The Park and Walled Garden

 

I take a walk in the park, visit the library and then go into the walled garden during opening hours at least twice a month.  There's always something new to see in the garden and, of course, this month the rose bushes are full of  flowers.  The climbing roses grow against the old brick walls and have produced masses of beautiful blooms.  The tall hollyhock flowers in the same flower beds will soon appear.  

I'm fascinated by the many varieties of flowering shrubs and I enjoy seeing the old-fashioned, cottage garden plants such as Sweet William and Campanula (Canterbury Bells)

The volunteer gardeners were busy on one of the days that I visited and they're certainly needed to keep the different areas of the walled garden tidy and weed-free.

There are plants and hanging baskets for sale and there are creative activities and gardening projects that draw in the local community.  You can read about A Bit of Earth project here if you click on the link. Various local environmental organisations are working with community gardens to encourage the engagement with our surroundings and for us to work on unloved patches of ground that have become neglected etc.

Bigger projects are also taking place in and around the walled garden and progress is being made to refurbish the gardeners' quarters.  Below photos show the old stable block refurbishment.  A café had been planned for this building and I hope that the project will be completed and a much-needed visitors' refreshment area will go ahead and be ready for use, at least by next year.

Despite all the building work activity the walled garden continues to be a haven of beauty and peace for everyone who comes to the park.

These are the two novels I collected from the library.  Miss Garnet's Angel is a book I wanted to reread, but left my own copy in Italy.   Dark Tides is a sequel to Tidelands that I read in 2019 and is set in London, New England and Venice in the latter half of the seventeenth century.

P.S.  You would have to read Tidelands first to make sense of Dark Tides.

  

Once more thank you for your visit.  I wish you a good day and week.