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

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