Hocus Crocus Gardens & Trees · Hampsthwaite and Birstwith, Nidd Valley
Gardeners in Hampsthwaite and Birstwith
Rated 4.5 from 19 Google reviews
Hocus Crocus Gardens & Trees looks after gardens in Hampsthwaite and Birstwith. Both villages sit on the River Nidd, Hampsthwaite just north west of Harrogate and Birstwith a little further up the dale. We are on this stretch of the valley most weeks. They share a page here because they share a history: Birstwith was a township within the ancient parish of Hampsthwaite and only became a separate civil parish in 1866. They also share the two jobs we are called about most often along this stretch of the valley, which are lawns and ponds.
Free visit and a written price. No hard sell.
WhatsApp Karen a photo of your garden Call Karen on 07816 779 064
Lawns that run down to water
The Nidd valley grows very good grass and then makes you work for it. Gardens here tend to fall towards the river or a beck, so the bottom of the lawn stays wet long after the top has dried out, and cutting both halves the same way is how you end up with rutting, moss and a bare strip along the wet edge. The local benchmark for what a garden in this valley can be is Birstwith Hall at High Birstwith: four acres in a secluded dale with a formal garden, an ornamental orchard, extensive lawns running down to a stream, a large pond, a walled garden and a Victorian greenhouse, opened to the public for the National Garden Scheme. We do not look after Birstwith Hall, but it is the right thing to have in your head when you are deciding what your own lawn could be. We mow to a schedule, edge and cut in the beds, reshape where the line has wandered over the years, rake the moss out, feed and overseed, and lay new turf where the old lawn has given up entirely.
Highly recommended. Karen and her team were extremely knowledgeable, professional and efficient. Stripped back our overgrown garden and provided invaluable advice. Can't recommend enough! Thanks!
Brendan B.
Google review
Acidic ground on gritstone
The dale is gritstone over limestone, which gives the acidic Millstone Grit soils that run right through Nidderdale, and knowing that before you spend money on planting saves a great deal of disappointment. Rhododendron, azalea, pieris, camellia and blueberries are all at home in Hampsthwaite and Birstwith gardens and will get on with it without much help. Lime lovers such as lavender and dianthus sulk unless the bed is built for them, and a hydrangea will quietly change colour on you. Where the ground is behaving oddly Karen can take a soil analysis rather than guess, and she plants for bees, insects and wildlife wherever the scheme allows it.
Old trees, old boundaries and the church
Hampsthwaite is an old settlement and the trees show it. St Thomas a Becket's Church has a 15th century tower on a site where the first recorded church dates from around 1180, and the mature trees and long established boundaries in that part of the village are exactly the sort we get called to: large, close to a building or a road, and well worth checking for a Tree Preservation Order before anyone starts cutting, which we do as a matter of course. Inside the church stands a large white marble monument to the composer Amy Woodforde-Finden, sculpted by George Edward Wade, which is a fair reminder that this is a village where things have been looked after for a long time and people notice when they are not. We work to BS 3998, we are NPTC approved, and we carry out crown reduction, crown lifting, thinning, felling, sectional dismantling and stump removal, and we can give you guidance on the council Tree Preservation Order and conservation area notices you need.
More about Hampsthwaite
Ponds, becks and blanketweed
Ponds are the service almost nobody else around the area offers, and this valley is full of them, from proper ornamental pools to old field ponds that simply came with the house. Left alone they silt up, blanketweed takes the surface in the first warm week of May, and the frogs and the fish lose out. We clear and treat ponds with an eco friendly work ethic where nature takes priority and natural habitats are preserved, we can supply water plants to encourage more wildlife in, and we jet wash pond edging, stonework and water features where they need it. If your pond is fed by a beck coming off the moor rather than by a hose, say so when you ring, because the timing and the treatment are both different.
The services these two villages ask us for
Lawns and ponds lead, and the rest follows. Lawn mowing, lawn care and turfing for the sloping riverside lawns. Pond treatment and maintenance for the ornamental pools and the old field ponds. Regular garden maintenance to keep borders, edges and beds in order through the year. And tree surgery to BS 3998 for the mature trees along the Nidd. Each page sets out what is included and how the price is worked out.
What else we cover nearby
Hampsthwaite and Birstwith are on our regular round rather than a special trip. On the same run we cover Clint, Felliscliffe, Kettlesing, Darley and Burnt Yates, and both villages appear on our areas we cover page. Head back up the dale and you reach Summerbridge and Dacre Banks where we are based; head east instead and you are in Killinghall, with Harrogate beyond it. Ring Karen on 07816 779 064 and tell her which village and which end of it you are on.
Before and after
Jobs we have finished
Karen's own photographs from recent jobs.
Other towns we cover
- Harrogate
- Killinghall
- Knaresborough
- Boroughbridge
- Ripon
- Summerbridge
- Wetherby
- Every area we cover
- Clint
- Felliscliffe
- Kettlesing
- Darley
- Burnt Yates
- Ripley
Not answered here? Call Karen on 07816 779 064.
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