I had a busy day today, I was out with the dogs for 6.45am this morning, very windy but 10C so out of the wind it was quite pleasant for this time of year.

Just after 9.00am I had the dogs to the vets for their annual check up and yearly injections, always good fun, fortunately the dogs love going so it isn’t a problem visiting.

I had a business meeting in Harrogate at 10.30am so it was a quick turn around and arrived in time. The meeting went well and was able to get away an hour or so later, so we headed over to RHS Harlow Carr for brunch and a walk around the gardens.

It was quite dull and overcast when we arrived just after noon, so popped into Bettys for a takeaway coffee and biscuit. On exchanging pleasantries with the staff in the reception area we headed outside and into the gardens. The newly created rockery and pond looked complete and planted up, it will look really good once the planting becomes established over the next couple of months. 

We tend to walk around the gardens following the main paths in a clockwise direction, so from the entrance headed over towards the ‘learning centre’ and sunken ‘Victorian Garden’, the borders are looking beautiful with the bare bark of the redwoods and dogwoods looking bright and vibrant. Clumps of snowdrops, heathers and little irises provide lots of additional colour.

Sweetly fragrant winter-flowering shrubs are a mainstay our walk, Daphnes with delightful scents fill the air as we walk past them, including white-flowered Daphne bholua ‘Cobhay Snow’. Viburnum bodnantense ‘Charles Lamont’, its bare stems festooned in delicate pale pink flowers.

The area to the right of the ‘lakeside gardens’ is currently fenced off to enable the staff to carry out renovation work and install a new footbridge over the corner of the QM lake. After looking around the sunken garden we retraced our steps and headed down to the QM lake and follow the ‘streamside walk’ heading towards ‘the old bath house’. 

The walk alongside the stream is always a lovely walk, no matter what time of year and in a couple of months’ time will be awash with colour.   

Unfortunately, the wind had started to strengthen significantly, and the grey skies were looking ominously like rain, so after skirting around ‘the old bath house’ we headed up to have a look around the garden centre and book shop before heading for home. Let’s hope the weather will be a little kinder for our next visit.