The Stables Garden, Old Quarrington

18/06/2024

Open day is approaching very quickly - let's hope the weather holds out until Sunday! Baking starts in earnest tomorrow...

20/05/2024

Garden is coming alive 😊

10/05/2024

Mollie from Horticulture.co.uk has written an article and produced a video of the garden:
https://horticulture.co.uk/gardens/durham/the-stables/
What it really shows to me is how much things have come on since she visted!

The Little family have lived at The Stables in Durham since 2013 and planted 20,000 trees in just 11 years. Watch our tour of their garden!

16/04/2024

Maybe the winter of 23/24 is finally draining away, maybe...

02/11/2023

The dell we've been digging in the middle woodland has been suffering with a bit of damp over the last month - we've already drained it by about 18" and by the time this drains finished it should be another 18" lower again and excavations will be able to restart in ernest. 40m of pipe due in the next few days.

02/11/2023

Over the summer we have been developing two new beds between the orchard and the main lawn and over the weekend we finally got to plant them up, almost entirely with plants split from elsewhere in the garden and a boot full of plants kindly brought up by my mother. Given how much rain we've had and continue to have we didn't bother watering anything!

03/08/2023

The source of many of our garden plants (10 Chestnut Way in the Midlands) has been shortlisted for the nation's favourite garden

https://theenglishgarden.telegraph.co.uk/ngs/

It's well worth a visit if you're in the area on one of the many open garden days.

Help us find the Nation's Favourite Gardens to visit in our competition with the National Garden Scheme and Viking – and win a fantastic River Danube cruise

27/07/2023

Never ones to just do one project at once, this in our new "Monkey bed" - there's going to be a set of 4 arches at the top which lead through to the orchard and a space for the bottom for a patio circle. We've covered the grass to embrace a no dig approach to the bed - we'll probably add some grass clippings as well to build it up a bit more.

27/07/2023

This sleeper bed replaces a very poor collection of pots on the drive. We're now just waiting for the soil and compost to consolidate before planting up in a few weeks time.

01/07/2023

Hopefully this will keep the toilet roll dry and stop the perpetual problems with folk failing to put the lid back on!

28/06/2023

Annual grass cutter maintenance completed

25/06/2023

Great open garden day today - about 250 visitors and helpers, over £1400 raised for NGS and £700+ for TWSMRT. A massive thank you to everyone who helped or supplied cake.

21/06/2023

Last years Old Quarrington open gardens attracted over 300 visitors and raised nearly £3000 for charity. This year we want to do better - the three wonderful gardens are all opening their gates again on Sunday (25th June) from 11:00 until 16:00. There will be a plant stall at Number 13 and refreshments at The Stables. Entry is £6 will all proceeds going to the National Garden Scheme's charities and Tea and homemade Cake is £3 with all proceeds going to the local Mountain Rescue Team (TWSMRT).

The Stables is a large family garden full of hidden surprises and extensive views. The main garden is about an acre including gravel garden, vegetable patch, orchard, play area, lawn and woodland gardens. There is a further 4 acres to explore which include wildlife ponds, woodlands, a maze, meadows, hens, ducks and alpacas. Number 13 has been developed over 20 years with many small garden rooms include a rose garden, a white garden, a small link garden which contains ferns, viburnum, birch trees and a cercidiphyllum japoniocum. There is a pond and herbaceous beds which contain perennials and grasses. Many roses can be seen throughout the garden and a greenhouse devoted to a large Brown Turkey fig . The main garden at Rose Cottage is planted with wildlife friendly flowers, has slate paths and a pond that attracts 2 species of newts. To the rear there is a Mediterranean area and a woodland garden with stream beyond.

19/06/2023

https://www.wherecanwego.com/item/e1504721/old-quarrington-gardens-open-garden-for-ngs

Word is getting out!

Three very distinct gardens in the hamlet of Old Quarrington. The Stables is a large family garden full of hidden surprises and extensive views. The main garden is about an acre inc gravel garden, vegetable patch, orchard, play area, lawn and woodland gardens. There is a further 4 acres to explore w...

19/06/2023

Taking advantage of having just 3mm of rain in a month and the old Duck pond being completely empty we've dug some of the silt our and tried to fill in some of the damage the ducks have done to the banks over the years - despite being bone dry the mud was still very very sticky... With last nights shower there's now a good puddle in the middle of the pond again.

05/06/2023

Second attempt to bring together the top of this willow arch - looks like we need to straighten the right hand post a smig while we're there!

05/06/2023

This as yet unnamed bench is coming along nicely. Still needs a step over access to get into the middle. The plan is to weave up the sides over a few years as lengths of willow are harvested - whether we get to bring the roof in remains to be seen!