Visiting Helmsley Walled Gardens

On Friday afternoon, we spent an hour or two in the Market town of Helmsley, on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park.  The town itself is very pretty, although I didn't take many photos of the market square and surrounding areas, but here's a picture of the pretty beck that runs alongside the town square, which is the other side of the bridge.

After having paninis for lunch at a café just off the square and stocking up on a few bits of food at the market, we headed off to take a look around Helmsley's Walled Garden, which sits in the shadow of Helmsley Castle. I can never resist a walled garden, they just intrigue and fascinate me.

You could get a great view of the castle from the garden.

The gardens themselves were beautiful.  They had a lovely relaxed feel.  Not too manicured, with a bit of wildness to them. Some of the borders were beautiful. I just love the contrast of planting with bare walls in this type of garden.

I particularly liked some of the views through the garden, created by the footpaths, doors and other ornamental features.

This wild flower border was exquisite.

I also admired this bug hotel, which actually looked like it might be quite easy to replicate.

There was an area given over to community garden plots.

Made up of multiple raised beds that I assume are loaned out to local community groups and were used to grow all manner of flowers and vegetables.

There was an orchard and vegetable beds growing lots of different edibles.

The greenhouses were also worth taking a look at and incorporated some beautiful floral displays of less hardy plants.

It was a wonderful place to visit on a lovely summer's day and the dog could along come too. Definitely worth checking out if you are in the area.