Garden Visiting In May - Part One

I'm visiting a garden each month during 2014 and last weekend, Mick came up with the idea to visit Cannon Hall. It's a country house museum about five miles from Barnsley, and has its own Georgian walled garden which has been restored to show the working gardens that would have served the Hall during the Georgian and Victorian periods.

As we walked through the gate in to the walled garden, I could see that it's well tended. What I didn't realise was just how big it is. It's thought to have been built around 1699 and around 1760, it was expanded to the size it is today.

On the wall to my right were espaliered trees.

I love these old brick coldframes, there's plenty of space there to harden off seedlings.

They were being well used. There's lots of seedlings waiting their turn to be planted out.

Some beds have already been planted up. The wire cages which cover the brassicas are a good idea to stop any plants from being nibbled by rabbits.

The greenhouse is obviously well used, but out of bounds to the public.

This greenhouse houses a cactus collection.

A few areas are still awaiting some attention, including this old greenhouse.

This espaliered tree is impressive, they must harvest plenty of fruit from it, it's huge.

More espaliered fruit trees, they really make use of every bit of space. The gardens house a grand array of fruit trees and bushes including plums, cherries, gooseberries, currants, hazelnuts, peaches, nectarines, quince, strawberries, raspberries and pears.

There's ornamental areas within the walls too, with plenty of space for a stroll.

Pretty pink tulips and polyanthus.

The clematis was flowering over the brick arbour.

Hundreds of tadpoles were swimming about in the pond. I'm sure the frog population will be welcomed in a garden this size to help keep the slugs under control.

They even welcome deer here, of the willow variety.

A guardian angel.

As well as being functional, the garden has some really pretty areas.

A lovely place to sit and ponder, looking out across the garden.

This is a rain gauge. It's linked to a computer through a telephone line, all clever stuff.

We noticed the huge number of pear trees growing in the garden. The collection contains nearly forty varieties, some of which are thought to be nearly two hundred years old, such as Williams' Bon Chretien, Laxton's Early Market, Pitmaston Duchess and Conference.

I can recommend this garden to anyone with an interest in fruit and vegetable growing, and everyone else too as there's more to Cannon Hall than just the walled garden. Check out my Cannon Hall post on my Through The Keyhole blog.

Admission to the museum, grounds and gardens is free, though there's a nominal £3 charge to park the car. Dogs are allowed, which is great as we had Archie with us, but they have to be kept on a lead in the walled garden. There's a garden centre across the road from the car park which is worth a look round. The prices there were on par with other garden centres, though I didn't buy anything on this occasion. There's also a few plants for sale in the walled garden but nothing took my fancy.

I'll be taking you on a magical garden visit in my next post. Something a bit different.