It is 4 O'Clock.

Must be time for tea.

And if your are 4 years old, that means sandwiches, sausages and strawberries and lots of cake. Followed by pass the parcel. Whilst the grown ups eat the rest of the tea!

Getting Ready for a Wedding Tea Party

The trestle tables are coming out of store and the Potting Shed is being swept and cleared.

Tea cups are lined up ready for the guests.

As the afternoon and the preparations get underway the sun starts to peep out from behind the grey clouds.

It is not long before the tables are set...

... the table plan is in place

and the flowers are arranged in jam jars.

As the sun comes out in earnest the heady fragrance of sweet peas begins to fill the area under the awning...

...that, and the gentle scent of lavender.

Before the guest arrive the staff head down to the orchard to grab a quick supper.

Whether your taste is for tea or Champagne (my preference!), everything is ready

Captain Jack in the Garden

It may not be Glastonbury, but we have the rain, the mud and some music (and Captain Jack!)

The Anonymous Traveling Market is at Pythouse, complete with stalls of food, drink and crafts.

There are fewer than normal staff here today (the pull of Glastonbury was too much) but Mitch the manager is doing what he does best - managing.

Despite the misty damp weather the garden is full of visitors and their families.

I am here with my daughter Libby - and we are finding it hard to decide between the Paella or the Pythouse Farm lamb sausages with onion marmalade. In the end we go for the sausages.

Matt the chef tells me that the cafe has been quiet this week because of the persistent rain, so they have been out in the garden giving Heather a helping hand. He laughs as he says, "I think she likes it as much as I would if she started to potter about my kitchen!"

In amongst the stalls I find some pots and pans and watering cans, that a couple, Annie and John, have sourced from French markets and jumble sales ... or what ever the equivalent to a jumble sale is in France.

And whatever we may think of the rain, the garden loves it, and in the kitchen shop the latest produce is going on sale.

A Soft Morning

In Ireland, 'a soft morning', describes a day of constant drizzle and mist, and this is what it is like when I called into Pythouse this weekend. A day for sitting inside, drinking tea, watching the rain and thinking how happy Heather the Head Gardener will be. And the cherries and the apricots and the beans and the kiwis and the sweetpeas ...

A day, also, for looking at the paintings hung in the Potting Shed in their most recent exhibition. Including this rather appropriately named landscape by Rachel Sargent.

As I walk through the garden to the Potting Shed the banks of herbs emit the most wonderful wafts of fragrance into the damp air.

Once inside out of the rain I ask Aggie about the herbs that she and Matt are using in the cooking at the moment.

There has been tarragon chicken on the menu accompanied by mini roast potatoes that Aggie tossed in four different herbs as she baked them. "I just went into the herb bed and gathered handfuls of rosemary, parsley and two types of thyme", she explains. I am just sorry I wasn't in for lunch on that day.

There are bundles of sage hung up on the doors and walls, and buckets of flowering purple sage on the wooden trestle table. Manager Mitch asks me if I am impressed with his flower arranging - and I am!

Some of the herbs are going to be used to create 'smudge sticks' - something I have never heard of before. Apparently you can roll the herbs tightly in cotton and burn them like incense sticks.

www.altnature.com/thegarden/smudge.htm

I will be interested to see how they get on with these, but for now I am happy to come across the herbs in the dishes they serve and in the chutneys and goodies Aggie makes for the Kitchen Garden Shop.

I am particularly pleased to see the range of Mr Hatton's chutneys. Mr Hatton came to work in the garden in the 1920s and became head gardener around 1945 - only retiring in 2002. The only time he took off was to go to the races, and when young, to play cricket.

It is good to see his name lives on.

The Cow Girl, Delphiniums & Dormouse

Every two years there is an Art's Trail that snakes its way through the Wyle valley and surrounding area, passing close to Pythouse Garden. Yellow signs the colour of oilseed rape direct you to art exhibitions in cottages, church halls and barns.

I should be inside working away on my computer, but what a waste that would be when I can be outside in the warm sunshine.

Some of my favourite exhibits are here on Ashley Wood Farm near to Tisbury. A gloriously abandoned friesian cow (complete with cowgirl) gambles past a ridiculously large and stolid eagle. I also discover this idyllically situated 'fisherman's lodge' which is let for short or long term holidays. As the name suggests it looks out over the luminous green waters of Fonthill Lake.

www.ashleywoodfarm.org.uk

Enough of art. Time for lunch at Pythouse.

A mixed plate of antipasto, plus a bag of scones to take home for tea.

But before I head home (to the computer) a wander through the delphiniums and lavender.

The only things missing are the geraniums ...

and the Dormouse.

There once was a Dormouse who lived in a bed

Of delphiniums (blue) and geraniums (red)

And all the day long he'd a wonderful view

Of geraniums (red) and delphiniums (blue).

A Doctor came hurrying round and he said:
"Tut-tut", I am sorry to find you in bed.
Just say 'Ninety-nine' while I look at your chest ...
Don't you find that chrysanthemums answer the best?"

The Dormouse looked round at the view and replied

(When he'd said "Ninety-nine") that he'd tried and he'd tried,

And much the most answering thing that he knew

Were geraniums (red) and delphiniums (blue).

The Doctor stood frowning and shaking his head,

And he took up his shiny silk hat as he said:

"What the patient requires is a change," and he went

To see some chrysanthemum people in Kent.

The Dormouse lay there, and he gazed at the view

Of geraniums (red) and delphiniums (blue),

And he knew that there was nothing he wanted instead

Of delphiniums (blue) and geraniums (red)

AA Milne

Heather's Helpers

This is a time for weeding and watering. To help her, Heather has a band of supporters; Simon, Christopher and Bridget are regulars, as are Heather's dad, Sam, and her step-mum, Shirley.Sam, is busy building up the canes for the 400 bean plants that are waiting to be settled in, but he takes time to chat as I pass. It is clear he is very proud of Heather - he also lets slip he is not only proud of what she is achieving at Pythouse but also her skill with horses and motorcycles!
Shirley is a particularly welcome visitor to the garden as she brings a vast knowledge of vegetables with her - which is especially useful as Heather battles with the warm weather and lack of rain. The herbs and carrots continue to do well, not minding the dry conditions, but Heather is starting to worry about whether other root vegetables and fruit are going to plump up in the dry conditions, particularly the cherry, kiwi, pear and apricot trees that grow against the garden walls near to other much larger and thirstier trees. One bonuses though is some winter varieties of cabbage and spinach which she planted on a whim, are doing well in the balmy sunshine.

A few weeks ago this patch at the North edge of the garden was an expanse of bare chocolaty-coloured earth. Now the new crop of potatoes is bursting through. There are some early varieties that should be ready by June, with others to come on in the late summer. Heather has talked to chef, Matt, about the planting, so she has made sure he has some that will be good for baking, some for mash and others which make great chips.

With the continued sunshine the fruit is about a month ahead of normal. The blackcurrants are already beginning to turn and the gooseberry bushes are putting on vibrant fresh growth. I have a birthday to celebrate in the summer (and my daughter's 21st) and I start to wonder whether I could persuade Matt to make me some gooseberry fool (my favorite) for the party.

Under the leaves and in amongst the straw I can spot some early strawberries ...perhaps some strawberry fool too? Most of the fruit is netted to keep the butterflies and birds at bay, but some trees and bushes are left uncovered so they are allowed a treat too.

The espalier apple trees are starting to put fruit on, which will soon need to be thinned out. And in the greenhouse there are a mass of seedlings in boxes waiting to be planted. There are many varieties of peppers and chillies - the hot Jalapano capsicum, the juicy, bright red Beauty Bell and the long thin red pepper, Thor. Heather is also keen to grow snack sized cucumbers up against the inside of the glass but is waiting for dad, Sam, to help build a frame.

In the garden beds there are rows of beetroot and salsify - a thin parsnip like plant that is supposed to taste like a mix of asparagus and oysters - which will be ready later in the year. There are also carrots and onions that are now growing where the greedy cabbages were planted last year. By switching the varieties around, Heather is aiming to rebalance the nutrients in the soil. This week, the broad beans are being picked, as are the white and red radishes. Matt has already used a few in his recipe for radish soup.

The flower garden has not been forgotten; the sweetpeas are emerging by the side of their bamboo wigwams, dahlias have been tucked in the borders and sunflowers are almost ready to be planted out. These should all be available for people to pick later in the year (which I am pleased about as I have just offered to help a young friend with her wedding - and I think sweetpeas would be perfect mixed with stock, scabious and love in the mist). Heather also has foxgloves and delphiniums on the go (but they will not flower until next year) and is going to plant marigolds between the beans to encourage hoverflies which she hopes will eat the aphids.

In the poly tunnel Heather is about to take out the last of the mustard and lettuces and bring on the tomatoes (Beef Master, Golden Sunrise and Gardener's Delight) and aubergines. She starts talking about framing for the tomatoes and I can immediately see another job for Sam!

I once read an Australian book about men and their sheds. It seems girls need sheds too and Heather is delighted to show me the new addition to her garden.

I take a very quick picture as the bees are starting swarm from the hives in the orchards just below it. I am told when this happened before the lady who looks after the bees had to make a run for it, quickly removing her bee covered shirt as she went. I am also told the manager Mitch, very chivalrously, braved the bees and ran after her helping to cover her modesty.

Where was my camera then?!