An Artist’s Garden

I spent three days at the start of this week mooching around North Wales and the Welsh Marches.  The purpose of my mooching was visiting two blogging friends.  First stop was Artists Garden near Barmouth in Wales.

Karen is opening her garden for the NGS on the 4th September so there is a real sense of impending panic at getting it all ready.  Personally I don’t know what she is worrying about as you can see from the photos the garden is lovely and full.  However, I suppose if you look closely you can spot weeds and there are some bits which need planting up.  She is also putting her toe in the nursery business and is preparing plants to sell and there is a bit to do there.

I was particularly taken with the Shirley Poppies and grasses in Karen’s garden.  She had a Fibre Optic grass which I really really like but the photo didn’t come out very well.  I shall be sourcing seed for those soon.

Being the helpful soul I am I had offered to help Karen with her preparations for the opening and this was the real purpose of my visit, although really I didn’t need an excuse to visit.  However we wasted Monday afternoon catching up and gossiping and there was a visit from BeanGenie who lives nearby and much cake consumed.  Then it started raining and didn’t stop until the following morning and when I say rain I mean rain oh and wind.

However, the garden stood up to it and come Tuesday morning we set to tackle a weedy corner lurking some way down the garden.  It was soon cleared and I won’t embarrass Karen by telling you how many garden sacks we filled.  What to plant in the cleared space was the next dilemma.  My suggestions of using her Cosmos, Echinacea and Dahlias in the nursery were all met with unamused disdain as they were for sale, however a flippant remark that maybe we could use the Coleus seedlings with some Dahlia seedlings was met with more enthusiasm although mixed with reservations.  Personally I think it looks quite nice and by the time the garden opens the plants will have settled and look fab.  In addition when Karen’s visitors see the stunning display they will be desperate to buy Coleus for their own gardens – well that was one of the lines I used to try to sell the planting scheme to Karen!

Having had lunch, done a little more gossiping and eaten more cake I then set off to Denbighshire and Elizabeth’s hillside garden but that will have to wait for another post.