Topical tips for September

When the weather is hot keep those greenhouses cool with shading, and damping down of the paths.

Continue to pick runner beans etc. in the kitchen garden. It is not too late to sow quick crops of radish etc.

Dead heading the herbaceous borders will prolong the display, but if you want to save seed, don't forget to leave some flowerheads uncut!

It is not too late to cut back unruly wisteria, trimming off the wispy bits to 5 leaves, and tying in any branches to fill gaps.

It is still possible to take cuttings from the more tender varieties such as penstemon and salvia.
Continue to trim hedges. Putting a sheet down first to catch the clippings will make clearing up a lot quicker.

Animal & Conservatory Rescue

At the beginning of the month Mike found a very young hedgehog in the copse. (See pic.) It was tiny, cold, wet and all on its own. The mother was nowhere to be found. Mike took it to Claire the gate girl, who tried to warm it up and clean it. She noticed that it was covered in eggs, and spent quite some time with a donated toothbrush and some cotton buds, removing them. Then she phoned the Worcester Hedgehog Rescue, who came and collected it. The good news is that they were able to save it, and will return it in about 3 weeks when it has put some weight on. ( I call it 'it' as I have no idea how you tell the gender of a baby hedgehog. Hopefully we will be told all about her/him when he/she returns home.)

The conservatory is well under way to being completely renovated. All the old panels have been removed now, the original frame is all clean and painted, (again in 'Spetchley Green), the brickwork has been repointed and rendered in places and we are just waiting for the new frames to be installed.

In the last couple of weeks we have had two wedding receptions on the main lawn at the front of the house. They were both very interesting affairs as they involved people from other cultures with different customs from our own. Between them there were were fireworks, confetti fireworks, a bouncy castle, a disco, 2 huge limousines, and lots of food. The only down side has been that the main lawn now has a large patch of yellow grass where both marquees were sited, which will take a few weeks to recover.

The Millennium Garden is looking lovely at the moment, the verbena bonariensis is such a show stopper. The dahlias are a bright and cheerful sight and the asters are just beginning to put on a display.

The campsis in the Stable yard, and on Gardener's Cottage are both promising to be very impressive in a couple of weeks. This is a great time of year to visit the gardens!

Best Wishes,
Kate

Tasks for August

Continue to dead-head spent flowers, especially roses and summer bedding.

Make sure you arrange for someone to pop in and water the hanging baskets, greenhouse and veg plot if you are off on holiday. They will also need to keep an eye on any veg that needs picking, such as runner beans.

Check tree ties and stakes for rubbing or constriction. Remove and clean to eliminate overwintering pests.

Keep working with the hoe when the weather is warm enough.

Start taking semi ripe cuttings of fuchsias, penstemon, pelargonium, salvia etc Watch for the fungal infection rust on hollyhocks, pelargoniums etc.

Remove affected foliage and spray with a fungicide.

Start trimming hedges.

WET WET WET!

Water, water everywhere. The last couple of months of wet weather finally culminated in the most devastating storms last month, the like of which I have never seen before. We were very lucky here at Spetchley as there was little damage, apart from sodden lawns and borders, the eel trap full to overflowing and the lake slightly bursting its banks. On that now infamous Friday, two of our team had difficulty getting home: Mike had to leave his car at work, was taken through the villages by 4x4 as far as possible and then had to wade home. Debbie eventually managed to get home, but then the main road near her house collapsed, breaking water pipes and causing her village to become cut off for the entire weekend.
However, it has been an excellent year for hydrangeas (see pic) and astilbes, that both love damp conditions!

Recently we have been filmed by a TV company, intent on making a 20 week series of programmes on the day to day running of our estate, and that of Berkeley Castle. We have been followed about when rescuing eels from the overflowing eel trap, when tying up rain battered borders, and when our very exciting new entrance display arrived. The new welcome 'hut' has now been sited at the main garden entrance. It is very eye-catching, with plenty of space to display items for sale, leaflets etc. Do come and take a look. (If you are interested, the programme is running on Sky channel 280 on a Saturday evening, and is called 'Berkeley, a Country Estate'.)

Alex ('our' student) is with us again for the summer. It appears that a life after university in the world of high finance was not for him, and he is taking a break before plunging headlong into a new career involving museum archives, or document research etc

seed collecting from across the gardens is up and running again. This means that we have a wide selection of seed available. But please remember that the selection is seasonal and can change monthly. If you have any requests for seed please let us know and we will do our best to collect them.

And finally, the long awaited restoration of the conservatory has begun. The carpenter was there today, measuring up for new frames, and removing all the old glass etc. All the old, wooden frames will be removed, the original metal structure will be treated, and new frames installed.
Best Wishes
Kate Portman

High Summer is here?

Rain, rain and more rain. Looking back to last year this was the month when we had the problems with very low water levels in the lake and the fire brigade were called in to help aerate the water to save the carp. This year we are almost at maximum winter levels for the lake! This is good for the fish, but has been very difficult to work round, as grass cutting and hoeing have been almost impossible.
The gardens are begining to recover from the heavy rain and are looking lush and green. Although the roses were rather battered, other plants are just about to open. The agapanthus border is beginning to flower, whilst the Millennium Garden has clouds of verbena bonariensis (see pic.) and the earlier dahlias are out. The main borders are looking bright, and in the copse the cornus, especially varieties Norman Hadden and Porlock, are at their best.
In the Kitchen Garden all was going well. We thought that we had beaten the rabbits by keeping the gates shut at closing time, and that a lack of brassicas would bore the pidgeons. Peas planted earlier in the year had done well and had been largely ignored. A first good picking indicated a bumper crop to come. However, mice finally discovered the peas and ate all the remaining peas from the ground up.
When we came to get the crop, all that remained was empty, chewed pods littering the ground. Anyone have any ideas?
We have a new volunteer, Lee, who comes in one day a week to help out.
She has been learning a lot of new plants, and improving her horticultural knowledge whilst doing the jobs such as dead heading roses, that we never seem to get time to do.

Tasks for July

Feed roses etc with a general fertiliser such as phostrogen, and continue to deadhead spent flowers.

Trim back geraniums and aubretia in the borders after flowering Begin harvesting veg and fruit in the kitchen garden.

Prune wisteria tendrils back to 5 buds.

Start collecting seed when the weather is dry.

It will soon be time to take softwood cuttings of plants such as hebes, fuchsia, salvia and penstemon.

High Summer is here?

Rain, rain and more rain. Looking back to last year this was the month when we had the problems with very low water levels in the lake and the fire brigade were called in to help aerate the water to save the carp. This year we are almost at maximum winter levels for the lake! This is good for the fish, but has been very difficult to work round, as grass cutting and hoeing have been almost impossible.

The gardens are begining to recover from the heavy rain and are looking lush and green. Although the roses were rather battered, other plants are just about to open. The agapanthus border is beginning to flower, whilst the Millennium Garden has clouds of verbena bonariensis (see pic.) and the earlier dahlias are out. The main borders are looking bright, and in the copse the cornus, especially varieties Norman Hadden and Porlock, are at their best.

In the Kitchen Garden all was going well. We thought that we had beaten the rabbits by keeping the gates shut at closing time, and that a lack of brassicas would bore the pidgeons. Peas planted earlier in the year had done well and had been largely ignored. A first good picking indicated a bumper crop to come. However, mice finally discovered the peas and ate all the remaining peas from the ground up.

When we came to get the crop, all that remained was empty, chewed pods littering the ground. Anyone have any ideas?

We have a new volunteer, Lee, who comes in one day a week to help out.
She has been learning a lot of new plants, and improving her horticultural knowledge whilst doing the jobs such as dead heading roses, that we never seem to get time to do.