I do my garden thinking whilst standing on one leg, on the window ledge...........

Increasing my own self-sufficency, I've discovered, after a gale, that if you lean out of the window, with a flowery sweeping brush in your hand and *adjust* (bash vigorously, but without damage) the satelite dish on the side of the house, you restore your television signal nicely. Well done me, that saved a call to the local TV shop, who I'm sure are very busy fixing alot of that kind of issue after bad winds. However, it also leads to a different view of the garden, whilst perched on the windowsill, upstairs, trying not to fall out of the window. Therefore I stood there for a while, contemplating, stretching and thinking some more. A cellist entered the room and sat down, unphased by my window ledge, yoga-esk flowery brush wielding stance- 'Telly off again? Guess that was the wind, whats for tea?', shes very clever like that. Nothing much phases her, she returned to her book, the fall out of gales are pretty normal on an island, although not generally so much in the summer.

There you go something productive to come out of bad weather, a different view of the garden and an attempt at windowsill yoga. I guess gales and being trapped indoors like last weekend focusses the mind somewhat regarding the garden and leads to novel exercise techniques. You do spend alot of time trapped indoors thinking and looking at the weather and the garden and how its working or as, with my garden, not working very well with the wind. With the hind sight of last year, I'd removed the garden bird feeder during the storm, last year the feeder we had ended up in the hedge, thankfully not the house - but I didn't want to risk it again. Therefore I moved it, I'm thinking where it can go next and I will HAVE to concrete this in to avoid a birdfeeder/window encounter. Thats clear enough, twice in the space of a year, thats needing done.

It would appear, on the positive after the garden flooded/gale trashing incident, the 'pond' idea for the bed outside the lounge/sunny room is a great idea, as left to its own devices clearly it WOULD be a pond. Therefore after they've recovered a bit of vertical stature, kept flowering for a bit, or are blown away, the marigold bed will be dug out and a pond will replace it. I'm quite looking forward to this, I've never had a pond before. I'm going to have fish too - why not, and maybe a lily? How exciting! Thankfully we'd harvested the 'Potato onions' just a few days before, a new variety kind of like a shallot, but its an onion, but my onion harvest wasn't great this year, not sure why - too cold perhaps? None of the varieties I've grown have done very well.

The raspberries have taken a battering, currently at 45 degree angle in the garden. The water flooding hasn't helped and I've resigned myself that they need to go under cover. Its too exposed here, but it was worth a go, clearly an 'indoor' crop in this garden. The stems are very damaged, the plants are waterlogged and have socketed quite incredibly during the two days of wind, roots quite broken and exposed. In fact if they'd been any older, I think they really suffer more and more each year. OK, I can cope with that, they need to be moved and will be happier in the about to go up polytunnel. They'll crop better and I'll find it easier to cope with the wind if I don't worry about them. But what to replace them with........I had thought about shrubs, but this part of the garden, despite the hedge is just too exposed for shrubs outwith the shelter of the fence.

The hardy fushia (Fushia magelanica) and the hardy flowering currants (Ribes sanguinium) I had planted for shelter in the borders of the front garden, simply only work by the fence - I've lost 15 out of 20 of them (which I bought argh) and those which are surviving aren't exactly thriving - they aren't back to last years size when I bought them after the gales! Therefore they need the protection of the fence/windbreak and I'll move what's left of them. But what to replace them with? I'm thinking, having looked after the gales, of replacing them with a wholly perennial type planting the local Crocosmia which isn't as trashed as it should be in that wind and flowers nicely late on. I've alot of this on the track and in the waste ground by the house, I feel a bit of 'relocation, relocation, relocation' coming on for it, free plants which will thrive work for me! The photo is Crocosmia 'Lucifer' from Happy Valley, but the bog standard Orkney one, on my track is a nice one too, although a bit more orange, so I'll use that and maybe get a bit of 'Lucifer' for my new Orkney border......

OK so thats those bits taken care of. The new recycled gate  (made from a bunkbed) which was previously solid has blown off 3 times - its had a bit of a butchering now and is not solid anymore, I've knocked out several planks and its now more air-flowing-friendly. I've discovered, that letting the wind filter through is much better than trying to make it go around something. We'll see how that fairs.................or I'll reattach it for the 4th time..............well practice makes perfect eh?

Veggie bed doesn't seem to be too bad and is working well tucked behind the hedge, however, the willow hedge is not liking the gales at this time of year, I've had 3-4 of them blown over, which means I might have to cut it back each year. Gales in the summer can be worse due to the leaves and the heaviness of the trees.  To save them blowing over, I'll keep them trim in future - dreams of 10ft hedges of willow I think might be a bit of a pipedream - they've blown over at 7ft...................but hey you live and learn!

I'm also going to put in an 'Orkney' hardy perennial plant bed around the garden infront of the hedge - I think, to be fair, it will be my best bet for a bit of colour in the garden. Perennials which are hardy and survive here will work, I've my eye on many locally. OK, so the pallete might be limited and the plants might be restricted, but I've decided, whilst standing on one leg, hanging out of the window, gazing at the garden with a flowery brush in my hand, lifes hard enough without fighting with the wind. I'll work with the plants which work with the wind and dream about the others from the comfort of my chair looking at books! I know once the tunnel is up I can develop a more diverse palette of flowers in there. I've no issue using a bit of that space for a flower garden, in fact its compulsary! All, that thinking from being trapped indoors and fighting with the wind!

Oh, and a bit of news from the stripey island homestead - we've two new additons to the family arrived just before the gales - a couple of byre cats, I'm hoping will help with our rodent problem in the winter. 

Introducing Marmalade and Domino, byre cats of distinction and ratters in the making, extraordinaire. They have to be kept in for a few days to get use to their new patch, but are happy enough watching us out of the window for the moment, best place in all that wind! But, I'll have to tell them, when the pond arrives to leave the fish alone...............the winds bad enough!

Blowing the cobwebs away, and the chickens, and the hedge...........an odd 'summer' week

Big sea at Birsay, Orkney, August 28th 2011

Now, what would you expect from a blog with 'wind and wellies' in the title, more wind and more rain! To say its been a tad windy this weekend, would in part be expected, perhaps, but its been very very windy? This weekend we've had a couple of real 'rocks in your pockets' kind of days, with winds gusting over 40mph and almost 50, thankfully its calmed down today. Ok, we do get this kind of weather regularly, in winter, but in 'summer' to be honest, I don't think its very fair although looking back a windy month indeed! Now, I don't yet know what carnage its caused in the garden, aside being flooded for most of the weekend and very very windy! Although, whilst wind in the garden is NOT fun,  it does make for an exciting sea, doesn't it? And to make the most of that we often go on real windy, blow-the-cob-webs-away kind of a walk..................we dragged along our visitors, the trusty dog and I.

Waves at Birsay, August 28th 2011

Poor visitors got stuck, stormbound for an extra day up here, which for us was a bonus, for them having got up early to get home, perhaps more than a bit frustrating, but a nice windy walk and an ice-cream later, back home to a lovely 'roastless' roast dinner, was enough to cheer up the spirits! To be honest its been a bit of a strange week, full of the delightfully unexpected, adventures galore and a few changes/discoveries. First of all, I slowly but surely watched the sunflowers 'Baby Face' F1, safely undercover in their fabulous recycled fishboxes, inside the polytunnel, begin to bloom.....

Orkney grown, dwarf sunflower (Helianthus annuus) 'Baby Face' F1

I've not grown dwarf branched sunflowers before, but they are a real robust, strong little chap, nice flowers (pollen free) and they have several buds in each leaf axil, so I've let a few have a main flower and disbudded a few main buds from others to work out which way is the best for  a good spread of flowers for cutting, I'll let you know.  There were 20 in the packet, (Johnstons) and 20 dutifully came up, at £2.25 they are good value for money indeed.

Recycled fishboxes, tunnels and sunflowers - perfect!

Now as painful as it might sound,  but disbudding the main flower bud its not painful. But, by taking it out carefully (before it form a proper flower), this appears to be quicker in allowing the branched flowers to grow on to a decent cutting size. However, the single main flower buds if left unchecked, bloom earlier than the branches, so I'll figure what works well, in the mean time, I'm enjoying seeing their nodding faces as I get into the tunnel. And, the bee's appear to be enjoying them too! How very lovely, it never surprises me at my joy when seeing the bloom of a flower, from a tiny little seed. My spirits are utterly uplifted from any deep dark mood when I happen across one, I can't help but be moved by them. I've no idea why, but I'm so grateful for it.

Sunflower and bumble bee, Orkney

So, I've been having fun, looking at flowers and picking a few and talking to people about the little experiment we've got going on in the 'spare' work tunnel. Aside that, this weeks been a bit strange, I've slowly but surely cleared my own office. As my project is finished, I'm at the very final stage of corrections and our office has been redeployed into another subject area, so I'm now 'desk sharing' in the room next door to mine - very strange to finally get the place cleared.  The list of corrections are almost well and truly done - I'm sending this off this week for approval, fingers crossed.

One chapter closes and another opens..............But, onwards to new adentures me thinks, which I'm sure will be exciting......I've even began to need to rifle around the bowels of many of my own books, such as this great herb book, rather than reading purely academic papers and other exciting books on producing a cutting garden...........

Deni Bown, The RHS Encyclopedia of Herbs and thier uses, the definitve A-Z guide to herbs.

All in all whilst a strange week, crazy weather, moving on in life but nevertheless a good one, in which we even made our own hand made soap, with the help of our lovely visitors! To keep going with embracing new things, I've got some vegetarian rennet (I'm going to make cheese this week), I've got a book out about local seasonal eating in Orkney and I've got a book about practical 'self sufficency'. That lot should keep me very busy and finding new things to do. I'm enjoying going into a library again and borrowing books, rather than buying them, I'm trying to be more efficient myself in my 'local' good lifing exploits. Bit like trying to go flowers for cutting instead of buying them, small steps and changes will hopefully make my 'good lifing' a bit more viable.

And of course having visitors for the week means also we've been off exploring a few things together, like the local garden at Happy Valley, which until I took my visitors to explore it, I hadn't realised was such a genuine secret garden, unsignposted but locally very well known! Of course peedie was just delighted to be going back there again! I'll post my own pictures from that particular adventure another time, its an amazing little haven!

Peedie at the wonderful secret garden of Happy Valley, Stenness, Orkney

More about Happy Valley and its extraordinary creator in these links if you fancy a neb (look):

^{http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-13529344}

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Valley_(garden)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/islandblogging/blogs/005592/0000012620.shtml

Just goes to show what alot of hard work and a bit of shelter can acheive, enriching folks lives, even in the blustery north! Visitors safely away enroute home, no longer strombound, its time to get the sleeves up here, best get on with that tunnel then eh? Until next time...................

Eco-mower, cutting edge renewable technology

I've got myself one of these new eco-mowers, they are all the rage, actually I've got about 2, it was a sort of inherit one, get one free kind of an offer. A grand piece of renewable technology this lawn mowing device is, powered by grass and sunlight, incredibly efficient and is nicely lowering my carbon foot print. Whilst this cutting edge technology isn't for everyone, for me it would seem to be a readily available natural resource. It would appear I've managed to rabbit proof the garden so successfully, that these rabbits actually don't leave and appear to be living quite happily in the willow hedge. Now, if my garden was full of delights and wonders, I think possibly I wouldn't be so keen on this type of eco-mower however, aside having to net the veggie raised bed, we're currently enjoying their company. The rabbits moved in as tiny little bunnies, once they get a bit bigger perhaps I may ask them nicely to leave. For the moment, however, its quite nice watching them out of the window, pictured here less than 3m from my seat for my morning cuppa. And, to be fair, they do earn their keep and the grass is nice and trim in their preferred areas, by the marigolds and the potato onions in the front bit of the garden. Very environmentally friendly indeed, don't know why I didn't think of it earlier.

Island living - boats, wildflowers and heading 'sooth'

For those of us fortunate enough to live on an island, I guess one thing that features heavily in life is the 'boat' or ferry I guess you'd call it. I'm off on one tonight, 'sooth' to Aberdeen (leaves late, almost at midnight) to go down overnight to the mainalnd of Scotland and retrieve continue down the rest of the 300 miles to collect the children from the airport in Edinburgh. They are returning home from their dads after a long summer away, I'm predicting was better than our own. Well, being in central France you'd certainly hope so, eh? I wonder how they'll find it being home, they might need a jumper or too!? How I've missed them both and our little adventures here.

Can't wait for one of these from both of them!

However, whilst they've been gone, here in Orkney, nothing much has changed over the summer, except maybe the flowers on the track to the house, I'd say the 'drive' but lets face it, we're not that posh, its a farm track!

Now we've been down here several times before, the last time when the track was beseiged with orchids, lots and lots of wild orchids in May......

 

Wild orchid

And, then in June, with free range chickens, when the glorious buttercups truly were resplendant and the chickens were too!

Creeping buttercups (Ranunculus repens) and Einstein the cockeral

I like the track doon tae the hoose, it changes relatively slowly over the seasons I've found but its a nice mix of native plants with the odd couple of planted 'garden' plants popped in along the way. Right now its dominated by meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) and the smell of the sweet flowers is heady and vivid.

Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)

The wild Angelica (Angelica syvestris), so architectural, it keeps its seed heads well into the winter.......

Wild Angelica (Angelica syvestris)

..... and the heather (Calluna vulgaris) is coming into bloom too.......making the hills slowly turn from brown to purple, for a few weeks, a truly breathtaking sight.

Heather (Calluna vulgaris)

Heather (Calluna vulgaris), a closer look

......with other little delights dotted in here and there down the length of the track verges in a little mosaic of colour and textures......Devils bit scabious (Succisa pratensis) which I think look like tiny blue raspberries until you get closer........

Devils bit scabious (Succisa pratensis)

 ..........which open to the most beautiful flowers captured not by me but by a keen and amazing botanical photographer on the western isles, thank you for the use of this lovely picture below, much appreciated.

Devils bit scabious (Succisa pratensis), close up.

White clover (Trifolium repens).................

White clover (Trifolium repens)

 Creeping buttercups (Ranuculus repens) have been a star through out the spring right into summer, slowly theyve lost their dominance as the summer flowers have muscled in.....

Creeping buttercups (Ranuculus repens)

 And, the meadow vetchling (Lathyrus pratensis) tumbling through the surrounding plants popping a beautiful yellow head out....

Meadow vetchling (Lathyrus pratensis)

And, the inbetween it nestles the Tufted Vetch (Vicia Cracca)

Tufted Vetch (Vicia Cracca)

Now, I've by no means taken photos of 'every' plant doon the traak, but maybe one day, for now I've a bag to pack and a boat to catch this evening.

Wonder when I'll catch sight of my first tree tomorrow? Janet at planticru is so right, you don't realise how much you miss trees until you get back on the mainland and get your first glimpse of them, can't wait, lets hope for a calm sailing, both ways!

GBBD Aug 2011 and the recycled Viking

Annual rocket (Eruca sativa)

I thought I'd finally be able join in with Carol and other folk with their August Garden Bloggers Bloom Day (GBBD), do have a look at some of the other blogs they are amazing! Yay, finally a few flowers to share from here up in Orkney, some of the photos are from my patch at work, at the local college and some from the potting shed where all the action takes place. I'm really, really, really lucky, as I work with plants and flowers for a livng, I get to have a garden at home, AND a garden at work, with various crops and plots to play in, um I mean work in, so I can take photos of that garden, which is more flowery at the moment than my own garden at home.

However, unlike Carol, however its not been very dry or warm here. Although the past couple of days have been more summer like! The photo above is my annual rocket (Eruca sativa), in my 'work' garden, which has been allowed, I tell myself I've allowed it to flower, but in actual fact it did it all by itself, abject neglect and lack of picking sees annual rocket going to flower quite quickly and this is no exception. However, I love the flowers, despite being able to eat them, I often leave them alone and let the plant set seed. I figure that if it sets seed, which it does prolifically, it will self sow where its happiest and therefore I don't need to do anything next year except collect my free plants! A happy plant is a healthy plant, and vice versa.....

English or Pot marigold (Calendula officinalis)

The English Marigold (Calendula officinalis) is one of my favourite flowers in the universe. I'm not generally an 'orange' flower fan, but to be honest, I've said it before if I had one flower in my garden, it would be this one. And rather oddly that plant over wintered here and began flowering again in early April, very odd indeed. Infact at home, in my newly developing garden, with limited growth at the moment, its one of only a few flowers I do have and in typcial Orkney weather last week, very blowy, cold and the garden being battered, just like the cows!

Cows and calendula

Thankfully, marigolds appear to withstand the most amazing amount of wind! For that I'm very grateful. Another firm favourite of mine, which withstands the wind and the rain and the cold, (yup its been that kind of a summer) is Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium; syn. Chrysanthemum parthenium) maybe not the more unusual of plants but gardening up north, you learn to appreciate those plants which do *well* in the local climate and of course the bees love this plant too! 

Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium; syn. Chrysanthemum parthenium)

Now, theres a plant that we see everywhere in Orkney gardens, and there is a lovely patch of it by the potting shed at work, now I know this plant as Yellow Loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata) but the chap I work with calls it something different or maybe he doesn't? I must ask him again, when I do I'll edit it in, at this time of the morning I'm sure he's not wanting a call from me! If you've an idea, please do comment. The vibrant yellow blooms are a real contrast with the lush green foliage. Again, perhaps a plant which you'd think, 'I'd take it or leave it' but its so vigorous and sturdy, that I think for my border at home, I'm getting the idea that using 'stock' Orkney plants is really the way forward and I'll appreciate their form all the more.

Yellow Loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata)

 And, indeed when you get in a bit closer and actually look at this plant, its breathtakingly gorgeous and vibrant. I'm learning to appreciate those plants which do well here in this climate and resolving to put in a border of them, pointless buying and trying to grow plants that will not do well here, better potentially to work with those which thrive. Lifes too short to fight with your garden!

Yellow Loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata)

 And, of course, no garden is complete without its own garden dog - so he's mine - Peedie the cairn in full August plummage, mooching about at work trying not to trip over the hose! The broad beans are doing very well this year, these are not my plots but plots from students of the garden guru guy at work I sometimes help out.

Broad beans, beetroot, swiss chard and peedie dogs......

And, whilst mooching about at work taking pictures of ours and others plots, I spied a recycled viking (Vikingus tinncanius)...............making sure the old variety of  Bere barley crop in the field, orginally might have been brought to the UK by Viking folk and he made certain it doesn't break through into the vegetable plots!

Orkney recycled viking scarecrow

Now I know that he's not in 'bloom' but I hope Carol doesn't mind! He was just too lovely to leave out of my adventure taking these pictures!

Recycled scarecrow

 The best use of recycled tin cans, old gloves and a viking hat, I've ever seen! I'm glad he's guarding the blooms for this GBBD plot! He's even got the cutest eyes to keep guard properly!

Recycled scarecrow close up.

OH dear, now you see how it starts, I go out to take photos of whats happenning in my patch and whats flowering nicely in August and I get distracted by recycled vikings! Thanks to Carol for organising GBBD.

Awa' oot tae tea in the big toon.........

Aren't they just gorgeous???? I'm awa' oot for my supper tonight to friends in town. I'm taking with me a lovely bunch of home grown cornflowers with me, aren't they vibrant and beautiful? They aren't from my garden (not this year), given the ferocity of the wind, most things aren't doing that well out there, that will teach me to find a gorgeous view, leaving the garden, even by local standards more than a bit exposed! Anyway, at work I've been allowed to experiment a bit with a partially empty polytunnel.  Me being me, when asked if I can think of something novel to grow in there plumped for, yup, you guessed it, flowers!

There are a few of my little wonderful fish boxes a couple of weeks ago, beefing up and beginning to come into flower. They are now further on and looking great, must dig out a photo. The seeds were only sown in mid June, and we opted for fishboxes as this tunnel has a ready laid sand floor so I thought for a quick bit of fix of colour, I've sown a mix of annual flowers mainly and also using of course my trusty friends a good old fish box to give enough room and depth. Now, its not a monster crop by any stretch of the imagination, but I wanted to get an idea of what we could grow quickly as a sort of fill in crop. As well as being interested in local food, my ideas have developed into all the things we can grow here, potentially in MY polytunnel at home as part of my indoor crop.

A few of the earlier flowers have been going on for a while, cornflower, calendula, strawflowers, gypsophilla and the dwarf sunflowers, statice and other flowers are really coming along. I do like a bit of an experiment and this is one I'll develop further later this year. I like the idea of having local flowers available in Orkney, I'm really thinking about putting a proper cutting garden in my tunnel, who knows I may even be able to sell a bunch or two of them next year when I really get cracking! I do need to break ground on my own polytunnel! Look a photo with plants not swaying in the breeze, thats surely a bonus!

Just shows, if you can keep the wind out, you can do just about anything, OK the cornflowers are only a small bunch of flowers for my friends as a thank you for dinner. However, they're not a bunch brought in by ferry from 'south' - they are locally grown and who knows what potential or ideas they might spark regarding local growing and living? From small seeds, a bit of shelter and a bit of hard work, perhaps great things might come?

And, as I'm trying to watch my spending and produce more from home, I'm also taking them a pot of my home grown, home made, Orkney chilli jam and a bottle of my own home made Orkney elderflower cordial, all of which are big steps for me over the past few weeks.

What kind of home grown/made pressies or delights do you take when you go visiting?

Is that a cow flying past my window?

Never been one to hark on about the weather (much) but come on, gusting at over 40 MPH - seriously chaps, not funny, its the 'glorious 12th' - um of August, not November. Have nice look at the angle of the hedge and the angles of the calendula................hey ho,  I WANTED TO DO A BIT OF GARDENING, PAH, TOO WINDY. I'm tucked up inside now, watching the cows fly past the window. Keeps life a bit interesting, kind of. And, to be fair, I do like a bit of cow action, they are beautiful creatures, she's grumpy pants, always scowling, number 321. I'm sure shes just concentrating really, I scowl when I concentrate, whoops!

 Uh oh, she's looking at me, whilst scratching herself on the communal scratching post in the field out of the 'garden reclaimed from the field'. I think she knows I'm talking about her!

OK now, perhaps a year on, you realise what you need 'out there' is actually probably something more like a wee pond or something that won't get blown sideways, I think we need a bit of an all year around feature to look at from up here in the lounge, did I say, the sitting room of this house is upstairs, with 13 windows it has panoramic views. I know we're very lucky, free entertainment - panoramic views of cows flying past the window...................!

And, progress with the veg garden, now moved into the side of the house (yup I really moved the bed, the 20 bags inside it with manure, the soil and started again), now we've got the plastic down for stones from the beach, and the rasps are just at the edge of the bed by the wooden raised bed, you can't see them really due to the blurry effect of the wind. There is kale in there, and brussel sprouts and seal kale, cabbages, onions (not great) and leeks. I've herbs planted too, but they are getting blasted.

Here I am indoors and up in the living room, looking out and thinking of what to do, Cow no 321 is looking on at me, clearly she knows I'm upto something. I love that the cows, the rabbits, hares and the birds react to my movement when I'm by the windows indoors, they can actually see me. They don't appear to be very bothered by me, more curious as to why on earth I'm not out there being blown away. Or, maybe they are after a comfy sofa and a cup of tea out of the wind?

Being brave, today I phoned my landlord. He's not scary, he's a very fine man. We'd talked about the potential of a polytunnel before I moved in, today we talked locations. I've now an idea where I can put up the tunnel. I've got the base poles and the frame. Tonight, August 12th, glorious 12th, I donned my fur lined deerstalker hat, my wellies, my scarf, my jumper, my coat and went 'oot there' where the cows fly past the windows. I paced out the area for the polytunnel, hurray.

I did the silly walk...........

The one where you look line a lunatic but pace in metres, knees up high, counting. Then you forget to count due to laughing too much at your ministry of silly walks, walk and can't hear your counting or hear yourself for the wind. Fatal, giggling, you start again, and again.

Yup, I looked just like that, pacing out my metres, but in a silly hat, yellow wellies, a stripy scarf with the dog looking at me, thinking, there she goes again, on her silly walk!

Scottish Gardens to visit: Applecross Walled Garden

On one of our rare adventures without the children, but in the lovely new car, (Mr Flowers had treated himself too recently), one weekend, as you do, we had an adventure down south on the mainland to Applecross in Wester Ross. A tiny village up and over the Belach na ba road, which I'm sure should feature in a Top Gear programme. Its a single track road that goes directly up and over the side of a mountain!

What fun, if a bit of a hold your breath kind of road! After a meandre down to the charming village of Applecross (resdients 234) with breathtaking views out to Skye, we had an amazing lunch in the famous Applecross Inn......which was indeed very good and the subject of another blog I'm sure! And, completely by chance I met a colleague who now lives there from the Botanics In Edinburgh, what are the chances, I last saw him on our field trip to Belize! Amazing! And, a lovely catch up we had too, Mr F is convinced I will find someone I know anywhere, then again, I'm great at talking to random strangers so the fact that I'd struck up a conversation in a pub garden was not unsurprising.

Anyhows, after a lovely local seafood lunch (seemed very rude not to indulge in the local seafood.... I thought I'd manage quite nicely to convince him that a garden visit would be great fun and something I'd like to do to walk off our lovely lunch, so we ambled off to the Applecross walled garden.

Applecross walled garden is an old garden 1675 (!) which is undergoing a  new renovation project, which is a remarkable feat of gardening - the committment to this garden is clear to see when you step through the door. These type of walled gardens are quite common on Scottish Estates, I've been lucky enough to work in a couple myself - great places to learn your trade in! More about the garden and its development here

 The walkways leads to the cafe/restaurant at the bottom of the most beautiful scented walk down through roses, nepeta, geraniums and many other delights, the scent was truly heavenly.

 And, from the look of the potting shed cafe window, the foods as heavenly too! You don't get that many awards without being seriously good at what you do, yum yum! And, a serious emphasis on local produce too...............probably why they've so many awards, that and all the hard work!

Great benches and effects about the place, clearly made from local material too - very nice to see improvisation in benches and beds along the way through the garden.

And, very nicely quite dog friendly too - and we met more than a few dogs (all very well behaved) in the garden too, that's nice then isn't it, alot of gardens don't let dogs into them, while I can see why, to be honest, most folk know that they have to be respectful of other gardens and therefore dogs being allowed to come in and not stay in the car is quite nice.

The garden is a great mixture of herbaceous perennials, herbs, edibles and fruits adorning the walls of the garden, which I guess was always the purpose of a walled garden anyway, to be productive and comprehensive. And, of course if I haven't had enough of a time weeding out ladies mantle from garden gravel I've been working in, there we go more of it again, its a really useful plant, going bonkers in the Scottish climate, but very useful for both the border and as a cut flower, so you can forgive it the tenacity it shows. Fruit trees, crocosmia's, euphorbias and ladies mantle adding to the riot of late summer colour.

What I like about walled gardens is that the variation of interest you get, abundant flowers and scents with fruits and veggies all often on prime display too and Applecross garden certainly didn't disappoint me, I like looking at vegetables and I love when they are displayed. The nice thing here too as well as railway sleepers the raised beds were also made from whole trees or thinnings during felling, more local material, very well used. And, don't the onions look great all like little soldiers? Persuading Peedie (the not very well behaved garden dog) that climbing on the bed was not allowed, was a whole other conversation........but we did manage to leave their beds alone!

Lovely edges of box with beds of veggies all nicely shown off, I did like this.

And, old benches tucked into the orchard which was clearly being rennovated - I wonder how many folk have sat on that bench and looked at the apple trees?

Further around the garden more herbaceous planting and ambles over to a nice little fun 'folly' - tucked into the wall.

 The Love Boat, how very funny and lovely - well, nothing else for it when away for a weekend on your own, off we went to sit in the love boat! Seemed rude not too really!

 Inside a lovely little sign, very sweet! I like garden follies, even little ones, they smack of fun and not taking yourself too seriously.

 Ok, we even attempted the random, couple shot, however, I'm not very good at taking pictures so thankfully only Mr Flowers was captured! And, a handsome devil he is too! You can almost see my hat, but not quite, its such a fun photo though I thought I'd put it in, hello Mr F! My best photographic side is my wellies, which were unfortunately absent from this trip (travelling light on the ferry) I'll bring them next time!

Ahem, right, love boat swiftly invaded by Peedie, so off to explore more, the right hand side of the garden is more productvie and raised beds galore, my favourite kind of garden...............what have they got growing in there I wondered, off to explore.

This bit did use railway sleepers, I do like them, I love the formality they give you and the structure whilst being very productive little beds, one day, in a garden of mine, the scene will not be very unlike this, can I put a walled garden on my future house checklist (*Mr Flowers has now choked to death*), um perhaps not a walled garden, but I will have raised beds like these, with nice veggies to boot. Fingers crossed!

 Calendula and lettuce all sit happily by each other, nice to see them - I do like the formality of these plantings..........

 I rather liked the labelling too, often this is hard to get right in a garden but this worked quite well I think................all the veggies and herbs were nicely named, very helpful indeed.

And that Red Russian Kale is going to be lovely later in the winter I think. What a great little amble around a garden we had, and of course, with that quality of a tea room, be rude not to have a cuppa too, and a bit of cake/shortbread. Each table had a sweet little watering can filled with flowers and herbs from the border. No pictures of cakes and tea, too busy scoffing I'm afraid!

A great place to visit if you're in the area, as you do, when adventuring in the North West of Scotland - garden is free but donations are welcomed - the project is truly inspring and the garden full of helpful, complimentary planting ideas. Lots of inspriation about planting and local food/flowers.

Oh, I see they also do lunches, dinners and um weddings.........................food for thought indeed!