New Season.

With a new season fast approaching the walled garden is looking in great shape. Thanks mainly to our immense Volunteer support we have never looked so good at opening time. Kate one of our Volunteers has shared her experiences working in the Walled Garden.

"March already and one day it's Spring the next Winter, fortunately for us it was Spring today and the gardening a real pleasure, especially when working in the sun. I have been volunteering here in the walled garden for over a year and it continues to be a great experience. Every week is different, well apart from the weeding and recently mulching, which is now at an end, hooray. A relief now its done and good knowing it will improve the soil and suppress the weeds; a double whammy. I can't believe how much further on we are than this time last year, in part due to mulching.
Today after some weeding and mulching, of course, 3 of us volunteers planted some gooseberries and over 230 raspberry plants. I'd never planted either before and now feel like an expert as well as exhausted! We were rewarded with the sight of 2 red kites circling overhead, calling to each other, cakes for a much needed sugar rush to keep us going till we completed the task, and a real sense of achievement."

All the best

Kate

Through Different Eyes.

The Holkham Walled Garden blog has had a number of contributors since its inception all of which are trained professional gardeners, however no amount of training experience or endeavour would be enough without the exceptionally valuable contribution of our ever burgeoning team of enthusiastic and friendly volunteers. 

With this in mind we recently asked our Volunteers if they would like to write a guest post.  I'm very pleased to say that not only do the Volunteers help keep on top of the plethora of garden tasks but they also now contribute to our blog, I must confess to being a little worried I shall soon be out of work.

Here is Jim Dowding one of our Longest serving Volunteers telling us about he got involved with the Walled Garden project.

"I was probably destined to become a Horticulturalist.  In the 1940's, even before I started school, I first learnt to take cuttings, train fruit and prune roses.  I even found out ways of combating pests and diseases in plants.  

Having had a career not in Horticulture I decided it was time to get some training in the subject.  I have been a professional gardener for over 20 years now. 

Retiring from full time employment and returning to Wells-next-the-sea I found I missed the companionship I once had so when Holkham advertised for volunteers to help in the garden I thought why not!. 

It was like putting on a pair of comfy slippers and that was over five years ago.  Over that time I have made friends from all walks of life who also volunteer.  Sure we do work but at our own pace, we have a laugh and social interaction with each other and visitors to the garden. 

There are lots of opportunities to learn new techniques from the staff who are a great bunch.

I was one of the best decisions I have ever made to volunteer in the garden I would recommend it to anyone."

Thanks Jim,

Here is a typical day in the life of a volunteer by Kate Chandler who joined us this year.

"Fantastic Autumnal Day. Golden sunshine but chilly in the shade. Lots of visitors and 2 new volunteers.

Today we removed some plants from the cutting flower "room" which are not used as such in the Hall. So for example Montebretia, which we divide and re-plant in another room.

We then have an informal demo on the planting of the bulbs for fox tail lilies,( which look like large spider crabs) before doing so.  If only I'd had that a few weeks ago before I planted the same bulb (which I'd bought at the Holkham Plant Fair) incorrectly!

Sandwiches sitting in the sun chatting with fellow volunteers and an informal lesson on how to take seeds for propagation from soft fruit such as tomatoes and chillies, followed by some dead heading and weeding.

Another lovely day as one of the team of volunteers at Holkham's Walled Garden."

Thanks Kate, I think that's a great description of a typical day.

Holkham walled garden are looking for more volunteers to help continue to raise the standards in the walled garden, so if you think you could spare a morning or a day to help it would be great to hear from you.

Here are just some of reasons to become a Holkham Volunteer.

Socials - Summer BBQ and other events for example our 'Bake off Competition' at the end of the month.

Informal Workshop/Demo's - One of our trained staff talk you through the seasonal gardening tasks, so far we have covered.  Summer Pruning Apples, Semi-ripe cuttings, Seed Saving, Seed Saving (Fleshy Fruits), Seed Sowing, Layering.

Plant of the Week *New* - Due to popular demand (We do listen to our Volunteers) we deliver a plant of the week sheet to help improve our Volunteer plant knowledge.

Gratification Work as part of a friendly enthusiastic team in an 18th century listed walled garden.

Attractive Benefits package.  Including a luncheon voucher amongst may other truly valuable perks.

If you would like to join the team please contact:

Dene Wood d.wood@holkham.co.uk or 07557200311 (please leave a voice mail if I don't pick up as I'm am often out of signal)

Mulching

The Heavily fragrant Edgeworthia chrysantha var. grandiflora, leaves us in anticipation of the delights it has in store for us. 

With 6 and a half acres of Walled garden we are very privileged to have a huge growing footprint, this abundance of space allows us to grow every thing from the rarest shrub from deepest Asia, to the ubiquitous Onion.  However there is a caveat.  By creating clement growing conditions, water, shelter and food we also invite "Volunteer plants" (a polite term for weeds).  Ive mentioned before that not all volunteer plants are bad (see the Wildflower post), a self seeding Digitalis can be an absolute delight.

One of the best ways to combat annual weed is to use a mulch, covering the soil surface with a 3 or 4 inch layer of organic material to exclude the light and limit annual seed germination. 

You can mulch with a lot of different materials including inert gravels, crushed glass and even plastic sheeting, but in many cases its better to use a well rotted organic matter, such as manure or compost.

Its easiest to mulch your beds when your plants are not in their full glory, a great time is in autumn perhaps after a tidy up in your herbaceous borders and when the vegetable patch starts to empty out.

This Daphne sp. brings welcome colour with its scent, a real treat in midwinter.

How to use a mulch effectively.


1.  Prepare the site, remove all perennial weeds such as Thistles, Dandelion, Couch grass etc.  These persistent plants will happily grow through your mulch.  You can get away with using a hoe for the smaller annual weeds.  Make sure the site is both frost free and moist, you don't want to trap frost or a dry strata within your mulch.

2.Cover the open soil uniformly to a depth of 3 to 4 inches or 10cm.  You could apply a layer or two of newspaper to the surface before adding your chosen surface material to make the process extra effective.

3.Avoid dropping the mulch into the crowns of evergreen plants such as Kniphofia spp.  Rake level.

By mulching now we shall reap the benefits later in the season and weed control should be much less challenging at our busiest time.  Other benefits to mulching include.

• Make soil more moisture retentive
• Helps warm the soil.
• Improves soil structure.
• Increases bio mass/diversity within the soil.
• Looks great aesthetically.
• Adds nutrients to soil.

We always try to be sustainable where possible and to that end we use a Bio Digestate to mulch with, this is obtained as a by product from the estate Bio Digesters used to generate energy.

 Another source of organic material comes via our relationship with London Zoo who trade their herbivore waste for a supply of Quercus ilex brash used to feed their Giraffes.

Here one of our hard working Volunteers Ted applies a Zebra manure, he joked that we "might get stripey roses", we shall have to wait and see.