Colebrooke Kitchen Garden

19/05/2026

Thank you to all of the people who came to visit us at Colebrooke Kitchen Garden - we loved meeting everyone and sharing the delights of our wonderful walled garden.

18/05/2026

🥬 Cabbage collars might not look glamorous, but they’re one of the simplest little heroes in the veg garden!

These homemade rings — usually cut from cardboard, felt, or recycled plastic — sit snugly around the base of young brassicas like cabbage, kale, broccoli, and cauliflower. Their job? To stop cabbage root flies from laying eggs near the stem, where hungry larvae can devastate plants overnight.

A tiny barrier can make a huge difference 🌱

It’s a lovely reminder that good gardening doesn’t always need chemicals or expensive gadgets — sometimes it’s the humble, practical solutions that work best. Plus, making collars from recycled materials is a brilliant way to garden more sustainably

If your brassicas have ever mysteriously wilted, cabbage collars are definitely worth trying this season!

13/05/2026

Boris the dog and the whole Colebrooke Walled Garden team look forward to welcoming you to the 2026 Colebrooke Flower Festival which takes place from this Friday, May 15 to Sunday, May 17, 2026.

Hosted by Lord and Lady Brookeborough, this event features stunning floral displays within the house, church, and gardens, supporting local charities.

Location: Colebrooke House & Parish Church, BT94 4DW.

09/05/2026

Produce for our monthly summer markets is coming along nicely! Such a beautiful time of year as the fruits of the early Spring gardening is pushing through across the garden.

We hope to be back around the end of June with our delicious chemical-free fruit and vegetables but also with some of our own rather special products to enjoy alongside your green goodies.

Don’t forget, Monday’s is our volunteer day so if you fancy a bit of seasonal hands-on-the-soil feeling, just PM us to find out a bit more.

06/05/2026

Read all about our wonderful charity Flower Festival in The Impartial Reporter this week.

The festival will run from Friday, May 15 from 5pm to 8pm, Saturday, May 16 from 11am to 6pm and Sunday, May 17, from 12noon to 6pm.

“Marvel at the extraordinary flower arrangements, designed and curated by Timothy Elliot of The Manor Garden Centre in Lisnaskea, as they complement the beauty of the historic rooms. The enchanting walled garden, dating back to the early 1900's, has been carefully restored over the past decade. It now boasts orchards of heritage apple trees and a dazzling array of fruit and vegetables.”

Click the link for the full article with all the details of what to look forward to. https://www.impartialreporter.com/news/26079322.colebrooke-park-open-doors-spectacular-flower-festival/?fbclid=IwdGRjcARnxZdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEetBdHwokg8miLW0o9xjEvgAMksjoK_o1oujYOCMI7_A2JhWtXLtmfA1YICyI_aem_god1jam3lgjEb-Ik2hgtQQ

Fermanagh Lakelands fans Island Flowers by Sarah Irish Country Living Belfast Telegraph Irish Gardens BBC Gardeners World The Walled Garden Helen's Bay Colebrooke Flower Festival

Colebrooke Park, the historic stately home of the Brooke family, is inviting the public to experience its stunning flower festival, showcasing…

03/05/2026

🍃 Many of you know and love Colebrooke Kitchen Garden for its beautiful produce and peaceful setting. Alongside the food-growing, monthly seasonal market, veg boxes, and horticulture in the walled garden, we’ve also been nurturing something just as important for many years — a space for nature therapy, counselling, and gentle wellbeing support.

To help this side of our work grow and reach more people, we’ve created a new page on Facebook: Colebrooke Therapeutic Garden and on Instagram: Colebrooke_tg.

These new pages will focus on the healing power of nature — sharing stories, insights, and opportunities to connect, reflect, and restore in the garden.

If you’ve enjoyed following us here, we’d be so grateful if you could head over and give our new page a follow and a share. It means a lot as we continue to grow this meaningful part of our work.

Thank you, as always, for being part of our community 🌱

If you know someone who might benefit from working with one of the team, or if you feel you would like to reach out for some therapeutic sessions yourself, feel free to send us a message and we’ll get straight back to you. Happy May Day weekend!

01/05/2026

The apple blossom in Colebrooke Kitchen Garden feels like a quiet kind of magic — fleeting, delicate, and full of promise. For just a short while, the trees are transformed, every branch dusted with blooms that hint at the fruit to come.

From this glorious blossom to an abundant harvest and then to our own apple cider vinegars and chutneys, it all begins here 🍎

Fermanagh Lakelands

13/04/2026

First Swallows spotted! Are yours home yet?

08/04/2026

You could be forgiven for thinking these pictures of white and purple flowers with thick black stripes are orchids couldn’t you? But our humble broadbeans with their flamboyant flowers are more than just a pretty face.

The flower of the broadbean (Vicia faba) has built-in “nectar guides”. Those striking markings on its petals aren’t just for show. They act like runway lights for pollinators, especially bees, guiding them straight to the nectar.

Only relatively heavy insects like bumblebees can properly “trip” the flower’s mechanism to release pollen. As they land, their weight forces the flower open in just the right way, dusting them with pollen and ensuring effective pollination.

So that bold black blotch isn’t decorative, it’s a clever signal and part of a finely tuned partnership between plant and pollinator 🌱🐝

03/04/2026

🥕 A GOOD FRIDAY! 🥕 We’re grateful for a dry April day today with our bed preparations well underway.

We’ve also been putting up some protection from carrot root fly in the polytunnels. No bunny risk here thankfully!

Whatever you are up to in your own garden this weekend - from composting to egg hunting - the Colebrooke Garden team wishes you a very happy Easter!