...like walking through a dream. It is a butterfly wonderland. Free and fantastic.

Alvis come to Stevington

A group of Alvis car fanatics came on a garden visit in mid July and we enjoyed them parked in our front drive; made in Coventry, several dated from the 1930s. According to the Alvis Club website 'They were relatively expensive when new, competing in the upper end of the market, and were not produced in large numbers, thus they are very exclusive. Performance, appearance and finish are all well above the levels found in run of the mill cars. Whilst other makes are better known and more instantly recognised, there is an air of quiet good breeding about an Alvis which expresses its owner's taste.' They certainly graced our garden that day!

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

For our Mad Hatter's Tea Party next Saturday we are going to dress up and act out the trial scene about who stole the tarts with the Red King, White Rabbit etc all wearing glorious hats. Over 50 people are coming to the party and we will have the most exotic tea with Dodo egg delights, Eat Me Stuffed Mushrooms,Fish footman “Dear Little Crab” tarts,Down the Rabbit Hole Cupcakes,Pocket Watch cupcakes, Eat Me Cakes,Looking glass biscuits etc etc all made by Masterchef finalist, Hannah Miles. It promises to be an amazing adventure!

Deep Dark Clematis

Two of our favourite 'late flowering' clematis are out right now...angular Romantika and rounded Miegritianka both with an array of dusky jewels. They vie with Black Prince to be the darkest of them all....but there are also a host of others, light blue, purple, cream, yellow, pink etc. to be seen on our Tuesday openings in July or on our Open Day on August 2nd.

Bee heaven

Echinops sphaerocephalum Arctic Glow is really attractive to bees and on a warm day each spiky globe will probably have three or four different types supping the nectar.

We call these echinops 'golf balls' here, easy to see why with the Open Championship well under way, but the latin name translates as hedgehog and its easy to see why. They have self seeded amongst the gravel to form a great colony beneath the white stemmed birch trees and they make an impressive display.

All sorts of honey and bumble bees visit them including carder bees, orange bottom, and white bottom types. We saw a hornet there earlier in the week.

Nigella papillosa African Bride

Nigella papillosa African Bride comes out slightly later than the usual blue love in the mist. Self seeding every year between two white stemmed birches, it is as much an 'eye catcher' in flower, as it is when it holds its amazing seedheads aloft. A winner either way.

Wimbledon

I always love Wimbledon fortnight. I used to work at the Bank of England and one of the perks was to sometimes be lucky enough to receive entry tickets to Wimbledon (preliminary matches were held on the Bank of Englnad tennis courts at Roehampton). How I revelled in the excitement of John Mc Enroe and Bjorn Borg etc etc. Well, now I have my own tennis racket planted up! Is any one else that MAD! It will be even better next year when it has filled out a bit. Roll on Murray!

Creepy Crawly Insect Cakes

Imagine my delight yesterday to be given a wonderfully exciting tray of fairy cakes which Mary, the cookery teacher at Lincroft school had used as a demonstration to show the children how they could use garden insects as a decoration. Caterpillars and spiders were to look delicious! Their recent visits to my garden had made even the teachers think about garden life! More to come!

sunset

After the soaring heat of the day, how refreshing it was to enjoy the soft, exquisite light on the stipa giganteas and white echinops beneath the white stemmed birch trees which lie to the fore of the wild flower meadow. Here the bales of hay were alight just like the church tower in the distance. Then as the red ball of fire dropped below the horizon, the pale blue scabious were at their most delicate.