Back to a Wednesday for my latest session at Blickling, and I joined a num ber of fellow volunteers in the ‘Secret Garden’ for a tidy up.
We forked and hoed our way around the clumps of ferns, and other plants just coming into life and after a couple fo hours you could see we’d been, as barrow loads of leaves and a few weeds were consigned to a nearby trailer.
Just before lunch I went over to see how the Walled Garden was looking and found a few gardeners and volunteers well into concreting in the metal arches for the Apple Tunnel that had been awaiting its final positioning for a few weeks. I took the opportunity of sharing some pictures I’d taken of something similar at Gunby Hall, Lincolnshire, which I’d recently visited. This tunnel is made up of some pretty old timber arches and some very old apple trees, quite an impressive sight (I’ll share more of Gunby Hall in a further post, soon).
After lunch I spent an hour helping tidy up a narrow border to the side of the house, where, amongst other things a ‘Chocolate Vine’ had managed to grow along and up the walls, in a very haphazard manner…I decided to leave it intact rather than lose a lot of the growth, but we managed to remove a lot of dead leaves and cut back a few of the more straggly stems on a Cotoneaster.. As I signed out and passed through the double borders, the tulips were really coming into their own…
Further Information:
Blickling Hall website
Blickling Hall Facebook page
A 360 degree tour of Blickling Hall
Old School Gardener
Old School Garden 
LOL – I’m resisting the urge to clear out winter blankie of last year, from blooming green things, here, cuz I learned two years ago – “If I clear last years natural mulch away from the tulips, first cold snap, snow front that comes through in April will kill ’em” It’s been of small consolation that several older gardeners I’ve asked, declared, “Oh, yes, agree – I don’t clear out last year till last of May or so” Meanwhile, I post pics that say, “Um, yeah, there’s a reason why my garden looks so lazy – – ” LOL
thanks, yes I know the feeling, ‘to clear or not to clear?’!
Where would all the beautiful gardens be without their army of talented and dedicated volunteers? 🙂
Indeed! About 60 of them in the gardens at the last count!