About Helmsley Walled Garden
Here to tell you what's happening in the garden throughout the year.
Helmsley Walled Garden Description
Built in 1759, Helmsley Walled Garden is a beautiful five acre garden sitting beneath the imposing ruins of Helmsley Castle. Originally providing the vegetables, fruit and flowers for the table of Duncombe Park until just after World War 1, it fell into dereliction after it closed its doors for the final time in 1984. Restoration started in 1994 and since then the Garden has gone from strength to strength through the dedication and care of staff and volunteers.
Attractions include restored glasshouses full of colour, double herbaceous borders, a brand new clematis garden showcasing over 150 different varieties. Fruit trees clothe the walls and the grounds, including a special collection of Yorkshire apple cultivars and vegetable plots provide some of the ingredients for the delicious dishes in the Vinehouse Café.
Reviews
Finished this special planting this morning. It's at the beginning of the #ClevelandWay in Helmsley and it celebrates the upcoming 50th birthday of this beautiful national trail in the #northyorkmoors. So please sing a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday on 24th May in celebration.
Saw these two lovely gentlemen sitting in the Orchard. Turned out they were brothers, one of whom lives in Australia and was over on a visit. Feel quietly proud the Garden is a place people visit for quality time with family.
Woo hoo we are part of Garden News magazine's #best100gardens again. If you want to vote for us please go to their website www.gardennewsmagazine.co.uk and follow the link. We'd love as many people as possible to know about us so please help to get the word out.
One job I wasn't expecting this year but am really enjoying is buying stock for the Garden Shop. So far I've found some lovely little gifts which I hope everyone will like, added to the selection of cards, started stocking Seedball wildlife friendly seed balls and got the lovely Bracken Hill Farm Foods to brand the jams and chutneys we stock especially for us.
Good heavens it's ages since I posted last. It's all systems go getting everything in the ground. I'm doing this before going out to do some planting in the Physic Garden.
Elsewhere in the Garden, the Alphabet Garden is coming along nicely. Planting started this week and the turf path will be laid next week. These beautiful peony tulips are in the Long Border. New to me, the orange one is 'Orange Princess' and the yellow is 'Akebono'.
Wanted to introduce you to Brunnera macrophylla 'Betty Bowring'. She is lovely at this time of year with her clear white flowers. She's also much better behaved than her rather loutish sibling, the species Brunnera macrophylla which spreads like the clappers.
Love these shy Erythroniums in the Long Border. Their gently nodding heads have a quiet dignity.
Almost Easter at Helmsley Walled Garden and we have an Easter bunny hunt on Easter Sunday. There are eleven different buns to find around the Garden each with a letter of the alphabet. Find all the letters and spell out the message to win an Easter treat.
Thrilled to be top of the bill in this blog on dog-friendly gardens on gorgeouscottages.com. All our four-pawed visitors have a gravy bone with their name on it waiting for them at our kiosk.
So it was bring your chickens to work day for Laura and her four day old Arucana chicks. Productivity plunged as everyone gathered round to coo over them. They are pretty adorable it has to be said 🐣🐥
Would you Adam and Eve it, LinkedIn has just reminded me that it's 9 years since I started working here. Yikes where did that almost a decade go? Think I need to celebrate with a cuppa and watering the polytunnel 💦. And I still can't take a decent selfie 🤳. Happy days everyone x
As if there isn't enough joy in the day, the lovely Lathyrus vernus, the spring Pea is in flower around the Garden. Amidst all the mayhem of the moment I feel so fortunate to work in such a beautiful place.
Despite it not being perhaps the warmest weekend in the calendar, the first Helmsley Walled Garden Wildlife Weekend was a great success. Big thanks to all the lovely people from RSPB, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Butterfly Conservation Trust, Hedgehog Rescue, Yorkshire Dragonfly Group who helped to make it such a brilliant weekend. See you again soon. 😎🌹🌻
Join us this weekend April 6th and 7th for our wildlife weekend when we will be joined by RSPB, Butterfly Conservation Trust, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Bumble Bee Conservation Trust, Hedgehog Rescue and many more, helping us to find out what we can do to support British wildlife. There will be activities for children and lots of chances to ask questions.
Honestly I never know who's going to turn up at my office. Today I have a flock of very loud Guinea Fowl, presumably to complain about my lack of an open door policy. 🤔
Hmm, you take a picture of someone looking gorgeous. She becomes the usual Internet sensation and what thanks do I get? None. Instead, she bit me and I got an infection in my hand. Honestly there is no justice in the world. She still looks absolutely adorable, hmmm 🐱