Unlike last year, Cascades Gardens Bed & Breakfast accommodation is already getting a lot of bookings for February and the Spring. The new website on the first page of Google (B&B Derbyshire) is proving it’s worth with bookings from people as far away as America and Denmark as well as people recommended by previous guests.

The garden is showing signs of waking up with showers of Snowdrops. The Hellebore bed includes both pink and white double Hellebore’s, a rare treat! However, this month has seen a wide range of night time temperatures from -6 to +7. Many of the pots in the nursery have been frozen solid but by the end of the month most of these hardy perennials are starting to show green shoots and signs of life as a result of a number of warm sunny days. Plants in the garden are also being fooled by the warmer daytime temperatures and we wonder if harder frosts still to come will damage these plants. This year we have decided not to heat the polytunnels which are packed with young shrub cuttings taken last September and from the middle of February we kept the doors open to avoid over accelerated growth. We have been surprisingly successful taking shrub cuttings this year which include a range of Phygelius, Escallonia, Deutzia, Sambucus, Buddleja, Hydrangea, Outdoor Fuschia and others.

Most of the weekends have been taken up by cutting back the many shrubs which now spread throughout the four acres. This has created an enormous pile of cuttings and resulted in the first of this years bonfires.

The new team of gardeners; Stuart, Dave and Darren have started with us and will concentrate on the vegetable patch, mowing and strimming and flower borders respectively. Already all of the flower borders have been dead-headed and hoed, and the vegetable patch cleared, dug over and composted. Plans are already being made for which vegetables we will grow this year. We are crossing our fingers that the one year old Asparagus will re-appear this Spring in the newly created deep raised bed. This year we will also try Carrots in the second deep bed but we are concerned that once again the Carrot Fly will prevail. After the success last year we will continue to grow a range of Potatoes in 18 inch pots. This year we are trying some new Organic Potatoes. We are also going to try to grow Strawberries in pots to try and avoid slug damage. After years of managing allotments, Dave is determined to make the vegetable patch a show piece this year.

The nursery has been expanded and a further 1,000 root cuttings of Herbaceous Perenials potted up. This makes our A-Z range of Perenials rise to 150 different types. This year we have added a wider range of my favorite Echinacea’s including a Rubenstein, Razzmataz, Palloda and Paradoxa. There are also some colourful Asters, Chelone Obliqua Alba, Phlox Brigadier and Starfire, Thermopsis and Trifolium.

Spirits have soared since the return of our male Moorhen to his mate on the pond. Sadly this means that last years chick has to leave the nest and make it’s own way. The new island created in the pond is already proving it’s worth with regular visits from ducks from Cromford pond. However, a large Water Vole seems to be taking over and a number of holes have appeared where otherwise the ducks nest would be.

Published by Alan Clements
website: Cascades Gardens