Last updated at 10:42, Thursday, 11 June 2009

Beautiful gardens in a superb setting; specialist plant stalls and trade stands; food and fun; talks and demonstrations – the Cumbria Life Dalemain Garden Festival is a magical way to celebrate the summer solstice and Fathers Day

Dalemain

The third Cumbria Life Dalemain Garden Festival looks set to be the best yet. Sponsored by the University of Cumbria, the event is being held in one of the Lake District’s loveliest spots – Dalemain Historic House and Gardens, near Penrith, home to Robin and Jane Hasell-McCosh and their family.

Where and when:

Cumbria Life Dalemain Garden Festival takes place at Dalemain, near Penrith, on Sunday, June 21 from 10am to 5pm. Dalemain is on the A592 Penrith to Ullswater road, three miles from M6 Junction 40. Price: Entry to the garden festival costs £6 for an adult ticket (£5 using the voucher in this months Cumbria Life). Children under 16 go free. The festival price includes free entry to the gardens at Dalemain. Upgrading your ticket to go round Dalemain Historic House on the day costs £2.50

Shelagh Todd Summer flowering shrubs

Shelagh is head of the horticultural team at Newton Rigg and celebrates 30 years in horticulture this summer. She started her career as a trainee gardener in the subtropical Achamore Gardens on the Isle of Gigha and gained her horticultural qualifications in Fife and Ayr. She worked as a horticultural technician at Merrist Wood College in Surrey, then gained her teaching qualification at Wolverhampton Polytechnic and lectured at Pershore College in Worcestershire. During her talk, Shelagh will show specimens from a wide range of evergreen and deciduous shrubs that flower in summer; as well as a range of flower colours, different shapes and sizes of flower heads, colour combinations, scented and fragrant flowers, flowers that attract wildlife, and plant combinations. The plants will include lavender, mock orange, roses, lilac, potentilla and the butterfly bush.

Tom Attwood Cumbrian cottage gardens

Tom, a lecturer in horticulture, is a new member of the team at Newton Rigg, and he has been spearheading the land art projects at Dalemain. His remit at the university includes delivering gardening and horticulture courses at the Lakeland Horticultural Society at Holehird Gardens, Windermere. He trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and was head gardener at Rydal Hall, Ambleside, for two years before working for landscape and architectural designer Arabella Lennox-Boyd. He and his wife Abi are part of the family partnership running Summerdale Nursery Garden at Lupton in south Cumbria. Tom will talk about suitable plants for cottage gardens and mixing annuals, perennials and even vegetables.

Marcus Wright Trees for the woodland garden

Marcus, a further education lecturer in forestry, teaches agriculture and horticulture students in disciplines such as countryside management, woodland management and gamekeeping, ecology and conservation, and plant and soil science. He has worked in commercial forestry, as a tree surgeon, and as a self-employed forestry contractor in the south west of England. He has a BSc in environmental quality and resource management and has worked extensively with local authorities and for Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. He also taught woodland ecology at the University of the West of England in Bristol. Marcus’s talk and slide show will focus on native trees and shrubs and on maintaining a small woodland habitat in your garden.

Brenda Dowding, Gardenalia Vintage style

Brenda is one of the region’s most innovative floral designers, and she runs workshops throughout the north west. Gardenalia is a family-run business, based near Brampton, which provides bespoke floral designs. Here at Dalemain, Brenda is focusing on country vintage styles. “I’ll demonstrate how to create stylish designs for your home using everyday items from around the house,” says Brenda. “Nostalgic styles are very fashionable at present.” Brenda will be working with an array of colourful flowers which help to bring happiness to a home; as well as with sweet-smelling flowers such as stock, lavender, and roses; and “a zest of powerful colour using geraniums, nasturtiums, marigolds, and herbs”.

John Crouch Eating your weeds

John is known throughout the county for his food demonstrations, teaching and promotions and is the Cumbria Life Dining Club host. Whether it’s running a food-related charity event at a school, presenting Made in Cumbria products at an agricultural show or farmers’ market, or appearing on BBC Radio Cumbria, John has a vast experience of cooking and talking about food. As to his talk, John says people know that nettles and dandelions, for instance, may be used in cooking so he’ll be concentrating on lesser known weeds with culinary value such as ivy leaf toadflax and ground elder, which the Romans brought to Britain as a food.

Phil Newport, Wildroof Landscapes

Landscaping doctor Born at a nursery, Phil spent his formative years pricking out seedlings and tending to the plants. He pursued an early career in the automotive industry and satisfied his passion for gardening and landscaping by renovating old houses in his spare time. Increasingly dissatisfied with board level politics, he decided to ‘downshift’ to his favourite part of the country in 2005 and the family relocated to Cumbria. Phil is now ‘back to his roots’ combining his engineering mind and managerial skills with his ‘horticultural genes’. Phil’s presentation focuses on innovative solutions for problem places in the garden and, through a series of pictures, addresses challenges many Cumbrian gardens face.

Battle of the Trowel

Are men or women the real power behind the trowel? We’ve assembled a panel for a light-hearted debate on such heady questions as whether the sisters of the soil are more creative than the sons of the soil and whether his afternoon spent riding round on the mower equates to her hours weeding the herbaceous border. Chaired by CN Group’s events and promotions manager, David McNeill, our panel includes Shelagh Todd, head of horticulture at the University of Cumbria; Cumbria Life writer and Rose Castle gardener Janet Queen, pictured; garden designer Liz Newport, whose business Buzy Lizzie is based near Penrith; journalist and broadcaster Gordon Swindlehurst; and journalist and public relations consultant Alan Air.

Talks and demonstrations In the demonstration barn (all times are approx.)

11am-12 noon: University of Cumbria (three 20-minute slots) Tom Attwood: Cumbrian cottage gardens Marcus Wright: Trees for woodland gardens Shelagh Todd: Summer flowering shrubs 12.30-1pm: John Crouch: Eating your weeds 1.30pm-2pm Brenda Dowding, Gardenalia: Vintage style 2.30pm-3pm Battle of the Trowel panel 3.30pm-4pm Phil Newport: Landscaping doctor

Talks and Demonstrations

First published at 10:33, Thursday, 11 June 2009
Published by http://www.cumbrialife.co.uk