Garden Visiting In August

The weather forecast for Bank Holiday Monday was better in North Yorkshire than West Yorkshire so we decided on a trip to Yorkshire Lavender. Fourteen miles north east of York, it's well signposted along the way. We've visited before, back in 2010, but it was earlier in the year, before the lavender was flowering, so I thought we'd make a return trip to see how it looked in bloom.

Yorkshire Lavender is set in the beautiful Yorkshire countryside, it's not hard to see why I love this county so much.

The first thing you encounter is the scent of lavender, not surprising really as there are so many plants here, a real lavender lover's delight. They're well labelled too so that you know which varieties they are.

A sign you don't see in many gardens. It's nice to know you're free to have a little touch as lavender plants are so tactile.

There's lots of lavender tips too, I didn't know this one but I shall be giving it a try as I'm not a very good sleeper.

As you would expect, many of the gardens focus on lavender.

There are some mixed borders too. I didn't think they were so well kept, they didn't wow me, but perhaps they're just a little bit tired now that it's coming to the end of the season.

There's a maze made out of lavender which the visiting children were enjoying very much.

You can see the paths of the maze better in this photo.

There's a warning that the bees enjoy using the maze too, but I doubt they'd bother you, they're too busy enjoying the lavender.

It isn't just bees that can't get enough of it either, this ladybird was enjoying it too.

I loved this idea of using broken pots to display sempervivums, I think I may do this myself. I'm always inspired when looking round gardens.

There's a well stocked nursery, though I found it quite expensive, but they do have a very good range of herbs.

There's also a shop which sells all manner of things lavender related, but again, rather expensive.

We knew before we set off that dogs aren't allowed in Yorkshire Lavender so our visit was quite a short one as Archie had to stay in the car, but to be honest, I had enough time to see what I wanted to see. I think if the lavender had been in bloom on our first visit we wouldn't have returned, it was only a case of wanting to see it in flower, but now that we have, it's a place I won't bother with again. I can recommend it if you're a real lavender lover but I have to say that I've preferred the other gardens we've visited this year.