Farewell Tim Marshall

Tim Marshall has left the position of Head Gardener at Holkham Hall at the end of October to take up a new position in Oxfordshire as head gardener. We wish him every success and happiness in his new position.

Starting work on the Arena of Plants

 

The end of September 2012. The weather is favourable so a start is being made on the winter project of digging out and laying the pathways through the area known as The Arena of Plants.  Tim Marshall, Head Gardener is on the digger. This is the way all the pathways were made through what is now the Vegetable and Cut Flower garden behind the wall seen in the video. By the end of next year 2013 this 'arena' will have been transformed and visitors will be able to stroll through the exotic trees and shrubs that have now become established.

Tackling the Jungle

 

September in the walled garden and the volunteer team of gardeners are tackling the jungle of shrubs opposite the high vineries.

Sweetcorn Rustling

Sweetcorn

The sweetcorn patch in the Vegetable and Cut Flower garden looks curiously like a scene of crime with the red and white tape and extensive wire netting. It must be those rabbits again.....

Late Flowers

Sunflower

Artichoke

Magnolia grandiflora

September in the walled garden. Autumn flowers include the sunflowers and artichokes in the Vegetable and Cut Flower area and the giant blooms of the Magnolia grandiflora that is south facing and sheltered along a back wall.

September Weeding

The Arena Of Plants Sept 2012

Weeds by the wheelbarrow full. The Arena of Plants is cleared of weeds in September . Work is due to start this autumn on the pathways through the plants.

BBQ for the Gardeners

 

September and the end of season BBQ for the staff and volunteer gardeners was a very British affair...huddled inside out of the cold wind and threatening rain! Sausages and burgers were grilled outside, but safely in the shelter of the porch of Wyatt's Vinery.

Eucryphia glutinosa

Eucryphia glutinosa

These attractive trees are valued for their conspicuous scented flowers, produced in late summer and autumn when few or no other trees are in flower.  They come from the southern temperate areas of South America  and coatal eastern Australia. The Holkham specimen has bravely withstood overeager strimming and the northerly coastal winds and is now in full flower at the end of August/beginning of September.

Late August Flowers

Hydrangea aspera and Itea ilicifolia

The horizontal spread of mauve flowers of Hydrangea aspera contrast well with the long sweeping tendrils of the Itea ilicifolia behind.

On entering the gates of the garden the first flowers to be noticed are the really tall Rudbeckia maxima, towering over the herbaceous perennials.

Rudbeckia maxima

 

 

Sea Buckthorn

Sea Buckthorn

Sea Buckthorn is a useful plant on the sand dunes of Holkham in order to stabilise the dunes with its aggressive root system. The orange fruits are tasty for the birds who no doubt have seeded part of the walled garden. There is a large and prickly job to do in digging out the plants before they engulf the plants around them.