May’s Garden Update
Grow Your Own!
April has officially been the dullest and wettest for a long time at Floors Castle Walled Gardens. Every time the Team decided to get outside to weed, sow seed or plant in the borders the weather had other ideas.
However, we managed to complete our jobs for April on schedule during the breaks in the weather and it looks as if May might be bringing some long-awaited sunshine for us at last just as the Castle and Grounds open again to the public. Our Walled Gardens are open all year round but you can now enjoy the Star Plantation just as the Martagon lillies start to bloom and the borders at the Courtyard Café are also beginning to come to life.
Our focus in May shifts from the herbaceous borders which are now in “maintenance mode” (this means weeding, planting annuals and deadheading a lot!) to the Kitchen Garden and the production of fruit and vegetables for the Chef to supply the Castle and Café’s. We have planted a selection of potatoes, onions, leeks and parsnips and the first early peas are in the ground (much to the delight of the mice!) The supports for our beans and sweet peas are ready and we have lots of seedlings hardening off ready to be planted out as well as the final seeds being sown for later crops such as our squash, courgettes, pumpkins and sweetcorn. Our tomatoes are growing happily alongside herbs and salad vegetables in the raised beds in the tomato house.
The peaches, figs and grapes are coming along nicely and we seem to have quite a crop of apricots developing this year! Our new Fruit Cage has been finished and planted up with strawberries, raspberries and gooseberries and the rhubarb has gone a bit crazy! The asparagus is always a special treat at this time of year and the first spears are beginning to peak out of the soil!
We have spent the winter and the last few weeks getting the Garden in tip top condition ready to welcome our visitors and do hope you enjoy coming to visit us this season. If you want to experience the Gardens on a more personal and exclusive basis please don’t forget we have several Evening Private Garden tours with Canapes and Fizz over the summer evenings accompanied by our Assistant Head Gardener Kate and would be delighted to welcome you to these also.
Hope to see you soon – The Gardens Team!
