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Garden Statues and Fanciful Hedges Wow Visitors to RBS Boss's Mansion

He has copped a great deal of flack in the press this year, but banking boss Stephen Hester opened the gates of his palatial mansion at the start of the month to help raise money for charity.

Visitors to the RBS supremo's Oxfordshire pile strolled around the extensive 350-acre grounds, enjoying sights such as the outdoor swimming pool, various ponds scattered among the scenery, various garden statues – some of them cunningly hidden behind features and shrubberies – and a vast walled garden containing some beautiful plant specimens.

Your garden statue’s spring tips

Come rain or shine I’m here for you and, if you listen carefully, I have a few spring tips that may help you make the most of your garden.

Get out there and start digging; it’s time to plant trees and shrubs to enable them to be bedded in before the first winds of autumn and Jack Frost can do any damage. Also, at this time of year, if you have plants in pots and other containers it is time to add fertiliser and begin regular watering.  It may be that a plant is root-bound; in which case, trimming off a few excess roots will help as long as you reinvigorate the soil with nutrients. Bulbs, such as tulips need to be dead-headed so that the plant recharges its bulb rather than concentrates on the development of seeds. If you fertilise your bulbs, it will help to ensure a bumper bloom next spring.

Easter egg hunting tips from your garden statue

I stand firm in all weathers and require nothing of you but, if you listen carefully, your garden statue has a few tips that may help your green fingers to find you an Easter egg.

You seek them here, you seek them there, you seek them everywhere and yet those pesky Easter eggs are still hard to find! One place you can be sure they won’t be is near your garden pond as nobody likes to eat an egg that is dripping with green slime. At this time of year, the algae in your pond will have been growing apace but once your oxygenating plants start to grow, they will use up the nutrients that the algae feeds on and create shade, reducing the amount of algae in your pond.  To speed up the process, simply place a bag of barley straw in the water and as the straw breaks-down, it will use up the nutrients in the water and help to clear the pond of both algae and blanket weed.  Make sure you remove the barley after six months otherwise it will pollute the water.

Easter tips from your garden statue

“I stand firm in all weathers and require nothing of you but, if you listen carefully, your garden statue has a few tips that may help your green fingers.

A lovely long weekend is upon us and despite baking sunshine and snow in Scotland, I know that you will want to join me in the garden. Did you know that April is the time when orchids are at their peak?  It is also the perfect time to plant lavender and give your garden a bouquet that the bees will love. Don’t forget – lavender is available in pink and white as well as shades of blue and purple.

Moss may not grow on a rolling stone but it certainly does on your lawn. There are some good brands of moss killer available and although the moss will turn black in its death throes, you’ll soon be able to pulls it out and plant fresh lawn seeds with a mix of compost.  Of course, if you want to avoid the pigeons enjoying a good meal at your expense, cover the area with netting or twigs.

Spring tips from your garden statue

“I stand firm in all weathers and require nothing of you but, if you listen carefully, your garden statue has a few tips that may help your green fingers.

The sun is shining and the grass needs mowing; if there are a few balding areas, now is the time to sow, especially for people living in the south and west. If you have a water-butt and a small water pump, you can enjoy a verdant lawn without a conscience.

The cost of supermarket food is sky high and there are plenty of root vegetables that can withstand a cold patch of weather, so now is the time to plant your garden peas, carrots, radishes, broad beans, leeks and parsnips.  Don’t forget to label them and if you tie a piece of string between two sticks, you’ll sow in a straight line. If you would like to plant potatoes, there are some early types that grow well if planted at least the depth of a trowel.

Remember to water.

Creating That Mossy Look For Your Garden Statues

Alnwick Garden Statues Are Alive!

Visitors to The Alnwick Garden in Northumberland next month will be able to walk among – and in some cases become – some very unusual garden statues.

Working in partnership with a Newcastle-based circus outreach company, Let’s Circus, the garden's curators have organised the Still festival, an event which will explore the theme of “living sculptures.”

Taking place between August 23 and 28, organisers hope that it will be a big enough success to be repeated every year. A number of installations, dreamt up by four professional artists, intend to drawn upon the tradition of garden statues such as water features, religious icons to inspire peacefulness like buddhas or animal statues of lions, gargoyles or other mythical beasts.

One installation will incorporate the human ele

Wrest Park to Host New Garden Statues Exhibition

A new exhibition of historic garden statues is set to open this weekend at Wrest Park in Luton, giving visitors to the 90-acre grounds a chance to see treasures dating from the early 18^thcentury, when the gardens were originally devised by Henry, Duke of Kent.

The only twist is that – unlike normal garden statues such as classical figures, animal statues or water features – these statues are going to be shown off indoors, since many of them are no longer strong enough to weather the elements.