Well ...... sort of ..... a bit,
We are open until 3pm on Christmas Eve, the very best day of the year .... and then reopen on Wednesday 3rd January with our fantastic 50% sale.
We wish you all a very very merry Christmas xx
Tonight ...
Is our Cedar Farm Christmas night ....
The last of our late nights where we will all be open until 9pm!!!
There will be music, lights, and mulled wine.
The shop will be full of wreaths, flowers and foliage, the most beautiful decorations and gift ideas.
We are so excited, it would be lovely to share it with you xx
Ps ....
Oh my !!
It's all about the ....
Wreath today.
All the moss has been delivered, rings and wire at the ready so it's full steam ahead ...
If you would like one too please just ring or pop in.
If you are internet-ing today ... hop over to our online shop, It's full of beautiful gifts and decorations.
Still loving Nige Slaters Christmas Chronicles ..
And lastly, unexpected snow in this little shop xx
Shop life this week ....
Glass baubles and twinkling lights.
The surprise visit from two of my very favourite elderly ladies, it's funny how, when working in a small shop, you get to know all the little tiny details about somebody, their favourite sandwiches, ailments, upsets, worries ... and yet you don't know their surnames.
We have had ...
Flowers for goodbyes.
Flowers for weddings.
Presents for hello's
Sibling squabbles over wreaths.
All happily observed and quietly absorbed by the shopgirl xx
So it's been Bonfire night ...
which means we can now talk about actual Christmas.
Our little shop has been transformed into a space filled with twigs, branches, wreaths and bowls of gypsophila and ..... Christmas. We have decorations and presents galore, all of which are now on our website.
In other news, we have said goodbye to one gardening boy, hello to another, and got a new puppy.
Plus ... has anybody else read Nige Slaters 'Christmas chronicles' ? .... it's a must xx
For some ...
Mentioning Christmas in actual October brings on a little frown, yet for others, it brings on fizziness and giddiness!!!
Not quite sure what is going on today, it appears to be still dark at 10.02am!! I have just taken the photograph above!! Odd and cosy though.
Anyway, In the next couple of weeks our little shop will start to fill with all things festive-y as will our online store.
We will also be selling lovely big bunches of eucalyptus, gypsophila and foliage for you to do whatever you fancy with.
Our first Christmas evening is Wednesday 8th November ... we have so many beautiful decorations and gifts to show you .....
and of course our Christmas wreath order book will open!!
We will post more details soon xx
Weekend ..
This little shop is all ready for the weekend, a new plant delivery has brought... heathers, eucalyptus, perennial cyclamen in the loveliest shades, ornamental cabbages. All ready to go into pots for some autumn colour, or in my case, redo my window box for the new season.
Lovely climbing ivy and jam jar flowers
Autumnal wreaths
Potted plants, little violas, mind your own business (fab name)
Its also the monthly market in the morning too. Happy weekend xx
When The Potting Sheds went to Highgrove ..
Where to begin with so so many beautiful and innovative things to see. Here is just the tiniest snippet of our visit ..
The Walled Garden
My personal favourite .. not only because of this gate, but just the whole feel of being in there. An acre in size with apple tunnels, pears, plums, an array of herbs and vegetables, all which are used in the kitchen of the house, and entirely organic, plus, the loveliest herbaceous borders to help with pollination. Oh, and a carp pond in the middle.
The Stumpery
A fantastic word and based on the Victorian concept of growing ferns amongst tree stumps, the majority here being sweet chestnut and oak.
The Stumperys water feature, is made from redundant stone and is hollow, housing the most ginormous giant rhubarb plant.
The Sanctuary
We were told that this beautiful building is used solely by Prince Charles as a place of peace and quiet. It has four door handles on the old door which have to be twisted in a certain formation to allow entry, a fantastic idea I thought!
13 gardeners maintain 15 acres of gardens .. hard hard work for them but an utter delight to visit xx
We also found this ...
probably the prettiest little house and pink door that you ever did see ... I think the owner was in so we had to be stealthlike!!
Whether you have a Highgrove garden or something a little more humble, we have a fab team Potting Sheds, who can help with any aspect of creating and maintaining something rather special of your own xx
A day out to Sarah Ravens Perch Hill ..
So this week The Potting Sheds embarked on our first outing to Perch Hill in Sussex, the home of the very lovely Sarah Raven. After hearing and reading so much about it for so long, we were intrigued to see what it would be like in real life !!
We were enrolled on Sarah's 'cut flower and creating a cutting garden' course , we were not disappointed!!!!
After the most delicious cakes, we headed into the classroom (stunning), for an amazing morning, full of information on which flowers to grow to give you maximum productivity for the majority of the year and loads of useful tips on cutting gardens. We headed for lunch, giddy with inspiration.
We were then invited to wander around the stunning gardens, bucket and snips in hand, to gather our own flowers to create, with Sarah's amazing guidance, our own hand tied bunches.
After so much fun and giggling we managed to squeeze our (oversized!) creations into the car, and left Perch Hill utterly inspired to create our own, albeit small, cutting garden, were we can snip beautiful blooms to use in our own shop bunches.
Our little shop is always filled with bunches of flowers and posies, plants and vases and we would be delighted to discuss any of your flowery needs. Have a lovely weekend xx
A very inspiring outing ..
So for a while now, The Potting Sheds have been following, on social media, Arthur Parkinson, the young, beautiful and very talented chap who has designed and created the gorgeous garden and outside spaces at The Emma Bridgewater factory in Stoke.
Arthur trained in horticulture at Kew Gardens and was lucky enough to 'house and garden sit' for Sarah Raven at her Perch Hill garden in Sussex!! Ha, can you imagine!!
He, along with his beautiful chickens, have made such a peaceful, welcoming, creative and floriferous space ( that is an actual thing, I double checked!) in what was a smallish concreted courtyard at the back of the factory. His use of foraged finds to create pond covers, arches and supports is amazing.
Today his raised beds were filled with the tallest hollyhocks, mad gladioli, sunflowers, grasses and crammed with so many other plants in dazzling colours. All picked by the armfuls to decorate the inside spaces of the factory and amazingly, mostly grown in two greenhouses on the factory roof!
Our shop is full of plants to fill your own garden with late summer colour. Come and say hello xx