A career in horticulture — From the beginning

Restoration

Andy Wilson — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:29:00 GMT

It’s been a busy month since my last blog entry. Last week Hestercombe had the opening of The Mill and Barn restoration project; this restoration was already underway when I started back in September. The cost of the project has come to around £1.6 million, and has been funded by a variety of sources, the National Lottery being one of them. Here’s the official explanation on what it’s all about:

“The Watermill and Barn will be a centre of education and interpretation for the whole estate. In addition the Mill building will showcase the historic uses of renewable energy alongside original working mill machinery and demonstrate how these sustainable sources of energy may be harnessed in the future.”

Whilst the gardeners have not had much to do with the actual restoration of the buildings it has created a lot of extra work in regard to getting the garden looking at its best for the opening. In the Shrubbery we have moved and rebuilt a part of dry stone wall so it lines up more accurately with the water tower attached to the main house; we also created a whole new section so there is dry stone wall for nearly the entire length of this area. The layout of the Shrubbery footpaths have been previously criticised for being confusing. Because of this we have dug over and grass seeded one stretch of path, we are hoping this will create a route that gives better structure and flow for our visitors.

The Victorian Terrace has had the path around the fountain enlarged, so it matches photos we have from the turn of the 20th Century. It is a subtle change, but I think it makes the terrace slightly grander. A patio type area, also featured in the photos has been introduced.

The Dutch Garden has been replanted, using mainly young plant specimens’. This part of the garden was completely ripped out at the beginning of the restoration project so the tunnel beneath, which has been turned into an audio visual room, could be made water tight. I get the impression that this was a very popular part of the garden, so I’m sure many visitors will be happy to see its return (I have never seen it fully grown, so it will be a good reason to make a return visit in a couple years time.)

Here are some of the plants that are have been looking good this month:

Magnolia

Leucojum

Rhododendron

Fritillaria

Time to Spring Forward

Andy Wilson — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 11:54:00 GMT

Every blog I write seems to have some kind of reference to the current weather situation. ‘Weather’ is a topic of conversation much loved by the British public –in fact, it tends to dominate - but for people in the horticultural industry, it plays a huge role in our working lives. Fortunately the coldest winter in 30 years – incredible – now seems to have passed us by as, until this week, Somerset has been enjoying plenty of sunshine and blue skies.

This improvement in the weather means the garden is starting to come alive again with small clusters of foliage appearing on stems and flowers such as daffodils emerging.

March is a good time to sow a variety of seeds. Unfortunately, Hestercombe is currently lacking meaningful greenhouse space - but on the bright side, myself and Alex - the other student gardener - got to spend a couple of days at the National Trust property Barrington Court, which grows a lot of plants from seed as well as having a substantial walled fruit and vegetable garden.

I had previously done quite a lot of seed-sowing in propagation lectures whilst at Hadlow College, and going to Barrington gave me a good chance refresh my memory. We got to sow a variety of vegetables and perennials into seed and cell trays; these were then placed into a heated propagator to assist with germination and root development.

Alongside the seed sowing, there was also an opportunity to use the root-cutting method of propagation for some Crambe maritima (Sea Kale) which is a relative of the cabbage; during the afternoon of the second day, we used a rotavator to break up some compacted ground, created a finer tilth with a rake and then sowed some parsnip seeds in drills.

Pete, one of the gardeners who has been at Barrington for 34 years, told us about how he is experimenting with the No Dig method of gardening in certain parts of the kitchen garden which he runs. I was unaware of this process, but it involves a lot less digging and therefore backache - which I imagine a lot of people may be interested in! The link below explains it in simple terms:
http://www.nvsuk.org.uk/growing_show_vegetables_1/no-dig-gardening.php

Many thanks to the friendly team of gardeners at Barrington Court who took some time out to demonstrate this selection of useful skills. And finally: good luck to the 7 people who visited Hestercombe this week for interviews to become the new student gardeners in September!

Barrington Court

Many Hands Make....

Andy Wilson — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:29:00 GMT

After the initial thrill of a lot of snow, the white stuff turned out to be rather annoying, and hung around for two weeks making carrying out any meaningful work difficult. This was never a problem whilst studying at Hadlow College as a classroom was not far away, where some work on theory could be completed; life for a full time gardener is different. Hestercombe does not have much of a greenhouse area to speak of either (this will be changing very soon) so there was not even much indoor work that could be done.

Fortunately, life as a gardener has now returned to normal - and with spring just around the corner, there is plenty of work to be getting on with.

The Hestercombe estate covers a wide area which is well cared for by the two hardworking teams of gardeners - but we do get some extra assistance each week. The local community has a big input as Hestercombe has substantial numbers of volunteers who turn up weekly to give a day - or a few hours - of their time in the garden. This extra workforce can make a long job turn into a less than a day's work! An example from each garden:

As mentioned in a previous blog, the formal garden has masses of lawn edges, all of which need a weekly trim in the summer. This can take all day, but when the volunteers are helping us, the gardeners can then focus on doing a good job with the actual lawns whilst the volunteers look after the edges. This means only one day has to be spent on lawn care and other areas of the garden can receive extra attention.

A regular task in the landscape garden is the constant battle of removing encroaching brambles and pruning the masses of laurel shrubs. In both cases, there are large areas of this work to be done - frankly, it would take the gardeners all year to do. But on a Thursday usually at least 8 volunteers turn up at 10 am and work until 4pm; in this time a huge area is always cleared making a noticeable difference to the surrounding area.

Before starting work at Hestercombe I never realised to what extent the work of a group of dedicated volunteers can have on a garden!

(Some of the volunteers preparing a dry stone wall for repair)

Wintery Blast

Andy Wilson — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:05:00 GMT

My first blog of the New Year.... this means I'm successfully keeping to one of a few New Year's resolutions, being that I need to do more blogging, hopefully this will be different to previous year's resolutions which were lamely ditched after a few weeks!

Last night Somerset was on the receiving end of a substantial dump of snow, and as beautiful as the landscape looks, gardening has become rather difficult in these treacherous conditions. I have absolutely no excuse for not making it into work though, no matter what the weather, as I actually live on the Hestercombe site, so the staff room is a mere 5 minute walk away. It was a different story for everyone else, as the only other people who arrived were 3 gardeners and a chef; no office, shop, or restaurant staff could make it in. This led to us closing the site to visitors at around 9.30, as a successful garden needs more than just gardeners to run it. This means I have actually had my feet up for the most of the day; I did manage to take some photos of the estate early this morning...

West Rill

Chimonanthus Praecox, Rotunda

The Orangery

Landscape Garden

The Shrubbery

A week in the formal garden

Andy Wilson — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:11:00 GMT

Monday My first task of the new week was to walk around a section of the formal garden named The Shrubbery using a leaf blower to clear up the numerous drifts of leaves. There are a lot of deciduous trees at Hestercombe, so clearing the copious amounts of leaves is a very common job during the late autumn and early winter months. The leaf blower reduces the time and hassle of trying to use a spring rake - blowing them into one pile that can then be picked up and placed straight into a trailer. I spent the remainder of the morning assisting one of the formal gardeners in the Rotunda where the circular pond had become rather green and murky. The water was drained out of it, and we used a pond vacuum cleaner to collect rotting leaves, algae, and general dirt and sludge. We were left with striking blue-grey stone slabs, allowing the public to see Edwin Lutyens' original design. The afternoon was spent working on the Victorian Terrace, marking out and planting the spring bedding scheme. We were using Alyssum, Aubretia, Arabis, and Sedum acre.

Tuesday The whole day was spent planting up the Victorian Terrace. There are 3 different spring designs created by Hestercombe's resident archivist, and these are used on a rotational basis. To start the process, we used string to mark out the design template; the plants were then laid out in stages to get the spacing right and, when that was ready, the design was planted up. The planting has to be done in stages so no plants are trampled on or areas of soil compacted. During the afternoon, the water level in the Rotunda's pool finally rose to its capacity and we were left with a beautiful shimmering disc of water which really gave that area of the garden a lift and, because the water is clean, the floor of the pool is still visible.

Wednesday The Victorian Terrace was finally finished today — by the time spring arrives and the plants flower, it should look impressive. Due to being rather tall, I also assisted in putting up some Christmas decorations around the garden's restaurant. This did not require me to use any horticultural skills — but does show that sometimes it's necessary for gardeners to turn their hands to other some rather odd jobs. The remainder of the afternoon was spent carrying out more leaf collecting — this time in the rose garden.

Thursday Thursday is grass-cutting day in the formal garden where there is certainly plenty of lawn to be mown. This was to be the last cut of the season, before the very cold and wet weather arrived and the frosts set in. We have a variety of lawn mowers in use; a Gianni Ferrari sit-on mower for the large expanses of grass, along with the rotary and cylinder mowers for the plat and rill areas of the formal garden where a fine cut and stripes are particularly important. Edging is also a huge task due to the intricate Lutyens design; there are over 100 edges of varying lengths to be trimmed! Thankfully, Hestercombe has a reliable set of volunteer helpers who assist us in many tasks — edging being one of them.

Friday Hestercombe was hosting a Christmas fair the following day so there were a variety of things that needed preparing. Raising a big Christmas tree in the courtyard was one such task (this took a while), and then the marquee which was to house the fair needed organising before the stall holders arrived. I spent Friday afternoon undertaking maintenance work; we have a wide variety of equipment at Hestercombe, all of which needs looking after. Once the strimmers, leaf blowers, and hedge trimmer were checked over and cleaned, (including air filters), I helped out on the tractors and sit-on mower. There is one job on a Friday that no one really relishes though - that's emptying the garden's dog poo bins. Happily — it was not down to me this week!

Weeds to compost and weeds to burn

Andy Wilson — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:45:00 GMT

The subjects within horticulture are many; and enormously varied. It stands to reason, therefore, that depending on the area in which one is involved it can be necessary to concentrate on some subjects more than others. Being employed in a heritage garden means the majority of my work is centred around plants — and at the end of the day, they are the main reason we attract so many visitors. (Hestercombe is also fortunate to have a lot of fantastic Lutyens-designed stone work within the formal garden).

There are literally thousands of plants in existence and it is good practise to learn both the Latin and the common names. This may take more effort, but a lot of people outside the industry are unfamiliar with the Latin versions and, as I am now a representative of the horticultural industry, I think I should make the effort to help them whenever possible. I actually found this quite daunting at first, and still do to a certain extent — but it's getting easier.

During my time at Hadlow College we were given 10 new plants each week and, when the end of each half term came around, just 20 were selected and we had to identify them. This process has been carried on at Hestercombe, the only difference being that the members of the gardening team get to take turns in setting the 10 plants of their choice. This leads to a good variety: one week there were trees, another week, plants that can also be used as herbal remedies. Below is an example of a earlier plant identification — one which some people may find useful.

At Hestercombe we try to compost as much of the removed plant material from the garden as possible — and this can also include weeds. It is important to know which weeds need saving and what needs to be burnt! It's not a great idea to make some quality homemade, nutrient-rich compost which, it turns out, is full of dreaded bindweed! Once established, this nasty weed can take years to eradicate.

Here are the 10 examples; five to save and five to burn, Latin name, family, and common names are all included:

FIVE TO COMPOST

Epilobium angustifolium - Onagraceae - Rosebay willowherb

Stellaria media - Caryophyllaceae - Chickweed

Cardamine hirsuta - Brassicaceae - Hairy bittercress

Senecio vulgaris -Asteraceae - Groundsel

Poa annua - Poaceae - Annual meadow grass

FIVE TO BURN

Convolvulus arvensis - Convolvulaceae - Bindweed

Taraxacum officinale - Asteracea - Dandelion

Aegopodium podagraria - Apiaceae - Ground elder

Rubus fruticosus - Rosaceae - Bramble

Ranunculus repens - Ranunculaceae

Clearing out the deadwood

Andy Wilson — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:34:00 GMT

Working in the landscape garden at Hestercombe every other week has so far given me an introduction to a selection of skills that you may not get in some other gardens around the country. One such area is woodland management. I did take a brief look at British woodland during my time at Hadlow College — but that was theoretical and not on a practical level.

One of the simple pleasures of life is a gentle stroll through a piece of British woodland — beams of light breaking through the canopy — and the occasional appearance of some native wildlife. This type of idealised landscape does not happen on its own — in fact, if woodland is just left to its own devices, it soon gets out of control and looks rather messy.

This week I have spent two of my 5 days working in a wooded area of the estate called Sandilands. This used to be part of the original driveway that led to Hestercombe House when it was still a private residence and, even though rarely used today (visitors now have an easier access route), it still needs looking after.

Ideally the woodlands surrounding Hestercombe should be made up of traditional specimens such as Ash (Fraxinus excelsior), Oak (Quercus robur), Lime (Tilia Cordata), Beech (Fagus sylvatica), and Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastrum). These are all present, but there is also a vigorous population of Sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) and False Acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia) growing alongside them. These trees are fast-growing and can spread and rapidly take over the woodland floor — in addition, they do not provide a useful habitat for the local insect and bird population.

A large amount of felling has been occurring throughout the week in Sandilands, so some of the troublesome sycamore and False Acacia have been felled along with selected dying, dead or diseased trees. Our role was to remove these large pieces of timber by using a winch. The winch is attached to the rear of a Kubota 50-30 tractor and is powered by a PTO mechanism (see below). The winch we have been using can remove up to 4 tonnes of wood in one go, and makes the task of forest management much easier. Chains are attached to the ends of the timber that needs removing; these are then threaded through links which are attached to the winch cable. Once team members are in safe positions, the cable takes up the slack and the timber slowly moves through the forest towards the tractor.

There really is a big difference in the ‘before' and ‘after' appearance of the woodland once work is completed. At the beginning, there was very little light filtering through the canopy — and in between the large trees there was a wall of young Sycamore saplings that provided a barrier through which it was difficult to see. The end result has left gaps in the canopy that afford light and moisture to the forest floor and also allows space for the existing trees to fill out. Within a couple of years, bluebells and other wild flowers should start appearing.

PTO: A power take-off (PTO) is a splined driveshaft, usually on a tractor or truck, which can be used to provide power to an attachment or separate machine. It is designed to be easily connected and disconnected. The power take-off allows implements to draw energy from the tractor's engine.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_take-off

Hadlow student to full-time gardener

Andy Wilson — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:27:00 GMT

There have been four weeks of Somerset sun so far, and this has made my introduction into full time gardening even better than I thought it would be. I suppose the chance of these blue skies continuing throughout the 12 months of my student placement is very limited, but I'm hoping my beautiful surroundings will more than make up for the inevitable dark clouds and rain that winter brings.

Hestercombe Gardens are divided into two parts, the Formal Garden, and the Landscape Garden. I am spending my time evenly between the two, one week in the formal followed by a week in the landscape. Doing it like this means I shall see all aspects and seasons of each garden throughout the whole year, and all the different types of horticultural skills that go with it. I am accompanied in my learning by two separate teams of 3 full time gardeners; the landscape team being run by Ben Knight, and the formal team by Claire Reid.

The two gardens could not be more of a contrast, with the long gentle curves and tall trees of the Landscape Garden, compared with the numerous straight edges and intricate and detailed planting of the Formal Garden. For someone new to the industry, this setup is really useful, because even though I know being involved in heritage gardening is the direction I want to follow, it's not quite as simple as that. This placement has made me realise that the work in a garden like Hestercombe can come in very different forms. The landscape garden use's a lot of heavy duty equipment, and the distances covered are quite large whereas work in the formal garden is probably more what people would expect from a heritage garden, pruning, mulching, edging etc. By the end of these 12 months I hope to have made a decision on what form the next step of my horticultural career will take.

For more information about the restoration of Hestercombe Gardens go to: http://www.hestercombe.com/gardens/Hestercombe-Gardens-History.xhtml