Category: Community Gardening

Deja vu at Blickling

Filed under: Blickling Hall- rebirth of the Walled Garden, Community Gardening, Heritage Gardens & gardening — Leave a comment

13/10/2015

In among the ferns and foxgloves in the Orangery Garden

My latest session at Blickling was working in the Orangery Garden alongside the other volunteers. The aim – to weed the borders and thin out the latest crop of foxglove seedlings. It seemed only a week or two ago that we were here doing the same…

Still, despite an aching back the following day, it was worth the forking over to see the newly turned (and surprisingly damp) soil around the neatly spaced seedlings.

Dappled shade makes for a distinctive habitat

The grasses and late summer flowers are still looking good in the double borders, though the parterre garden is now on the wane and slipping slowly into autumn. It’s also that time of year for hedge cutting (as I know from Old School Garden) and fellow volunteer Peter was detailed to strim the grass alongside part of the mixed natural hedge that divides the gardens from the wider estate. The gardeners will soon be cutting this back.

Inside the Gardeners’ Bothy- we meet up, sign in and out and have lunch here…

Did you know that ‘strimming’ (a compound word of string and trim) is called ‘Whipper Snipping’ in Australia?! (thanks to my daughter’s boyfriend Shane for that one).

Do you recall the mystery plant I mentioned in my last Blickling post? Well it turns out to be Chelone obliqua (or ‘Turtlehead’ or ‘Twisted Shell flower’)…Here’s a picture of the example at Blickling…alongside a rather more floriferous shot from the RHS….

Chelone obliqua

Further Information:

Blickling Hall website

Blickling Hall Facebook page

A 360 degree tour of Blickling Hall

Old School Gardener

Tags: autumn, blickling, chelone obliqua, ferns, foxgloves, garden, late summer, national trust, norfolk, planting, turtlehead, twisted shell flower, weeding

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Picking Pumpkins at Blickling

Filed under: Blickling Hall- rebirth of the Walled Garden, Community Gardening, Heritage Gardens & gardening — 2 Comments

03/10/2015

It was great seeing how the pumpkins and squashes that I’d help to plant only a couple of months ago had taken over a large part of the walled garden.

On my most recent visit to blickling, together with new volunteer Gordon, I picked a large number and many heavy weight fruits on a bright, sunny day. We then managed to fill two trailers with the remaining foliage and stems and raked over the ground to leave it for weedkilling action; Project Manager Mike doesn’t like to use chemicals like this, but manpower is limited so it’s a must do in the short term to keep the ground under control.

The pumpkins will probabaly be used in the Hall’s forthcoming Hallowe’en events and the squashes in the restaurant, so its good to see that the developing kitchen garden is continuing to be of practical value.

After that we joined the ladies in weeding the well stocked veg patch along the south facing wall. This all looks very neat, healthy and tidy, despite the threat of rabbits and pigeons.

The Gardens continue to show a great range of colours and textures with Japanese Anemones, Sedums and various grass flowers now adding their sublety to the mix…

Last week I commented on how pleased I was at being able to identify (with their latin botanical names) three plants I was asked about by visitors. I said then it was probably a fluke, and sure enough this day, when asked by a visitor to name a rather unusual pink flower in the double borders, I was stumped- but then again so was another volunteer and one of the gardening staff! I’m trying to find out its name; I think it might be a Salvia of some sort- I’ll post a picture, and its name in my next Blickling post!