Cool, Damp Summer

This has been a cool, damp Summer and, so far, our weed-laden soil has produced an extraordinary amount of greenery. When weeding we use large, white ‘builder’s bags’ to transport the weeds to the composting area. As our compost bins are huge we need to have generous amounts of material to add at any one time. This ensures that the heap will warm up enough to kill off all the seeds and begin the process of making compost. Last week we had fifteen bags of weeds lined up ready to compost and I couldn’t resist this photo opportunity. See if you can find the cat?

Camouflage

Drummond appreciated the camouflage and had made himself comfortable on top of one of the warm, fermenting bags. He has other places where he likes to snooze and as we walk about the gardens we frequently notice him stretched out on a bench or curled up in a more shady place. He particularly loves the smell of the Sequoia trees so it was no surprise to find him fast asleep underneath their gigantic canopy.

Under neath the Sequoias

We have a large log pile just in front of the Sequoia trees. It really is a luxury bug-hotel and provides the perfect habitat for a wide range of beetles, voles, mice, frogs and toads and even small birds that sometimes nest there. The damp environment of logs, bark and leaves provide small homes and a food source for some creatures. It can be used as a safe place for nocturnal animals to rest in daylight hours or a warm shelter in freezing weather and as the wood decays, even more insects and fungi begin to live there.  The other day, we were especially surprised to see an amazing turquoise fungus growing there on a piece of crumbling wood.

It is called the ‘Green Elf Cup’ (Chlorociboria aeruginascens). Apparently, as it grows on the timber, it stains or ‘spalts’ the wood green and this is highly prized for marquetry work. The little cup-shaped plate is the fruiting body of the fungus, about 2-5mm across and only appears in the summer, so were really lucky to notice it.

Garden Open Day

We are a month away from our Garden Open day, August 25th, and the garden team are working hard to make all the different parts of the established garden look as good as possible. You can pay at the gate on the day or you can book your tickets on our whats on page 

Our new car-park area was only finished in late Spring and this is not the ideal time to be landscaping a large area, planting trees and hedges that might need watered throughout a warm, dry summer or sowing large areas of grass seed that needs irrigation and mowing. However, there is a lot of advance preparation needed to create the best growing environment for all the trees and bushes we will be planting. We are fortunate that TCV ( The Conservation Volunteers) based in Stirling has been able to pop over and help us out with this preparation. With their help, we have raked and removed approximately eight tons of loose stones from the bare soil and although we will probably need to repeat the exercise before planting, this has already made a huge difference to the overall look of the area. We are truly grateful for this invaluable help and we look forward to more shared volunteering occasions in the near future.