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Tag Archives: West Dean Walled Garden

Behind the walls

12 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by wellywoman in Garden Reviews, Out and About

≈ 29 Comments

Tags

fruit training, Glasshouse Appeal, Victorian walled gardens, walled gardens, West Dean Walled Garden, West Sussex

Victorian glasshouses and cold frames at West Dean

Victorian glasshouses and cold frames at West Dean

I love walled gardens. There’s the sense of intrigue as to what lies behind those solid, sturdy walls and a feeling that I’m stepping into another world, somewhere where the distractions of life won’t trouble me. It feels as if the walls envelop me like a hug protecting me like they do the plants that grow within the boundary. All walled gardens have a magical air about them, but it’s the classic Victorian versions that are the true pinnacle for me.

Packed herbaceous borders

Packed herbaceous borders

I’ll admit I’m someone who lives by the phrase ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’. I’ve always been like it. My parents were never subjected to the horror of a teenager’s messy bedroom with mounds of clothing in the ‘floordrobe’ and items of food left to cultivate an impressive range of moulds. It stood me in good stead for the poky student digs I lived in and the tiny ‘can’t swing a cat’ flat we rented when we first got married. Now I find it hard to write if I know the kitchen is in a bit of a state i.e. Wellyman has been baking again, even if I’m upstairs and the plumes of flour are downstairs. I’ve heard that it’s not unusual for writers to feel they can’t work unless the space around them is tidy – a cluttered house, a cluttered mind perhaps. And I have a bit of a theory that my slightly obsessive tidiness is why I have such a thing for Victorian walled gardens. I drool over the neatly arranged potting sheds and the rows of wheel barrows lined up ready for use. The rows of little plants germinating in perfect rows make me think of my own pathetic attempts where clumps of seedlings are interspersed with bare patches.

Orderly veg

Orderly veg

West Dean, near Chichester in West Sussex, is a magnificent example of a Victorian walled garden restored to its prime and two summers ago I finally managed to visit. Head gardeners Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain have spent over twenty years bringing the gardens and the wider estate back to its former glory days.

Peachy!

Peachy!

Like any grand house in 19th century Britain, West Dean wanted and needed a kitchen garden and orchard to supply the house with food, and it was a notable place with King Edward VII a regular visitor enjoying pheasant shoots held on the estate. The orchard is enclosed within walls. Walled gardens are often thought of as providing protection from the weather but often it was more to do with protecting valuable produce from animals and hungry humans. The fruit collection is impressive with some of the fanciest trained trees I have ever seen, including heritage varieties specific to West Sussex. The walls are put to good use with pears, apples and plums trained against them but there are also specimens dotted about that have been intricately contorted into goblets and domes. Two herbaceous borders run through this walled garden too, offering an ornamental touch to what are often considered purely productive spaces. Although these borders would have been a clever way of supplementing the cutting patch to provide the house with vases of home-grown blooms.

West Dean's cut flower garden

West Dean’s cut flower garden

Ah ha! The cutting patch, now this was a bit of a surprise. I walked through a gateway in the wall into another enclosed space and what was the real hub of the walled garden, with rows of the original cold frames, potting sheds and glistening glasshouses. On the left hand side were beds and borders planted with the sole purpose of supplying flowers for cutting. Needless to say I was in my element. I do love the sense of order created by rows of plants and I think this is why I’ve found growing on my allotment easier than designing and planting my garden.

Elaborate fruit training

Elaborate fruit training

Beyond this was the walled kitchen garden where every bit of the space was used to its full potential. Red and white currants were trained against the walls of a shed now used as an information centre, herbs lined the edges of beds and cane fruits, such as raspberries, were grown in neat rows.

One of West Dean's stunning glasshouses

One of West Dean’s stunning glasshouses

The glasshouses were quite something. I have been to many a walled garden where glasshouses lie unused and forlorn, shades of their former selves, crying out to be loved and filled with plants. Victorian walled gardens are nothing without these buildings. Clever engineering coupled with the ingenuity of 19th growers meant that in a time before air freight and the mass importation of food, crops such as pineapples, peaches, apricots, melons and citrus fruits not suited to our climate could be produced to grace the tables of the wealthy. The sight of the restored glasshouses at West Dean is something very special. There was the peach house with fat, juicy, hairy fruits dripping from a beautifully trained tree, melons dangling from above in another, there were glistening black aubergines and a fantastic array of chillies. There was the glasshouse devoted to tender plants we recognise as house plants. I’ve never been much of a house plant lover but the collections of succulents, streptocarpus, begonias and fabulous stag’s horn ferns were enough to make me change my mind.

Filled with basil. That would make quite a lot of pesto!

Filled with basil. That would make quite a lot of pesto!

It’s incredible to think these glasshouses were completely derelict in the 1990s. They were originally built at the end of the nineteenth century by Foster and Pearson of Nottinghamshire whose client list read like a who’s who of late Victorian high society and included Queen Victoria herself. The glasshouses were an ostentatious symbol of wealth. Only the richest in society could afford these creations and the teams of workers needed to put them to full use. Now though they are not just a symbol of that wealth but also one of our most precious links with our horticultural heritage and the skills, knowledge and hard work of the gardeners who worked there. The glasshouses underwent a restoration process in the 1990s but two of the glasshouses are in need of urgent attention once again. The team at West Dean need to raise £30,000 to repair just one of the glasshouses.

If you’d like to help you can donate. Just £10 could pay for 1kg of nails and a sense of satisfaction that you have helped to save these precious buildings for the future.

For more information about West Dean and visitor information.

Catching Up

25 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by wellywoman in In the Garden, Ponds, wildlife

≈ 27 Comments

Tags

Brecon Beacons, Dove Cottage Nursery, frogs, ponds, West Dean Walled Garden

Heather-clad moorland

Heather-clad moorland

I thought it was about time I wrote a post; it’s been a while. I’m not sure what happened but I had got to a point where I just felt like I needed a break. I have spent so much time over the last months in front of my computer that the blog had started to feel like an extension of work, which was never the intention. I’ve missed not reading other blogs, as well as writing my own but one of the downsides with blogging and social media is it’s quite addictive. I thought it was best to go cold turkey. Well I say that, but I have now joined Instagram which I’m loving, so I didn’t manage to wean myself of it completely. I’m not sure whether I should be worried by that or not?

My blogging break coincided with a bout of gardening torpor. This loss of energy and even interest in gardening always seems to happen in late July and into August, a reaction possibly to the plateau my garden and allotment have reached. When it first strikes it takes me by surprise. I love gardening, so the sudden onset of plant apathy is initially worrying. It feels like gardening is in my blood so how come I’d rather be anywhere than my plot. Of course, everyone needs a break even from something they love, to get those creative juices flowing again. A few gardens visits later and a determination to keep on producing salad crops into autumn and winter meant my gardening mojo returned. It’s amazing what the sight of a sprouting seeds can do to re-energise a gardener. There’s also something about the approach of September. I don’t know about you but it always feels like the start of something. More like a new year than New Year. Maybe it’s because for so long the academic calendar governed my life but the first hints of autumn and I want to rush out and buy a fancy notebook and start learning something new. I love this sudden spurt of enthusiasm which helps to temper the looming prospect of dark nights.

Dove Cottage Garden, Halifax

Dove Cottage Garden, Halifax

The garden plans can begin again. My bulb order has been made, there are hardy annuals to sow for overwintering and borders to redesign. I’m learning to embrace the shrub. Herbaceous perennials are my ‘thing’ but I am learning that a bit more structure and interest is needed. A sarcococca has been planted in the front garden for a shot of winter scent. It’s strategic planting position will also, hopefully, stop a part of the garden being used by visitors as a short cut to the front door and as a litter tray by my neighbour’s cat. Shrubs will feature more prominently in my back garden too by the end of autumn.

I visited a stunning garden and plant nursery on a recent trip to visit family. Dove Cottage just outside Halifax was hugely impressive and deserves a post of its own. A celebration of late flowering herbaceous perennials and grasses it provided buckets of inspiration for getting some more colour into my front garden for next summer. There was a whistle-stop visit to West Dean Walled Garden in West Sussex which is like a small piece of gardening heaven. I fell in love with it so much I could have quite happily squatted in one of the greenhouses. And finally, we had some free time at last to get out into the local countryside. We walked in the Brecon Beacons and picked bilberries in lashing rain on the side of a mountain. But, perhaps most exciting of all, our pond, the slimy, green soup that was such an embarrassment last year has turned into a proper home for wildlife.

Our frog

Our frog

I was so disheartened last year as pond plants died and nothing took up residence, although I couldn’t blame them. I had been contemplating moving the pond but then newly purchased oxygenators started to thrive and the water at least looked clear and more inviting. There were no tadpoles though or any noticeable signs of pond dwelling creatures. Then one day, a few weeks ago, I had a close encounter with a frog. I was tidying up the clippings from pruning some box. My hands went in to pull out some leaves and one of them came out, momentarily holding a frog by one of its legs. As my brain registered what was happening I made a fairly undignified screech. I think we were both surprised by the experience. I did get me thinking though. If we had a frog in the garden may be it was using the pond. And it was. A few days after we caught sight of two eyes poking out above the surface of the water. A week or so later I discovered that we have become a two frog pond. Not only that but we’ve seen bees land on the surface to drink. There’s something immensely satisfying about knowing that we’ve helped to create a space that is attracting creatures into our garden. And it has now become part of my daily routine to pop out and see if I can spot Buster (the first frog’s name courtesy of Sara @myflowerpatch) and Betty. I have no idea how you would sex a frog and I imagine the logistics of catching them maybe a somewhat traumatic experience for all parties involved. I am hopeful though that we may have the tiny wriggle of tadpoles next spring.

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My latest book – The Crafted Garden

My latest book - The Crafted Garden

My latest book - The Crafted Garden

My Book – The Cut Flower Patch

My Book - The Cut Flower Patch. Available to buy from the RHS online bookshop.

The Cut Flower Patch – Garden Media Guild Practical Book 2014

The Cut Flower Patch - Garden Media Guild Practical Book 2014
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