Charingworth Court Cotswolds Garden

Well the season has been firstly too dry so we were having to water in March and April and then so wet that we were paddling across the lawn and squelching in the mud! The Festival of Arts is cancelled so we couldn’t justify a sculpture exhibition and everything is so slow to open that we are very green but lacking colour.

And the weather forecast is wet!

But we do still have a lovely garden, the wisteria looks nice and the pond is full and everything is lush.

We are doing tea and coffee and bakes but as a take away option with lots of places to sit around the garden

And we do have about 20 pieces of our own sculpture that you can admire crafted by 10 sculptors as a taster for next year when fingers crossed, things will be back to normal!

The 2019 exhibition ran through our National Garden Scheme opening and then throughout Winchcombe’s Festival of Arts and Music was our most successful yet.  We were able to send £2883 to the NGS, which was our best ever year. That included a percentage of all the sculpture sales.

We have had to postpone our garden opening and sculpture exhibition.  We obviously have no idea what will happen this year but if there is any chance of opening later in the year for an NGS pop up opening then we will definitely do that.

Meanwhile we have all the time in the world to work on the garden so it is looking amazing this year and should continue to do so.

The garden is about as ready as it can be, the sculpture is arriving and the excitement builds as we hope for a good weekend raising money for charity.

This year we are also doing an evening opening with a glass of wine on Wednesday 22nd may from 6 – 9pm.  We have no idea how this will go but do come along if you can!

You can see a few of this years sculpture below.

So here we are in April with the garden openings for the NGS and the Winchcombe Festival a short 5/6 weeks away.  There is always plenty of gardening to do however much we feel we have done but now we have the excitement of the sculptors starting to send photos of the pieces they plan to exhibit.

The piece below is by Jitka Palmer, whose work is always admired  as every piece is so individual with a story behind it.  I often wonder how she can bear to part with some of them but am grateful she can!

We will also have work by Willa Ashworth, Martin Duffy, Richard Cresswell, Chris Townsend, Barney Yendall and new to us this year Vik Westaway and Mike Bigland.

It should be a good show!

As the house is three storeys, it is easy to get good views of the garden.  The roof gives an even better view but is much more risky! Yesterday it rained and hailed and snowed so no sun but you can see the Mount Fuji cherry in flower and the pink cherry about to flower. There are thalia narcissi all around the left hand side and our new mini deck is just waiting for us to have time to sit down!

As seems to be the new normal, some of the garden is well ahead of where we would expect it to be at this time of the year.  So we have tulips out (when the deer haven’t eaten them!) but we are still waiting for some of the trees to burst into bud.  It is always exciting to look out of the window and to walk round the garden as there is something new to see every day. We now have to work hard to get our vegetables going, keep the weeds under control and to try hard to remember to enjoy what we are doing!

We are hoping for record numbers for the NGS as we have an extra evening opening this year and  we are again on the Winchcombe Art Trail.

Above are dicentra, woodland anenomes, tete a tete daffodils, primroses and exchorda ‘The Bride’

We have had  quite a few very sunny days in both February and March and this has enabled us to get well ahead with our routine weeding, pruning and tidying.  Consequently the garden looks lovely at the moment.  The blossom is coming out, the daffodils have been flowering for weeks and some of the tulips are already out. The magnolia stellata looks particularly lovely at the moment. This early season leaves me wondering what it will look like in May for the opening but the sculpture really helps to provide a lot of interest!

The garden will be open once again for the NGS and then as part of the Winchcombe Festival of Music and Arts. The garden will have an exhibition of sculpture, most of it for sale with a % of the profits going to the NGS.  For the first time, the garden room with textiles will be open during the NGS weekend.

NGS Openings:

Winchcombe Arts Festival Openings:

Tuesday 21st May to Sunday 26th May inclusive from 11am to 5pm

Free entry with donations to NGS

There will be a sculpture exhibition with most exhibits for sale. We are welcoming back Jitka Palmer, Martin Duffy, Richard Cresswell, Barney Yendall, Willa Ashworth’  Victoria Westaway and Mike Bigland are exhibiting their work with us for the first time.  Vik works in willow and wire and Mike in stainless steel.

There will also be textiles for sale in the garden room and textile demonstrations every day.

Joanne’s dragonflies were an eye catching exhibit above the pond

Martin exhibited for the first time this year at Charingworth.  His spectacular boxing hares were one of the most memorable sights this year.

Christopher has exhibited at Charingworth every year since we started and his work is seen in gardens large and small around the country.

Willa exhibited for the second time this year. Her work is always very popular with all our visitors. Her work fits well in all types of garden.

Some of our larger more modern pieces were exhibited by Richard Cresswell. I was really sorry to see both ribbon and the square pear going off to their new homes!

“018 was the first year that Angela exhibited at Charingworth.  Her work was much admired and sold well.

Katie has exhibited her glass at Charingworth since we started.  Over the years, we have sold many of her pieces and we have several ourselves!

We had some lovely pieces by Jitka Palmer, who has exhibited at Charingworth every year since we started. Her work has a timeless quality and every piece tells a very specific story.

Postcode GL545JN in Winchcombe brings you to Broadway Road.  Park on the road or in the nearby car parks.  We do have a couple of disabled slots in front of the house.

The weather forecast looks great so come after the wedding or avoid the crowds and come during the wedding.  You will be welcome any time!

Here are a few more photos to tempt you:

The sun is shining, the pond is teeming with tadpoles and newts and the shrubs and trees are in leaf and flower.  It’s always an exciting time, when the fruits of our labour provide a beautiful backdrop for the sculpture.

Below are some pictures that I took this morning.  We are still waiting for the last 2 artists to place their work and we will be ready for the NGS opening at the weekend.  The Children’s Society will be serving tea, coffee and cake both days.  So either avoid the wedding and/or the cup final and visit us on Saturday or enjoy both and visit on Sunday.  Either way, come to support the many charities that the NGS work for and we will give you a warm welcome.

For the 7th year, the garden will be open in May for the National garden Scheme with teas in aid of the Children’s society.

We will welcome back Jitka Palmer, Katie Green and Christopher Townsend exhibiting along with artists new to us.

The garden will also open during the following week as part of Winchcombe art trail from Tuesday to Sunday along with the textiles on show in the garden room.

The garden in May is vibrant with bright green foliage, flag irises in the pond and perennials bursting into flower.  With this backdrop, Jane Smoczynski places about 50 pieces of sculpture.  They range from small to large, stone, metal and glass, all made by individual artists. They enhance the garden and vice versa.  Some stand out whilst others nestle in the beds, hidden until you come round a corner and something catches your eyes.  On a dull day, the white stone pieces by Jitka Palmer simply glow and on a sunny day Katie Green’s wonderful glass shines out and leads you to a closer look.  The huge metal structures by Christopher Townsend and David Freedman take a few days to settle into their spots but once there, seem very much at home. Willa Ashworth’s bowls and flowers proved very popular because they were very much at home in any size garden.  The wren on the fork by Barney Yendall was so realistic that we were convinced it was real.

The exhibition helps us attract hundreds of visitors to the garden to raise funds for the National garden Scheme.

The sculpture is all in place, the grass is cut, the edges are trimmed and there are still far more weeds than I wanted but given we do the garden ourselves, we are pleased with how it looks.

After weeks of endless dry weather when we longed for rain, this week has meant we have often been out gardening in the damp and wet.  There is something very soothing and peaceful about being in the garden in the rain and I have found myself enjoying that time as much as the glorious sunny day on Thursday.  The photos below were taken late this afternoon.

The garden has been soaking up the longed for rain in the last few days and we have been planting up pots, weeding and edge trimming in preparation for our opening.

Many plants are early and others have suffered from a couple of late hard frosts so the wisteria will be mostly over but the water iris will be open this year and a few roses are already in bloom.  You win with something every year despite the inevitable losses!

The exiting part is the arrival of the sculpture and we enjoy watching the hard work that goes into curating the exhibition!  There are already some beautiful pieces in the garden which we get to enjoy.

One of the wow factors of the garden is coming round the path and seeing the pond.  It still takes my breath away some days.  And although I love the views across the garden from various points, for me the best images are the glimpses of individual plants from unexpected points.  Above you can see self sown aquilegias, candelabra polyanthus, the layered viburnum mariessi, white osteospurnums and poppy heads just ready to burst into spectacular pale pink beauty.

The garden is a real mixture of careful planting and nature self sowing.  With flowers like the welsh poppies we have learnt to love what nature gives us!

Come and see for yourself.

The acer is bursting into leaf and the lime green euphorbia, which have self seeded all over the place (and not where Richard wants them!) earned a reprieve as they are spectacular in the sun.

Spring seems early this year in terms of the bulbs flowering.  Many of the flowering shrubs are coming out, the quince is in leaf and the Mount Fuji cherry is flowering.  It follows the autumnalis, the bell cherry and the pissardi.

The daffodils are Jetfire, bought in bulk but planted in flower, exactly where we need them!

The forecast isn’t good but the garden always feels especially peaceful in the rain.  The sculpture looks good whatever the weather, so don your raincoat, grab an umbrella and help us raise money!  You can see a few sunny images from today.

We are open 11 to 5.30 Sat 21st and Sun 22nd May.  Details here:  http://www.ngs.org.uk/gardens/find-a-garden/garden.aspx?id=29934

We are excited about hosting the annual sculpture exhibition which starts on May 21st and May 22nd when the garden is open for the NGS and continues from Tuesday 24th May to Monday 30th May as part of the Winchcombe Festival of Music and Arts.

The selling exhibition is curated by Jane Smoczynski of Winds of Change Gallery and features work by carefully selected artists.

If you would like to know more do contact Jane on 07531844823 or 01242 603836 and check the website  windsofchangegallery.co.uk

We are getting ready for our May opening this year.  Like all gardeners we have wondered what the strange weather over the last few months will mean for this season with some very early flowering.  So the witch hazel and the chaenomeles japonica have been in flower longer than usual. In the autumn we celebrated family birthdays with a weekend of bulb planting.  A few weeks earlier we had widened the borders around the lawn as over the years the plants have grown outwards.  Now we are reaping the benefits with hundreds of small daffodils in flower and hundreds more tulips getting ready to flower in a few weeks time.

The frogs and newts are busy in the pond, the birds are nesting and we even had a kingfisher visiting.  Last year one of our blackbirds learnt to catch newts and we watched him catch more than we could count.  I was amazed to look out of my bedroom window one morning to see a kingfisher dive in, catch a newt and then sit on the deck and eat it.  They look a lot tougher than fish to get down!

In the vegetable garden the broad beans look good, the potatoes are going in and the sweetcorn seeds are ready to sow in root trainers.  Soon the courgette, squash and runner bean seeds will be started and the whole cycle will start again.  That is what I love about gardening – you never know what will do well and what will disappoint in any year but you remain optimistic and know that the highs will be better than the lows!

So come and visit us and help raise lots of money for the NGS. We’ll be waiting to welcome you and the Children’s Society will be serving tea, and cake each afternoon.

We raised £2500 for charity (NGS and the Children’s Society) during our opening. Lots of people enjoyed the sculpture as well as the garden! Some photos below:

We’re almost ready!

Lots of lovely shades of green, a wonderful pond teeming with life, splashes of colour and more than 50 pieces of sculpture.

The garden featured in an article about sculpture in the garden on Saturday. It was great to see my photo of Christopher Townsend’s giant seedheads in the national press. The website has received more views and seeing the publicity has sent us out into the garden to work harder on those weeds! The welcome rain last night and early this morning has made a real difference to the ease with which I have weeded today and the rapid rise in temperature means we feel confident to start moving more tender flowers and vegetables outside.

The carpet of petals under the cherry tree tells us that the beauty will be over soon but the candelabra primulas are just bursting into flower and the viburnum mariesii are almost out. The aquilegia which have self seeded all over the garden are just starting to open and the scent from the clematis and the viburnum drifts across the garden. Now we just need to add the sculpture!

A dry and warm April has accelerated the growth of the trees, shrubs and flowers so it is hard to tell what will look good in 3 weeks time. But good it will look! The new dark iris are looking good.

The season of daffodils!

A wet and dark month I always feel so not much to show this month

After the high of garden opening , we relax back into day to day gardening and letting the odd weed grow! We spend out time where it has most impact such as the veg garden (and removing blanket weed from the pond!). Every year there are areas of the garden that do really well and others that disappoint and of course they change each year. The pond is a constant delight and this year we have enjoyed watching thousands of tadpoles develop into hundreds of small frogs that have provided food for birds! There are a few left, ready to grow into big frogs.
We have had the best ever broad bean crop but the courgettes have been attacked by slugs and the tomatoes have suffered from a cold spring. The peonies and irises have been great as usual and the lavender is looking spectacular.

We enjoyed a fabulous weekend of sunny weather and happy visitors. Just under 300 people wandered around the garden, admired the sculpture and many had tea and cake. The Winchcombe art trail has brought many more visitors though they weren’t always lucky enough to see the garden in sunshine.

The winner of the favourite sculpture was Camouflage, the deer by Miranda Michels with 30 votes. The hare, Autumn and the pair of snowy owls were all close runners up. It was interesting to see that most pieces and every sculptor was voted favourite by someone.

The sun is shining again and we’re ready for action

The sun shone from early till late and over 100 visitors enjoyed the garden. As one visitor said, the sculpture enhanced the garden and the garden enhanced the sculpture. that sums up how good it all look together.

Tomorrow looks set to be just as lovely so come for a visit!

Working hard in the garden, and shovelling a ton of gravel is keeping us fit! It was great to be featured on BBC Glos Radio on Sunday morning with Richard Atkins. The sun makes the garden look so much nicer.

A lot of tidying and weeding is being done at the moment and the sculpture placement is being planned.

Look out for a PJ Crook life sized horse!

The catkins are hanging, the snowdrops are beautifully upright and the hellebores are gently lifting their heads. Yes, despite the rain and the storms, it is starting to feel that Spring is on the way. We have still had little or no snow or even many frosts, and we have roses and fuchsias in bud but we just getting on with the usual clearing up process ready for May.

A lovely sunny afternoon clearing the leaves from the pond and enjoying the end of the flower season and the anticipation of picking the quinces!