May 2012 at Chastleton Garden

May has been an eventful and busy month. The early part of the month saw the end of the heavy April rains and storms, but not until a few trees in the park and car park had fallen from the windy weather.

This large Ash tree fell casulty to a storm early in the month.

The green house has been crowded with vegetable and annual cut flower seedlings being brought on ready to plant out in the Kitchen Garden and to sell on the plant and produce stall. Myself and the volunteers have worked hard potting on with peat free compost and keeping the plants watered, happy and healthy in the glass house and cold frame. Plants are hardened off in the cold frame before being planted out in the garden.

Green House/Glass House.

Cold frame with plants getting ready for planting out and sales.

The spell of rain and then warm, sunny weather has done wonders for the lawns and the growth of the plants around the garden. We have all been working hard to try and keep on top of the weeds as well, as they have put on a vigorous rush of growth with the good growing weather.

The Kitchen Garden is nearly fully planted with vegetables and cut flowers. The perennial herbaceous borders are also looking lovely as the plants start to bloom.

Here are the root crops and some annual cut flower seedlings in the Kitchen Garden. The root crops are mainly sown direct 'in situ'.

Potatoes - main crop. These are earthed up and growing well.

Brassicas - red and green cabbage and calabrese are in place and netted against pigeons and butterflies.

The onion sets are growing on nicely.

The hazel wigwams are set up and planted out with a variety of sweet peas, climbing french beans and runner beans. The wire helps protect from any rabbit visitors and the cats and is soon covered up by plant growth.

The currant bushes, gooseberries, raspberries and strawberries are all coming on well.

The four new fruit and veg beds have the red clover green manure growing on and now it is getting well established we will tackle some of the weeds that are competing with it. The beds are all beautifully edged by volunteers to keep them neat. The green manure will be mown off after flowering and then ploughed in later in the year.

The flowers are looking lovely in the garden too. Some of the gorgeous blooms are peonies, irises, Wisteria sinensis 'Alba', Clematis montana and Rosa banksiae 'Lutea'.

Peonie in The Kitchen Garden.

Iris in The Forecourt.

We divided the Irises around the garden last year and it has certainly increased their vigour and flowering capacity this year.

Wisteria sinensis 'Alba'. This filled The Forecourt with its sweet candy smell from the blossom.

Clematis montana rambling through the ancient Box tree in The West Garden.

The glorious, thornless Rosa banksiae 'Lutea' romping through a Holly tree in The Wilderness area.

We had some interesting insights into the history of the paths in The Forecourt from Jacobean times this month. The Direct Labour Team from Coleshill dug a trench across The Forecourt to put in a water pipe and we had Gary, the archeologist, out to look at what was revealed. As you can see below, the very neatly preserved paths are easy to find beneath about a metre of soil and gravel. We hope to go on and geophys The Forecourt at some point and maybe put in a couple more careful trenches to find out more about the layout of pathing and grass in the 1600s.

Jacobean surface in The Forecourt.

Members of the team continue to work hard on shaping the topiary and improving its health. After its spring feed it is greening up well. Alex, Mary and Roger have been particularly industrious with their shears. While I am working to reshape 'The Horse'. Julie attended a useful course on topiary at Langley Boxwood Nursery and we hope to run some workshops on 'Topiary and Chastleton' for volunteers this year and the public next year.

The topiary in The Best Garden being trimmed and shaped.

Kenny and Terry came and mended the end of the garden wall in The Wilderness - much to my delight, as it has been in major disrepair for years. Now it is reconstructed it should also help keep the deer out of the garden.

Terry and Kenny having repaired the garden wall.

So another busy month. Here are a few other things we have been up to in the garden. Many thanks, as always, to my fantastic volunteer team who are a great support and so hard working.

-Mowing.

-Strimming

-Weeding.

-Edging.

-Clearing debris from storm damage.

-Rangers cutting up and chipping fallen trees in storm damage.

-Green house and cold frame care.

-Tours of garden.

-Engagement with visitors.

-Compost workshop for the public.

-Earthing up potatoes.

-Sowing root crops and green manures.

-Planning the next stage of development for The West Garden in June and July.

-Elevating the laterals on the pear espalier trees to increase their vigour.

-Pruning fruit trees.

-Feeding the Yew hedges in The West Garden.

-Dead heading.

-Tying in and pruning roses.

-Planting out vegetable seedlings and annual cut flower seedlings.

-Putting up wigwam supports.

-Planting a new nectarine tree.

-Pruning topiary.

-Running plant and produce stall.

-Picking rhubarb.

-Watering with watering cans.

-Potting on.

-Continuing to launch and run the new garden exhibition.

-Etc.







April at Chastleton 2012

So far April has been a busy month in the garden. This week we seem to have gone from drought to heavy rain and the garden is now feeling delighted with the watering, but also a bit soggy in places.

We have been busy sowing seed for vegetables and cut flowers in the green house and pricking out and potting on seedlings ready for planting out over the next couple of months and for sales in our plant shop. Jean and Jane C and Ann have been a big help with pricking out seedlings.

Jane C sowing seeds.

We have been continuing our renovation of the West Garden and have now finished cutting back one side of the very overgrown Yew hedges and will go on to feed them. We have halved the height of the Hornbeam hedge in the Brewhouse court in The West garden and have transfered the herb garden to The Kitchen Garden. Watch this space as our work continues in this area of the garden to change it into a more functional, open and working area.

Moving the herb garden to The Kitchen Garden.

Our volunteer garden tour guides, garden stewards and the volunteers manning the plants and produce stall have all been doing great work and we look forward to launching our garden exhibition in the next few weeks. Chris and Patty continue to be a great help maintaining and propagating the house plants in the mansion.

John, Jane and Mary have been busy elevating the angle of the pear espalier branches in The Best Garden to increase vigour. They have been pruning some of the stone-fruit trees and hand pollinating the peach trees. The peach tree cover has now been taken down. 

We have finished preparing the four new vegetable beds and have sown the seed of the green manure (Red Clover), which will add nutrients to the soil and be good for pollinating insects.

John helping with pollination of peach trees.

The green manure will be ploughed in later on this year. The beds will then be ready for fruit and vegetable planting early next year. We are also busy sowing seed directly into the vegetable beds, this includes: parsnip, radish, carrot and beetroot. Joe planted out our chitted maincrop potatoes as well.

Here are some of the interesting finds from when we put the new veg beds into The Kitchen Garden. Our archaeologist will assess them in more detail in due course.

Alex and Mary and Coralie have been doing great work with the topiaries. We continue to cut them back hard and give them a bit more definition. They have had their spring feed and are starting to put on some nice new growth.

Alex, Mary and Coralie pruning the topiary.

Alex and Mary have worked hard to help put the woven hazel supports up in the herbaceous, perennial borders in The Kitchen Garden which are used for cut flowers.

Alex and Mary weaving hazel supports for the herbaceous borders.



Kenny and Terry are here from the buildings team doing a fantastic job of repairing the back dry stone wall of the garden by The Wilderness. This is great as the wall has been in serious disrepair for years and will hopefully help stop the deer entering the garden.

We continue with the day to day maintenance jobs for the garden: weeding, hoeing, edging, mowing, strimming, pruning, harvesting rhubarb, etc.

Many thanks to all the volunteers for all their contributions and support this month, as always.

March 2012

Here are some snapshots of some of the activities going on at Chastleton Garden over March 2012. March has been a busy month with lots of sun and not much rain. We undressed the Agapanthus from their fleece and bubble wrap and put them back out in their open season positions in The Forecourt - a sure sign that spring is here and summer on the way.
Having finished our three pre-season meetings for volunteers we opened to the public on 10/3/12. The lawns are being mowed and strimmed and the croquet lawns are all in good order ready for play next month. We have fed and manured the roses and put a prop under the damson in The Wilderness.
An RHS group from Pershore Horticultural College, led by John Edgeley, held an advanced pruning course in the garden on 3/3/12. Myself and volunteer John Poole attended and the day was a great success. We shared information and tips on care and development of the fruit collection in the garden, while pruning some of the apple and pear trees.
We were delighted to welcome Russell from Langley Boxwood Nursery on the 6/3/12. He came to give us some very helpful advice on the continued restoration and conservation work being done to the topiaries in the garden. We very much enjoyed meeting Russell and sharing knowledge and ideas.

Coralie, Julie, Russell and Mary.



Coralie and Mary have already made a start on getting a bit more definition and shape to the topiaries. We plan to follow a hard pruning regime and underplant with young Box plants to help bulk out the topiaries from underneath. We will also adopt a watering and feeding regime in spring and autumn.

Where the light is getting through to the stems new green growth can already be seen.

My fantastic team of volunteers and I put in the 4 new vegetable beds in The Kitchen Garden - expanding it by approx three times its size. We borrowed Hidcote's plough/rotavator and ploughed and rotavated the 4 beds. Hidcote were very kind and supportive with the loan of their machinery - many thanks all - such a help. Joe lifted the turf with a turf lifter from one of the beds and we used the turf around the garden to do running repairs. Alice, Jane C, Coralie, Julie, Joe, Karl and Jean were all a huge help in clearing, edging, turfing, etc. We continue to finish off the beds and will plant green manures in them in April and then rotavate them later in the year ready for sowing with a mixture of historically appropriate fruit and veg. The cut flower section of the existing Kitchen Garden will be expanded too.

Ploughing and rotavating the new veg beds.

Joe lifting and removing turf from one of the new veg beds.

Anna re-turfing around the garden.

Alex and Mary continued industriously with clearing the large shrubs from The Best Garden ready for re-seeding with grass.

John and Jane C and myself continue to prune and maintain the fruit trees and plants in the garden.

The expanded garden stall is all set up in the stables and being run very efficiently by Coralie with help from fellow stall volunteers. We are still looking for more volunteers to help run the stall so if anyone is interested please get in touch with Chastleton. At the moment we are selling plants and seeds and hope soon to be selling produce from the garden and a few garden tools.

We continue to clear and restore The West Garden and move the herb garden and are busy sowing seeds for veg and cut flowers in the green house for the garden. The tour guides and garden stewards are also doing great work educating the visitors and promoting the garden. We hope to have the garden exhibition up in April and ready for all visitors to enjoy.

Some extra volunteer help in Feb 2012

We had some extra help over half term this month when one of our garden volunteers, Alice, brought her two children in to get signed up to help her uncover the path in The West Garden. Ella and Katie both worked really hard while they were volunteering in the garden with us. They were a great addition to our team and very enthusiastic about their finds when clearing the path. Many thanks, girls.

February at Chastleton Garden 2012

February has been a month of snow and snowdrops at Chastleton. Early Feb saw a covering of snow and some hard frost, but the end of the month has had much milder, almost balmy temps. The snowdrops around the garden have been glorious this year and I have become a rather obsessive enthusiast of the little, white flowers.

Some of the many snowdrops in The Wilderness area of the garden.

Snowdrops

Some of the garden volunteers met with me to have their picture taken for the garden exhibition, which is due for completion in the next few weeks. The exhibition will be housed, with the expanded garden produce and plant stall, in the stables.

The gardener and some of the garden volunteers.

Some of the garden volunteers came in to the garden on Feb 14th to be involved in the Trust national spring flower count. This was great fun and revealed 28 varieties of plant out in flower in the garden on that day and got us working on our identification of plants.

Jane, Julie and Jean doing the Feb 14th flower count.

Some other activities that have been going on in the garden this month have been:-

-giving external talks to local gardening and history groups

-propagation and watering training for volunteers

-working on the herb garden designs

-continuing with restoration and conservation work in the West Garden, Best Garden, Kitchen Garden and Wilderness.

-Treatment of fairy rings on the croquet lawns

-fruit tree pruning

-chitting potatoes and planting out onion sets (non-heat treated)

-tidying and preparing the garden for opening

-finalising details of the garden exhibition and new stall.

-clearing dead wood from the Box topiaries

-recruiting new volunteers

-repairing the Victorian ornamental posts and chains at the front of the house

-re-doing the visitors' path from the car park to the house

-clearing out the dovecote

-pruning and feeding roses

-feeding fruit trees and plants

-three volunteer pre-season meetings

-etc

We look forward to lots of exciting plans in March and opening for the new season on March 10th.





Geophysical assessment in the new Kitchen Garden Area

Gary Marshall, our regional archeologist for the Trust, visited Chastleton yesturday and worked with the garden team to do a geophysical assessment and discuss the area that will be dug for the expansion plan for The Kitchen Garden. Due to the ancient and historic nature of the property we usually ask Gary to advise and assess on any projects planned that will affect the fabric of the house, garden or estate. Following Gary's advice we plan to do a couple of small test pits in the area too. By getting Gary's advise we try to ensure that no important archaeology is damaged and that any new finds can be recorded. Gary hopes to visit again once the new beds have been dug to see if there are any important finds. We await the geophys results for the new Kitchen Garden area with interest and hope to go on and geophys the rest of the garden in due course.

January 2012 - Happy New Year.

Happy New Year to all our blog visitors. January brought us a mix of mild weather with stormy, strong winds and the occasional hard frost. We have already got an excellent display of snowdrops and all our spring bulbs are well on the way to coming up.

The New Year heralds some exciting plans for work to be done to expand The Kitchen Garden and restore and conserve The West Garden, Best Garden and Wilderness. We have already made a start on the new beds in the Kitchen Garden and uncovering a cobbled path in the West Garden.

Anna measuring and marking out the 4 new vegetable and cut flower beds for The Kitchen Garden. This will double the size of The Kitchen Garden

Jean helping uncover the late 1800s/early 1900s cobbled path from the Richardsons' era in The West Garden. Having started to cut back the inside of the very wide Yew hedges, the path is much wider than we expected and is in suprisingly good condition. We have found little pieces of coal where the coalman gained access to the back door up this path during Barbara Clutton-Brock's time at the house.

Alex and Mary continuing to mattock out and clear large shrubs from The Best Garden. This area will be re-seeded with grass.

Mary continues to help us clear the dead from the Box topiaries in The Best Garden. This is an ongoing programme of restoration to improve the health and shape of the Box. We have a topiary expert coming to advise on restoration and conservation of the historic topiaries in early March this year.

Joe, Coralie and Jane C continue to help clear The Wilderness.

We have uncovered an apple and damson tree in The Wilderness - still very much alive, just smothered by the undergrowth. Although they have been rather compressed and are leaning at interesting angles we hope they will flourish now they have been uncovered. We plan to clear the area around them and sow with grass and spring bulbs.

For those of you interested in what goes on in a National Trust garden over the winter, here are some of the other jobs we’ve tackled this month in the garden:
-clearing leaves
-continuing to remove large, overgrown shrubs from The Best Garden and move roses
-checking the grounds for storm damage: we had a couple of tree casualties
-servicing machinery
-finishing spreading manure in The Kitchen Garden

-sorting seeds for The Kitchen Garden
-pruning and tying in roses
-winter pruning the Wisteria and shrubs in the Forecourt
-continuing to clear The Wilderness
-winter pruning pears and cutting down autumn raspberries
-cutting back ivy
-starting to cut back the very wide Yew hedges in The West Garden
-coppicing hazel for use as supports in the garden
-tidying and cleaning the green house ready for the new year to come

-getting the badger setts in the garden assessed by an expert from the local Badger Trust voluntary group

-helping to move to our new offices in The Hayloft

-working on the garden exhibition
-reviewing the guide book for the property with Nicola

-reviewing the garden guide, tour guides and garden talks,
-Anna giving external evening talks on the garden to local gardening clubs
-reviewing and improving our volunteer systems across the property
-recruiting new volunteers

- Anna running propagation training for volunteers
- planning the expansion for the garden stall
- finalising the Conservation Garden Management Plan and presenting the Plan to volunteers

- developing a schedule of works and rotas for the garden for the next few months