An amazing 2009 season of open days in our garden.

[Lyn and Malcolm]

It has been a tough summer in the garden this year, Wind, rain, sun and heat.
We have never used so many supports for the plants, hidden as much as possible.

Previous records for number of visitors were as follows

A Sunday opening 242 visitors

A Wednesday afternoon opening 111 visitors

Our first open day on a Sunday, after 15 hours of continuous rain. We woke to a reasonable day with showers threatening.
We had 304 visitors. A new record for us, and one I said afterwards, would never be beaten.

Our second opening on a Wednesday afternoon, it was very overcast with a few heavy drips of rain, very heavy rain was only about 5 miles away from us. I thought we would be left with all 7 cakes we had made for the afternoon.
We had 128 visitors. A new record for a Wednesday pm.

Our third open day, a Sunday again, bright and sunny.
We did beat that record again, this time 326 visitors. The 11 cakes I had made, and 2 that one of our helpers had made, were all gone by 3.30pm, something like 132 slices. We had to resort to giving out free biscuits to try to help with the dissapointment.

With the private groups that have also been to the garden on non open days, the total visitors now stands at 839 there will be a few more private visits to come yet.

We have raised around £2200 for the NGS charities, another record for us. The final figure won't be ready for a few more weeks yet, due to more private visits.

Total cakes made so far 42

There are a few patches of lawn that have suffered the many pairs of  feet. But the garden is still very colourfull. Will post a picture later.

Lyn won the overall best garden in the Ferndown in Bloom competition.

A rather tired

Lyn and Malcolm

[ideasguy]

That makes very good reading Malcolm.
Congratulations to you both in your endeavours, and raising so much (much needed) funds for charity

Its particularly nice to read that people are coming in bigger numbers to visit each year. That says a lot for the popularity of gardening in general, and most likely to the success of your website and local advertising in particular.
Did the local garden Centres play ball this time?

RE:

Lyn won the overall best garden in the Ferndown in Bloom competition.

A very special congratulations to Lyn (and to her able assistant, of course  )
That is a wonderful achievement and from what we've seen on the BBC TV program and from the 1000's of photos on your web site, I'd say very much deserved!

The Gold Star awards committee may well acknowledge your latest accomplishments!
For the benefit of those surfing in (now we are open to the public on the forum as from today) heres a link to your website:
http://www.lynandmalc.co.uk/
and of course, your fabulous WPG project:
http://www.plantguide.lynandmalc.co.uk/

[NightHawk]

Lyn and Malcolm's achievements here are well and truly recognised.

As such they deserve to receive our prestigious Gold Star Award -

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Thought so Malcolm

[Lyn and Malcolm]

George wrote

Did the local garden Centres play ball this time?

We didn't bother asking again if they would post one of our open day posters on their board, after they only left the last one up for a couple of days.
We did put up our own direction sign board on the day of our opening, just 40 metres from their exit road 

The same garden centre sponsors the Ferndown in Bloom competition to the tune of £500. There is not anything in the garden centre about the competition, no winners list, no photos, nothing. That was 2 weeks after the results were known. Prize giving isn't till the end of September, in the garden centre.

Thank you George for your congratulations, and to Laurie for yet another gold star 

Malcolm

[roiphil]

Pleased all went well for you both, and you had a very good turn out, i shall be watching my inbox in expectations now   

[Lyn and Malcolm]

George wrote

For the benefit of those surfing in (now we are open to the public on the forum as from today) heres a link to your website:
http://www.lynandmalc.co.uk/
and of course, your fabulous WPG project:
http://www.plantguide.lynandmalc.co.uk/
 

Thanks for adding those links to our website George.

The WPG has 1100 plants in our garden listed, and all but 70 have pictures now. Still striving to get that figure down, must not miss any that come into flower. Hopefully get some more notes on the plants added this winter.

Malcolm

[ideasguy]

Only 70 to go!
That really is amazing Malcolm.

I don't think visitors to a superb web site like yours can ever fully appreciate the time and effort that it has taken.
Its only when you actually create a web site yourself that you see exactly what is involved.
Photos take a lot of work and a whole range of artistic and techy skills and certainly create the WOW factor.
Data and information on each web page is another thing entirely. It takes a LOT of effort to provide information and to validate the accuracy of what you write. That is even more relevant in the case of plants.

Fortunately, our WPG projects (our websites) are not intended to be "encyclopaedia's".
The WPG notion is based on Reviews. Any information is meant to be an account of your own personal growing experiences, an account of what you liked about the plants, how they performed in your garden, what height they grew to, their form, hardiness, garden worthiness, how floriferous they were etc etc - anything worthy of comment and relaying to others who may be considering growing the plants you present in your WPG project.
That, in my book, is invaluable (thats why I designed the software that way  )

Thus, when writing up the text, remember that you don't have to go delving into a pile of gardening books. Just tell us about your plants!
Hope that makes it an enjoyable winter project, Malcolm.
I'm a big admirer of your website as you know, and it just keeps getting better.
Keep up the good work, you two! Its very much appreciated.

[Lyn and Malcolm]

George wrote

Keep up the good work, you two! Its very much appreciated.

And I appreciate the work you have put into IGPro, which gets used virtually every day, to keep track of the plants and pictures we look after here.
And of the help you have given with tweeks to the program, for instance the "how many plants don't have pictures print out" which is invaluable to me.

Points taken about the personal growing experiences for the WPG. I hope to do my best on that, and also hope to get Lyn to assist as well, which isn't easy.

Malcolm

[ideasguy]

Fun for all the family 
Thanks for your comments Malcolm. Seeing the fruits of the software being used makes the efforts on my part more that worthwhile, and seeing the forum gaining in popularity is inspirational.
Its good to talk, great when someone talks back and fantastic when everone joins in!

Now, while you are busy on your Reviews, I have a few things in mind to keep me occupied.
More fun for all

[Eric Hardy]

We have raised around £2200 for the NGS charities, another record for us. The final figure won't be ready for a few more weeks yet, due to more private visits.
Total cakes made so far 42
Lyn won the overall best garden in the Ferndown in Bloom competition.
rather tired

Congratulations Lyn and Malcolm. I have just tuned in to this. That is truly magnificent! I bet you are rather tired  !!!

Eric H

[Lyn and Malcolm]

Thank you Eric.

It is about £700 more than we have ever given to the NGS, trouble is will we do as well next year, I think not.
We had the Gardeners World feature and about 3 weeks before our last opening we were listed in the Telegraph newspaper as one of the 50 best small gardens. They had a few pictures, not of our garden. One had half an acre, hardly a smal garden.
We had a lot of new visitors this year.
It was a bit crowded with the 326 visitors in one day, but several years ago we used to open only between 2 and 5pm, we had to open for longer hours, 11am till 5pm to try to keep the number of people in the garden at one time, down. We can't open any longer in one day, so only option is to increase the number of days we open, something to think about. But we have to lodge our open days for next year in the next couple of weeks

Malcolm

[Lyn and Malcolm]

In my first post I said I would put another picture up to show the colour we had just before our last opening.

Lyn's front garden looking towards the front gate
A good one to use the "lasso" function withen IGpro don't you think George.






Malcolm

[ideasguy]

Oooooh!
Spectacular Lyn and Malcolm, truly spectacular.
We are looking and admiring at it in awe.

I know you have over 1000 plants in there Malcolm,yet they don't look cramped, as each plant is clearly making a good statement. That, I know, takes a lot of skill to get them to work together, and lots of moving them about over the years to get the balance to what is just about perfection.
Take a bow!

Lassoing?
Normally I advise people to only lasso the plants of significance in a Garden Photo.
In your case, that is just about them all!
Yes, a perfect photo for having fun with the Lasso feature in Ideas Genie etc.

How about producing a SWAP database? Now, that I would love to get a copy of.

[Eric Hardy]

Absolutely stunning, Lyn and Malcolm. Could you tell me please what the mauve climbing plant is to the right of what looks like a silver birch tree? Is it a clematis?

Eric H

[roiphil]

Amazing  how many plants are in that picture at a guess, puts my be to shame with my 10 or so little plants 

[Lyn and Malcolm]

George

We haven't finished moving plants to get the effect right. Every year about this time we go round and make a list of which plants need moving where. This has been going on for at least 6 years. 

Normally I advise people to only lasso the plants of significance in a Garden Photo.
In your case, that is just about them all!

  Thanks George

A swap database, no problem, but I would like to get more info into that database first.

Eric

The "mauve climbing plant" is not. It is actually a Thalictrum Hewitts Double. If you look carefully you can see the cane which it is attached to in the bed in the foreground. It is not in the background, bit of an optical illusion.
And on our list of jobs to do this winter, is to paint some canes green, so they don't show so much. 
We could have sold many of the Thalictrum, every one was interested in them.

Phil

In that bed in the centre of the picture, not the one behind, there are 110 plants, according to IGPro, this also includes Spring bulbs.

Thalictrum Hewitts Double


Malcolm

[Eric Hardy]

The "mauve climbing plant" is not. It is actually a Thalictrum Hewitts Double. If you look carefully you can see the cane which it is attached to in the bed in the foreground. It is not in the background, bit of an optical illusion.

Thank you Malcom, now that I know what I am looking at I can see it is infront of the silver birch tree too. Thank you for the larger picture, it looks a very nice plant. If you had painted the cane I would still have been deceived 

Eric H

[ideasguy]

What height is Thalictrum Hewitts Double in your garden Malcolm?

[Lyn and Malcolm]

Just over 2 metres George.

Malcolm

[ideasguy]

Phew! No wonder Eric thought it was a climber!
How do you manage to keep your plants upright Malcolm? I was out surveying the damage today from wind.

[Lyn and Malcolm]

Typhoon George

You sent the wind down here today didn't you. Gusts up to 40mph between 11am and 2pm at the airport just down the road.
It was hitting the back garden more than the front. Several pots blown over, and had to tie some string round the foliage at the tops of the Dahlias in pots as they were being blown apart. No real damage, but looking a bit windswept at the moment, but will recover in a short time.
One of our Brugmansias had about 30 flowers on before the wind. They bash around hitting each other and the branches, leaves them very bruised, so had to cut them off.

Generally in the garden we use lots of those push in the ground hoops and circles of varying height, they go in as soon as the plants start growing in spring.
We also use a lot of the green plastic covered wire, to form a circle around the plant foliage, with a bamboo cane to the rear of the plant. You can pull up the circle of wire as the plant grows taller. Other than that, we use lots of canes ans green string.

Trouble is storing those supports as we don't have a lot of room here.

Malcolm

[ideasguy]

Sorry I mentioned that four letter word, Malcolm
If its any consolation, its still doing what "it" does best over here.

I never EVER cease to be amazed at the amount of care and attention you devote to your garden.
The hoops sound like a real good idea! Fortunately for you, you don't have to go in to the middle of the beds to pull up things like nettles! (at least I hope you don't!)

[Lyn and Malcolm]

I am sorry to say we don't get weeds in the flower beds, the closeness of the plants shades them out. No weeds in the lawn either.

Malcolm

[ideasguy]

I'm the sorry one Malcom. The closeness of the weeds would shade my plants out
Definitely high maintenance to make sure they dont.