Very early on we took the decision not to water the lawns. Water is such a valuable commodity and as a public garden it’s important that we show a different approach. Although it didn’t look perfect, grass is a great survivor and within a couple of showers it had all bounced back.
We regularly watered the bedding plants on the Victorian Terrace and Dutch Garden, but for the rest of the garden we just kept an eye on plants and hand watered when necessary. We are extremely lucky that Gertrude Jekyll favoured Mediterranean plants that are adapted to stressful conditions. It has been really fascinating observing the effects of drought on the plants and there have been a few surprises. The Cannas and Roses were almost unaffected, but, we were surprised that prairie-style plants like Asters and Helenium looked fatigued really quickly. It was very obvious which areas we had previously so the lesson to take from this year is to carry on heavily mulching the soil every year.
We have replaced the Rosemaries and the Olearias by the Orangery with plants that we grew from cuttings in 2019, and ordered more Madonna Lilies, according to Jekyll’s plan. Around the walls of the Rotunda are Chimonanthus (wintersweet). Over the last couple of years these wall trained shrubs had just got too big so they have had a good prune.
The cascade runs from a natural water course flowing down from the Quantocks, so when we have less rain it slows to a trickle. This has been the first year that it has remained dry for the whole summer, so we took the opportunity to give it a good polish - literally scrubbing the quartz stones to remove the moss and make them gleam.
Our tireless volunteers have done an incredible job and huge areas of Laurel in the Landscape Garden have been coppiced thanks to their help. Having had time to dry out and the wildflower seed released, the Landscape Garden has been strimmed and flailed. Elsewhere in the garden we’re taking semi-ripe cuttings and collecting seed for next year.
It is amazing what our small team and group of volunteers can achieve. It is always busy and there is never a dull moment.
Our tireless volunteers have done an incredible job and huge areas of Laurel in the Landscape Garden have been coppiced thanks to their help. Having had time to dry out and the wildflower seed released, the Landscape Garden has been strimmed and flailed. Elsewhere in the garden we’re taking semi-ripe cuttings and collecting seed for next year.
It is amazing what our small team and group of volunteers can achieve. It is always busy and there is never a dull moment.
