Archive for May, 2015


PicPost: 4 Fishers

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22/05/2015
Four gulls on a groyne, Rottingdean, recently.

Four gulls on a groyne, Rottingdean, recently.

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Knole: Powerplay Gardening

Filed under: Heritage Gardens & gardening, Historic landscapes — Leave a comment
21/05/2015

WP_20150512_14_16_43_ProAnother trip out and another chance to visit some interesting and inspiring gardens last week. We travelled to see friends in Sussex and our lunch time stop was Knole near Sevenoaks, Kent, a large estate still owned by the Sackville family (of Vita fame) and part run by the National Trust. We were very lucky because we tipped up on a Tuesday, when the private Sackville gardens are open to the public, and we availed ourselves of a very engaging guided tour…

Beginning in the classical orangery, the tour wound its way around a fascinating garden, with some highlights to savour; the longest Wisteria on a wall outside China; the longest ‘Green Alley’ circumnavigating the walls of the garden; a champion fastigiate Oak tree and some wonderful azaleas with eye popping colour.

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The house- a splendid mix of architectural styles- is undergoing some major alterations, but the grounds and gardens are breathtaking. Wikipedia describes the estate:

‘a 1,000-acre (4.0 km2) park, within which the house is situated. Knole is one of England’s largest houses, the National Trust attribute a possibility of its having at some point been a calendar house which had 365 rooms, 52 staircases, 12 entrances and 7 courtyards. Its grade I listing reflects its mix of Elizabethan to late Stuart structures, particularly in the case of the central façade and state rooms. The surrounding deer park has also survived with little having changed in the 400 years since 1600 although its formerly dense woodland has not fully recovered from the loss of over 70% of its trees in the Great Storm of 1987….

As a walled garden, Knole’s is very large, at 26 acres (11 ha) (30 including the ‘footprint’ of the house) and as such is large enough to have the very unusual — and essentially medieval feature of a smaller walled garden inside itself (Hortus Conclusus). It contains many other features from earlier ages which have been wiped away in most country-house gardens: like the house, various landscapers have been employed to elaborate the design of its large gardens with distinctive features. These features include clair-voies, a patte d’oie, two avenues, and bosquet hedges.‘

WP_20150512_14_46_18_Pro Further information: National Trust website

Old School Gardener

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Front Gardens no more?

Filed under: Climate change and gardening, Design, Gardening techniques — 1 Comment
20/05/2015

Stunning Underground Garage Design Ideas With Hydraulic SystemMy friend Les sent me this link to an item on BBC News, which makes for interesting, if not surprising and worrying reading…

Old School Gardener

 

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PicPost: 3 Fishers

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Fishermen on a groyne at Rottingdean, Sussex recently...

Fishermen on a groyne at Rottingdean, Sussex recently…

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Mile Cross Intergenerational Gardening Project

Filed under: Community Gardening, School and childrens' Gardening — 4 Comments
19/05/2015

SteveHere’s a link to a nice little film about this project which my Master Gardener friend Steve has helped to set up and develop. A great example of the generations working with each other.

Steve has run many growing sessions that bring together old and young members of the community for their mutual benefit. He played a key role in establishing the Project in autumn 2011 with children from Catton Grove Primary School, older volunteers from Age UK, and staff from Mile Cross library, Norwich.

As well as learning about growing food in a sustainable manner, the project helps older people enhance their social contact and sense of purpose, and provides children with mentoring and adult role models. Steve recalls,

“I delivered a presentation at Catton Grove School for the kids (yrs 4 and 5), teachers, and residents from sheltered housing close to the Library. There were 30-40 kids present and 7 potential volunteers. From that we got a few design ideas and a list of vegetables, herbs and flowers that they’d most like to grow.”

Old School Gardener

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PicPost: Artful Rolling

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18/05/2015
Carved lawn rollers by sculptor Eric Gill, at Ditchling Arts and Crafts Museum, Sussex

Carved lawn rollers by sculptor Eric Gill, at Ditchling Arts and Crafts Museum, Sussex

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Southwell Workhouse: Survival Gardening

Filed under: Heritage Gardens & gardening — 1 Comment
17/05/2015

WP_20150508_13_43_47_ProOur final garden visit whilst travelling home from the Lake District last week, was to Southwell workhouse, Nottinghamshire.

We’d begun, you might recall, with the landed gentry at Kedleston Hall, then seen something of Victorian commercial and scientific endeavour at Biddulph Grange. It somehow seems appropriate, then, to find ourselves in the midst of gardening at the other end of the social spectrum- the poor.

Built in 1824 as a place of last resort for the destitute, it’s architecture was influenced by prison design and its harsh regime became a blueprint for workhouses throughout the country. We went round this fascinating building with the benefit of a number of helpful room guides and an audio tape guide- they say the best pictures are on radio, and the sparsely- furnished rooms came alive in the colourful descriptions and ‘real time’ excerpts from the workhouse regime. The garden is, as you might expect, exclusively for food growing, and though it is more of a demonstration of more general Victorian horticultural pratices, it captures the spirit of how gardening was practiced in the workhouse.

The cultivation of a garden and the rearing of livestock was frequently a feature of workhouse operation. There were a number reasons for this, mostly aimed at reducing the cost of providing poor relief. First, a garden could provide the workhouse with a cheap and ready source of food. Any surplus or unwanted produce could be sold off and provide funds for the running of the house. Another benefit of a garden was that it offered a convenient and regular form of employment for the inmates of the workhouse. Finally, training pauper children in agricultural or horticultural work could equip them with skills that would make them employable in their later life, rather than being a drain on the parish.

WP_20150508_14_43_04_ProSources and further information:

National Trust website

Workhouse Gardens and Farms

Old School Gardener

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PicPost: Autumn in Spring

Filed under: Heritage Gardens & gardening, Historic landscapes, PicPosts- great photographs — 1 Comment
16/05/2015
Stoke Poges Memorial Gardens

Stoke Poges Memorial Gardens

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12 tips to save time in the garden: 12

Filed under: 12 tips to save time in the garden — 5 Comments
15/05/2015

The+joy+of+weeding_Weeding-

Tackle weeds early so they don’t have a chance to flower and then set seed- dig out perennial weeds and hoe out annual weeds on a dry day. Then cover any bare soil with a layer of mulch or ground-covering plants to smother new weeds before they get established. Control problem weeds with a weedkiller containing glyphosate.

Further information:

Weeds: non-chemical control-RHS

Dealing with weeds- BBC

Source: ‘Short Cuts to Great Gardens’ (Reader’s Digest 1999)

Old School Gardener

 

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PicPost: Takeover

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14/05/2015
Picture by Jo Snowden

Picture by Jo Snowden

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