Garden visits, notes, projects and illustrated talks
Website refresh, January 2026
The Oldfern website split into three sites in 2026. Gardening still features in the Trees Web, but to some extent has been overtaken by the focus on trees. As a result many of the pages in this gardening section are archive pages, not updated for some years. Some links on older pages may not work. The regular log of garden activities is much curtailed - visits and activities from 2020 to 2023 are available, but beyond that date visits tend to be connected more with trees. The garden continues to develop and thrive, and updates will be added when appropriate. I am still giving talks on the garden to various gardening clubs and other organisations who invite me.
Garden visits and projects
A keen gardener for nearly 40 years, I have kept photographs of the development of my own garden in Thornton le Dale, as well as many photos of gardens visited across the country.
A log kept up until 2023 is still available, with notes on garden visits and garden projects.
There are some pages showing some of the garden projects tackled in my garden.
Many recent activities have centred on trees, and notes on these can be found in the Trees index.
Garden talks
There are slides for a number of garden talks I have given, including some updates in 2024 and 2025.
I have given a number of illustrated garden talks, to gardening clubs and horticultural clubs, and various other groups. There are four talks available, which are regularly updated. Talks can be tailored for purpose and are usually between 60 minutes to 90 minutes in duration, though times can be modified as necessary. I will bring a projector, and can possibly provide a screen if one is not available.
Fees are usually £50-£80, depending on time and distance travelled. I have done some talks for expenses only as charity fundraising events, and would be willing to discuss this as a possibility if this applies to your organisation.
The hellebores are looking very good in the woodland area, after clearing away a lot of overgrown plants from around the clumps, and removing the old dead leaves. This double variety is a new addition, to the new rockery bank. It doesn't hide its delights as much as its larger relatives. I think it is Double Ellen Purple.
Dunvegan Gardens next to the castle in the north part of Skye. A late-September day meant that many plants were past their seasonal best, but there will still delights with leaves turning colour (particularly Acers), these red-hot pokers, and a wide variety of hydrangeas still in flower.
A stop off on the way to see my brother in Southport, Parcevall Hall is a very tranquil place. An exceptionally hot day, but at least there were plenty of shady paths through the woods to escape the direct sun's rays.
The door from the formal landscaping surrounding the hall is open, enticing visitors through the archway into the wonderful old kitchen garden, nowadays planted with roses across archways, beams and trellis; herbaceous plants; trees and shrubs, and still some vegetable patches amongst it all. All divided into sections by flags and crazy paving, leaving you wondering which way to turn next so as not to miss any of the delights on offer.
More tree pictures, this time from visits to Harlow Carr Harrogate in November and January.The gardens are remarkably colourful in winter, with some very thoughtful planting extending the season throughout the year. Winter sunshine shows up the structure of the deciduous trees.
More trees - this time at Thorp Perrow arboretum, near Bedale in North Yorkshire. These are from a visit in October, just as the autumn colours were beginning to appear.
A very hot, sunny day and a very busy sculpture park, with the car park spreading out well into the overflow fields. As always the juxtaposition of trees, landscape and statues proved delightful. This tree is actually an iron sculpture by Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei.
Another visit to Breezy Knees near York. Almost a different garden compared to our last visit, which was in September. This time dominated by day lilies of all kinds of colours, crocosmia (Lucifer in particular), bergamots, lavender, echinacea, There is a page on the trees in the conifer garden.
After six or seven years of growth without flowers on our wisteria, we finally spotted one flower cluster hanging down. Just one. The vines had begun to scale up a nearby apple tree, rather than along the pergola as intended. Perhaps pulling them out of the tree and weaving them into the pergola beams has stimulated some flowers. We are looking forward to a lot more next year. We might need to investigate some judicious pruning to stimulate more flowers.
Constable Burton gardens near Leyburn in Wensleydale have an annual tulip festival each May, when thousands of tulips are in bloom around this woodland garden. We caught the displays just as they were finishing - to be followed by wickerwork fairy displays, which were already up in waiting for half term.
I do enjoy the changing seasons at Beningbrough Hall - it is almost like visiting a different garden every time we go. That and the fact that they are continually developing and revitalising areas - the woodland around the play area is looking good, freshly planted with unspectacular but appropriate groundcover plants.
Planted out in May, this Sanvitalia Cuzco Trailing is still flowering in the middle of December. There have been some frosts, but it just keeps on going. This is even better than the Cuzco Compact we have planted in previous years. Is it a sign of climate change? Or just a brilliant little plant? (It is actually four plants together.) It doesn't like drying out - often looking withered and dead in the sun - but remarkably resilient, a can of water quickly reviving it.
We found a young hedgehog out and about in the garden during the day, so took him to Pickering Hedgehog Rescue Centre who looked after him for a few weeks, gave him some antibiotics and fed him up. Then they contacted us so that we could re-release him back into our garden. He appeared to be fine, and we saw him eating with his sibling and parents later in the month. On advice from the centre, we stopped feeding them with mealworm and switched to dried cat food.
Breezy Knees had just appeared on Gardener's World, which probably added to the number of visitors in these difficult times, open with Covid restrictions in place. It was breezy but sunny, and the autumn planting was brilliant, and even the fading plants still lent stucture to the different areas. A garden maturing all the time.
Booked online (due to Covid restrictions) to visit Fountains Abbey, and walked down and round the lake. In front of Fountains Hall a small herb garden is shaping up nicely. Small but good to see. We visited again in September, but couldn't book in (a day in advance required), so parked at Studley Royal and walked up through the deer park to the lake.
A trip to Newby Hall, dropping off a turned summerhouse finial on the way, on a wet day in a very wet week. The gardens were still enjoyable to walk around, though not at their best due to the rain. The playground and shop was closed, the cafe was serving light lunches outside, under the umbrellas. At least the teddy bear museum was open.
The coronavirus lockdown has meant many more walks in the local woods around Thornton le Dale. They have been filled with wild garlic for the last couple of weeks, putting on a fine show and filling the air with that prominent garlic scent.
Our little prickly friends returned after their hibernation about a month ago. They made themselves known by leaving their calling cards around the paths and paving. Two come regularly for mealworms, usually resulting in one performing its shuffling backwards dance while the other eats away.
Celandines can look quite pretty when showing off in the sun. The problem is their ability to spread and crowd out more desirable plants. Digging them up is difficult - the clusters of little bulbs easily break off and stay in the soil, and if left too late they grow new bulbils in the joints further up the stem. A major pest for us.
One of the few food items remaining in what used to be the potager is rhubarb. It is still growing in the border, in terracotta forcing pots. No need to lift the lid to check on the plants - they lift the lids for you!
Our Daphne is looking better than it has for many years, every since the parent plant died off and I planted up this offshoot in a new location. A straggly plant, but a lovely burst of colour at an otherwise fairly quiet time in the garden.
Tidying up the garden I found an old six inch wide plank that was well weathered - it used to be decking before the extension build. Ideal for these two bird boxes. They were put up on a Tuesday, and by Wednesday blue tits had moved in. I think it was probably a little late in the season for the robin, but maybe next year it will appeal.
More about the summerhouse
Ten years ago a severe cold winter almost wiped out our garrya. The dead branches were pruned out, and gradually it has recovered, helped by a lack of serious bad winters recently. This year it was back to its former glory, long tassels flowering when most of the garden was dormant.
Have a look at some views of the garden.
Home |
Latest additions |
Tree list |
Gardening |
Woodland |
Contact |
Oldfern woodturning
Links: oldfern Facebook page |
Ryedale Woodturners |
Ancient Tree Inventory |
Tree Register |
Woodland Trust |
The Wood Database
Woodlands.co.uk |
International Wood Collectors Society |
Tree and flower identification guide
Plant Atlas 2020 (BSBI)
Trees and shrubs online
The Conifer Society (American)
North East Fungus Study Group