Tag Archive: blickling
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!
Further Information:
Blickling Hall website
Blickling Hall Facebook page
A 360 degree tour of Blickling Hall
Old School Gardener
My last session at Blickling Hall involved a lot of weeding along paths in the double borders- which continue to look superb as late summer flower colour is added to by the flourishing grasses.
Path weeding…never ending….
The White Borders are also looking particularly good, and the Penstemons seem to be hanging on too.
One of the pleasures of volunteering in the gardens is getting to meet and talk with the visitors, many of whom have great gardening experience. On this occasion I was asked the names of three different plants in the borders and I rather surprised myself that I knew all of their latin names! Must be a fluke…
The last person to ask me seemed more than usually interested in the latin names; it turned out he was a chemist and knew latin pretty well, so was able to translate some of the more common terms for describing colours, flower and foliage form etc.
Eupatorium (‘Joe Pye Weed’)- one of those latin names…
I was also amazed to see how tall the Pawlonia had grown and with such huge leaves! You may recall me being given the task earlier in the year of pruning these back; it certainly seems to have paid off.
Pawlonia- massive foliage
Further Information:
Blickling Hall website
Blickling Hall Facebook page
A 360 degree tour of Blickling Hall
Old School Gardener
My muscles were decidedly stiff after being away from gardening for a couple of weeks. But my latest session of volunteer gardening at Blickling was very enjoyable. The team was on good form and we had lots of news to share, not least that two of the volunteers had just secured jobs, one starting that very afternoon and the other to take up a role as an Assistant Gardener at Blickling!
My session began on the edge of the car park backing the Walled Garden, where earlier in the year I’d helped Project Manager Mike prune some wall fruit and tidy up a rather messy edge where weeds had forced their way through tarmac and concrete to ‘adorn’ the old red brick walls. It was a case of ‘more of the same’ a few months on, and I was pleased with the results…see picture below.
So, after an hour here it was back to the walled garden proper with the rest fo the team to wed and mulch one of the new beds brought into cultivation, this one containing a wide range of flowers. Again, a pleasing result after a couple of hours…
Weeding nearly done…
After mulching with some ‘black gold’…
This bed is at the ‘frontier’ of the newly cultivated areas in the walled garden, which I suppose must now be about a quarter in productive use. So still a long way to go in achieving the vision of a rejuvenated garden, but some steady progress. I was especially pleased to see that the first lengths of metal path edging had gone in, which start to ‘shape up’ the whole plot.
Metal edging starting to define the beds in the Walled Garden
And the pumpkins and squashes I helped to plant out have gone to town, providing lush cover to a large area of the garden….
I took some time to look around the main area of cultivation in the Walled Garden and I must say, all credit to Mike and the team as the rows of vegetables and cut flowers look great. And it seems the rustic supports that Peter and I put up are doing their job supporting a promising crop of runner beans and sweet- smelling sweet peas….
I’ve never seen such beautful onions!
runner beans on the long supports
Sweet peas on the ‘wigwams’
Mulberries now in fruit
I couldn’t help notice that the formal gardens – the parterres and double borders- were also full of summer colour; the reds, oranges and yellows of the double borders (including some impressive dahlias I helped to plant out) looking particularly impressive….
Oh, and the white border continues to look a treat….
Old School Gardener
My latest visit to Blickling focused on the Moat- which runs along three sides of the Hall- and tidying the well stocked borders and edging the fine turf.
I also popped along to the Walled Garden and saw Mike the Project Manager hoeing out weeds among the ever- expanding growing areas. The main plot looked splendid.
Old School Gardener
My mother-in-law's Paul's Himalayan Musk rose looking good, but too big for it's pergola...
OK, I’m sorry that my blog posts have dried up for a while. My excuse? Decorating. Trying to get bedrooms back in commission to house our returning brood has pretty much put paid to garden blogging over the last couple of weeks- and pretty much put paid to gardening for that matter.
Yesterday I did finally manage to plant out some cauliflowers and purple sprouting broccoli and prune my fan and column fruit trees. My volunteer sessions at Blickling Hall and Gressenhall Farm & Workhouse Museum have also been short and sharp.
In fact I’m sitting here with my new(ish) tablet at 6am trying to compose a post as my normal computer is only just emerging from layers of dust covers and, yes, dust.
So, my apologies and I promise to get back into routine in the next couple of weeks, gradually…
To whet your whistle here are a few posts that are waiting in line:
A wonderful trip to Holland Park, featuring a Japanese garden
Two recent sessions at Blickling including a visit to the Rose Garden
A fascinating outing to two superb gardens near home and not normally open to the public; Oxnead Hall and Corpusty Mill
A review of a rather useful cordless chainsaw I’ve been sent, including how it helped me (and my new neighbours) see the end of a thug of an ivy tree (I joke not), that was invading our border areas.
And, as usual, I’ll be threading in some lovely PicPosts and, hopefully, useful tips to keep you on your gardening toes!
As a little something to keep you going here’s a link to a nice little clip about volunteer gardening at Gressenhall, which features a newt named Nigel!
I’ll be in touch. Promise.
Old School Gardener
Another two week break from Blickling, and this week’s session was hot, hot, hot!
Shorts (well, nearly), were the order of the day along with my new National Trust polo shirt. I joined the other volunteers in the Orangery Garden initially, weeding among the Hellebores and ferns, an area I’d helped tackle earlier in the season, but which now was awash with Foxglove seedlings.
The Orangery Border after its weed…
Quite satisfying working in the shade and after a good shower of rain a few days before, working my border fork around the plants and leaving the odd seedling where there was an obvious gap. The ladies and I managed to clear one of the island beds just before lunch, and a couple of us then went over with gardener Rob to the Double Borders to continue filling gaps with Dahlia tubers, some not looking up to much, but we shall see…
The Parterre looking neat and with early hints at the colour to come…
These borders, typical of many British gardens at this time of year, have completed the first spring rush of fresh foliage and flower colour and are giving way to the clipped forms of shrubs and the more subtle colouring and tones that presage a later summer riot of colour, which I look forward to seeing. To add a further bit of interest, there’s also currently a sculpture display in the gardens, featuring some lovely stained glass and various shells.
The garden team have obviously been busy in recent weeks filling the gaps left by the spring bulbs with a host of annuals, all looking ready to romp away. The plant that yielded most visitor interest while we were planting was the Beetroot (‘Bulls blood’) which had been cleverly grouped at the front of the borders and gives a really vibrant splash of red when the other colours around at this time are more muted. Well, we finished our planting task in good time as the warmth of the day reached its peak…
Beetroot ‘Bull’s Blood’ causing a stir in the Double Borders
And later I came along for another ‘roasting’- a most enjoyable ‘Hog Roast’ put on by the Trust as a ‘thank you’ for staff and volunteers. I had a good chat with Head Gardener, Paul and a couple of other volunteers, one who acts as a room guide in the House, the other as a guide in the R.A.F. Oulton Museum on site. There was a Jazz band and the food was scrummy too.
Further Information:
Blickling Hall website
Blickling Hall Facebook page
A 360 degree tour of Blickling Hall
Old School Gardener
Two weeks on and I was finally back in the Walled Garden at Blickling this week.
I arrived later than usual as I was giving a talk to a group called ‘Inspired Gardeners’ in Aylsham. 25 gardeners were inspired enough to turn up and hear me talk about Water Management in the Methodist Hall. What a splendid group they are, with my session but one in a packed programme of talks and garden visits to keep them on their (senior) toes! I’ll put together a precis of the Water Management talk and feature it in a future article.
The handful of other garden volunteers were hard at it weeding under the large Mulberry Tree in the Walled Garden, but I was detailed by Project Manager Mike to help him plant out some Pumpkins, the first things to go into the newly cultivated borders in the Walled Garden! The digging on one of the hottest days of the year so far certainly generated some perspiration, even after only half an hour, before we paused for lunch.
Pumpkins with space to invade
Mike raking the soil tidy around the new planting
Irrigation system nearly ready for action
After lunch we pressed on and in total put in some 36 plants of different varieties. Mike’s thinking is to get something going in the new borders, even if it isn’t part of the full and final plan for the different spaces, just to get the ground covered and producing something; pumpkins with their ‘space invader’ habit are perfect for that.
After loosening up the bottom of each generous planting hole we filled them with plenty of farmyard manure, mixed this with loose soil and put in the well-watered plants, which had been inside the (very full) Greenhouse. We created a saucer-like depression around each mounded plant to encourage water gathering around the roots and then topped off each with some organic ‘rocket fuel’ and a generous mulch of more manure (having given each plant a good soaking).
Very satisfying seeing something going into the new borders, and hopefully it won’t be long before more things are introduced. Certainly the irrigation seems to have been fully installed and I gather the metal edging for the paths will be done in the next month or two as the other members of the gardening team have a little more time on their hands to help with this mammoth job.
I mentioned in my last post a rather lovely ‘artist’s impression’ of the regenerated Walled Garden and I’m grateful to Mike for sending me a copy, which I set out for you to see below. It was done by local artist Fiona Gowen.
Having a few minutes to spare I planted a few Basil and Lettuce plants near the front of the main cultivated strip of the Walled Garden, which all in all is starting to look very good, as the various vegetables and flowers are bulking out and putting on colour.
I also had the chance to see the beautiful, blousy Peonies which, two weeks on, were now getting fully into their stride.
Further Information:
Blickling Hall website
Blickling Hall Facebook page
A 360 degree tour of Blickling Hall
Old School Gardener
Yesterday’s session at Blickling was spent planting 6 million Penstemons ( I exaggerate)…
Chance would have it that the day I was to spend on my knees in the Long Borders, was the first day I’d wear shorts! Having finished off raking the bare soil, my fellow volunteers and I set to work planting out a large number of over wintered plants, which were brought over from the Walled Garden for us. The system worked well- a couple of helpers bringing plants to the three of us digging holes and planting; fairly close together, as the soil isn’t wonderful here and the plants, apparently, don’t seem to get very large.
Four hours later (and after a mild panic when we thought we’d run out of plants), the job was done. Apart from the sore knees, it was lovely planting out in the sun and with the fragrance of nearby Wisteria and Honeysuckle filling the air. It will be good to see how these mixed plants (some of the pots had been amusingly labelled ‘unkown’), progress in the next couple of months.
I also took a look at the Peony borders I featured a few weeks ago. Surprisingly, they haven’t yet fully opened, but there were a few blooms to give us a taste of what will come- hopefully soon, if the weather warms up a bit.
Over lunch Mike, the Walled Garden Project Manager, showed me a lovely ‘artist’s impression’ of the Walled Garden; a wonderful vision of how it will look in a few years time and something to spur those involved in pressing on with the regeneration project. I’ll see if I can share this picture with you at some point.
Further Information:
Blickling Hall website
Blickling Hall Facebook page
A 360 degree tour of Blickling Hall
Old School Gardener
I think it must be three weeks since I was last at Blickling. I got a chance to look around at the end of my working session and there were several highlights I hadn’t seen before, most notably the Azaleas round the Temple, the wall-trained Wisterias, the masses of Forget-me-Nots and Honesty in the Dell and some of the colour combinations in the double borders; especially the Tulip ‘Queen of Night’ and the black foliage of Mongo Grass and Black Elders.
The double borders….
My fellow volunteers were bit thin on the ground this week, and the gardening team pretty much seemed to be tied up in interviews all day, so we were left to our own devices! But the task was simple, weeding in the rose borders in the main Parterres. I went to work with my hoe (I really enjoy this task) and though the borders were pretty clear, there were a few odd weeds (including patches of Oxalis which the other volunteers dug up) and some edging of the grass to be done.
The Parterres and…
rose borders with Nepeta
The session was punctuated with chats to vistors who were very complimentary about the gardens. One couple from Bury St. Edmunds envied us the light soil we have in this area- they have to tackle thick clay.
Head Gardener Paul informed us that the National Trust Gardens advisor had recently visited and was full of praise for the gardens and what the whole team had achieved; that was good to hear.
Work in the Walled Garden has continued with the hard core for the main paths being laid and consolidated. The next job is installing 800 metres of metal edging- I don’t envy the Team that job!
Further Information:
Blickling Hall website
Blickling Hall Facebook page
A 360 degree tour of Blickling Hall
Old School Gardener
Old School Garden 