Davenport Farm, Ainsworth

We got very dilatory about visiting NGS gardens last year and are even worse this year.

We managed to get to our first one on Saturday 6th July and, truth be told, that is because it was on the doorstep.

We have done Davenport two times before so it is nice to watch a garden develop year on year.  It is a lovely one to do - small but interesting and does great cakes and teas!!  It is also opposite Arthur Lane Garden centre so you can pop in there for a visit and a bit of shopping not to mention an ice cream afterwards.

This is their own description for the NGS site which  covers it nicely:  No more pigs and chickens! Farmyard redeveloped into 1½-acre garden. Now we have lawns, trees, shrubs and glorious herbaceous borders. Climber strewn walkway to lily pond and deck area. Newly planted orchard and raised bed vegetable plot. York stone patios. ‘Old stone folly’ now the white garden for 2013

I bought two huge astilbes (old man's beard)  for £4 each from the garden along with two thalictrums (rue) for £2 each - absolute bargains and precisely the four plants that were on my hit list to finish off my 'new' border.

I am hoping the astilbe is pink rather than magenta but I am not fussed as long as it isn't white as I have a ton of that already.  As I said these were lovely plants - huge and healthy and just ready to go.  

The rue is only a baby - you can just about see it behind the Bowles mauve (into its third month of flowering).  The rue will make about four feet in height when it gets going. This variety is thalictrum delavayi - the usual one.

In my north west facing border (and boggyish) I have got Thalictrum 'Elin' which I bought from Kiftsgate in 2009.  This tops out around eight feet tall and is a stunner. Not quite in flower yet so I'll share it here when it is.  

I nearly 'came to blows' with a stroppy know-it-all who simply didn't believe there was a rue that tall.  He just kept poo-pooing the claim and repeating "never gets past about four and a half feet".  That's the trouble when two know-it-alls meet in a garden!

I will put up a Davenport Farm album on the web, so seek it out from the link on the right if you want a look.