I have just come back from checking out some of the gardens in Europe (not the main purpose of the trip but if you are a keen gardener & love plants you just can't help but look when you are somewhere different)I saw such a range it is hard to know where to start - from the cute little window boxes full of geraniums on the Swiss Chalets to the impressive vegetable gardens at Villandry in the Loire Valley in France which were like a work of art. Some things really impressed me such as the use of hedging of all types from low box hedges to taller privacy hedges of plants i recognised - Beech, Prunus & Elaegnus for example in the Promenade Plantee in Paris - a garden made on the site of an old railway line, 3 stories up so you are wandering along in this peaceful garden environment far above the traffic & crowds down below. I loved waking up in the morning in the little village in the South west of France where we stayed for a week & seeing the old chaps next door outside hoeing their vege gardens & tying up the tomatoes, the gardens were quite large with everything in neat rows - flowers as well, obviously for picking for the house. In Kirtlington near Oxford in England we helped to carry water to the allotment & it was good to have a close look at how this system works as I had seen them from train windows but not up close - a great idea sharing a patch of land & making it productive, interesting that there was no ready water supply here though & all water had to be brought in by the gardeners. More later..... & photos!

Back home at the Nook Jamie coped very well & has done some pruning - the poor willow tree has had a severe talking to & is now letting in a lot more light, I'm sure it will be back to its usual bushy self by the end of summer. All our large grade trees & fruit trees will arrive next week & will be bagged up ready to go in the near future. Fruit trees will sell quickly i imagine so contact us if you are after any - i will post a list here next week after we have sorted out the ones which have been ordered.