Click on February Open Day (Snowdrop Sunday) for more photographs, taken by Leigh Clapp.

We had a simply incredible day with over 260 people come to visit ( a record ) - and the sun shone without a cloud all day !!

Jackie and I were on full-time car park and Q&A duty so we were very busy. I hope to get some photos of the day up later this week. Now off to tidy up a bit for today's visitors.

Thanks to everyone that came to see the garden, and supported Prostate Cancer. Look forward to seeing you again in June.

I've been out pruning the vines, even in the snow, as they need to be done while dormant and before the sap starts to rise. As you can see from these recent pictures, this is quite a brutal process, cutting out all of last year's growth except for 2 canes, which are then laid down and tied to the main training wire. This training method is known as 'cane replacement' or Double Guyot. It is the main training method used in most large vineyards but was not practised in England until relatively recently - the 'spur pruning' of a permanent vine cordon was the previously favoured method as it was much simpler for the amateur vineyard owner to use. I've found over the years here however that these permanent cordons tend to stop producing grape-bearing canes at various points along the cordon and so I've switched to Double Guyot - or indeed Single Guyot in the new vineyard.

Look what we got up to last night!

Weaving willow obelisks for the garden with Valley Gardeners Garden Club.