December in Chastleton Garden

December has been another busy month in the garden. I think the mild weather has finally gone and we have hit the colder climes of winter. The team of enthusiastic garden volunteers have been working hard with me to get jobs done in the garden and make a start on changes planned by Garden Conservation Management Plan. There have have been several more meetings to look at finalising the plan and Sarah Cottercraig (landscape architect and historian) hopes to present the completed document in late Dec 2011/early Jan 2012. We have already started to implement and plan some schedules of works for the changes advised in the plan and this will be an ongoing process.
So just some of the garden jobs we have been doing in the garden this month have been:
-spreading well rotted horse manure on the Kitchen Garden beds,
-clearing fallen leaves and putting them on the leaf mulch pile,
-pruning roses and tying climbing roses in,
-clearing and pruning trees and shrubs and ivy and tidying in The Wilderness and Nuttery,
-planning planting in The Kitchen Garden for next year,
-pruning and tying in climbers in The Forecourt,
-weeding and clearing rose borders,
-tidying, sorting, cutting back and dividing herbaceous borders,
-cutting back ivy on the walls,
-fleecing and bubble wraping the Agapanthus in their terracotta pots,
-pruning the vines on the arches in The Best Garden,
-putting in vine eyes and wires for the young pear tree in The Stable Yard,
-harvesting the Brussel Sprouts, Leeks and Parsnips for sale to visitors at our Christmas open week this wk- 'Comfort and Joy', and setting up and manning the stall,
-mending the roof of 'the secret shed' (previously a privy for the ladies of the house and now a potting shed),
-building a peach cover for one of the outside peach trees to help reduce risk of peach leaf curl next year.
We have started removing some of the large and 'outsized' shrubs in The Best Garden in line with the new planting plans from the Garden Conservation Management Plan.
See photos below of some of our activities-

Anna tying in roses.

Coralie pruning roses.

Cutting back and clearing years of rampaging ivy in The Wilderness and Nuttery.

Alice and Jean clearing and weeding one of the Rose Terrace borders.

Coralie and Jane C harvesting and preparing veg.

Hedley and John pruning the vines.

Alex and Mary fleecing Agapanthus and bubble wrap covering pots to protect from cold temps.

Karl cutting back ivy on the walls in the garden.

Gary repairing the roof of the 'secret shed' where it had been damaged by ivy.

Coralie helping remove the Cornus in The Best Garden.

Coralie helped Alex and Mary remove the Mahonia from The Best Garden.

I would just like to thank all the volunteers who have been involved with helping in the garden at Chastleton in 2011 and wishing them a very Happy Christmas and New Year. Anna.