Waltham Place and beyond

Even though we moved here in 1994 it’s taken thirty years to visit this garden. The property is own by the Oppenheimers nowadays. A manor has been on site for at least a thousand years and is mentioned in the Doomsday book. At this time it was owned by Chertsey Abbey. Following the dissolution of the monasteries, it fell into private hands. It is a working farm with gardens that are open, but you have to go round them on a tour. A lot of their produce is sold in restaurants and other establishments. I did the tour  with members of the Twyford Growers group. Our tour guide had been working there for many years and his specialisation was the ornamental gardens with a close watch on insects and invertebrates. As the guide takes you round the various gardens the history of the garden is revealed, and the unusual nature of the planting. Forget the carefully planted classy gardens, you see at National trust properties, these gardens are focused on biodiversity and providing habitats for various aspects of the natural world. The family unusually have a love of bindweed which could be seen on display. In the vegetable garden, large amounts of ground are given over to places for Mother Nature to secrete her little helpers, and it seems to work, I saw and felt the presence of a lot more insects than I see in our garden. Damage by pests seemed to be limited, they even plant certain things to put deer off rampaging around. The pests that blight our gardens and allotments just seem under control here. There are many trees, some very unusual which are magnificent. The tour took us an hour and a half, and there is a restaurant which serves food and drinks. There also is a farm shop and some plants on sale too, I bought a lemon hebe. 

At last success with the pesky chocolate beetroot cake. I asked the daughter of a neighbour who makes cakes and sells them. She suspected the recipe, also the cake tin size. The problem is this cake has a strict recipe  and the cake tin size is specified so if I enter a cake with the wrong size tin in the autumn show I am likely to be disqualified! Anyway the daughter gave me some tips, and the cake is almost perfect. It’s hasn’t got that strange central area that rises like a volcanic plug. It still tastes good too. As long as I can pull it off again the day before the show I will be laughing.

I should be able to use my own beetroot as that’s doing well in the allotment. The spinach has gone to seed, the courgette is producing, the chocolate Labrador tried  one herself! I have one butternut squash after sustained watering. The Brussels are growing well inside their butterfly and bird proof cage. I have been doing some work on our garden and the area behind the pond still seems clear of ground elder. Lots calendula have grown and we have pretty orange flowers. We have lots of snap dragons that have self sown in the front garden and are also flowering. A couple of my friends have been in hospital and it’s been a bit of a worry about them. There is more dog sitting in the very near future, dogs I know this time. The Greek trip is coming up very quickly, it’s still hot and busy over there with more fires. Todays final photo is one of the garden where I am looking after three dogs, the owners have gone to the Henley Rewind festival, where  among others Billy Ocean and Kim Wilde are performing.




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