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