March/April Musings by Maz

Gardening Volunteer at Tatton Park Walled Kitchen Garden & Orchard

March “many weathers” is named after Mars, the Roman god of war; so now we make war on weeds which have continued to grow through the winter. The Tuesday Team (a force to be reckoned with) barrowed many tons of manure (not all at once) in relays into the Kitchen Garden, as a change from the ‘rhodo bashing’ and ‘ivy stripping’ undertaken in previous weeks.   The special needs couple have been tasked with cleaning out and refurbishing several large and overgrown cold frames in the old nursery.  This worthwhile and useful project will be done entirely to their own satisfaction, but will keep them happy and feeling useful for several months.  My ‘team’ are back in the glasshouse used for propagation purposes and we spent useful days repotting the begonia collection, plants for the Show House, etc. Seed sowing of vegetables and flowers is gearing up a notch, with increasing volumes of pricking out and potting on as a consequence – seeds sown in the glasshouse on Thursday afternoon were ready for pricking out Tuesday morning – all raring to grow. Hardening off in cold frames will wait until after the Blackthorn Winter this month. St Patrick’s Festival Week was good humoured ‘paddymonium’.  I think we have a small patch of shamrock on the Rockery; it’s a form of Medicago.

“What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare” (W H Davies 1870-1940) – I spent 10 fascinating minutes watching first a wren methodically going from pot to pot in the ‘cold acclimatising lean-to’, finding ‘beasties’ aplenty, then several varieties of titmice flitting about the orchard on a similar mission: coal, blue, great and long-tailed. Sparrows seemed intrigued by the raindrops on the Cornus stems, and spent some time chasing and drinking the drops.  “If March gives a day of sun and heat, we’ll soon have one of snow and sleet.” The next day the drops were frozen like crystals as we experienced minus temperatures and mini blizzards, then welcome sun again. I also noticed Lesser Celandine, Windflower (Anemone blanda), Crocus, colour in Willow twigs – a welcome sight at the Spring Equinox. At this time in the distant past, loaves marked with a cross were made by Pagans, symbolising the four seasons to come.  Frogspawn also seems to appear around the Spring Equinox. Lots of lovely leafmould was barrowed into the Kitchen Garden throughout the day.

April: the Roman month Aprilis, perhaps derived from aperire, (Latin to open, as in opening buds and blossoms) or perhaps from Aphrodite, original Greek name of Venus.  A couple of days without morning frost brings forth the Hazel catkins and Pussy Willow as well as the Daffodils and Chionodoxa. The Peach Case ‘residents’ are in full blossom of which both the foreign visitors and ourselves were appreciative. The unused cottage once housing the head gardener is being converted into a tearoom; the cottage once used by the assistant head gardener at the other end of the support building has for some years housed the gardeners’ bothy and the garden office.

Digging has commenced in the Kitchen Garden; the rhythm of the season heard in the music of the spade and the soil – and more manure is barrowed in to feed the soil. The Gardens theme this year (running to the end of September) is Beatrix Potter, with a trail round the garden finding the various characters in her children’s books.

Planting of early potatoes, broad beans and peas is in full swing, the peas being ‘sticked’ to help them climb upwards. Soft fruit has been weeded and mulched. Wood Anemone, Spiraea (Bridal Veil), some Camellias and Magnolias are flowering in spite of the high winds, which tidied the park and gardens somewhat with neat piles of leaves in all the nooks and crannies.  Some branches have also been ‘wind pruned’.

This year, on the last Tuesday of April we do no work at all as it has been designated a Volunteer Celebration Day – however, I noticed that yet more tons of manure awaits barrowing for the following week.  Aaargh!

Books by Peter Thoday

Peter Thoday is a Garden Consultant best known for his work at Heligan and for his presentation of the BBC’s Victorian Kitchen Garden programmes in 1987

Cultivar and Two Blades of Grass introduce the reader to the 11,000 year history of humankinds triumph in mastering the many skills of cultivation while at the same time developing “improved” forms of the plants being grown. Those with a particular interest in 19 century intensive gardening may enjoy discovering the long history that led to this pinnacle of the craft of gardening.

 

Both books are available at the special price of £20 obtainable direct from the publisher: Thoday Associates, Faircross House, Box Hill, Corsham, Wilts, SN13 8HA

for more information: faircross@thodays.co.uk 

January/February Musings by Maz

Gardening Volunteer at Tatton Park Walled Kitchen Garden & Orchard

January is named after Janus, Roman god of doors, beginnings, sunset and sunrise, depicted as having one face looking forward and one backward.  The Anglo-Saxons called January Wolf Month because it was when wolves would enter villages in search of food.

Did you leave a small box containing a piece of coal, a piece of bread, some salt and money and a bunch of evergreen leaves on your doorstep for the First Footer to bring in good luck to the household on New Year’s Day? (Coal represented fire; the coin indicated wealth, the bread food, the salt wisdom and friendship whilst evergreens signified the continuation of life).  Hogmanay features tatties, neeps and haggis.

The first Sunday after Epiphany or Twelfth Night sees the Ploughs blessed, then on Plough Monday the agricultural workers traditionally return to work.                                             “God speed the plough and the ploughman, the farm and the farmer: God speed the plough on the hillside and in valley, on land which is rich and on land which is poor: in countries beyond our seas, and in our homeland. God speed the plough, in fair weather and in foul, in success and disappointment, in rain and in wind, in frost and in sunshine.”

Twelfth Night is also the time for Wassailing (according to the Gregorian calendar, or 17 Jan if using the Julian calendar.).  Maybe you wassailed twice to ensure good fruit crops in your orchard?

Winter Jasmine and Witch Hazel are in flower, buds are apparent on Clematis alpina and Honeysuckle; flower buds are swelling on the ornamental Quince, and Winter Box is perfuming the air.  An abundance of ‘silk tassels’ on the Garrya this year are steadily lengthening, soon to produce puffs of pollen on the breeze.

Back at Tatton mid-month: a dozen of the Tuesday Team kept warm ‘Rhodo bashing’; restoring a neglected plantation of rhododendrons by cutting out dead wood, thus letting in air and light, so the plants should put on new growth.  The hornbeam Maze was having a haircut, too.  In odd places in the woodland are the fungi ‘jelly ear’, stag’s horn and ‘dead man’s fingers’, plus the ubiquitous brackets.

Snow came Friday, transforming the plant world into ethereal beauty.  A foot of snow is worth an inch of rain (according to old farming lore) but hampers volunteers and gardeners alike, however beautiful the scenery.

Scots and others celebrate Burns Night towards the end of the month: a good way to use up the remaining tatties, bashed neeps and any drams of whisky left from Hogmanay.

Candlemas 02 Feb. celebrates ‘the light overcoming darkness’ and also blessing candles for use during the year.  “If the day is fair and bright, winter will have another bite.” Snowdrops are known as Candlemas bells, Fair Maids of February, or snow piercer and usually herald a spell of cold weather: “the snowdrops’ little winter”.

Shrove Tuesday: from ‘shriven’ to repent by eating Pancakes made to use up those foodstuffs remaining before Lent. St Valentine’s Day is when birds were thought by oldendays countryfolk to pair up. On 15 February the Romans celebrated the festival of forgiveness for sins (Februare, Latin to purify). The Chinese New Year also starts with the new moon in February; this year celebrating the Water Snake.  Let us hope it is not as wet as last year’s Water Dragon.

The Scarecrow Festival is ready for half-term fun for the children to find the scarecrows, each of which has a different theme.

‘Rhodo bashing’ is still in full swing, with occasional warming by the ‘brash’ fire for the Team. “Forgotten” areas are seeing the light of day. I spent a bitingly cold day tying in raspberry canes, and managed three very long double rows.  Running out of time and frozen fingers means the last double row will have to wait another week. Molehills are becoming more numerous by the day and birdsong is earlier and louder.

WKGN Forum, 2013

We can now announce the venue and date for this year’s Forum – it will be  held at Attingham Park in Shropshire on the 5th October.  Attingham is a National Trust property, where there is a large walled garden (just under two acres) and a smaller frame-yard with working glasshouses, back-sheds and bothy.  There is an ongoing restoration project, that has so far brought three of the quarters of the garden back in to full productivity.

So make a note in your diary – more details will be announced in due course.

Job opportunity in walled garden in Scotland

The Amisfield Preservation Trust is a charity which has been set up to restore the historically important 8 acre walled garden at Amisfield, Haddington, East Lothian. Over the past six years, our gardening group (all volunteers and amateur gardeners) has returned the walled garden from a severely neglected state back into a working productive garden. We have a long term lease of the garden from East Lothian Council and have ambitious plans to create a financially self-sustaining community resource where people can learn new horticultural skills within a beautiful historic setting. As our project has developed, we have welcomed all sections of the local community to work within our volunteer team, and we believe that the project demonstrates the therapeutic benefits to mental and physical health from hands-on gardening and from working as a team to achieve a common goal.

We have secured funding from the Robertson Trust and from the Tyne Esk Leader Programme to employ a member of staff for one year. We have 50% of funding in place to continue the post for a further two years, conditional on satisfactory progress reports and on the remaining match funding being secured.

We are looking for a practical, motivated person to manage and supervise our volunteer team, promote the project in the local community, provide training and work with the Trust’s board of directors to plan and develop the project.

Further information on the project is available on our website: www.amisfield.org.uk 

Job opportunity in France without having to speak the language

An opportunity has arisen to work and enjoy gardening in France without the need to speak French.  The new owner of the Château de Digoine, Burgundy, www.chateaudedigoine.fr  has begun a renaissance of this impressive Château and its magnificent park and gardens set in the beautiful Charollais countryside. I have recently been engaged to restore and develop the park and gardens, including the creation of a new potager in the style of the great Potager du Roi at Versailles and Villandry, but more on the scale of that at Highgrove; which brings me to this Network, although not a Victorian walled kitchen garden, I am open to all your advice and help.

Also, there is a wonderful opportunity for English speaking gardeners to help develop the potager and maintain the grounds and work in France without the need to speak French, as the newly established management team and the Château owner are English speaking.  At least some knowledge and experience of a kitchen garden is essential and, as public transport is rare here, a means to get about is needed.

Please contact me by email  j.kempster@gmx.com  with any advice or for further info about the opportunity for gardening in Burgundy .

https://maps.google.fr/maps?q=chateau+de+digoine&ie=UTF-8&ei=3UfsUKeaG8GShges1oCYBA&ved=0CAsQ_AUoAA

November/December Musings by Maz

Gardening Volunteer at TattonPark Walled Kitchen Garden & Orchard

Whilst the gardeners may not have enjoyed this wetter than usual year, the plants certainly have enjoyed the abundant moisture.  Country sayings: “If November ice can hold a duck, December will be slush and muck.” Or “If  ducks do swim at Hallowtide, at Christmas they will slide.” (or vice-versa!)

Ornamental vines colouring up; blackbirds feasting on Cotoneaster horizontalis; ivy berries forming.  Arum italicum pictum (Lords and Ladies) in berry.  I spotted a spider (or was it a harvestman) which looked as though it was made from strands of glass, almost like a ghost, and so delicate.  I had a magic moment watching a solitary Goldfinch extracting seeds from the wild teasel plants.

The November full moon is known variously as the Beaver moon, Frosty moon, Yule moon and Snowshoes moon.  There has been both a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse this month.  Waterlogged Britain we certainly are this month; thank goodness we have ‘the big ditch’ aka the Manchester Ship Canal.

The trees seem to have made extra leaves and larger leaves this year.  Considering how many trees are in the parkland and the formal gardens, it is not surprising that we are able to make large quantities of top quality leaf mould which is in great demand.  Thankfully the Rangers deal with the leaves in the parkland, but we spend many weeks raking up the mixed leaves in the formal gardens.  We specifically gather up at least 500 bags of only oak leaves for use in the Pineapple House, as these are a source of tannin which provides heat for the fruiting plants.

Great excitement! For the first time in 100 years, and after five years of experimentation and nurturing by our dedicated craftsman gardeners some of the pineapples have ripening fruits; others will mature over the next few months. We saw the camera team filming them on Tuesday.  Pictures and narrative can be found on the Tatton Park Blogspot.  There has been much interest on local radio, TV and in the local press. No doubt the national gardening press will catch up shortly.

Bulb planting is in full progress down the long Broad Walk; the Team planted over 1,000 daffodil bulbs in one session.  More will be planted in the weeks up to Christmas.  If they are as good as those planted last year, the Broad Walk will be a wonderful sight next Spring.

It is 50 years since the first pioneering hip replacement was made at WrightingtonHospital in the North West.   I had bilateral hip replacements five years ago, which gave me back my life, and enabled me to carry on gardening but in a different way, i.e. standing up gardening, with no weeding and no double digging!

December brings the frost, which transforms the landscape with the tracery of tree branches picked out in white against a grey sky, with an occasional glint where the sun’s rays catch the prism of an ice particle.

Mid December is time for the Volunteers’ Christmas Lunch, this year organised by the Tuesday Team. Before the lunch the volunteers were taken on a guided tour of the Mansion, beautifully decorated as for a Victorian Country House Christmas soiree with a Dickens theme by the talented Floristry Team.  Four members of the Mansion management team attended the lunch, together with the Mayor and Mayoress of Cheshire East – a first.  It fell to me and my ‘gardening buddy’ husband to do a gardening and general knowledge quiz, and a Did You Know list of random facts for light entertainment, organising place settings (crackers, mince pies, satsumas, etc.) for 70 people and also the raffle and prizes. I made six table centre wreaths using different coloured dogwood stems bound by matching braid.  Try as I might they wouldn’t go circular, and ended up looking like miniature horse collars! The rest of the Team created sumptuous buffet offerings which appreciatively disappeared with lightning speed, with many diners going back for seconds and even thirds.

The Deputy Head Gardener and his glasshouse team made five wonderful winter arrangements for raffle prizes, and the Head Gardener was a very useful ‘right hand man’ to the volunteers’ lunch host Team in helping  reading out the quiz answers, drawing the extensive raffle, and with setting up and clearing the venue.

After this Tatton Park National Trust volunteers lunch, we are all ‘laid off’ for about a month or six weeks (over Christmas and New Year), returning at some point in January, depending on the weather.  If too bad to work in the gardens in January, long walks are undertaken by some volunteers, to keep the muscles in trim.  Skeletonised leaves with their intricate tracery of veins can sometimes be discovered; beauty even in decay.  Sometimes little clouds of winter midges can be seen dancing over a lighter patch of ground or the light coloured leaves of shrubs like Lonicera Baggeson’s Gold.

The December full moon is known as the Cold or Long Nights Moon.

The end of 2012 is approaching; I do hope that you have enjoyed my Musings every two months and thank you for the positive feedback received from WKGN Members at the Forum.

I also hope you will remedy my ‘long distance loneliness’ of being the only blogger on The Grapevine in 2012 by posting your own blogs in 2013 about the happenings in the gardens you work in and love.  I greatly look forward to reading these.

With Festive Greetings to all – May I wish all who garden a perfect gardening year in 2013.  I will close with an ever optimistic thought: the days start to lengthen after 06 January!

Maz