Last year’s remnant decided to sprout up in our seedbed of leeks, so we have no leeks, just potatoes… can’t complain

Tomatoes are looking great, all green so far, but hopefully a bit of sunshine this week will have the glowing red!

Cauliflowers = disaster  Birds and bugs have got at them.

Helmsley Walled Garden is a charity, while it employs some staff much of the work is done by volunteers and all is funded by donations.

We were not really sure what to expect, but once we were through the gates – WOW! Really, it was that good!

There are wide borders, wildflower gardens, lawned areas, fruit trees, rose beds and a fantastic vegetable garden (dare I say much better than Barnsdale Gardens?)

At £5 per adult it is well worth its entrance fee.  Dogs on leads are more than welcome and there is also a small nursery, gift shop and vegetarian cafe.

Orchid House & Fabulous Borders

Allotment Garden

For more about Helmsley Walled Garden visit www.helmsleywalledgarden.org.uk

Siobhan has promised to make Beef Wellington (geddit?!) once we harvest too, so the protection from pigeons begins now, with a bit of fun of course

We’ll have to resort to nets though given the advice from allotment neighbours, rather than our ‘oh, the pinwheels are so cute’ approach!

This is what’s coming up in the same spot, so we *think* it’s the artichokes!  We really have no idea!

We can’t wait for our roses to bloom – this is our Princess Alexandra of Kent from David Austin Roses – pretty pink blooms and a beautiful scent

But we’re a little worried because one of the buds (which you can just see in the pic) and one of the leaves has a white, slightly powdery, residue on it – is this mildew? And what’s the best way to get rid of it? (if we need to?)

The Allotment at Barnsdale Gardens

Barnsdale Gardens is on our doorstep… not much more than a five minute drive away, yet we hardly visit - Siobhan had been once before and Lisa never - so today off we went!

The entry fee is £6.50 for adults and we spent about 2 hours wandering through the 37 gardens – many are the gardens that Geoff Hamilton and the Gardeners’ World team created for filming, all complimented by new and ever-changing gardens that the Barnsdale gardeners continue to develop using organic methods.

We really enjoyed ourselves, despite the spots of rain, and will definitely be visiting again – the gardens are truly inspirational.

We were also impressed by the nursery – we treated ourselves to Dicentra, Brussel Sprouts and Sweet Peppers

The Herb Garden

In memory of Geoff Hamilton

The Allotment Girls at Barnsdale

More photos from our visit to Barnsdale Gardens can be found at Flickr

For more information about Barnsdale Gardens visit www.barnsdalegardens.co.uk

One thing we’re a little concerned about is the number of runners… they are everywhere, but we’re not sure whether to keep them (we have plenty of space) or cut them back – help?!

The herb garden on the plot is going crazy!

Sage is enormous, thyme flowing everywhere, chives have seeded all over the place and the applemint that we thought had been dug up is also popping up where it shouldn’t!

This is great, but we need to find a way to use or preserve them asap…

The most popular, and possibly easiest, way to preserve herbs seems to be to dry them, so that’ll do for us to start with!  First one we’re trying out is sage… we’ll let you know how it all goes

We’ve also had some tips on oven-drying and freezing which we will certainly try out in the coming weeks.

Please let us know how you like to preserve your herbs… we have never done this before so need all the help we get!