Looking back at the house through ox-eye daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare), red campion (Silene diocia) and cow parsley (Anthiscus sylvestris).
Through a froth of sweet rocket (Hesperis matronalis alba) to hummocks of box in long grass.
Borage (Borago officinalis). An old wives’ tale states that if a woman slipped borage into a promising man’s drink it would give him the courage to propose! Put the flowers in ice cubes for summer drinks.
Hazel teepees for sweat peas with shrub roses and valerian (Valeriana officinalis). We grow this for our biodynamic preparation 507 which we use on our compost heaps.
We leave Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) to seed itself around the cutting garden. It makes a wonderful tall cut flower.
Rosa Royal Jubilee is one of our favourite roses for cutting – as are foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) which seed themselves around the garden.
Foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea), borage (Borago officinalis), feverfew (Tanecetum parthenium) and angelica (Angelica archangelica) in the medicinal herb border.
An old Cornish stone wall froths with daisies (Erigeron karvinskianus) and white valerian (Centranthus ruber albus).
Linaria purpurea ‘Canonwent’ is short-lived but a good self-seeder and good for picking. The old rose - Rosa mundi – pre 1600 is once flowering but worth it for its fabulous stripe.
Common sorrel (Rumex acetosa) in the field – known as Sour Ducks as its leaves taste tart in salads.
We pick boughs of blossom from the old apple trees in the orchard – and cow parsley, camassias and daffodils. I spy with my little eye the topiary at the top of the pond walk.
We wait for this moment each spring – the scent of the wisteria floods in through the bedroom windows. Honeysuckle winds over the old garden gate.
Old lilacs drape themselves around the nun’s bathing pond and young Gunnera manicata throws up its young leaves. Rosa Moonlight is about to open and the yellow iris threaten to engulf the landing.
Rosa Sally Holmes which froths away all summer long and Verbascum Pink Kisses in the bottom lawn borders.
Here we are early one morning picking at the back of the border. Cephalaria gigantea, Thalictrum flavum subsp glaucum (yellow meadow rue) and Thalictrum Elin tower high above our heads.
The Cephaleria gigantea is a little bit thuggish in the borders but we do not mind as each year we dig up clumps and move it into the long grass in the orchard where it is kept in check. Seen here with an old wild species roses which arches like a fountain over the long grass. We love picking it for events when you need long trails of pink.
Nature is creeping in down by the boat shed where we have planted many old species roses and lilacs this year after finding old plans from the 1920’s (left). Looking out from the main stairwell onto a tapestry of grasses and flowers which popped up when we let the billiard table lawn run wild.
Up in the Cutting Garden a mix of various Delphinium elatum have loved the warm weather this spring. Mounds of Euphorbia oblongata and wulfenii march up through valerian (Valeriana officianalis) to the rows of cutting roses at the back of the garden.
