After an early morning walk with Meg, (Gracie is carrying a paw injury at the moment so it is only very light garden exercise for her, much to Meg’s displeasure) I had to pop over to Harrogate for a meeting, which isn’t usually a problem, but this week the Yorkshire Show is taking place from Tuesday 11^th July till Friday 14^th July at the showground and attracts visitors from around the country. In light of this I added an extra thirty minutes to my journey time, as it happens, I needed that extra 30 minutes due to the traffic flow which took me away from Harrogate before being able to double back onto the Skipton Road, a bit of a nightmare but not to worry.

My meeting finished by 11.00am so I headed over to RHS Harow Carr on the Otley Road for brunch and a walk around the gardens. It was a lovely bright and sunny morning as we approached the gardens. I popped into the coffee shop for a takeaway coffee before popping into the visitor’s reception. The view looking down the steps leading into the garden looked lovely, with a bright blue sky and wispy white clouds. It was seven weeks since our last visit, I don’t know where the time goes.

I’ve noticed in previous years when the Yorkshire Show is on, the visitors come to Yorkshire from all parts of the country, making a holiday of their visit. After they have visited the show, they will visit RHS Harlow Carr the following day making the most of their time in Yorkshire and this was quite apparent as we made our way around the gardens today, with lots of visitors and different accents.

The gardens today were looking quite vibrant, lush and colourful, the borders in front of the restaurant especially so. We followed our usual route passing the Learning centre on our left, here too the borders were full to overflowing of plants and shrubs, the Alliums in particular swaying gently in the breeze, attracting bees to their bright and vibrant purple coloured flower heads. We continued our walk to the Edwardian sunken garden, its borders full with perennials, roses and dwarf evergreens. Looking over to the Queen Mother’s Lake on the right, it is currently covered in weed forming a huge green blanket across its surface.  The native yellow flag iris’s along the waters edge looking vibrant in the morning light. Further moisture-loving plants thrive along the banks, including astilbes, daylilies and Lythrum. Hidden amongst the grassy mounds are plenty of wildflowers and Marsh orchids. Down at the water’s edge it was nice to be able to watch the beautiful emperor dragonfly’s flitting amongst the Irises and reed beds. The Moorhen chicks providing extra entertainment as they paddle and swim between the weeds on the waters surface, they look to have made a nest in the floating duck house. Continuing our walk past the lake we followed the Streamside walk to the old bath house, I always enjoy this part of the walk and today was no different, the streamside banks were full of plants and shrubs, lots of Hosta’s, huge Gunnera’s and Rheum, with giant rhubarb/type leaves, standing five to six feet tall with massive green furry leaves. Clumps of Rodgersia added further colour with their purple and pink coloured leaves, all thriving in the damp conditions along the sides of the stream.

Work continues apace repairing/renovating one of the stone footbridges, a large JCB helping to lift and manoeuvre some of the huge boulders into place, looking forward to see what it looks like when complete later this year.

We popped into the Old Bath house to have a look at the arts and crafts on sale, some lovely paintings and prints and jewellery. We stopped for brunch at Bettys Tea House, which was very pleasant, sitting outside in the afternoon sunlight, we had a cheeky chaffinch join us too, in search of some crumbs from our sandwiches. After our break we headed back along the other side of the stream before bearing left through the ‘new’ Sandstone rock garden, some of the Japanese Maples and Acers look absolutely beautiful. After a few more minutes and a steady walk up the incline we arrived at the Garden centre for a steady browse at all the pot plants etc. I tend to head indoors and have a look in the bookshop, it is not very often I leave without buying a book and today was no different. A lovely day at the gardens.