September at Chastleton Garden 2012

The sun shone on Chastleton Garden in September and we have had an autumn blush of flowers, vegetables and fruit. The volunteers and I have had a lovely month working in the garden and lots of enthusiastic visitors.
The Countryfile programme featuring Chastleton aired at the beginning of the month with great success. We have had lots of interested visitors to the property and even visitors from the New York Botanical Gardens who were keen to build links with the garden and send volunteers.
A big thanks to the garden tour guides who stepped up and helped out with extra taster tours of the garden when our numbers and demand for tours increased.

The Forecourt has looked beautiful dappled in afternoon autumn sun. We have widened and regravelled the two side paths to The Stableyard and The Best Garden this month.

 

The Agapanthus aficanus 'Blue Giant' in the ceramic pots at the front steps have finally come out in flower and look glorious. They have been grown for many years in The Forecourt.

 

 

The Pinus sylvestris takes a dramatic stance over The Best Garden. We have just finished cutting the Yew hedges in The Best Garden. We mow-in raised grass areas to give a 'ghost' of the large, glamorous herbaceous and rose borders that surrounded the circular Yew hedge in the garden in the Richardsons era in the early 1900s.

 

The Acer griseum in The Best Garden has amazing, patterned bark and its foliage is just starting to turn scarlet.

 

The Kitchen Garden has continued to put on a lovely display of flowers, fruit and vegetables. We have worked hard harvesting peaches, apples, pears, raspberries, mulberries, plums, climbing and runner beans, root crops and cutting flowers. The area has had a lovely pink and purple hue with the planting.

 

Peaches were hand pollinated by John and therefore we have had a good crop and have been harvested and sold to the visitors on the produce stall.

 

The Sweet Peas and Crysanthemums have flowered well and been picked by the volunteers to decorate the house and sold in small boquets to the public.

 

 

Our pumpkin crop - both large and small varieties- has been plentiful and romped across the top end of the Kitchen Garden borders amongst the flowers, squashes and beans.

 

The green manure - Red Clover - has flowered and created a carpet of pink and green which has attracted bees and other pollinating insects.

 

The rose border has looked at its best this month and has had lots of fresh blooms. These have been deadheaded by volunteers once they have gone over and this helps perpetuate further flowering.

 

 

The croquet lawns have had their autumn weed and feed and look in good condition. We have had the mallets and balls out for the visitors to play on open days in good weather and there has been the regular sound of play on the lawns and merriment from visitors.

 

Julie, Jane, Roger and I put the new high picker to good use and harvested the apples in the upper branches of the trees around the garden.

 

Other jobs done in the garden this month are:

-harvesting

-edging

-pruning shrubs and climbers

-planning events for 2013

-mowing

-watering

-ordering spring bulbs

-strimming

-hedge cutting

-weeding

-leaf raking

-topiary

-feeding pots

-planning, sorting and organising Apple Day

-dead heading

-spraying weeds

-catching moles

-managing the wormery

-sweeping steps

-Apple Day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 2012 at Chastleton

A very hectic month. Not only were we coping with the wild, wet and windy weather forced on us by the Jet Stream, we were also busy with film crews, a Clutton-Brock family wedding and all the holiday visitors to the property.
In the garden we have been manically mowing, edging and strimming to keep on top of all the lush grass growth and weeds - thanks to the warm, wet weather. Other jobs include:
-weeding
-selling plants and produce to visitors
-garden tours
-sorting and planting in cold frames
-harvesting fruit and veg
-watering and feeding pots and plants in green house
-The croquet club held an in-house tournament
-Hidcote volunteers came to play Chastleton volunteers at croquet
-Dead heading
-clearing and tidying borders
-catching moles
-hedge cutting
-topiary pruning
-cutting back ivy
-spraying weeds with round-up on gravel areas
-reducing the size of very overgrown Mock Orange shrubs
-grass seed sowing
-the West Garden project
-topiary seminar given for garden volunteers by Anna and Julie (this will be rolled out to the public next year)
-Bee keeping workshops with our bee keeper
-picking cut flowers
-croquet engagement with visitors
-weeding and feeding croquet lawns
-summer pruning fruit trees and tying in
-cutting of the wild flower meadow under the orchard
-maintenance of the wormery.
-etc.

The roses have taken on a last blush of flower and leaf and are looking good again before the autumn is completely upon us.

Our lovely rabbit topiary. Our topiary is going through a period of conservation and restoration. After years of being cut by machine it was loosing definition. So the plan is to get a bit of definition of shape into some of the topiaries, while keeping their cloud like shape. We have gone back to traditional methods of cutting with shears. Years of neglect means we are working hard to improve their health by feeding and clipping twice a year - they are already reaping the benefits and greening up on even the oldest wood. 

Our green manure in the Kitchen Garden has finally beaten the battle with most of the weeds and come in to flower and looks very pretty. Red Clover.

Alex and Mary helping me tackle some very overgrown Mock Orange shrubs.

The pumpkins are coming on a treat.

A good onion crop.

We sell plants and produce to our visitors.

The sweet peas look and smell fantastic.

Cosmos and Dahlias - my favs.

Ruth (one of our fab flower arranger volunteers) busy picking to decorate the house.

The peaches have been struggling to ripen in the wet weather and low light levels - we have managed to harvest a moderate crop for sale.

We have just cut down the wild flower meadow under the orchard.

We are preparing for Apple Day at the end of Sept, but it is a poor year for top fruit due to a late frost and poor pollination after wet and windy weather.  However it will still be a brilliant day on Sept 29th with lots going on for everyone. Do come and join us celebrate all the fruit on the property.
Thank you again to my hard working and loyal group of volunteers - much appreciated. Anna

BBC Countryfile at Chastleton Garden

Very excitingly we had BBC Countryfile come and film in the house and garden at Chastleton in August 2012. The programme aired on 2/9/2012 at 7.30pm and is now available on iplayer for the next 7 days. We had a good day with Helen Skelton and Matt Baker and the friendly and helpful crew. John Poole and myself were both seen on screen promoting the garden. The weather was a bit variable. Filming the sections on fruit and topiary in the morning were very wet and blustery, but by the filming of the croquet in the afternoon and evening the sun was out. Thanks John - you were great! Anna.

John chatting to Helen about peaches.

Matt and Helen learning the art of croquet.

The brown marks on the croquet lawns are where I have just treated the 2 fairy rings that appeared at the end of last year and continue to make a statement on the lawns!!

It has been a battle with the weeds on the fine turf lawns this year - I have just completed the autumn weed and feed programme. 

West Garden Project Continues.

The West Garden project continues.The area is now graveled and the brick cold frames are in place. The posts for the fencing are in place and the gate with the badger door is in place at the bottom of the cobbled path. Over the next few months we plan to get the chain for the fence in place, one of the volunteers is going to build the covers for the cold frames and paint the new picket fence. The graveled areas will house potting tables for engagement with visitors with seed sowing and potting on in the spring and work with school groups. The plant sales will also move to the West Garden next year. This area will continue to be developed into a working area - which links back to this area of the garden's historical roots and uses.

Pickett fence under construction

Cold Frames being built.

Garden fence posts going in. 

Cold frames under construction.

The finished cold frames awaiting their new covers.

The lovely iron gate made by Matthew West and generously donated by Cynthia (a previous volunteer at Chastleton who loves the garden). The opening at the bottom is to allow the badgers to come and go on the same route they have used for centuries. 

A huge thank you to all the great work from Keith, Kenny, Martin and Matthew.

Batting at Chastleton

Last week we had a new event at Chastleton - Batting! David Endecott from the Oxfordshire Bat Association very kindly came in to give a talk about the different species and work by the Association. It was very popular - we sold out with 24 people for the talk and walk! We were able to see captive serotine and pipistrelle bats that the Bat Association had rescued or are rearing for release when they are old enough.

A baby Pipistrelle being fed milk.

A Serotine bat being fed a mealworm

Then we went on a 40 minute walk around the property, using bat detectors to see and hear these bats in the wild. There are six different species of bat living on the property, and we saw two of them! 

Looking for bats in the Stableyard.

The nursery boxes for the baby bats.

By all accounts, a great success! We'll definitely run this one again next year!

All pictures (C) Sebastian Conway.

West Garden conservation project beginning in July 2012

Chastleton West Garden Project 2012.
In line with our Garden Conservation Management Plan we have started the West Garden conservation project this month. The West Garden was one of the most neglected and 'lost' areas of the garden when I arrived to be gardener at the property about 2 years ago. The project had been through phase one earlier in the year when we moved the modern herb garden from The West Garden to The Kitchen Garden.
This month, with the help of the excellent work of Kenny and Keith from the direct labour team at Coleshill,  we have been removing the top soil and turf, putting down water permeable liner to stop weeds and a hardcore base topped with pea gravel, building 3 new cold frames, putting up a fence at the bottom of the cottage gardens and repairing the 1800's cobble path. This will create better cohesion and purpose to the area. It will be more of a working area for the garden - which is in line with its historical past. It also gives echoes of the past with the Richardson's cobbled path, Yew hedges and frame yard, while maintaining its modern cottage garden layout purpose too. We hope to have space for engagement activities such as potting on and seed sowing and another area to display and sell plants to visitors.

The removal of the turf and topsoil.

Laying a water permeable liner to suppress the weeds.

Martin putting in footings for a new picket fence.

Putting in three new brick coldframes. Where possible we have used reclaimed materials.