Mary's birthday present to the walled gardens

Mary Noble, who has rooted for us since we started work on our lost gardens, brought us in this fantastic surprise at the beginning of the month. When we first started, Mary used to help us by baking cakes to sell in the tearoom which was then, just a shed. She still helps us by volunteering and bringing friends round the gardens. I hope she will forgive me putting her on our blog. Thank you Mary for all your support and for this fantastic memento of the last ten years!

November projects

I am often asked what we do in the winter. Here is a 'behind-the-scenes' look at Winter Work. Looking at these pictures it is hard to imagine how beautiful everything will look in the Spring! Somehow, every year, it does.

The White Space Garden: This is having the stonework (ordered last year) put into position. Challenges here include fixing the edging stones, delivered as a perfect sphere, into an ancient pond shape that is slightly oval. Very heavy machinery and lots of muscle will be needed to lift the urn into place. Bulb plantings will be over planted with perennials in the Spring.

The Cottage Garden: As you may be aware this year has been incredibly dry and there is just not enough soil here to keep our plants healthy so Steve is raising the beds in the centre to provide a greater depth of moisture retentive soil. The paths are the original cement paths from the 1950’s so they have been dug up and replaced. The greenhouse nearest the path has been completely renovated inside this summer and we are now working on the exterior paintwork.
The Ha-Ha at the end of the South Lawn (near the giraffes): Sir Fred/Robin have completely rebuilt this. The full effect of this will be seen during snowdrop time when we open the snowdrop walk.

The River: After nearly a decade of discussion with the environment agency we have finally done some work here. It was very messy as you can see! The ideal habitat in small rivers like this is to create pools and narrow rills of faster flowing water. We have tried to encourage the river into this shape. Now we need a big flood to bring some sediment down into the blocked off areas so that we can see if we have got it right.  It will probably take a couple of attempts, moving timber around, until we are happy. Then we can start to consider planting. Amazingly, even in this short time, the number of trout sightings in this little patch has doubled and the kingfisher is fishing here regularly.

The Kitchen Garden: The orchard is going in. A year ago Tim and I asked Shaun D’Arcy Burt of Mr D’Arcys Heritage Fruit Trees to supply us with tree varieties that were local to Lincolnshire and this area. There is a strong apple tradition around Stamford. He grafted the rarer varieties last spring and delivered them at the beginning of November. Lincolnshire Gardens Trust has supported us with a small grant for the apple trees.
The Poppy borders:  When we first put in the poppy borders we put boards along the front to hold the soil back. The weight has got too much for them and they had rotted so are being replaced this year. 

The Pickery: Jamie, assisted by Jack (who is here on work experience) has been double digging and enlarging the sweet pea beds.

Still to do this winter: As well as finishing these projects we will be repainting the little shed outside the history room, repainting the tearoom, mulching the beds with mushroom compost and further plantings.