After a week of hard overnight frosts, it was nice to be able to head over to Harrogate this morning for a frosty walk around the gardens at RHS Harlow Carr, this was our first visit to the gardens since last November and the ‘Glow Event.’ 

It was a beautiful morning; a low wintery sun was just hovering above the treeline and there was not a cloud in the sky. After popping into Betty’s for a coffee and cake we headed through the ticket office and out into the gardens, the steps leading onto the main path had been taped off due to the ice so it was a gentle walk down the slope behind the heather beds which were looking quite dormant at the moment though the ‘December Red’ variety will be coming into flower over the next few weeks and will provide some early nutrients for the insects at this time of year. 

Clumps of snowdrops were shooting up along the garden borders, some of the earlier varieties where just beginning to come into flower, though it will be several weeks before they are at their best, over 90,000 have been planted in the garden in recent years. We continued along the ‘Winter trail’ passing the frozen’ Queen Mothers lake’ on the right before heading up the slope to have a look at the ‘Edwardian garden’, some wooden pergolas with outdoor seating and benches have been added into one of the borders on the left since our last visit, with work ongoing to the remainder of the border. The Edwardian Garden always looks pleasing to the eye and today was no different although lacking in colour the shape and form of the plants covered in a hard frost added plenty of interest, the pond was well frozen. Continuing our journey down the slope to the QM lake, the new ‘Thaliana Bridge’ was closed, I presume due to the very slippery conditions underfoot. We followed the old route around the lake and stopped for several minutes to admire the lake with its winter jacket on. We continued along the ‘Streamside path’ heading for the ‘Old Bath house,’ there was plenty of water cascading down the stream, clumps of Crocus, Snowdrops and Daffodils were poking through the sides of the bank and hellebores were coming into flower. Work continues with the replacing and rebuilding of one of the stone bridges, it looks like it is going to be a long job by the size of some of the heavy machinery on site. We continued along the streamside path a little further before crossing one of the other bridges and heading up the slope to the ‘Sandstone Garden.’ Looking over to our left, towards the ‘Old Bath house’ and ‘Bettys Tea house,’ the area is fenced off and I presume out of bounds to the public, whilst the whole area is relandscaped. Although the ponds set amongst the Sandstone Garden were frozen over, some of the huge rocks were etched with frost, glistened in the afternoon sunlight. It was nice to see the Snowdrops and Miniature Iris shoots just poking through the frozen ground, they will be in flower in a week or two. I do like this part of the garden though I just like being close to water. 

On leaving the ponds we continued up the slope and made our way to have a look around the garden centre and book shop, I could spend all day just looking at and reading some of the books, let alone spend a fortune. Best we head for home.