Hibernating ladybirds 😍 Found while fruit tree pruning this afternoon … we left them where they were. ☺️ #ladybirds #gardening #hibernation

Tree planting this morning in woodlands on the wider estate. A mix of Hornbeam, Beech and Birch. 🪏 🌳 🪏 🌳 #treeplanting #estategardener #estatemanagement

Busy sowing sweet peas this morning. There’s lots of methods talked about sweet pea sowing - soaking the seeds, nicking them with a knife, sanding them, placing them on damp tissue to germinate. I’m sowing directly in seed compost, watering and covering with propagator lids. What’s your method?

Refreshing tree circles and pruning fruit trees in the Old Kitchen Garden this afternoon … in beautiful sunshine no less 😊☀️ Lovely mix of trees including apples, pears, cherries, plums and medlars. #gardening #treepruning #fruittrees

Got away pretty lightly with Storm Goretti at work. Awful drive home in the rain last night, but only a smattering of snow at work in the Cotswolds this morning. #stormgoretti #gardener #gardening

Some clearance work around estate farm buildings yesterday. Lots of bramble and self-seeded trees growing in the wrong places. 🤦🏻‍♂️ #estategardener #gardening #january

Winter Wisteria pruning in the sun yesterday. ✂️ ☀️ #gardener #pruning #wisteria

A chilly but beautiful return to work and the kitchen garden this morning. 🥶 ☀️ ❄️ #gardener #backtowork #januaryvibes

Up above the mist and in glorious sunshine on a North Nibley New Year’s Eve walk this morning. Nice to get some sunshine at last, instead of the grey cloud drab we seem to have been under most of the festive season. #walk #blueskies #northnibleymonument

Decent sunrise this morning on my last working day of the year ☺️ Season’s greetings folks - hope you have happy times over the next couple of weeks. #estategardener #seasonsgreetings #sunrise

Wonderful light with this morning’s sunrise at work … and even a cheeky rainbow to top it all. 😊 #rainbow #sunlight #estategardener

Final pre-Christmas tidy of the kitchen garden today. He’s good at camouflaging himself, but the keen-eyed may be able to find a lesser spotted Jon working away. 😆 #kitchengardening #gardening #gardener

Great work by the garden team this week, making Christmas wreaths. Now up and around the Court and Old Village Shop. 🎄🎅🏼 #christmaswreaths #gardening #wreathmaking

Head gardener Harry cutting the Christmas tree for the Overbury Enterprises estate office last week. Doesn’t get fresher than that - probably took longer to decorate! 🌲 ➡️ 🎄 #gardening #christmastree #overbury

Up on Bredon Hill earlier this afternoon, foraging for Christmas wreath material (don’t tell the forestry department! 🤫 🤣) #estategardener #bredonhill #cotswolds

Reflecting on a beautiful day whilst mulching in the gardens today. 😆 #reflection #reflections #gardener

Lucky to have some impressive tree specimens around the gardens and wider estate. Looking great in the sun today for #nationaltreeweek … a wonderful London Plane and a gorgeous Blue Cedar. 🌳🌲 #gardener #estategardener

Happy Friday ☺️

There was beautiful sunshine in parts of the garden today, but for some idiotic reason, I ended up choosing to work in all the shady sections 🤣🤦🏻‍♂️ A tad cooooooold! Beanie on all day! (Don’t say I wasn’t working quickly enough!) #gardener #gardening #wintergardening

Winter / early spring flowering Clematis cirrhosa, currently in flower on The Court building. 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸 #clematis #clematiscirrhosa #gardening

Greeted by a queue of sheep when I arrived at work on Monday 😆 🐑 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑 #sheep #cotswolds #gardeninglife

Bulb planting some beds and containers this morning. Tulips, alliums and kamassias. . #bulbs #bulbplanting #gardener #gardening #autumngardening

Wow! Such a huge contrast in the weather today, compared with last Friday’s washout. A lovely day cutting back herbaceous plants in the west terrace borders … as well as the obligatory autumn leaf clearance. 🤩🍁🍂 #autumn #autumngardening #gardener #gardening #overbury #cotswolds #blueskies

Extremely glad of the shelter of the potting shed today! Biblical rain out there. Busy tidying and sorting, as well as planting some bulbs in pots for forcing, which will be used for flower displays in the house in the spring. #gardening #gardener

Hey @francesca-laura.bsky.social did you see our old RHS Level 2 tutor Tim Foster on Gardener’s World on Friday? Great to see him and his fruit tree knowledge again! ☺️

A perfect kitchen garden day. Planting out salad crops, potting on, seed sowing, watering and weeding. All that under a perfect blue sky - shorts and tee shirt too. 😊☀️ #kitchengarden #kitchengardening #gardener #gardening

Can’t beat a decent bit of Primula vulgaris 😊 #primrose #primulavulgaris #garden #gardening #spring

Lovely Snake’s Head Fritillary - Fritillarea meleagris popping up on the bank of the west lawn this week. . #fritillareameleagris #snakesheadfritillary #gardening #gardener

Was supposed to be mowing day today … but decided to do some work in the potting shed and greenhouse instead. 😆 #snow #marchsnow #gardening #gardener

Love a bit of Daffodil ‘Tête-à-tête’ … so cheery. They’re small but they always seem to pack a punch at this time of year. 😊🌼🌼🌼

Me ‘working’ last Friday in my full time job as an estate gardener in the Cotswolds. Sometimes have to pinch myself I get paid to do this!

Beautiful European Comma butterfly in my own garden yesterday afternoon. Happily chilling in the sun on my Phormium. . #butterfly #butterflies #europeancommabutterfly

New life in the glasshouse today - our seed sowings springing into life! Including, parsley, chicory, rocket, cabbage and lamb’s lettuce. Sweet peas are coming up in pots elsewhere and broad bean plants got planted out in the sunshine today. It really felt like spring had arrived. ☺️💚

Spotted what I thought was a ‘different’ type of snowdrop last week - in one of my workplaces rental properties. I think it’s actually Leucojum vernum “Spring snowflakes” - slightly larger and should flower a bit later in spring. Lovely open flower head with yellow petal tips.

Eek! It’s that time of year again (and one of my favourite times) … Hellabore time 😊🌸 . #hellabore #hellabores #hellaborus #gardening #gardener #estategardener #overbury

Sorting supports out for our climbing beans and sweet peas today in the kitchen garden. Using natural hazel sticks, coppiced from local woodland stands. . #kitchengardening #gardener #estategardening

A perfect Friday afternoon busying in the glasshouse - tidying, watering, feeding and checking for pesky pests. . 🪴🪴🪴 #greenhouse #glasshouse #gardener #gardening #fridaytidy #fridayvibes #gardeningbluesky

A family walk and a bit of larking about at beautiful Tortworth Lake, South Gloucestershire this morning. First open weekend of the year. 😊

Helping the Overbury Enterprises farm team with some apple tree pruning in some orchards today - beautiful day for it. 😊🌳✂️🍏🍎 #appletreepruning #treepruning #appleorchards #estategardening #estategardener #estatework #horticulture