To spend a year in the Gardens of Ednovean Farm is to take a journey through the seasons. Each year it’ll be an infinitely changeable journey of course. However, ultimately that will be the reward in itself.
2024 wasn’t a typical season for weather here in Cornwall – or anywhere else around the world, come to that!
This year, the gardens have rolled with the punches with the occasional excesses of too much of this or that kind of weather. Yet the core of planting has remained unchallenged and resolutely followed a predestined course.
Where are the Ednovean farm Gardens?
Our sub tropical gardens at Ednovean Farm flow across the hillside above Mounts Bay. Developing from the formal courtyards near to the house to dally with lawns and garden rooms beyond.
The formal planting in places has a dash of the Mediterranean style and the wilder grass borders blend to the natural landscape with whole worlds of imagination.
In some seasons we linger more in some areas and than in others. So each month the photos we share on our social media are from different areas – depending on the mood of the garden.
January
January brings the first blooms of the year and the occasional temperamental dusting of frost. A quick flurry of snow can transform our world and set the gulls keening onto the rooftops.
For us a slow month of clearing and pruning and sighing contentedly with dreams for the summer. A footnote from Winter
February
February is always a short month filled with daffodils and promises. Yet February can be a car crash to expectations as the pruning windows close, before the birds begin to nest. Read more: – Winter and spring in the blink of an eye.
March
The joyful garden begins to emerge as beautiful spring days full of birdsong tumble before us more swiftly now. The sweetly scented spring bulbs gather their forces and the garden is alive.
Testing days for us and a regeneration for the garden as we prepare to welcome our Bed and Breakfast guests A gardens journey into 2024
April
April brings the full ebb and flow of spring through the gardens and beautiful blossoms to the fruit trees. April and May
May
Dreamy May is often a month to linger outside and watch for the returning House Martins. A month for afternoon tea in the gardens under the swaying Echiums
June
Watching our garden grow and develop has been an ongoing pleasure. These days I notice more and more that as the spaces mature and gain height with the layers of planting, so to have the tantalising changes to the light, as the shifting shadows bring an extra dimension to the garden.
By June all hope of keeping the garden under control starts to fade and I embrace wild planting with gusto. Check out “Living with the rabbit gourmand”!
July
July marks the zenith of summer…
July is the time of year when the garden fizzes with energy and golden evenings stretch long into the night.
Mornings start as I fill the fountain in the courtyard to bring the precious sounds of trickling water to the air and the evenings are spent wrestling with a hose pipe to water the terracotta pots
August
With August a certain stillness hangs over the garden. Languid days of summer, as the bees buzz around the terracotta pots inspired my blog The silence of a summer’s day
The final month of summer is as if the garden is pondering the balance of the year. The fig trees that line the courtyards have set fruit and the fennel and lavender scent the courtyard air
September
The breath of September whispered through the garden, stirring the autumn leaves and sending the pampas plumes dancing in the sunshine. Just relax and follow the autumn show.
The lushness of the ornamental grasses compliments the palms as the garden slows to embrace the final days of summer. Do I hear a happy sigh of contentment?
October
The days are mellow but beginning to shorten and our footsteps tread softly and inevitable into autumn
Through the Ednovean farm gardens, the swathes of grasses that have sent their dancing seed heads up to dally with the season are now so gently fading.
November
The golden days and swirling mists of autumn are a gift within the year of the Ednovean Farm Garden. The softer light shows the luscious voluptuous final hurrah of the garden as the first mists swirl up from the sea.
December
December! The robin joins me now as I rake up the final leaves from the gravel. The cheerful bird so artfully concealed under the emerging hellebore flowers before fluttering to a stone statue to watch me work – I almost think t hat Dicken (from the Secret garden) might join me in this timeless moment.
December bring the final moments to our year in the Ednovean Farm Garden. It’s a month when the season hangs in the balance and the magic of the earth stirs to reveal its secrets with new shoots. Read my last blog of the year about Winter for some of the ancient customs and superstitions of the season
The four seasons – the four solstices
Ednovean’s garden is bound on the timeless journey of artful chance and serendipity. Eternally tied to the year’s four solstices to find its very own sense of place above Mounts Bay.
These days I understand just a little more that only by living with the garden, will it reveal its secret doorway to our particular providence. I do hope that you will enjoy dipping into the Year in the Ednovean Farm Garden and following the links to the monthly blogs to dip into each season. Happy gardening!
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