Its time to say goodbye...

Thank you so much for following my blog over the last 7 years. However, this will be my last entry as my job as Head Gardener at Spetchley Park has come to an end. I have loved keeping you up to date with the facinating, annoying, funny and challenging incidents that have happened at Spetchley and hope that the entries have inspired you to take time out to visit the gardens when they open next season.

I will miss living in the gardens, seeing the early morning mist across the lake, going out in the winter snow to look for animal tracks, spotting the first snowdrops of spring, watching the fantastic collection of paeonies and roses as they open across the summer, and enjoying the late season colour of the acers, liquidamber and liriodendron (tulip tree) as they change into their autumn colour.

Many thanks for all your support over the 13 years that I have worked at Spetchley and I look forward to maybe meeting up with you again as I start out on new adventures.



Kate Portman

5 Calling Birds...

It is sunny and warm and Chris the estate forester had a barbeque at the weekend, hardly a seasonal October. The weather is set to change but it has been lovely and sunny whilst it lasted. It has enabled us to give the grass its last cut of the season. If the grass is nice and short it makes raking leaves so much easier. And there are so many leaves...

It has been such a dry, sunny season the Horse Pool is also really low, but we have some new wildlife that has taken up residence there. (see pic) There are 5 really pretty call ducks who don't seem to mind the slowly reducing water levels. 8 very young call ducks suddenly appeared about 2 months ago and we have no idea where they came from. There are rumours that they were left here in the night by someone who had too many. 5 have survived, and however they arrived here they are very friendly, noisy and rather nosey!

A new section of the south border has been planted up after being left clear for a season. We are hoping that we have eradicated the bindweed and ground elder but those types of weeds have a habit of sneaking back when noone is looking. There have been some lovely plants chosen to go back in the border and I am looking forward to next year when they have really settled in. We are hoping to lift the last section of the west end of the South border this season and repeat the process.

October Tasks

Prepare the garden for winter: keep drains and ponds etc free from leaves and debris, clean and store garden tools, ensure that greenhouse glass is clean, and that any shading has been replaced by insulation.
Feed roses with sulphate of potash to ripen the wood and make the plants more disease resistant.
Check tender plants for infestations of insects, and treat before returning them to their winter quarters.
Put frost protection round any plants that will be staying out for the winter.
Store undamaged apples and pears in a cool, dark well ventilated room such as a garage or garden shed.
Take hardwood cuttings of deciduous shrubs, and gather clematis seed for sowing in a cold frame.
place netting over ponds to catch leaves.
Change the plantings in hanging baskets for winter interest.
lift and divide herbaceous perennials

Hedges, hedges and more hedges....

The gardens are looking lovely this time of year. The picture is of one flower from the bank of cyclamen at the front of the house. I love cyclamen.

Hedge cutting has started again with gusto. The company that didn’t want our yew clippings last year has managed to find a buyer again, so we are saving the clippings and selling them on. Hedge cutting is a long and heavy task but one that is very satisfying. When I used to cut the hedges, several years ago now, I found it hard work but would enjoy looking back at the trimmed hedges at the end of the day. Then there are the box hedges to cut. Now they really are hard work, with all that bending down.

Thankfully this month has been kinder to the fish in the lake than last month. We have had rain and cooler weather. Although this hasn’t had any effect on the water levels it has increased the amount of oxygen available to the fish.

In the middle of the month the peahen finally gave up on her eggs and stopped sitting. This may have been just as well; she had been sitting on at least 9 eggs. I’m not sure what we would have done if they had all hatched...

The Armoured Picnic event was held in the middle of August, when reenactors of various eras get together for one big event in the fields at the front of Spetchley house. It is a fun event and the weather was very kind this year. Unfortunately, the following weekend we had a Caravan Club rally which, although very well attended, didn’t enjoy the same kindness from the weather. Thankfully the organisers had erected a very large ‘big top’ type tent so the caravaners were still able to enjoy themselves in the dry.

Best wishes

Kate

September Tasks

Keep cutting lawns, gradually raising the cut in preparation for winter.
Be particularly careful when picking tree fruit as wasps love windfalls and can become quite drunk, presenting quite a hazard.
Dead heading the herbaceous borders will prolong the display, but if you want to save seed, don’t forget to leave some flowerheads uncut.
Continue to pick runner beans etc. in the kitchen garden. It is not too late to sow quick crops of radish and lettuce.
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.
Start taking cutting of tender plants such as salvias and penstemon, as insurance against the winter frosts.
Continue to trim hedges. Putting a sheet down first to catch the clippings will make clearing up a lot quicker.

Fish and Chicks...

This is a late missive. I know it would usually be posted on the first of the month but I have an excuse: I have been ill with a summer cold and was laid up in bed for 4 days. It was not a pleasant experience, but gave me an much needed opportunity to rest. We have had such a dry spell that when I returned to work the drought was very pronounced. The hoses and leaky pipe are out around the gardens. I have been speaking to Miss Berkeley who told me that in Yorkshire it has rained every day since the beginning of July. I have no idea whether this random fact is true but we do seem to have had less rain than the country as a whole.

It has also been so hot here that we were starting to worry about the carp in the lake, and the lake water appears really thick and green. This seems to a be a repeat of the drought of about 4 or 5 years ago when the lake became so airless that the largest carp started to suffocate and we called on the fire brigade to help aerate the water again. We have hired a couple of circulating pumps and run them when the atmosphere is particularly still.

We were out on the lake a few days ago paddling around in our Canadian canoe, sadly removing carp that hadn’t made it.
( Actually I didn’t: my husband kindly offered to take on the risk of falling into the green silty water and handling slimy, smelly fish. Needless to say, I fetched the camera but he didn’t oblige by falling in.) The land agent has arranged for the remaining fish to be netted and removed to a safer location.

The peahen is still sitting on what I think are 8 eggs. She rejected 2 eggs about 2 weeks ago. I was expecting the patter of tiny toes a few days ago now and am wondering whether the happy day will arrive or whether the eggs are infertile. Mum peahen is certainly very persistent however and very rarely moves off her nest. I’m not sure what I will do with 8 more peacocks to add to the 4 we already have. Any takers?...

August Tasks

Make sure you arrange for someone to pop in keep an eye on the greenhouse and veg plot if you are off on holiday. They will also need to check any veg that needs picking, such as runner beans and squashes.
Keep working with the hoe when the weather is warm enough.
Keep picking those sweet peas and remove seed pods if they form.
Continue to dead-head spent flowers, especially those of summer bedding, hanging baskets, and any remaining late flowering roses.
Start cutting hedges towards the end of the month. We start out yew hedges just before the August Bank Holiday
Continue collecting the seed from those annuals etc that you’d like to save.
Check tree ties and stakes for rubbing or constriction.
Now is a good time to start taking semi ripe cuttings of fuchsias, penstemon, pelargonium, salvia etc
Continue keeping an eye on fish ponds, and run aeration pumps during hot weather

I just had to laugh...

Another interesting month with a couple of entertaining events.

At the beginning of the month we had a request from a young man who wanted to film a Dr Who spoof in the gardens. He needed a location for some outdoor shots and had persuded his mum and a friend to be two of his actors. I’m afraid they didn’t take it as seriously as young Jordan would have liked and I think the filming took rather longer than intended due to the fits of giggles that pealed forth. Still, Jordan was very professional throughout. He then told me he was going to take all the footage home, edit it, and add sound and special effects where necessary to make the final film. He wants to work in films when he is older, and I have no doubt he will.

A couple of weeks later we were asked to clean out the fountain in the middle of the Fountain Gardens. Photos were needed so that a quote can be obtained for repair and maintenance. In the 13 years I have been at Spetchley this hasn’t been done so I was rather interested to see what was at the bottom of the fountain.

I had spent the previous day pumping out the water, rescuing the 10 or so carp and putting them in a large dustbin for safekeeping, and removing some of the sludge. We enlisted the help of the forester, ‘Big Chris’ who said he would make a start clearing the remaining foot or so of sludge. I said I was going to finish the pea planting I was doing with our volunteer ‘Little Chris’, and would then help Big Chris. 3 or 4 minutes later a very irate Big Chris came slopping back through the Kitchen Garden, absolutely covered in sludge. He had stepped over the edge of the fountain onto the steps, the steps had moved, he had missed his footing and fallen in. I’m afraid he didn’t get any sympathy, just a lot of laughter from the gardeners and from Dave, the maintenance man. Poor chap. Anyway, after a hot bath and a large bandage on his elbow he felt justified in starting to help again. We finally got the fountain emptied, (see photo of Little Chris and Steve), finding a childs shoe, a pair of sunglasses, two piles of rocks and stones and about 80p in loose change in the process. The base of the fountain is laid out very neatly in what looks like blue engineering bricks, which was a bit of a suprise to me. There is also a sump that I knew nothing of until I nearly swamped my wellies when I stood in it as the sludge was being removed.
The requisite photos were taken and the fountain filled again 2 days later. The fish were fine and are now enjoying their newly cleaned home.

July Tasks

Water regularly: a heavy soak is better than frequent sprinkles.
Prune wisteria tendrils back to 5 buds.
Hot weather is a great opportunity for getting out that hoe.
Feed roses etc with a general fertiliser such as phostrogen, and continue to deadhead spent flowers.
Top up pools as water evaporates. Keep pumps in good condition.
Trim back geraniums and aubretia in the borders after flowering
Continue harvesting peas, lettuce, early tomatoes etc in the kitchen garden.
Start collecting seed in paper envelopes when the weather is dry.
It will soon be time to take softwood cuttings of plants such as hebes, fuchsia, salvia and penstemon.
Start cutting the grass where daffodils have been left to die down.
Tidy the dead tops of daffodils from borders when weeding.

Of Mice and Volunteers

I had become quite obsessed by rain during May, or rather the lack of it. That was until today, the last day of May, when some of the lack of the last couple of months was dumped on the gardens in one day. It is now a sunny evening after the downpour. I know we need the rain but it could have fallen during the night, or on a day when we were shut, but oh no, it had to rain on a Bank Holiday.

The Kitchen Garden is becoming a bit of a challenge as the seeds I’ve planted in the greenhouses continually get attacked by the mice. Mice are particularly fond of any type of squash: pumpkin, melon, courgette... they keep eating them. Even the sunflowers have been decimated. I have finally decided to start some of the remaining seeds off on my own kitchen windowsill. And the carrots; is it possible that ants are running off with the seed? All I see on the carrot patch are ants and no carrots. Ah well.

At the beginning of the month we had a volunteer from Slovenia for a couple of weeks.(see pic) Irena is a student of Horticulture in Slovenia and needed to do some work experience as part of her course. She has family friends in Worcester who arranged for her to help out for a couple of weeks in the gardens, and she was such fun. Towards the end of the month we also had a young lad Chris, who is keen to learn more about horticulture and offered us a week’s work experience. We tried to arrange for a range of different tasks so that Irena and Chris could both experience as many aspects of the gardens as possible.

In the gardens we seem to have been over run with ground elder in just about every border we have. Its a bit of a challenge at the moment. We are expecting a group from the Royal Horticultural Society at the beginning of June, and are trying very hard to at least get the main borders tidy.

June Tasks

Water hanging baskets every day
Shade and ventilate greenhouses, and keep paths dampened on warm days.
Feed plants in borders, and start dead heading flowers.
Thin out hardy annuals and veg sown in the garden.
Remove suckers (growth from the roots) from roses, lilac and other suckering shrubs.
Remove spring bulb foliage when it will pull away easily.
Remove alge and blanket weed from ponds etc before it becomes a problem
Make sure that tall border plants are adequately supported: pea sticks or canes and string are usually sufficient.
It should now be safe to plant out remaining bedding, including those cannas and dahlias.

Where is the rain?

April has been a tough month, with the lack of rain meaning that watering has become a bit of an obsession with me. Even throughout the Easter Bank Holidays, and Royal Wedding and Mayday celebrations I have been in the gardens watering. I have also started to become obsessive about checking the weather forecast in the vain hope of some rain. The lake and horse pool are so low I am rather worried.

Like many people I expect, I allowed the local TV signal to change to digital without changing my TV or getting a digibox. Of course we lost all our channels so resorted to listening to the Royal Wedding on the radio in the entry hut with Janet, the gate girl on duty on Friday. It was actually very moving. We strung a line of red, white and blue flags across the hut and felt very patriotic. I think a grand total of 19 visited the gardens on Friday; we really are a nation proud of our heritage, pagentry and the Royal Family.

Miss Berkeley had enormous pleasure decorating the main entry gates (see pic) for the Royal Wedding. She also decorated the tea room gardens and the white bridge over the road with the help of Joan from one of the flats. She was a little concerned about what Mr Berkeley would say but it was all vey much appreciated by the visitors.

Next week we are pleased to have the help of a student gardener from Slovenia. She is with us for 2 weeks to learn all aspects of gardening in a large country estate. I hope that she is able to take some old traditional skills back with her when she returns home.

The kitchen garden display is beginning to take shape, although the lack of rain has caused a bit of havoc with the root crops, and we haven’t yet planted out all that I would have liked to. The paeonies and lilies however seem to be thriving. The low rainfall has meant that fungal infections that often destroy the flowers in wetter seasons have been kept at bay. We are expecting a fantastic display.

See you soon

Kate

May Tasks

Try to keep ontop of the hoeing and weeding
Feed roses and shrubs with a general fertiliser; rhododendrons and camelias would benefit from an ericaceous feed.
Plant up hanging baskets, but keep them protected in the greenhouse or frost free conservatory and don’t forget to include some slow release fertiliser.
Cut the grass whenever conditions allow.
Plants that are growing in pots would benefit from a feed
If you removed your pond pump last autumn, now is the time to check it over and replace it for the summer.
Trim back shrubs that have flowered over the late winter, eg jasminum nudiflorum, removing the flowered shoots to keep the shrub within its boundaries.
Clean patio slabs and stonework to remove alge etc.
Trim back spreading alpines such as aubrietia and arabis after flowering.
It looks like we may be in for a dry summer so a water butt or other water collection system connected to the guttering is a good idea.

Herbie...

So much has happened since last month’s blog, its tricky to know where to start. Firstly, the gardens have come alive with all the spring blossom and the daffodils are beginning to look amazing. March has been beautifully sunny, and it has almost been too hot to work in some areas of the gardens.

The blossom seems to be going over so fast but then the purple tinted leaves of the malus take over and give a fresh hue to the wooded areas. I was waiting for one of our earliest magnolia to come into flower with the hope of taking some really good pictures this year. Unfortunately, as often happens, just as the flowers were beginning to open, a sharp frost clipped the petals. However, the other magnolias that were in tight bud at the time are fine and are now beginning to open.

We opened on wed 23rd March and are now in full flow. The Tea Rooms are now under new management and are really worth a visit. The new proprietors are trying to make sure that they only use local produce, and that includes veg and fruit from the Kitchen Gardens.... which makes for very low ‘food miles’. They are offering hot and cold meals, afternoon tea on proper china, and they even have an alcohol licence...

Across the winter I have had a couple of pheasant following me round the gardens. We named them Herbie (see pic) and Harry Lightening. So don’t be suprised if you suddenly find a pheasant coming out of the woods and rushing towards you... they won’t attack, they are only after a little bit of grain.

The work on the fountain in the Millennium Garden is finished and I had the task last week of refilling it. When tested however it was noticed that the fountain flowed unevenly over the two top levels. This meant that someone had to come in with a stone grinder and gently shave a little off the rims to make them level for the water to flow down evenly. This also meant that my newly filled, and beautifully clean fountain became white and cloudy with all the stone dust, necessitating another draining, cleaning and refilling . A gardeners work is never done.

April Tasks

Construct runner bean wigwams or other supports and sow bean seeds, beetroot, radish, spinach, carrots, winter brassicas and peas.
plant those early potatoes as soon as the weather allows
Start to sow annual bedding and climbers. We sow ours into 1/2 seed trays and put them in a mist unit but your pots or trays would do equally well tucked into a closed, clear plastic bag until they germinate.
Trim back shrubs that have flowered over the late winter, eg jasminum nudiflorum, removing the flowered shoots to keep the shrub within its boundaries.
prune back hardy fuchsias to 2 or 3 buds from their base.
keep hoeing when the weather is warm and breezy to remove small weeds.
If you removed your pond pump last autumn, now is the time to check it over and replace it for the summer.
Begin to remove winter protection as the weather warms up.
Feed roses and shrubs with a general fertiliser such as Growmore or a specialised rose feed.
Feed camellias and rhododendron if looking a bit yellow. They require a special sequestered iron food.
Plants that are growing in pots would also benefit from a suitable feed.

Underneath the arches...

I think that this has been one of the toughest few weeks we have had in a long time as we are down to half the usual number of staff. Debbie has been very ill with a nasty virus that affected her breathing and Steve seems to have had a serious allergic reaction to something that we have yet to identify. This has meant that the usual schedule of work has been rather heavily modified to ensure that the main areas of the garden are tidy, ready for opening in three weeks. Chris and I have been working all the available hours, and this is when we are really appreciative of the volunteers who make such a difference. One of our regular volunteers even offered an extra afternoon to help out when she heard that we are short staffed.

Seed sowing has started, with the early peas and beans, and some ornamental plants for the kitchen garden. We will soon have all the greenhouses full again. We have also started the parsley as I intend to replace all the clumps this year. I also had a very encouraging chat with the new tea room managers, who would like to use as much of the surplus kitchen garden produce as possible in soups and salads. The tea rooms are being revamped, and a whole range of tasty food will be available again when the gardens are open.

The work has started on repairing an archway and rebuilding a fountain. The fountain just needs some sort of waterproof lining and it will be finished. The basic archway has been completed (see pic), but the brickwork surrounding it has yet to be finished, and all the coping stones in that section are also due to be replaced. When Miss Berkeley saw what the builders where doing she decided that the completed wall would be the ideal spot to show off her sculpture of a pair of partridge. The sculpture is lovely but it is a bit of a task moving it from the top of one wall to the top of another as it is quite heavy, being attached to a concrete base. Do see if you can spot it when you visit. There is also another set of partridge elsewhere in the gardens. Perhaps you might like to keep a lookout for those too.

Best wishes from a very tired Kate

March Tasks

Pot up dahlias and cannas in the greenhouse to give them a head start.
Cut down ( pollard) willows and cornus that are grown for their winter colour.
Begin to prepare the vegetable patch, clearing and digging over on fine dry days.
Cut down autumn fruiting raspberries
Dig up and divide congested clumps of snowdrops etc as the flowers fade.
Start to cut grass on a high cut, when the lawn is dry enough and the weather is sunny.
Mulch beds before the weather becomes drier, with rotted grass clippings, leafmold, bark chips or one of the decorative mulches available from the garden centre. They will retain moisture over the summer, suppress weeds and keep the borders looking fresh.
Don't forget to browse those seed and plant catalogues for your summer bedding and baskets before its too late.

With grateful thanks

We now have 7 volunteers helping in the gardens, variously offering from half a day a month right up to 3 days a week. We owe grateful thanks to our volunteers, who make a very big difference to the amount of work we can get through. The reasons for volunteering are as varied as the volunteers themselves. Some come due to a love of historic gardens, or a love of the outdoors. Some come for the company, or to fill in time between commitments. Others come to extend their knowledge; both in retirement and as preparation to take on further horticultural studies at university. The work is varied and interesting, and can be anything from the ladylike dead heading of roses, to the heavier tasks of mucking the roses or spreading leafmold on the borders. We try to offer jobs that are both rewarding and interesting, depending on the interests of each volunteer.

We are getting ready to undertake some essential maintenance in the gardens, replacing a fountain surround, and rebuilding an archway. The quotes are in and the work will be starting in about a week. This means that wall climbers over the arch have been given a severe haircut and the fountain in the Millennium Garden has been drained. Steve emptied the fountain, managing to get totally covered in green slime, and discovering just over £2 in small change. However he didn’t discover the pound coin I had thrown in several months earlier. I will have to look through the compost heap now to recover it...

Chris, the estate woodman, has now installed a new cleft fence (see pic) behind the Apollo statue on the South Border. It is a work of art, looks like it has been in place for many years, and will allow a safe viewing point from which to see the gunnera planted in the moat. We are hoping that the gunnera will establish very quickly and become as large and impressive as the ones often seen in Cornwall.

Best wishes

Kate

February Tasks

Tidy and cut down borders when conditions allow. Helleboure displays are greatly improved if old leaves are removed to make way for the flowers.
Check greenhouse heaters and fleece in the garden regularly. The wind can easily dislodge loose fleece.
Check garden ponds when conditions are icy and gently melt holes in the ice with boiling water. Keep pond liners from cracking by floating a tennis ball on the water. It will absorb some of the pressure from the ice.
Prepare vegetable seed beds, and sow early broad beans and peas
Prune Wisteria
Cut grass on a high cut when the day is dry and slightly windy.
Check and repair garden furniture, pergolas and arches if needed.
Remove algae from paths if they start to become slippery.
divide and replant early spring bulbs that have finished flowering
Check fruit and veg stores for rot or rodent damage. Don’t forget the stored cannas and dahlias.

Herbie the Pheasant...

Its the end of another year, and again the topic of most conversations has been the weather. At the end of November it started to get cold, the boiler was fired up for the conservatory and all the surrounding areas were snowed in; but the Midlands was spared. Then it arrived, and everything ground to a halt. The cold snap was with us for nearly a month and almost the entire year’s heating fuel for the conservatory has been used up. A water pipe froze and cracked in the kitchen garden, a pipe burst in the potting shed, and the waste water outlet to our bath froze so that the bath wouldn’t empty for several days, but apart from that we have been let off lightly.

There was so much snow fall that Mr Berkeley was worried incase the weight would bring branches down, so one of the jobs involved walking round the gardens knocking snow off the trees and shrubs with a stout stick. This sounds fun but became rather frustrating as the snow didn’t stop falling and all that was knocked off was swiftly replaced.

The hoar frost on the foliage around the gardens made a spectacular sight: a great opportunity to get out and about with a camera. Icicles started to grow from the guttering on the melon houses and just before the thaw they had reached the ground (see picture). We also had a few worrying moments when the melon house heaters repeatedly tripped and wouldn’t stay on, however this seems to have corrected itsself now.

I have a ‘pet’ pheasant that Steve named Herbie, who rushes up when I am working. He is quite distinctive as he has paler coloured back feathers than is usual. I have been carrying a pocket full of grain, dropping a few bits whenever he is about. Pheasant are quick learners where food is concerned. We have also been feeding the birds in our cottage garden, using an old poultry feeder that has protected the feed from the falling snow, as well as filling peanut feeders that hang from the trees.

This year for the first time the Spetchley staff were invited to Berkeley Castle, along with their spouses, to join staff and volunteers for a Christmas meal in the Great Hall. It was a splendid occasion, rounded off by the appearance of two Santas, ( looking remarkably similar to the two Berkeley brothers), who proceded to hand out small gifts to the guests. We had organised our own Christmas party for our garden volunteers at Spetchley but unfortunately it had to be cancelled due to the snow. I hope to rearrange the date and have an outing in the summer instead.

Best wishes

Kate

January Tasks

Regularly check greenhouse heaters are working, and insulate the greenhouse where possible.
Keep an eye out for wind damage on tall plants, check tree ties and stakes.
Drain down or insulate waterpipes. Even full watering cans left out can become damaged through ice expansion.
Book machinery in for a service early in the new year.
Make the most of ‘indoor days’ to plan for next season, with seed catalogues and a layout of the garden.
Use warmer days to walk round the garden, looking at the shape and structure of the plants, and planning any projects for next year.
Dig over the veg patch on sunny dry days, and add manure if not growing root crops.
Prune back grape vines before the end of the month
Cover rhubarb crowns with straw and a forcer to grow early stems.(This cannot be done every year as it weakens the plant).
And don’t forget to feed the birds, ensuring they also have access to unfrozen water.