Harvest time

Do you have a tree laden with fruit you can't reach or a lawn covered with windfalls you don't want?
It's a common problem in suburban gardens. But rather than see food go to waste, community fruit harvesting schemes are springing up around the country. It's all done on a very local level, usually through word of mouth or local residents' associations, with tree owners contacting the picking teams once their fruit is ready. The produce is shared between local charities, tree owners and volunteers. Our area in NW London has two schemes going. Last weekend Mapesbury Fruit Harvesters (pictured) tackled a huge old apple tree and ended up with 67.5 kg of Beauty of Bath (mostly given to a local charity for the homeless) plus a few windfall Bramleys. Later this week we'll be picking plums. A plus for tree owners is that a few of us went on a pruning course earlier in the year, and can now bring light and shape into some of the trees which have become too overgrown to produce well.

The umbrella name for the initiative is Abundance - it recently won an Observer ethical living award. Local groups are flourishing in parts of Leeds, Manchester, Edinburgh and Sheffield as well as London, and it's hoped many more will spring up.



Last autumn the BBC website ran a feature on Abundance: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8280425.stm
For more information try the following links:
http://ttkensaltokilburn.ning.com/group/fruit?xg_source=activity
http://www.growsheffield.com/pages/groShefAbund.html
or for the Mapesbury area, email Mapesharvesters@hotmail.co.uk

Sissinghurst splendour

A visit to Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent a few days ago provided plenty of inspiration - and some interesting plants from the shop there. The famous White Garden, developed by Vita Sackville-West and Sir Harold Nicolson around the surviving parts of an Elizabethan mansion was looking spectacular, even though some of the roses had finished blooming. The National Trust, which owns the property, has just opened the Priest's House (left) as a 6-bed holiday cottage. Windows look out onto the White Garden, and guests can wander through the gardens in the evening, when other visitors have left.

But what really caught my eye were the hazel hoops set into the ground around some of the rose bushes. What were they for? Alexis Datta, Sissinghurst's Head Gardener, was on hand to explain - apparently bending the stems down over the hoops puts pressure on the plants and makes them produce more flowers. It also provides different heights and shapes in the rose garden.

Sissinghurst Castle is off the A262 in Kent, near the village of Cranbrook. Postcode is TN17 2AB.

More details at www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sissinghurst

National Trust holiday lets: http://www.nationaltrustcottages.co.uk/

(All profits from lettings go towards funding the Trust's conservation work.)

Bloomsbury's Exotic Blooms

For a glimpse of South Africa, head to the British Museum in Bloomsbury, where Kew has created a colourful front garden with plants from the Cape region. They range from these agapanthus, with their lilac-coloured pollen, to the Quiver tree, so called because the San people have traditionally used its branches to create quivers for their arrows. According to the explanatory boards dotted among the greenery, South Africa has 22,000 different plant species - two-thirds found nowhere else on earth.


Surprisingly, these are not Wild West cactus, but euphorbias. The San mixed their milky sap with extract from the Diamphidia beetle to poison their arrow tips. But if correctly applied, the sap can be used medicinally, and was a traditional treatment for cancer.

The garden will remain until October 10, and visits are free of charge.



http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/

Lambeth treasure

Finally made it to the Treasures of Lambeth Palace Library exhibition - just in time, as it closes on July 23. Among the fascinating material there: the 12c Lambeth Bible (left), Richard III's Book of Hours, which he left in his tent when he went out to fight and die at the Battle of Bosworth; a letter from Elizabeth I with a post-script about her recovery from smallpox; a copy of the warrant, with Elizabeth's signature, for Mary Queen of Scots' execution; and physicians' daily reports on the mental health of George III.

But before you go into the Great Hall, stop and admire the enormous sprawling white fig tree by the entrance. It was originally planted in 1555 by Cardinal Pole. Lambeth Palace garden - one of the oldest and largest private gardens in London - is open only rarely. But visitors to the exhibition do get a bonus - a discount for the Museum of Garden History at St Mary's Church next door.

Lambeth Palace Library, Lambeth Palace Rd, London SE1 7JU
http://www.lambethpalacelibrary.org/

Time for a change

Inspired by all the lovely plants at Cottesbrooke Hall, I've been creating a new flower bed at the end of our garden in front of a row of camellias and rhododendrons. These look spectacular in spring, but by June the area is crying out for more colour.

The solution? Lay a path of old bricks immediately in front of them, where dense shade meant nothing grew, then dig a new bed.

There's a colour scheme of sorts, moving from pinks, mauves and purples on the left, through to reds, then yellows and whites. It's a real mixture of plants, many of which were donated by friends or grown to raise money for charity by the convenor of our local garden club, Margaret. A fatsia japonica has pride of place in the centre (thanks for this, Heidi), while a dogwood (from Elizabeth) should provide an elegant contrast to a small hydrangea rescued from an overcrowded bed nearby. There's also a ceanothus which had become rootbound in a neighbour's balcony pot. In between are lupins, acanthus spinosus (Bear's breeches), erysimum 'Bowles Mauve', salvia, achillea, phlox, campanula, scabiosa and a tradescantia, 'Sweet Kate', which had not been doing well against an east-facing fence. I've surrounded the bed with canes and criss-crossed it with black cotton, in a bid to keep out the foxes, and now am waiting to see what will survive. There are plenty of gaps to be filled, but for these I'll try my hand at propagation, using advice from Carol Klein's brilliant new book, "Grow Your Own Garden" (BBC Books). She makes it look so easy!

Fun of the Fair

A great day out at Cottesbrooke Plant Finders Fair, in the award-winning grounds of Cottesbrooke Hall, just north of Northampton. Specialist nurseries from as far afield as Bristol are there all weekend with a wide variety of plants - many of them unusual and eyecatching - so there's lots to tempt you. My only gripe was the queues. The caterers seemed unprepared for the demand for drinks, and a limited number of ticket-sellers at the gates meant a long tailback of cars waiting to get into the grounds. We ground to a halt about two and a half miles from Cottesbrooke, and spent the next half-hour inching our way forward. Let's hope that the situation improves for visitors during the next two days.

Cottesbrooke Plant Finders Fair, Cottesbrooke Hall, Northampton, NN6 8PF

Open 10am - 5.30 pm each day. Admission £7.50

Emerald interlude

The rhododendrons now brightening up borders everywhere remind me of a magical visit to Ireland last July. After landing at Dublin, we'd headed south to Co Wicklow for lunch at Avoca Handweavers in Kilmacanogue. I knew their gardens would be spectacular - they were once attached to the house of the Jameson's Whiskey family - but was bowled over by the glorious colours on these bushes right outside the Avoca restaurant entrance. The setting is a real plus for visitors who go there for the award-winning food and the Irish knitwear, cookbooks and gifts on sale. There's also a garden centre with a wide range of speciality plants - I left wishing I lived locally and could stock up on a regular basis.

Co Wicklow is known as the Garden of Ireland - and with good reason. Not far from Avoca, in the Wicklow Mountains National Park, is the hauntingly beautiful Glendalough, a monastic settlement founded in the 6th c by St Kevin on a site between two lakes. Walking trails take you past Celtic cross gravestones and the ruins of ancient grey stone buildings. The 30 metre high Round Tower (pictured) still dominates the site, while a well thought out heritage centre gives a insight into the area's history.

The next day we found more echoes of Ireland's past at the World Heritage Site of Newgrange, a Stone Age passage tomb in Co. Meath (above). Some 3,200 years ago, its builders had the skills and knowledge to exactly align the passage so, at the winter solstice, the sun shines directly into the central burial chamber. You can enter only with a guide, who, for a brief moment, will extinguish all lights apart from the one which mimics the sun's rays shining through a portal. It's a profoundly moving experience.

There are more passage graves (one reputed to be around 5000 years old) in the grounds of Loughcrew House, also in Meath, but what really caught my eye there were the beautiful gardens with their unusual sculptures (above). There are six acres to stroll around, laid out by past generations of the Naper family, who've lived there since 1665. In 1997 Emily Naper began the major task of their restoration.

She's created new borders (this one backs on to an old wall), terraces and woodland walks, and has turned the grounds into a venue for weddings - in the romantic ruined church of St Oliver Plunkett - summer concerts, opera, and festivals.

All these beautiful sites are just an hour or so's drive from Dublin - but a world away from that city's buzz and bustle. Just remember to keep an umbrella handy for the showers that make Ireland the Emerald Isle.

More details at http://www.discoverireland.com/