I've just spent a lovely weekend in a marquee in the beautiful gardens of Erddig, a National Trust property in North Wales. It was real privilege to take part in their wonderful Victorian weekend, which was very well attended and it was fabulous to see so many folk wearing Victorian costume.
I was last at Erddig at their Christmas market, so it was great to see the beautiful gardens that I wandered round in the depths of winter in their summer splendour. One of the things I love about doing events at this type of venue is the opportunity you get to mooch round before the gates open to the general public. I took full advantage of this yesterday morning and had a good look round the gardens before starting.
I always feel I have to excuse writing about gardens in what is suppose to be a crafting blog but they can be a great source of inspiration particularly with regard to the use of colour and textures.
There were plenty of colours to be seen at the weekend in the fabulous rose garden. The beds are planted quite formally with roses and lavender, and purple clematis and pink climbing roses growing up frames.
There is a great selection of sweet peas (one of my favourites) in the garden and the smell was wonderful. The picture above is of the walled vegetable garden, and in true Victorian style there are a couple of greenhouses tucked away and an orchard.
There are lots of ideas to take away for planting and surprisingly in such a big garden ideas for gardeners who work on a much smaller scale. The bed above has sweet peas, sunflowers, beans, purple sprouting broccoli, beetroot, marigolds and a cordon of apples on the wall.
I loved seeing the bees working hard in the orchards and they were busy yesterday in the early morning sunshine.
All in all it was a terrific weekend in a wonderful setting and the sun shone- at least for most of the time.
