Signs of spring

"Snowdrops are a beautiful sign that brighter days are coming. They are an absolute joy – lifting our spirits in the depths of winter”. That’s why these delicate flowers feature so prominently in the 3-acre garden of artist and sculptor Gemma Kate Wood at the Wye Valley Sculpture Garden in Tintern.

Keen to share the joy of these tiny blooms, Gemma opens her garden on select weekends in early February. There is a staggering array of over 70 varieties of snowdrops planted in the garden, and around 30 varieties are available for sale.

The garden’s story goes back to the 1950s, when her grandparents set up an organically run small-holding on this sloping site in the Wye Valley. It continues to be a family affair: Gemma’s parents, Elsa and Adrian, who set about planting snowdrops four decades ago, help with the planning, propagating, compost making, mowing and weeding.

In addition to gardening, artist Gemma pours her creative energies into sculpture, photography, painting and glasswork – all deeply rooted in the landscape. Most of her sculptures are made from natural materials gathered from this very terrain, and created in her garden studio. Now an integral feature of the garden, her sculptures are dotted throughout the garden.

This “organic garden celebrating plants, art and wildlife” is the perfect spot for a moment of quiet reflection and appreciation of the natural world. Wordsworth, who described the snowdrop as the “harbinger of spring”, was so captivated by the “green pastoral landscape” of the Wye Valley when he visited in 1798, that he captured it in his poem “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey”. The gorgeous swathes of snowdrops in the Wye Valley Sculpture Garden are the perfect reason to visit this spring. You’ll also spot snowdrops on the Wye Valley Walk between Redbrook and Whitebrook, and the 7.5 mile circular Clytha and Coed y Bwnydd Walk near Raglan.

Signs of spring are popping up all over Monmouthshire. Many of our old churchyards are managed with wildlife in mind, so you’ll be greeted by cheery birdsong and dashes of colour - primroses, wood anemones, cowslips. For a spectacular display of daffodils, have a wander around the churchyard of Penallt Old Church, near Monmouth. Priory Wood, an ancient woodland near Usk, puts on a splendid show of wood sorrel, bluebells and wild garlic.

If you’re tempted to try growing a few things yourself, head to the Gardeners’ Kitchen in Llanellen, where Amy and Simon have a shelf full of seeds which they’ve saved from the crops they grow in their market garden. You’re invited to help yourself to these interesting varieties, in exchange for some of your spare seeds which other people might like. While you’re there, treat yourself to some of their freshly-made produce including scotch eggs, pakora and cakes. Then, get planting and look forward to a tasty harvest later this year.

Enjoy these videos, produced by Gemma from the Wye Valley Sculpture Garden, as you plan your spring days out in Monmouthshire.