Three or four times a year, the presence of visitors at weekends causes us to forsake the pleasures of working in our own garden, in order to show guests around the Lakes.
Last weekend we were entertaining my elderly aunt who is interested in gardens, so I decided that a garden visit would be the thing. Inconveniently, many of Cumbria's stately home' gardens are closed on Saturdays, but not so Graythwaite Hall, near Hawkshead, which is open daily from 10am-6pm from April until the end of June each year.
We had our lunch in the village of Hawkshead, where many of the picturesque lanes are decorated with pots and tubs of immaculately-kept plants, and the tea shops serve great tea and cakes, and then made our way to Graythwaite.
The present hall was built for the Sandys family around 1660, with later additions in the 18th century, though the family has lived in Cumbria since the 13th century, at Burgh by Sands on the Solway, at St. Bees and at Furness.
The existing gardens were designed by Thomas Mawson, who also designed the gardens at Brockhole Visitor Centre, Windermere; Blackwell Arts and Crafts House, in Bowness; and Rydal Hall. Mawson's trademark style, in Cumbria at least, was to make a formal surround to the house (with characteristic balustrades, paving and parterres linked by flights of steps) which gradually blended, through informal grounds, into the surrounding Lakeland countryside.
At Graythwaite, one of Mawson's earliest commissions, the gardens are intended to be at their best in spring and early summer; the formal terraces around the house quickly give way to contoured lawns and woodland, the backdrop to some fine specimen trees and shrubs, including the rhododendrons and azaleas that were in full flower when we visited.
To one side of the house is the Dutch garden, with box parterres and topiary yews. In the past the beds would have been planted with flowering bulbs and bedding plants, replaced two or three times a year to give a constant show. Nowadays the plants have been replaced with low-maintenance gravel, which is a shame, though some tulips in ornamental urns gave a flavour of how things might have been.
One of the nicest things about Graythwaite is the feeling that it's a family garden, with gates put up and trees planted (and labelled) to commemorate family occasions, and the dogs' cemetery recording the life-spans of the family pets.
It's not the most manicured of places, and it doesn't have the greatest collection of plants, but it does have a good atmosphere and a wonderful setting. If I couldn't spend Saturday in my own garden then this may have been the next best thing.
Jobs for the gardener this week...
Clear spring bedding and tulip bulbs as they begin to go over. Fork over the soil and work in some organic material, leaving it to rest for a few days. Replant with summer bedding once all danger of late frosts is past.
Stake tall herbaceous perennials like delphiniums and hollyhocks as their flower spikes develop and before they are knocked about by the wind.
Plant tomato seedlings in unheated greenhouses. It's still too early for outdoor tomatoes, they could be checked if we have any cold nights.
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