We have completed another year in the garden and are now off on our Christmas break for a well-earned rest. It’s easy to forget everything we have accomplished this year so we are taking you on a whistle stop tour of what we’ve been up to, so strap yourselves in for an exciting ride!
JANUARY
We returned to chilly weather and began pruning season. We started with the vines and lifted the crown of the bay tree in the Scree Garden. This material was all added to our new dead hedge in the reflection area. Cutting back in the Gravel and Scree Gardens kept us off the frosty lawns and got these areas ready for the new spring growth to come.
FEBRUARY
The highlight of February is the extensive collection of snowdrops around the garden. We welcomed visitors with an ident in the Visitor Information Centre and there were tours of the garden with Steve and Marc, our resident snowdrop experts. We carried on cutting back herbaceous perennials across the garden to make way for all the spring bulbs, along with rose pruning and cleaning our tools for the season ahead. Ben, our estate manager, replaced the wooden bridge between the ponds with a beautiful piece of oak from the garden. Head gardener Åsa invited other local head gardeners for a day to connect and share ideas.
Interns – Emily Asquith
MARCH
We were busy pruning shrubs around the garden to promote health, flowers and maintain natural shapes. This included atriplex, hydrangea, cotoneaster, salix, cornus and camellia. We removed some Acer negundo trees that had reverted to green instead of the variegation they were grown for. As temperatures start to rise this month, plant growth begins in earnest along with weeding around the garden.
Interns-Alice Minney, Naomi Rose, Paul Mooncie-Dunmall
APRIL
The boat was launched back into the pond this month, so we donned our waders to cut back Thalia dealbata which stays upright overwinter while other plants die back. As the risk of frost subsided, we planted out the agaves into the Gravel Garden for their summer home. We also planted a variety of small unusual trees and shrubs around the garden as well as over 100 Narcissus cyclamineus. We removed the soil from a bed at the top of the drive and replaced it with sand which is an example of the drought resistant sand planting that we are using on several external projects. The garden team joined the propagation team for 2 days of intensive weeding on the stock beds to get ahead for the coming season. Eddie Bailey brought his soil expertise to the garden, teaching us the basics of soil sampling and using a microscope to identify life in the soil.
Interns – Alice Greenwood, Jonathan Zerr, Hugh, Selina Ozanne, Josh Burge, Charlotte Clark
MAY
May is always a busy month in the garden. Alongside our usual work, we helped prepare plants for the Freedom from Torture Garden at the Chelsea flower show, as well as a trip to Sissinghurst to look at their compost methodology. In the garden, we moved the succulents out of the greenhouse to their summer positions. We created two large pot displays, one in the Gravel Garden with sun loving plants and one on Beth’s patio with more shade tolerant varieties. Besides this we were edging the lawns, weeding, Chelsea chopping and beginning the large task of pulling out spent forget me nots. Our new bed at the top of the drive was also planted up with drought tolerant plants.
Interns- Mattie O’Callaghan
JUNE
The scree steps were given some TLC with a thorough weed and a top up of gravel. We also widened the path in the reflection area for access. We decided to get on top of a large amount of vigorous ground covers using a strimmer to cut them to the ground to promote new growth and allow space for other plants. Alongside this, we pruned spring flowering shrubs such as weigela, spirea, and forsythia to promote flowering for next year. Smyrnium perfoliatum is a lovely plant for early spring colour, however it can become too vigorous if left to its own devises, so we pull it up before the seed ripens.
JULY
We spent time in the ponds removing blanket weed which grows at an alarming rate this time of year. In the Reservoir Garden, the annual poppies had finished flowering so we removed them before they could set seed to try and reduce the amount for next year. As well as this, we lifted and divided the bearded irises that had become congested to encourage more flowers next year. The grassy walk next to the wood was mown to remove grassy growth and allow autumn flowering cyclamen space to flower. The large magnolia on Beth’s patio had outgrown its space, so we pruned the branches to reduce the size of the crown. Scott was involved in selecting plants and helping to build an educational display at Hampton Court Flower show created by Eddie Bailey.
Interns- Stefano Ciabo, Lewis Barrett
AUGUST
At the end of this month we welcomed horticultural professionals from around the world to the 3rd Beth Chatto Symposium ‘Beneath the Surface’. In preparation for this we spent time edging lawns, dead heading and weeding – those detailed jobs that ensure the garden looked spectacular. As well as this the team was involved with creating flower arrangements and floral installations at the garden and the University of Essex.
Interns- Amy Murray
SEPTEMBER
We began this month weeding through and editing in the Gravel Garden and cutting back where plants had become untidy. The estate team fixed the drainage in one of the large beds in the Water Garden after it had become waterlogged earlier this year. The excess water had killed a large number of shrubs and trees which needed removing. We attempted to dig them out by hand but decided that tractor power was the way forward. This was the catalyst for beginning a process of renovating two large borders in the Water Garden. The first step was to cast a critical eye over both areas and decide which plants would stay, which needed to be moved and what had outgrown its space. With the stumps removed from the centre of the beds, we began the task of clearing and editing the plants.
Interns- Xenia Pitkeathley, Ez Gumeniuk, Deanne Lewis
OCTOBER
October was packed full of different activities both in the garden and beyond. We continued the task of working through the borders methodically clearing and moving plants as we went. Head gardener Åsa spent a week at De Hessenhof nursery in Holland working with the team and learning how they operate, as well as giving a talk on Beth Chatto – ‘Past, Present and Future’. Gardener Malin spent a week at Sissinghurst Garden in Kent, an opportunity to be fully immersed in the garden and to learn how things are done there. This month we welcomed back the interns who have worked with us over the past year for a working weekend packed full of fun. We worked together on a stockbed renovation, fueled by lovely food and cakes. It was a chance to celebrate all the help they have given us over the past year and for new connections to be made.
Interns- Lizzie Hedges, Rose Holman
NOVEMBER
November was packed full of planting in the newly renovated beds. We chose plants from the nursery and stock beds to suit the varying conditions of damp, sunny and shady. It will be exciting to see how the plants settle in and grow next year in this space. As temperatures fell we dug the agave out from the Gravel Garden, made leaf teepees for the gunneras, and took the boat out of the pond to store inside over winter. The task of cutting back herbaceous perennials began in the Water Garden before spring bulbs start to emerge. We weeded as we cut back and then covered the bare soil with leaf litter as a mulch.
DECEMBER
We continued the cutting back of perennials in areas where spring bulbs will soon emerge, but where there are less bulbs, we make a concerted effort to provide shelter for wildlife and leave plants standing for as long as possible. Last year we tried for the first time making habitat teepees with cut material instead of composting it, so we added to these structures as well as building more. Lastly, we installed more dead hedge posts for the coming year to add our prunings to, providing more habitat and opportunities for nature around us.
It’s been a very busy year in the garden so we are looking forwards to a lovely Christmas break and coming back next year full of energy and ideas for 2025!!
Merry Christmas and a happy new year from the Garden team - Åsa, Malin, Scott, Cathy and Hannah.
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