Come with me along a winding trail that meanders through trees, alongside hills and next to ancient resting places. A place where people have loved, lived and died. Listen closely as their voices are thrown to the wind, preserved by the trees in their trunks, released only occasionally for those chosen to follow the path. Share the experience of the sun warming your face just like it did for the explorers from the east. Remember what was before, live what is now and imagine what will be as you wander along.
Source: Wikipedia
Anthemis tinctoria ‘E.C.Buxton’
Anthemis maritima
Further information:
How to grow Anthemis- Telegraph article
Anthemis marschalliana– silver foliage
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Source and further information:
National Trust Website
The entrance to the workhouse as it looked in the early 1900’s – the well house stands next to the person (gardener?) to the rear
As can be seen from the old photograph the main approach to the Workhouse was once a rather grand affair – a heart-shaped island of formal lawns and borders surrounded by a circular drive. To the front, huge iron gates and a much smaller wooden door provided the entrances from the forbidding outer wall of the complex. The smaller door was the main pedestrian entrance to the workhouse being next to the porter’s lodge, the man who controlled the arrival and departure of Workhouse inmates. This door today still carries the solid metal knocker shaped into a clasped hand around a metal bar – a hint of the prison-like existence to come for the new inmates! They must have entered here with very mixed emotions – relief at having somewhere to get a square(ish) meal and a warm (ish) bed, mixed with guilt at not being able to fend for their families and anxiety about the harsh regime they were entering.
The ‘Yew Tree border’ in front of the chapel- before the Yews were reduced
Towards the main building, but long since demolished, once stood a small building enclosing the Workhouse well (still visible in the old photograph) and the front of the 18th century main building once carried a magnificent Wisteria clambering up and along the warm red brickwork. This was, apparently, cut down to the ground by an over – enthusiastic work placement trainee about thirty years ago! A small rooted area remains and is being carefully trained up the walls once more, in the hope of restoring this once glorious feature. To the side the workhouse chapel is fronted by a small border which is dominated by two Yews and a cherry tree with spring bulbs and other under – planting. Recently these Yews were reduced in width in an attempt to provide a more open, sunny site for the other planting (and increase the width of the adjacent paths). The hard cut – back has improved the shape and balance of the border whilst not harming the Yews, where new growth has begun.
The magnificent Copper Beech Tree in autumn
To the right of the main approach sits a majestic old Copper Beech tree (which gave its name to the Old People’s Home that succeeded the workhouse after the 2nd World war – ‘Beech House’). This area was originally sub divided by walls into exercise yards and a playground for the adjoining boys school, and in later years for those in the nearby infirmary (and featuring two revolving wooden tuberculosis pavilions). There is also an avenue of beech trees on the approach to the Workhouse believed to be 150 years old.
There is some evidence that the southern section of this area, adjoining the modern café was laid out as a formal ‘garden’ but the historical accuracy of this is uncertain. Today this area houses a semi – permanent marquee used for the many events now taking place at the Museum. A large expanse of grass (useful for picnicking for the Museum’s many summer visitors) is surrounded by areas of planting including an isolated Crab Apple tree, planted in more recent years as a memorial to a former member of the Norfolk Archaeology Department (also housed on the site).
There is also a long south – facing border of mixed shrubs adjoining the walls of the former workhouse, some of which are now rather large for their position adjacent to the building. Others – such as several clumps of Boston Ivy – clamber up the walls and are vigorous enough to get under the eaves and into the roof! Recently these shrubs have been pruned to try to restore their scale and shape as well as encouraging new growth, with some success. And spring bulbs also provide splashes of colour underneath the mainly evergreen shrubs. But a perennial problem is the rabbit population which have burrows in this border and which also occasionally escape into some of the adjoining gardens to wreak havoc!
Shrubs in front of the southern wall of the old Workhouse- showing the arcading that was once open
The walls here still show the evidence of the (once open) arcading that sheltered individual ‘cottages’ for families living in the workhouse. This was before its daily routine became harsher in the mid 19th century, when inmates were divided by sex and age and so families were split up.
One of the borders in the Cafe Garden
Today’s cafe building was once a fever or isolation ward commonly known as the ‘itch ward’. More recently this was the Museum’s Education Centre, for which a garden was laid out by volunteers in the 1980’s. This was further remodelled into the current space, presumably upon creation of the café and now houses a delightful, smaller courtyard garden of mixed borders with picnic tables.
Today’s courtyard on an event day at the Museum
Other posts in this series:
Gypsies, tramps and thieves: garden where once poor trod at Norfolk Museum
Cottage garden recreates 1930’s at Norfolk Museum
Old Workhouse Garden a wildlife oasis at Norfolk Museum
Unique heritage gardens at Norfolk museum
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Source and further information:
National Trust Website
Crocus ‘Jeanne d’Arc’
Crocus (plural: crocuses, croci) is part of the Iris family and consists of around 90 species. They are perennials, growing from corms. Cultivated mainly for their flowers which appear in autumn, winter, or spring, Crocuses are also cultivated and harvested for Saffron– the spice obtained from the flower’s anthers. This practice was first documented in the Mediterranean, notably on the island of Crete. Saffron’s bitter taste and hay-like fragrance is complimented by its rich golden-yellow hue, used to colour food and textiles.It has been traded and used for over four thousand years. Iran now accounts for approximately 90 percent of the world production of Saffron. Because each flower’s anthers need to be collected by hand and there are only a few per flower, Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world.
The name Crocus is derived from the Greek (krokos), which in turn is probably derived from a Semitic or Sanskrit word, which mean saffron or saffron yellow. Over the years the classification of Crocus species has been revised several times, the division of the many species challenging botanists because of the range of characteristics that are available for scrutiny. Some of the species are:
C. aureus = golden
C. biflorus = two – flowered – the ‘Scotch Crocus’
C. chrysanthus = golden – flowered
C. minimus = smallest
C. nudiflorus = naked flowered
C. ochroleucus = yellowish – white
C. sativus = The Saffron Crocus
C. sieberi = after Sieber, a botanist
C. susianus = from Susa, Persia
C. vernus = spring flowering- the Dutch or Spring Crocuses are derived from this species
C. versicolour = changing or varied colour
The first crocus seen in the Netherlands, where crocus species are not native, were from corms brought back in the 1560s from Constantinople by the Holy Roman Emperor’s ambassador who sent a few corms to the botanical garden in Leiden. By 1620, new garden varieties had been developed. Some species, known as “autumn crocus”, flower in late summer and autumn, often before their leaves appear. They should not be confused with Colchicum, a different genus of autumn – flowering plants.
At the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, in 1987, Reader’s Digest sponsored the planting of 1.6 million corms of cultivated Dutch crocus for their 50th anniversary. A further 750,000 corms of C. vernus ‘Jeanne d’Arc’ and C. vernus ‘Purpureus grandiflorus’ have been planted since – a visit to Kew to see this ‘Crocus Carpet’ is a must.Sources and further information:
The Alpine House – information
National Crocus collection – Wisley
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The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew… is an internationally important botanical research and education institution with 700 staff and an income of £56 million for the year ended 31 March 2008, as well as a visitor attraction receiving almost two million visits in that year. Created in 1759, the gardens celebrated their 250th anniversary in 2009.
The Gardens.. contain the world’s largest collection of living plants… The living collections inlcude more than 30,000 different kinds of plants, while the herbarium, which is one of the largest in the world, has over seven million preserved plant specimens. The library contains more than 750,000 volumes, and the illustrations collection contains more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants. The Kew site includes four Grade I listd buildings and 36 Grade II listed structures in an internationally significant landscape.’
Source : Wikipedia
In part one of this series of posts I outlined a few tips on getting your School Garden project up and running. If you’ve got the key people on board, identified what the overall aims and objectives of the project are and hopefully secured some start-up funding and promises of help, it’s time to get serious about the design of your Garden. Here are seven ideas to help you…1. Who will be using your space and what are their needs? It’s important to think about the range of users and why they’ll want to use your garden. Yes, children, but what numbers and ages? During the school day or afterwards? Will parents or the wider community want to get involved? And just what sorts of activities will your garden need to support: growing food, outdoor play, studying nature, formal lessons (in some sort of shelter?) etc.? It’s important to list these and start to see what they suggest in terms of the overall layout of different areas, spaces, structures etc
2. Survey and appraise your site– you may have your area already defined by walls, fences, hedges etc. or perhaps you’re confined to an area of the playgrround. In any event it’s important to accurately measure out the plot. From these measurements you can create a scale drawing (say 1cm = 1 metre) and any key features that are likely to remain – e.g water taps; significant slopes; trees; hedges; types of soil (you can see if it needs improving and what the pH is by using a simple test kit); the way the site lies (in relation to sun, wind, prevailing rainfall etc.) and how the site is accessed. It’s also worth checking on the current maintenance regime and who’s responsible for this (e.g. if you’re thinking of taking over an area of sports field that is regularly mown).
A gathering place like this shelter is probably important
3. Think about basic needs:
Get some child -sized tools
4. Get the children involved (and your wider support group) – you will by now have a good idea about what could be in the garden and you need to share these ideas and discuss others with the children who’ll be using the space and those key adults (teachers, parents etc.) who will also want to feel the project is theirs. You can devise some fun ways of engaging these people, perhaps involving n a loose outline drawing of the plot and your first ideas in pictorial form (e.g photos cut out from magazines), from where children can be asked to draw/write/otherwise think about and convey their ideas and wants for their garden (I can guarantee someone will want a swimming pool!). This will generate interest and ownership of the project.
Raised beds, narrow enough to allow access to the centre without walking on the soil
5. Options for planting – depending on what you want to grow and the space you have available I guess you’ll either be planting in containers (pots, planters and all sorts of quirky planters too), open beds (which have their edges cut into the surrounding ground, often grass) or raised beds– these are edged with boards or other timber and so help to define the growing areas (especially for food crops). If the sides are about 20cms high they can be used to contain additions of manure/compost from year to year as you build up the soil’s goodness and structure. Raised beds can be to varying heights to cater for different ages of children, but ideally they need to be narrow enough to be tilled from the surrounding pathways so that feet don’t trample and compress the growing areas. Rectangular beds are probably the most efficient shape. These beds can be constructed using pressure – treated timber or alternatively there are several places where ‘ready to assemble’ kits can be purchased. If you want to avoid too much digging of the soil (this can be detrimental to its structure) you can just lay a covering of organic material over the beds each year (taking note of the requirements of different groups of plant if growing food) and lightly fork this top-dressing in as you begin the growing season.
How about a plastic bottle greenhouse?
6. Go beyond basic needs– it’s important to focus on basic needs in developing your designs, but if we just stick to the functional requirements, we will miss an important opportunity to make the School Garden exciting, fun and an experience for all the senses! So, think about growing herbs and other plants which have differing fragrances, leaf textures, colours and are in other ways interesting – tall grasses that catch the sunlight and bend in the wind for example, or Stachys (‘Lambs’ Ears’), which has wonderful velvety leaves, Lavender for that midsummer heady smell! Likewise Sunflowers are a wonderful example of the power of nature as they shoot up to enormous heights and beauty starting from little seeds that the children can sow themselves. Similarly, children can get involved in producing signs for different parts of the garden, another way to make them feel that this is their garden and make it look funky too!
A simple scale model helps to convey your design
7. Consult on an outline plan – once you’ve taken all of the above into account you can firm up your plans on paper and maybe even produce a simple 3D cardboard/ scrap model of how your garden could look! Models are especially useful for getting children (and adults) to imagine just what features there are and what the layout will look like. This could go on display at the School for a week or two and you can invite people to put their views on sticky notes nearby so that everyone can see who’s saying what. Gather these up and then with your committee/support team work out those which should be incorporated into the scheme.
Sources & Further information:
‘How to grow a School Garden’ – Arden Bucklin-Spooner and Rachel Kathleen Pringle, Timber Press Books
Budding Gardeners- lots of advice and info
Food & Agriculture Organisation School Garden Planner
California School Garden Network Guide to School Gardening
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Nigel Boldero aka 'Old School Gardener'
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