Tips for Januaryt

Those seed and young plant catalogues have started to drop through the letterbox. An hour spent with a plant catalogue, a cup of tea, notebook and pencil is time well spent.

Check over all the garden tools, machinery and equipment, and send lawnmowers etc away for service, blade sharpening etc.

Use warmer days to walk round the garden, looking at the shape and structure of the plants, and planning any projects for next year.

Illuminated Success

The Illuminated Trail took up a considerable amount of time and energy in December, and now it is just a lovely memory. We have spoken to people who visited several times, and those that have decided to apply the theory of lighting trees to their own gardens! We are all hoping that the event will be repeated next year in an even more spectacular fashion.

The remains of the event... the flattened lawns and lawn edges, litter and lost property have been amazingly minimal considering that over 10,000 visitors walked the trail. However some areas do need a little repair, so January will be very busy. This, coupled with the fact that the gardens are open earlier than usual next year means that the gardeners will really have their work cut out to get ready.

Another tradition involving the gardeners is the decoration of the catholic chapel. We gather foliage from around the gardens and use it to create a backdrop for the crib which sits to one side of the alter rail. In front of the crib, a landscape of rocks and sand is built whilst down one side of the crib a swathe of chrysanthemums is placed.
Mahonia stems are woven between the alter rails, and at one time, swags of foliage were also constructed to hang along the length of the chapel. Construction of the swags would take a couple of weeks and required the hammering of supporting nails into the wall. However, since the chapel has been renovated, this practice has been dropped.

The snowdrops are just beginning to show through the grassy banks on the west border, and crocus will soon be up all along the long walk to the white bridge, and covering the bank at the front of the main house. We are currently concentrating our efforts on removing the leaves from these areas so that the flowers can come through unhindered. The collected leaves are piled up in 2 huge heaps to rot down into leaf mold. The leaf mold from 2 seasons ago is then applied to some of the borders as a thick mulch.

(The picture shows an acer palmatum Eddisbury, in the frost.)