Winter Work in the Garden

I’ve been at Tatton for the past month. Previous to this I worked at Congleton Park for 21 years –so this is a welcome change for me! Before that, I served an apprenticeship at Stoke on Trent parks. I’m enjoying my time here very much!

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been doing some winter clearance of areas in the garden. This has included taking down an old fence, to make way for a new fence in the area called ‘Stallion Paddock’.

In front of the Orangery we’ve felled an oak (which was probably over 150 years old), but has needed taking down for safety reasons. We’ve also pruned back the Rhododendrons near the Maze. This is a typical winter task when the ground conditions allow– because the ground is frozen, it allows you to do these heavy jobs, without damaging the ground too much.

We’ve also been taking the Christmas festive decorations out of the Mansion, as it closed to the public at the weekend. A bit strange, as we’ve not even got to Christmas Eve yet! The greenery will be composted for use in the following season. We’ve also made some wreathes using garden greenery, which have been on sale in the Garden Shop.

All the garden team wish everyone a very happy and snowy Christmas! We look forward to blogging more in the New Year.

Michael Brown, Gardener

The Pumpkin Tree

Over the last couple of days I have been set a rather strange task: to put a dozen large pumpkins into a tree near the maze! This is ready for ‘Get Squashed in the Gardens’ taking place during October half term. Kids will be following a trail which leads them to a Beech tree which has had pumpkins wired onto it. The pumpkin required me and Simon climbing a triple rung ladder and wiring them securely into place – this needed a strong head for heights.

There is also a neighbouring tree which has been dressed with cobwebs, spiders, bats and other spooky stuff ready for Hallowe'en. I climbed up here on a rope and harness to fix them into place. The overall effect is pretty striking and I can imagine the children being impressed with it, when they come in from tomorrow.

The other gardeners have been working hard on putting together a display of pumpkins and squashes in one of the glasshouses. There are hundreds, of various shapes and sizes – it’s nice to see all the produce set out like this.

It’s surprising what tasks you get asked to do at Tatton, but it is great to have a change from time to time!

Preparing for Winter

Back in March you can see from my previous blog, how I created a marrow bed in the kitchen garden, using traditional methods. This year has been an exceptional year for pumpkins and marrows. They had a good start in the sunshine earlier in the year and have been helped by the wet weather later on – which all helps them put on weight.

This photograph shows me with our largest pumpkin and one of the marrows. The pumpkin is from a variety called ‘Hundredweight’ and it takes two of us to lift it!! We’ve got even heavier marrows than the one you can see here. We’ll probably harvest the pumpkin mid October – it’ll be used in a fabulous display during our ‘Get Squashed’ week (Saturday 23rd to Sunday 31st October). We show all the pumpkins, marrows, squashes and gourds – which have been specially grown for showing not eating!

The other photo you can see is me tying up onions, just how it used to be done. The onions were sown in March, planted out end of April/beginning of May; then they were lifted at the beginning of August. They were left to dry out in one of the large polytunnels for a few weeks. This year has been a great year for growing onions here – due to the hot weather at the beginning of the year which meant that they’ve grown quicker earlier on and we lifted them early enough so they didn’t suffer from the wet weather (onions like it to be drier – in case they rot). The varieties of onions in the picture are ‘Bedford Champion’ and ‘Ailsa Craig’. We’ve also grown a red onion called ‘Red Brunswick’ which has also done really well and a showing onion called ‘Mammoth Giant’ which is about 15cm diameter now!

We string them in a traditional way; starting from a strong piece of string/or rope a metre length, then you tie a loop in the bottom with a hangman’s knot then you get three onions together and put the tops of the onions through the loop and pull the knot down. This is the most important part of the process. You then add an onion at a time, working round in a circle, looping the top of the onion round about three times, working your way up until you’ve got as many onions on it as you want. As you can see in my picture, I have about 60 onions, but you don’t need to do that many. It took two of us to lift this bunch (carefully!). The idea of bunching the onions is for the air to flow freely around them so they dry out properly. This is to prevent them from rotting or any disease getting to them. You can then take one off as you need it. These should last you throughout the winter.

Simon Kellett

Craftsman Gardener

The Dark Lady

In May I went over to Horne in Holland to meet students from Clusius College. Over the last 12 years Clusius horticultural students have come over to Tatton every other year to work in the gardens for a fortnight and then build their own garden for the annual RHS Flower Show. In recent years it’s been my responsibility to manage and look after the students and the garden. By the way, the college was named after the first person who took tulips to Holland (Carolus Clusius)!

This year the design of the garden was based on a story from Gawsworth Hall, about the ‘Dark Lady’. Mary Fitton, from the Gawsworth family, is often believed to have been an inspiration for the ‘dark lady’ from Shakespeare’s sonnets.

The students’ back to back garden included a wall for vertical planting, with black and white panels to represent the tudor construction of the hall. In the centre of a decorative pond was a dark red David Austin rose called ‘the dark lady.’ The roses used are now going to be planted in the rose garden at Gawsworth.

The students had a great time when they were here. They got a silver medal for their garden, and enjoyed some great local experiences including walking in Derbyshire, and trips to Liverpool, Manchester and Old Trafford stadium – and of course, time working in Tatton’s gardens. it’s been great fun to host students for another year and we look forward to the next batch in two years’ time!

Pete Lofthouse, Craftsman Gardener

Heating up for the Flower Show!

We’re now getting ready for the RHS Flower Show, which opens in 3 weeks time. In recent weeks we’ve sourced most of the plants for our back-to-back garden, The Mod-ieval Garden. Last week, with the weather being so hot, we have had to move the plants into a shaded area and keep them well watered to try and ‘slow them down’ so they are not past it by the time the show comes round! Because these plants are so important we really need to keep our eye on them for watering and watching out for unwanted pests.

In the glasshouses we have thinned out the vines to allow the grapes to swell – it gives more space for the fruit to see the sun. They’re pea sized at the moment and should be ready to pick later in the summer. The vines are pruned to two leaf buds after where the fruit is beginning to form. That was a hot job – it can be over 100 degrees in the glasshouses, especially around midday!

The last couple of days we’ve been transplanting the wallflowers, which have been grown from seed this year in the kitchen garden. Thousands will be planted over the next few days in the kitchen garden. They’ll then be transplanted for the autumn into the Italian and Charlotte’s Garden. Due to the heat, as soon as we lift the plants, they’re beginning to wilt so we have to be really fast with the planting and watering.

At the moment we’re getting a good crop of potatoes, cauliflowers, lettuce, cabbage, turnip and beetroot. We’ve also had some rhubarb and great strawberries – though we have had to net them to keep the squirrels and birds from the berries. All the produce is sold from the Garden Shop.

All the gardeners are wearing their hats, keeping covered up, slapping on the sunscreen and staying in the shade as much as possible. We’re also praying for rain!

Mark Blomeley

Craftsman Gardener

Images Left: Show plants in the shade. Right: Wallflower seedlings in Kitchen Garden

The Italian Job Well Done!

My last blog was the 1st February, since that time we have completed the Italian Garden parterre and bedded it out – I’m really pleased with the outcome! Since we put the metalwork in place, we fertilised the soil, dug it over and added compost ready for planting. After the dirty soil work had been done we added the red and white gravel, which gave better definition to the beds.

Planting out started at the beginning of June for the summer bedding. All the plants were grown here in Tatton’s greenhouses, including Thrift, red and white Geraniums, Ageratum and Cineraria. It took three of us a day to plant it out .. but now there are plenty of jobs I need to do to keep it looking nice!

I’ve been dead-heading the beds, picking over (removing the dead leaves), mowing the lawns and edging with shears and keeping them well-watered during this dry spell. I’ve also applied a liquid fertiliser to the lawns to help keep the grass looking green.

It’s been great to complete this work and is particularly rewarding to hear all the positive public feedback. There are not many opportunities to work on ‘new’ or to reinstate old features of the garden and it’s been really enjoyable to play a part in this project.

Jamie Jackson, Craftsman Gardener

Blooming Borders

This is a very busy time of year for us in the gardens. During the last couple of weeks we have started to change over all the bedding from spring to summer, working on the formal flowerbeds, hanging baskets, tubs and containers.

Since last September we’ve been propagating cuttings from old varieties of Geraniums and Fuschias for the beds and then from February onwards, sowing seeds and potting up plugs. All the greenhouses and cold frames have been
bulging with plants and we are now slowly emptying them out.

We’ve now been able to slow down on the watering, which is very time consuming –it could be three times a day on a hot day. We’ve also now started tidying and cleaning the houses, ready for the next crop – our chilli collection!

We grow about 12 varieties of chilli plants and produce them for the garden shop. One variety I’m looking forward to seeing growing is a slow grower called Bhut Jolokia. This is one of the hottest chillies in the world and measures over one million on the Scovile Scale – which grades ‘heat’ intensity. We tried it last year and immediately reached for the hosepipe!

Now the bedding is nearly done, we’ve started planning for the RHS show in July. We’re doing a ‘Modeival Garden’. We’re already growing and sourcing plants for our garden and the props and materials for it. More to be revealed…

Bob Buckley

Glasshouse and Kitchen Garden Supervisor

Antiques Roadshow Arrives!

The whole team has been busier than one armed bricklayers at the moment getting the garden ready for two very important dates. Thankfully the first passed successfully on 20th May with the arrival of BBC’s Antiques Roadshow.

Four days spent tweaking and tickling the Italian Garden for one day of filming which will be shown in Autumn. I reckon it was good value as it is regularly seen by up to 7 million viewers, after digesting Sunday dinner and hopefully in need of some cheer on a cold wet Autumn night. Also, it has a healthy viewing across the globe and I’m glad to say the team and Mother Nature really shone. The Rhodos looked stunning, set off by beautiful lawns and late spring bedding.
The whole event went very smoothly, a great BBC team and the whole Tatton behind the day – makes you proud to be a part of it.

The other major event was our busiest Bank Holiday weekend for our predominantly spring garden. Getting it as good as possible was, as ever, our priority. I reckon nature has a big hand in it looking so good, but let us never forget that it’s the relationship between gardener and nature which is the real reason for it all looking so good. Why don’t you come and see it for yourself!

Simon Tetlow, Garden Team Leader

Pineapple House Re-Stocked

I’m a member of the glasshouse and Kitchen Garden teams. In the last week, I have been working on re-stocking the pineapple house with 40 new pineapple plants, of the variety ‘British Queen’, which are all already fruiting. The Pinery/Vinery was restored in 2007, to re-introduce pineapple production to Tatton, a traditional feature of the kitchen gardens.

Unfortunately, due to the extreme winter we lost all our previous crop in January and February. We’re hoping we’ll be harvesting some fruit from these new plants by the autumn. This is a good time to crop them because, by then, they will hopefully have reached their full size and will taste at their best.

The plants have been potted up and then plunged into the pineapple pits in the Pinery/Vinery. The bed consists of fermenting oak leaves that provide bottom heat to generate root growth. This is a traditional method – others use ‘tanner’s bark’, but this does generate a lot of heat and can be hard to regulate, whereas oak leaves provide a more uniform heat around the pots.

The idea is to produce good pineapples rather than just growing them. This means, we need to pay attention to watering and ventilation, and ‘damping down’ (sprinkling water across the paths, walls, glass and misting over the top of the pineapples themselves). All three things are important and need to be in balance in order to produce a good fruit. This is something I will be checking on a daily basis during my working days.

John Hoxworth, Craftsman Gardener

A (n)Ice Arrival...

I am a Craftsman Gardener, with responsibility for the Japanese Garden. However, over the last couple of weeks I have been working with the artists installing their artworks for Tatton Park Biennial 2010, which opens on 8 May.

My work has mainly been putting things in place, including helping Jamie Shovlin transport his shed and audio/visual equipment to the corner of Tower Wood and moving the technical equipment and scaffolding for Austin Houldsworth's fossilisation machine. I also transported Jem Finer’s shed and ‘the orb’ – a very fragile globe camera obscura, on the back of the tractor and trailer – every time I hit a bump my heart was in my mouth! I also helped load and unload and transport Fiona Curran’s tree house and pruned some of the lower branches of the Pine tree before they put the tree house into place. I also helped install the small cinema near the Maze, transporting it on the back of the tractor – it was about 3 tonnes in weight, I also needed to go very slowly again!

Last Monday was the most nail-biting experience when the 2 tonne block of glacial ice arrived – this is artist Neville Gabie’s piece. The ice is 10,000 years old and was brought from Greenland, transported by ship, boat and lorry to Tatton. It was then up to me to drive it on the back of the trailer (see picture) down to its position near Golden Brook. This was all whilst the BBC camera crew were filming and I was trying not to shatter it. Again, this was a moment to drive the tractor very carefully! I couldn’t go any faster than slow in very low gear. It then took a very long time, virtually to the end of the day, to try and lift and slide the ice into place. There were about eight pairs of hands trying to fit the ice and the glass surrounding it into the structure. I’ve really enjoyed being involved in the Biennial and am looking forward to seeing everything complete ready for the opening.

For more information about the Biennial visit www.tattonparkbiennial.org

Geoff Horrocks, Craftsman Gardener

Marvellous Marrows!

I’m a Craftsman Gardener who’s been working at Tatton since I left school in 1991. I now work in the kitchen garden and the glasshouses - my main responsibilities are looking after the Fernery, the Showhouse Conservatory and one of the four large beds in the Kitchen Garden.

This week I’ve been working in creating a marrow bed on one of my squares in the kitchen garden. Working with Mark, Daniella, Chris and Bob we’ve prepared a bed just how it used to be done in the olden days. Firstly we’ve dug out a two metre wide trench running the full length of the bed. It’s been dug out two spades deep and the soil has been mounded up on both sides. We’ve then rotivated the bottom of the bed and it will eventually be filled completely with well rotted horse muck. Then the soil piled up on the edges will be turned back on top of the muck to create a ‘raised bed’ approximately three feet high. The whole bed will then be planted up with between 12 and 14 plants of the marrow variety ‘Long, Green Trailing’. These plants are being raised in one of the greenhouses and will be ready to plant out after the threat of frost has disappeared, within the next 3-4 weeks.

Once they have been planted out we will leave the hose pipe running on the bed to soak it right through for 2-3 hours. These will need looking after on a daily basis to check the soil is sufficiently moist. These old–fashioned marrow beds could actually be used as pumpkin beds as they also like lots of horse manure. My aim is to grow a really big pumpkin this year and I’m sourcing the seed from America at the moment. We’re currently growing ‘Atlantic Giant’ and ‘Hundredweight’. These will be grown on a smaller scale than the marrow bed.

Last week I also started preparing the ground for planting peas. I dug a trench a foot wide and deep, filled it with muck and back filled it, then covered the trench with cloches to warm the soil up for a few days, ready for planting next week. We will be planting ‘Early Onwards’ ready for cropping in June.

Simon Kellett
Craftsman Gardener

Late Flowering Season

Over the past few weeks I have also been working on the Italian Terrace parterre (see The Italian Job below!)

This week we have finally finished installing all the metalwork. The blacksmiths, Broadbents, came in for a couple of days to help us weld all the internal pieces into place. This was a really intricate job as each piece had to be welded in separately and then welded on to the next piece.

The next job is to fill the central metal sections with soil and compost ready for planting the Armeria, commonly known as ‘Thrift’. This is a pink flower often found on coastal areas and is also used on the lower Italian Terrace area. The next job will be to put ‘Mipex’ down; this is a sheet which keeps the soil and gravel separate – we’ll be starting this next week, ready for the 10 tonnes of gravel arriving shortly. This means all the hard structure will be ready for Easter and the red Geraniums and white Alyssum etc will then be planted early June. Normally I look after Charlotte’s Garden and the Rose Garden so it’s been great to work in a different area and in this project to reinstate a parterre.

We are unfortunately three weeks late with the bulbs this year, due to the icy and frosty weather. Normally by now we would have quite a lot of daffodils in the garden and none have appeared as yet! Also none of the camellias in Tower Wood (near the Tower Garden) have flowered yet - in the past, some may be half way through flowering by now. Camellias flower one flower on each branch at a time and then when that dies or is frosted, the next bloom will open. As yet, we’ve seen none!

In three weeks time, possibly around Easter if the weather stays nice we should get a real blaze of colour from the early Rhododendrons, daffodils, camellias, the Iris reticulata and Magnolias – so it’s definitely worth planning a visit around that time. (As a taster - here's an illustration from our archives - pics of Camellias in bloom to follow!)



Pete Lofthouse
Craftsman Gardener

Super Scarecrows

The past fortnight has been really busy with preparing the scarecrows for our annual half term Scarecrow Festival. It’s very much a team effort for mainly the glasshouse staff (as there’s still plenty to do in the grounds for the other staff, still working hard on the Italian Terrace parterre). It’s been great fun thinking up characters and a welcome change to the day to day jobs. My normal responsibility is looking after the large collection of orchids in the Orchid House and working in the veg garden and orchard. Thankfully the snow and bad weather has given us plenty time to concentrate on the scarecrows. Look out for the tiger in the Fernery and the jester at Garden Entrance (those are mine).

Lots of other jobs this last week or so, one of which has been working in the Vinery. We’ve scraped all the bark off the vines with a cutting knife as the barks harbours mealybugs and other unwanted pests. After the bark’s been scraped off the vines are blasted with a jet wash. This is a time-consuming job but well worth it – it really helps the vines to thrive.

I’ve also been mucking the borders in the orchard and the raspberry beds. This has been sourced from a local farmer, as our farm horses don’t produce enough for our needs! Putting the muck downs adds feed to the soil and helps keep the weeds down – and looks nice too!

I’ve also been sowing seed in trays in the greenhouse: cabbage, cauliflower and sweet pea. Geraniums have been potted on, put into bigger pots ready to be planted out for the summer. The variety we’re using is ‘Caroline Schmidt’, an old nineteenth century German variety which is planted at Tatton every year, using cuttings from last year’s plants.

Another job this past week has been chitting potatoes – about eight different varieties. These are put in the onion loft in the dark until ready to plant out in the veg garden. This morning we’ve also been pricking out Schizanthus (Poor Man’s Orchid) for the Show House, the glass house next to the Fernery.

Mark Blomeley
Craftsman Gardener

The Italian Job

Since Christmas myself, Alan and Pete have been working on reinstating a feature of the Italian Garden, which is the usual area I’m responsible for. We’re working on reintroducing a parterre situated to the left of the Mansion (looking up from the Italian Terrace). The parterre was turfed over, we believe, some time around World War Two – due to reduced staffing levels.

Although the Italian Garden was restored in 1982 this area was not completed due to a lack of funds. This project has now been funded by the National Trust raffle – thanks to visitors for purchasing these! In December we started work on marking out the site, although work had to be halted for a short period due to the snow. We’ve started again after Christmas and are making great progress.

After measuring out the 20m X 10m bed we started to lift the turf (this will be re-used in other projects). We then dug down to about 12cm depth – excavating over 20 tonnes of soil in the process. This was dug out by hand and then moved by tractor and trailer, where it will be re-used somewhere else in the gardens.

When we excavated the area we found some of the original pre-1945 red and white gravel. This was fantastic as it confirmed what we thought the colours of the original gravel were – as we were only going from black and white photos and could see they were a contrasting colour. We think that the original colour scheme included blue plants so the bed would have a patriotic theme (which would have been perfectly viewed from Lord Egerton’s apartments).

Also this week we’ve started to fix the metalwork in place which holds in the edges and gives definition to the shape of the bed. The metalwork has been made locally by Broadbents of Mobberley. We can now really start to visualise what it will look like. We hope to have finished this by high season at the end of March. Watch this space!

Jamie Jackson
Craftsman Gardener

Spring Cleaning

Now the snow has melted away, leaving Tatton’s gardens looking fresh and green again, we’ve been continuing with our winter programme.

The glasshouses have had a thorough spring-clean. We have eleven glasshouses to clean each year and make them free of bugs and fungal diseases for our tender plants. A blast with a power-washer is followed with a more traditional method (always best) of a bucket of water and some soap. We also use a traditional round Turk’s Head brush; its long bristles reach into all those tricky corners.

One glasshouse in particular has been getting some special attention. This year we've been delighted to have purchased a Begonia Rex collection from Terry and Shirley Tasker of Southport. Over a number of years, the couple have built up a fabulous collection of these special plants. 151 types of begonias will now be housed in one of Tatton’s glasshouses and open to the public to enjoy from the high season at the end of March.

Amongst these 151 varieties are 21 from the original collection of the Begonia enthusiast, Mac Mcintyre. McIntyre was born in Edinburgh in 1905 and, on his death in 1983, his collection of Begonias was bequeathed to Glasgow Botanic Gardens. Interestingly, he actually lived in Knutsford for a while! It’s great for us to be able to make that direct link with this important Begonia champion and also to be able to reintroduce a Begonia collection to Tatton Park. In the past, these plants were kept in the Fernery; we have some black and white photographs in the archive from c.1891 where you can clearly see Begonias amongst the tree ferns.

We are currently re-flagging the York stone paths in the new Begonia glasshouse and will be putting in the traditional decorative iron staging – crafted by the local Mobberley blacksmith Dave Broadbent. I can’t wait to see it in situ!

Another job this week has been to put forcing bells (clay pots) over the rhubarb in the kitchen gardens. This will keep the ground warm and hopefully bring on some early rhubarb for us this spring.

And finally.. the photo shows us at the annual Gordale Orchid Show on the Wirral on the weekend of 16th and 17th January. We love taking part in this event; it’s a great opportunity for us to display our own fantastic orchid collection, swap some plants, meet old friends and make some new ones.

Bob Buckley
Glasshouse and Kitchen Garden Supervisor

Still covered with a blanket of snow, with frost still picking out the beautiful tracery of the tree skeletons, Tatton Park is getting ready for spring. Under the snow, our Pinetum is transformed into a magical winter wonderland, giving many of our magnificent specimens a taste of their true homes: Bhutan, China, Japan and North America. It was originally the only way people could experience the four corners of the globe and even still, it has lost none of its charm and magic to see stately pines, laden with snow sparkling under a low winter sun.
With a thaw slowly taking place another special experience awaits the visitor at Tatton. The sweet delicate perfumes of winter shrubs start to fill the air. As you walk out of the Tower Garden, through Tower Wood, the spidery petals of the Witch Hazels are starting to give out their smell. Both Hammamellis mollis and intermedia will be at their very best in a week or two. Wafting through the air also is the smell of Mahonia x media, a sweet and strong smell so loved by the hardiest of bees.
Another cracking small shrub for this time of year is the sweet-smelling Sarcocca hookeriana, whose tiny white flowers with pink anthers pack a heady punch on these still, frosty days. I couldn't not mention Calicarpa bodinieri 'Profusion' whose steely violet berries leap out of our L border for visitors who, along with all the other berries and fruits in the garden, maintains a great deal of winter interest around the garden. And finally, don't miss all the wonderful bark colours and textures around the garden, including the ghostly white Betula ermanii and the knarled, twisted shapes of the Dawn Redwoods.
Tatton, more than any other garden has so much all season interest. There is as much to see as you want, whatever the time of year and we are always busy maintaining the garden for your next visit.

Simon Tetlow, Garden Team Leader
www.tattonpark.org.uk