Open Days

The gardens had their annual opening in the spring this year for a change and also for a change we had reasonable weather. We returned to a type of opening this year that we first tried in 2017 where we joined in the Scotlands Gardens, Fife garden trails. This involves several gardens in the area open at the same time so that visitors can combine a number of visits.
As well as the bulbs looking good for us including our Three-cornered Leek (so called because of its triangular flower stalks) a lot of colour was provided by early flowering herbaceous plants and fruit trees flowering in the orchard, but probably the most eye catching were the Rhododenrons in the American garden. Our first opening was on Good Friday and with nice weather that afternoon we had over forty visitors.
The fruit trees have been flowering very heavily this year probably due to a combination of well-timed summer pruning and favourable weather conditions it won’t guarantee a bumper crop but let’s hope so! Towards the end of the month the apples started to come into blossom and provided a really good show amongst the best were three old Scottish varieties these were Beauty of Moray, Stirling Castle and probably the best of the three Scotch Dumpling. All three are fairly short season of use cooking apples, but equal to any pink flowered ornamental crab apple and with the bonus of being able to provide a few crumbles as well!
With all the major landscaping projects of the season finished now, from April onwards most of the tasks will centre around the regular maintenance jobs like mowing and weeding. The Oval lawn at the front of the house is looking really good now, it has had several good cuts and treatments and the new metal edges give a really smart and crisp finish as well as eliminating the need to keep having to edge up with the old half-moon tool. It is very securely set in position and should not move if accidentally run over by cars. It has been tested not by a car, but by a fire engine on its way to the house on a false alarm so that should be strong enough.