My Garden

The umbrellas were up and down like yo yo’s last week at Harlow Carr . It appears the autumnal chill has descended over the country and the only glimmer of warmth is our success at the Beijing Olympics! We have done so well with our swimming medals, and you could have done a fairly credible backstroke... Read more..

Hi I’m Kath and I am Harlow Carr Garden’s latest recruit. I work on the ornamental team ‘Gardens West’ and my permanent contract has just begun on the 1 st October. This is very exciting for me as I have worked for many years in the chocolate industry. Eventually, after doing 4 years at evening classes... Read more..

This cold snap is a good chance to dig out those favourite woolly hats and gloves and get some soil cultivation done in the garden. The frost is a great help in breaking up the soil particles in some of the wetter areas of the garden which we are busy developing for next year. My team has been working... Read more..

What with Santa and the Reindeer turning up last Saturday, and all the festive snow and ice this week, the Harlow Carr garden has taken on a magical glow of Christmas! We have taken advantage of our heated glasshouse to catch up with our propagation work, picking over and removing all rotting leaves... Read more..

What a change in the weather since I last wrote the blog on the 6 th Feb, then we were ankle deep in snow, whilst this week it’s been a good 8 degrees warmer and we’ve had some lovely heart warming sunshine. Tom and I have been working hard on our Island beds this week; lifting and dividing plants from... Read more..

One moment I was on the snowy slopes of Les Correz in the French Alps bathed in glorious sunshine, skiing ……..the next, in the woodland at Harlow Carr marvelling how a few days warmth has breathed colour and life back into one of my favourite areas of the garden,(well, apart from the main borders!).... Read more..

The spring sunshine certainly made a difference to the garden this week, not least because the gardeners were able to strip off their thermals and bask in the warm sunshine! The gorgeously scented Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’ is still surprising visitors in the scented garden – a must have winter... Read more..

What a sunny warm week it has been, you can almost watch the narcissus and tulips unfolding into flower as they enjoy longer hours of daylight. The hellebores too have been gently nodding their heads for one and all to enjoy, it really does lift your spirits after what seemed like a long winter. It has... Read more..

Well, it’s certainly a soggy end to the week today…the mowers have been put away and we are catching up on our cuttings of our salvias and pricking out scores of seedlings under cover! Busy week….there are not enough hours in the day at the moment to keep on top of the weeds springing up with the recent... Read more..

Well the sun has got his hat on and it's all kicking off here at Harlow Carr !! In terms of planting of course! All teams have been steady at it this week, getting out all those lovely tender plants that have been nurtured from tiny seeds and cuttings started months ago. Last year we had a fantastic... Read more..