Walled Garden Volunteer's Blog September 2025

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Greetings, Museum supporters and Gardeners!

Pears from the walled garden

We’ve been rather active these last few weeks, after marking time through the hot summer days just trying to keep plants alive in the heat.

By now the meadow, now cleared of knapweed, was bone dry and ready to cut. We called on Francis, the Scyther, and Peter Lead, the Beekeeper, who would temporarily seal the hive to free us of risk of bee stings, and we arrived on a Sunday morning at 7am to get the job done. This year, the going was all good.

Come lunchtime, the scything was done, and the bees free to fly around the garden again.

Wonky Apple tree

We love the tangle of the meadow flowers through the year, but there’s something very soothing about it when is tidied up! The next day, the Gardeners raked up all the cuttings; the seeds had already fallen weeks ago so no need to wait.

Now our attention turns to the orchard trees. They are a wonky bunch, owing to their difficult start. We purchased them when we had some funds, probably around 2014, but had to heel them in for 2 years, using the then-empty raised beds. The area that was to be the meadow and orchard was still a building site and the garden team we have now did not yet exist.

The fruit trees are laden this autumn, as everywhere. We’ve checked the tree props, scooped up the windfalls and put them on display to show the variety of heritage apples we have, and the next job will be to pick the ripe fruit from the trees.

And it has rained.   We tackled the weeds that sprang up in the courtyard, and we’re watching as the bedraggled Garden starts to recover. We’ve sown lettuces and kale at the pergola…

And meanwhile, other very exciting things have been taking place!

When we designed the Walled Garden, we wanted it to complement the Museum, providing a space for quiet enjoyment, and the lawn as an area for performances, displays and activities related to the Museum’s programme.

So we are all thrilled that ‘Earth, Fire, Iron’ has spilled from the galleries and into the Garden!

This was the view from our Shed last week, tents temporarily erected to accommodate spectators and blacksmiths last weekend.

There are installations in the border by the late Alan Evans, along with work by four young blacksmiths who took part in a national competition to design an original work.

Come and see them for yourself!

Read more about this exhibition and related workshops in the Museum Members’ newsletter and website.

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog August 2025

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Cheery Orange Dahlia

Autumn has arrived early in the Walled Garden! (I know the BBC made a similar announcement last week, but I’m sure I thought of it first!)

It’s been lovely to enjoy long, sunny days for the summer holidays; but the heat has made things tricky for us in the Walled Garden. We’ve found ourselves carrying out tasks in early August which are usually reserved for cooler temperatures in September.

In the vegetable plot, the lettuces, radishes and beans have ‘bolted’, gone to seed and some only fit for the compost bin. Raspberries, strawberries and then the plums all ripened early, and then vanished! Maybe the birds were enjoying a good feast!

However, the experimental Cucamelons have produced a wonderful harvest! The flowers on the kiwi didn’t result in any fruit, but it was progress. We manged successfully to grow tomatoes And we reported on our apricot ‘crop’ last time; the hot weather has had benefits.

The August holidays are a time when many of the garden volunteers are away, and the garden ticks along. So, when in early July, we realised that the Knapweed in the Orchard was glorying in the sunshine, with masses of their purple flowers starting to form seed, for those gardeners still around it was all hands to the trowels and secateurs!  To a certain extent, we can let the orchard look after itself, but at times, to maintain a balance in the plant mixture, intervention is needed, and other garden tasks had to be abandoned while we sorted it out.

The result is that the Orchard looks a bit trampled, but we’ve half-cropped it already now and hope to have the rest scythed much sooner than normal. Most plants have not reached the height they normally achieve. 

Geoff has been spared his usual task of cutting the lawn, as it’s quietly fried. Instead, he’s had chance to renovate the benches, and smarten up the compost area.

Apart from at the vegetable plot, we’d removed our ‘leaky hose’ system from the flower borders a year or so ago, in attempts to use less water.

But the Garden has baked in the sun…

Thankfully, there’s no hosepipe ban in our area, so we’ve wheeled out the hose as early in the morning as we can manage, a couple of times in the week, to ‘spot water’ vulnerable plants; and gardeners have filled endless watering cans.

It’s been exhausting work and has taken us away from other tasks. We didn’t get around to removing the ‘water shoots’ on the orchard trees at the right time, and we’ve only just thinned out the apples and pears – our fruit trees are laden this year. We’ve already picked the ‘Arlingham Schoolboy’ apple… and we’ve never, ever seen so many crab apples on the Bonkers Border trees.

The wisteria at the pergola is flowering for a second time. Everything this year is a little haphazard!

Wisteria flowering for a second time!

Laden Crab apple

 

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog July 2025

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This June and July have been a bit of a test of endurance for the gardeners….and for the plants. Some have flourished in the glorious sunshine… and some have wilted a little in the heat!

Nicola, who tends the herb beds, says that most of the plants there have enjoyed the sunny days and are looking pretty good; the parsley, thanks to diligent watering, looks green and strong, and the blue flowers of the Chicory are particularly lovely next to the white Achillea. St John’s Wort, an ‘accidental’ addition to the middle herb bed, is very happy (much to Ruth’s delight, for dye experiments!)

Of course, in the Purple Border, the Bronze Fennel has flourished, too. And we knew the Med border would cope with the drought. No watering here, and the Agapanthus is looking glorious as usual.

This year we’d decided to ring the changes with the dahlia bed up by the shed. We kept some of the old Dahlia tubers and put them into pots; and we risked the slugs and snails and put one of our very tall old red dahlias straight into the bonkers border. Our Old Red loves it there! Here it is, mingling with Crocosmia in a splash of colour! We admit the new, sun scorched Honka dahlia in the original dahlia bed doesn’t quite have the same impact....but, give it time!

Elsewhere, spot-watering with watering cans has continued for any newer plants such as the Gaura in the white border, and anything in a pot. It’s seen us through the days at 33 degrees centigrade, and our Garden Guides have helped, too.

The sunshine has brought many benefits. We’ve seen so many bees on the lavender (a wonderful photo above from gardener Philippa). And there have been butterflies, some varieties we’ve not seen for a few years. We’ve had dragonflies and mayflies at the dipping pond; Philippa also captured this Cricket in another excellent photo:

In the veg plot, despite watering, the produce has bolted to a certain extent…strawberries and other soft fruits are already over; we must sow new lettuces to replace those which have finished. But our first real crop of apricots was a treat! (And we see the trees laden apples, pears and plums to come).

Finally, the Pelargoniums – what a show in the Auricula Theatre!

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog June 2025

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Two tall dark wood effect water butts

The theme of this month’s blog is simple: Water!

Pictured are two of our three ‘Water Butt Towers’, all completely empty now after the long spell of hot, dry weather. The Cowle Trust purchased three of these towers, and four extra-large rounded water butts a couple of years ago, all made of recycled materials.  This substantially increased our water harvesting from 400ltrs to 2,400ltrs when we decided we would no longer run the ‘leaky hose’ system in the flowerbeds: our plants were mostly well established in the borders and would have to cope.

It's been a bit of a challenge this month, though! We have fruit and veg to look after, and flowering plants we’d moved about, plus some ‘summer seasonals’ to keep the displays colourful.

We have still used the micro-hose and spray for the raised beds, though, a few times each week, for about an hour before opening time.

The raised beds are full of salad vegetables; the pergola is packed with produce; for the first time ever, we had some flowers on the kiwi plant! – and look at our apricots, the tree carefully ‘netted ‘by Helen N and Helen K.

This year, we are experimenting with some new dahlias, shown here on the top left, in the raised bed. They are rather slow at present…they are thirsty plants!

Visitors who remember the ‘old favourite’, the very tall red dahlia much enjoyed in previous years, will find it is now growing in the Bonkers Border, to add another splash of colour here, soon (we hope!). The dry weather meant the slugs didn’t get to it!

Our Garden Guides, who greet visitors on days when the gardeners are not in, have helped, too, by watering all plants in containers. Above is another of our ‘old’ dahlias, doing well in a pot.

We have temporarily removed the flowerpots in the courtyard, however, since they were simply sizzling in the hot sunshine.

Courtyard Garden

In the courtyard garden, under the dry shade of the Yew tree, Cheryl has been using the bowser and watering cans to ‘spot water’ the roses and any newer plants, as in the Walled Garden borders, too. The roses here look lovely, and their scent fills the air.

The thick layer of mulch applied to all of the beds during the very wet Spring, also helped  – and the results are clear.

It looks like all the hard work has been worth it, so far!

Flourishing Garden

P.S. And just as I finish writing this blog, it’s started to rain!  A freshen-up shower, rather than any proper rain…..

 

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog May 2025

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It’s May - it’s Chelsea Garden Show - and it’s time to Bring on the Irises!

We have some stunning irises in our collection at the Walled Garden nowadays –and they are putting on quite a show!

Catch them in the next week or so, as their beauty is not long-lasting.

So – Why Irises? And how did we come to have such a fabulous display every May in the Walled Garden?

By late 2015, the hard landscaping in the project to bring the abandoned Walled Garden back to life was completed, and the contactors left site.

And then, we looked at the six borders between the winding pathways. Empty. A blank canvas.

Local ceramics artist, Cleo Mussi, long-time supporter of the Museum, stepped forward with ideas, and at that point, the Mediterranean, White, Bobbly, Purple, and Bonkers Borders were born. The Borders were to be created on the theme of colour, with the aim of achieving all-year-round interest.

We had little money, and asked friends for plant donations. Along with others, Cleo brought in plants she had potted up at home – and amongst the first to go in, were purple irises from her garden.

Cleo is pictured, on March 7th 2016…with the irises newly planted in the Mediterranean Border- and that Border now.

Our planting plans did not include more irises, though Cleo did have a few others, some from friends, and we popped those into appropriate spots in our colour-coded flower beds. 

First flowering!

We were so thrilled when they flowered!

During the following years, our iris collection expanded. All gardeners know that the best way to ensure a favourite plant continues to thrive in the garden, is to share a cutting or two with friends (in case you lose your original) - which is exactly what happened next. Through Cleo, we were invited to pick up some iris rhizomes from a friend, a (famous) landscape gardener, as he was splitting his, so by autumn 2016 we had more to add to the Garden.

The following year, more irises arrived, this time a donation from the Newnham College Garden at Cambridge University. Professors came to Stroud to meet the Museum Trustee, the late Dame Margaret Weston, awarding her the honour of becoming a Fellow of the College. They discovered our Walled Garden project…and two weeks later, a gardener arrived with a van, with some 30 or so more irises!

Dame Margaret is pictured viewing ‘her’ irises in full flower one May afternoon in 2019.

This was all very exciting! But we had a lot to learn. Irises only flower for four weeks, from mid-May, and one iris looks much like another for 48 weeks of the year. Therein lay our problem. It is very easy for a label to be moved accidentally… and rhizomes, which all look the same, to be put in the wrong row.

 And even when in flower it is a challenge to identify exactly which iris is which!

We have tried very hard. When we accepted the offer of some Benton irises, we went to collect them armed with sticky labels, tie-on labels, string, bags, marking pens, extra pens and notebooks – much to the amusement  (and approval) of the landscape gardener!

We have aimed to place each iris, named, into the correct colour-themed border, and we’ve written planting plans and lists. Mostly we have had success. Sometimes, inexplicably, though, the labels disappear… or an iris decides not to flower this year!

There is no space to create a dedicated Iris Border, as in some gardens, to display all the irises together.  We have stuck to our colour plan instead, so you will see ours incorporated into the borders.

And so, we’ve added an extra complication, that of having irises in mixed borders…if possible, we must not let the irises become over-shadowed, as the rhizomes love sunshine!

However, we think we are not doing too badly, overall. We are so lucky to have such fabulous blooms. Come and see for yourselves...but don’t wait too long!

This blog was inspired by a visit to see our irises from the West and Midlands Iris Group.

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog April 2025

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Where to begin this Garden report? Perhaps with a lovely Spring photograph?!

Spring in the walled garden

Beautiful blue skies and hot sun of the past few weeks – so welcome after all the grey and rain- have speeded Spring into the Walled Garden.

The daffodils are already over, including this one, part of our collection in the Meadow. It is a kind donation from a garden in Leonard Stanley where it is known locally as the ‘Stanley Daffodil’. We know from research that it is the historic variety ‘Emperor’.  This and ‘Empress’ date from the 1860s.

Daffodils in the meadow

The Meadow is quite spectacular this year, even before the real growth begins. We’ve experimented by adding the flame -red and yellow species Tulip Acuminata to the mix. Look for it scattered across the meadow, now.

The bees are loving the sunshine too! Philippa, garden volunteer, captured one of our honeybees busy at the Rosemary in the herb garden, in this photo.

Honeybee in rosemary

…Just as well that our water butts were full, though – we’ve needed to water pots and the seeds in the vegetable plot for the last ten days or so.

 So, to work, plenty to be done while the sun shines…

The tulips look fabulous,  and there’s no mistaking which is the Purple Border:  

Finally, to end this month’s Blog, an image of our own ‘Tropical Paradise’!

Happy Gardening!

P.S. Don’t miss the current exhibition in the museum, inspired by flowers and the natural world - Flowers in the Park - Botanical Art Exhibition by Valerie Dugan

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog March 2025

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The snowdrops are fading; here, Helen (pictured) is gathering up the labels until needed next year…And so, our thoughts now turn to Spring. There’s just time to finish some pruning, re-think areas in the Garden and move some plants about, because bulbs are coming up now, thick, and fast.

(Photos by Philippa, Walled Garden gardener, feature here)

We’ve taken advantage of the ‘quiet time’, to improve the high, shady bank below the hedge, thinning out the pale lilac Vinca and the shiny leafed bramble Rubus tricolor. We’ve added mulch and old branches to hold back the soil, transplanted ferns, and treated ourselves to three Ribes laurifolium Rosemoor form, for the bank.

Elsewhere, we’ve been planting more purple-flowering cyclamen too, planning for additional Winter interest next year.

In the Courtyard Garden beneath the Yew, Cheryl has already made a very pretty display for late Winter.

Also in the courtyard, we are gradually renewing the pots which now are crammed with the roots of the Dogwood, Cornus Sanguinea. We’re taking out the rooted Cornus and will sell the plants, and we’ll start again with new stalks.

Meanwhile, Marion and Margaret have been preparing to reinstate the Plant sales tables after the winter snowdrop season.

 And: Geoff tidied the area next to the new Leaf Cage, extending the stonework at ‘Toad Hall’.  Other gardeners bunched up the teasels we’ve grown as an experiment for the Stroudwater Textile Trust, Dipsacus Sativus, traditionally used in raising the nap on fulled cloth. Nicola, Penny Sue, Rosie, all have been weeding out irises (not a favourite job, but worth the effort.)

 And then, there’s been The Sorting of the Shed!!

…..Even the bees are busy!

A ‘quiet time’ in the Garden? I don’ t think so!



Here, the walled garden volunteer team are toasting the news that a valued member of the team has just had a successful 2nd hip replacement and will be back soon!

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog February 2025

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By 3pm on Friday 24th January, we had done all we could: The snowdrops in the meadow had had a tidy- up, and the bank; the Snowdrop bunting, stitched by Marion and Carroll to a tight deadline, was in position...

We were ready to open for the Snowdrop Celebration!

Saturday 25th January was a lovely sunny day. Even Galanthus ‘Grumpy’ was looking cheerful in the Walled Garden sunshine!

And our display representing the Snowdrops which were sold by the Giant Snowdrop Co. of Hyde were looking very good, despite it being January and quite early in the Snowdrop calendar.

Pictured above is an illustration  by Walled Garden Artist in Residence  and Gardener Ruth Illingworth, who demonstrated her prints and dyes over the weekend. Ruth makes dyes using flowers and leaves mostly from the garden.

Now it is mid-February and our snowdrops are at their best. Do come and see!

This year we welcomed Old Court Nurseries and Picton Gardens of Colwall, Malvern, to our Snowdrop Event. Ross and Hugh are pictured below setting up their stall in the sunshine of Saturday. 

…But on Sunday, we retreated indoors as the rain poured down! All was not lost though, Helen Picton inspired us all with a wonderful talk on Old Court Nurseries, their snowdrop collection, and ideas for winter colour.

In the Garden, we put our Special Snowdrop Family Trail Fairies under shelter. Inspired by the names of some special snowdrops in our collection, local artist Corinne Hockley has created this unique ‘trail’ for us for the Event, with 12 named snowdrops.

Here on the left, see ‘Titania’ staying dry at the auricula theatre. And Galanthus “Elfin’ on the right…

 And then we discovered that one of Our Fairies was missing!

Snowdrop ‘Lady Beatrix Stanley’ (shown here with her tiara and beautifully made by Corinne) is named after the British aristocrat, horticulturist and botanical artist.

We have searched, to no avail. Did Lady B go off partying on the Saturday night? We want her to Return. Someone must know where she is! She needs to come home.

The following day, there were a few more jobs to be done of course – that’s gardening for you!

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog January 2025

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Hello! If you visited the museum before Christmas you may have spotted the Robins around the garden. For a brief moment we were tricked, being greeted by one friendly little Robin left in the Garden. It was lovely to see him, even though he isn’t ‘our’ real one and it cheered us up as we braced ourselves against the January cold.

Indoors at the Museum the staff have been very, very busy - as have we gardeners, as we prepare to open the doors again. For Gardener Volunteers, this is an important time of year, because – The Snowdrops are back!

Colossus (pictured), always one of the first snowdrops to emerge, was in flower before Christmas and we anticipated an early snowdrop season; but after the chill in early January all slowed down; other snowdrops in our collection are slowly catching up now.

Our Collection includes examples of the species snowdrops sold by the Giant Snowdrop Company of Hyde, Stroud, in the late 1950s and early 1960s – the first company ever to offer snowdrops to be sold by mail order. You can learn more about this at our special snowdrop event on 25th and 26th January.

Meantime, there has been plenty to do to prepare the Garden for this winter opening. The wintry weather made the Garden look beautiful, but the frost has held gardening tasks.

Happily, last week the frost melted, and it was time for action! There’s been plenty to do! …

We’ve cut down ferns and brambles – here’s Helen N in action, dressed for the cold; Geoff has repaired the Dye-Plant raised bed; we’ve removed barrow-loads of weeds and debris; rescued plants in pots from invaders…

Ruth tackled brambles and bedstraw while Nicola pruned a rambling rose and Cleo pruned the apple trees; others did many more tasks including some not shown here...the cutting of stalks, the tidying of potted plants, the cutting of the hedge, the sewing of new bunting!:

But there is always a welcomed break:  Helen is glad of the chance to stand up from her weeding for a few minutes(!)  And, in the warmth of the Pavilion, we admire Ruth’s dye work and Marion’s weaving, over tea, fruit cake with Wensleydale cheese, and leftover Christmas chocolates!

We are looking forward to seeing you at our weekend Snowdrop Celebrations. We shall be there in our scarves and woolly hats!

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog December 2024

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Christmas is Coming! And so we wheeled our two trees, carefully stored behind the Volunteer Shed all year, back into the limelight.

We’ve kept these trees going for a few years now. This time, they are part of the welcome in the Courtyard, alongside the Museum’s ‘wishing tree’ by artist Corrine Hockley.

Out in the Courtyard, all is calm (and tidy!). We’ve weeded and swept up leaves, the spring bulbs are planted, and we can relax for a while.

The white border in the Walled Garden is winter-ready, too, with pretty flowers of Prunus Autumnalis showing now, hellebores forming flowers, and a few tiny tips of snowdrop shoots just starting to appear.

Out at the raised beds and pergola, Sarah and Helen harvested autumn crops. The fennel has done amazingly well! And in the background, across the wildflower meadow in Helen’s photo, you can just spot Geoff gathering the last of the cuttings, while the bees are asleep in the hive away from the day’s cold wind and drizzle.

The Hedge Bedstraw which we found rampant in the meadow, has been put to use by dye-gardener Ruth: she has extracted a soft orange/apricot from the roots.

It’s not all been plain sailing in the Garden though: A few of the cardoons collapsed in the recent storm; here’s Marion collecting up the debris - and Sue and Penny busy amongst the chaotic-looking purple border after a battering by wind and rain.

The Museum and Walled Garden will be closed for Christmas and through January, but behind the scenes, work will continue.

We still have plenty to do in the borders as we prepare for our Snowdrop Event on January 25th and 26th, to celebrate the Giant Snowdrop Company of Hyde, Stroud. Helen and Ross of Old Court Nursery and the Picton Garden will be with us that weekend, with a choice of snowdrops to admire and to buy.

Snowdrops by ruth illingworth

The Gardeners wish you all a Very Happy Christmas!

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog November 2024

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After a brief interlude, learning how to eco-dye with Walled Garden gardener Ruth, the team has been into action. The garden needs to be prepared for winter. We are aiming to leave some seeds heads and stalks intact, but removing any leaves and stems where plants have succumbed to autumnal conditions.

First some fun! Printing with natural dyes…

After getting the necessary planning permissions the tree surgeon was able to come on site to work on the Paulownia which had succumbed to recent winds.

Meanwhile Marion and Susan have been busy potting up plants for sale and managing the seed collection, which can also be bought at the museum.

The Mediterranean (hot!) border in front of the museum’s Learning Pavilion has been one of the beds getting a lot of our focus lately, including the troughs positioned next to it. A well deserved cuppa was on order!

Meanwhile the meadow is being managed and the lawn has had its last cut before the cold weather arrives!

… and now, we hope, the mist and chill will leave us alone for a little while longer, as we have quite a lot still to do!

Cobweb covered in dew

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog October 2024

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We took a short break from the Blog last month while some of us disappeared to faraway places, leaving behind our beloved Walled Garden.

At the time, we had just been cutting the meadow, and had encountered a problem: rampant hedge bedstraw, that had tangled its way through the wildflowers – and caused real problems for scything. 

We did manage to remove all the cut grasses and stems, but a month later and we still have not finished everything … we are behind schedule with the meadow.

It rained. Then the sun came out and the bees were flying in the warm air, desperate to boost their supplies in the hive, so we had to keep out of the way of the ‘bee line’… the uncut part of the meadow is directly in their flight path.

Never mind…we are settling down to get things sorted now. Here we are, in action!

We’ve cleared a pathway to the compost area, blocked by the fallen boughs of the Paulownia, and now we await work by the tree surgeon, subject to planning permission (as the tree is within a Conservation Area).  

We’ve harvested the teasels Dipsacus Sativus, grown for the Stroudwater Textile Trust, and on the same rainy day, Margaret valiantly was potting up cuttings…


On two consecutive Mondays, Helen N and Sarah pruned the Tayberries to ensure we shall have plenty of fruit next year.

Below is Geoff, busy cutting up material to be composted, Carroll tackles an untidy border in the courtyard, we’ve also tidied the iris beds in front of the museum, and Ruth and Helen K consider which job to do next…

…Which was, to collect the apples from the orchard, where we have 10 heritage apple trees. We’ve made a display and have also invited visitors to make up a bag of apples to try from the shelves near Reception.

Helen and Sarah collected the gourds and pumpkins which were arranged around the dipping pond which is very full of rainwater after heavy downpours.

Wind and rain have battered our white asters, but when the sun comes out, the bees absolutely adore these flowers – and the sedum, too, always glorious in the autumn sunshine.

And finally, here are more reminders that it hasn’t been raining all the time, after all. Happy Days!

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog August 2024

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The Garden at this time of year is left to itself, more or less, with a little tweak here and there. It’s holiday time and the gardeners drift off now and then to the coast or the countryside.

Work doesn’t stop entirely, though: weedy patches receive attention, the gardeners risking the wrath of red ants nesting below ground; the lawn is kept tidy by Geoff; the sales table top needed repair; Sarah and Helen attend to the vegetables while the rain and sun take turns in keeping us on our toes; there is the occasional dead-heading, but not too much, mindful of the lovely shapes of stalks and seed heads to come later in the year; and Nicola keeps order in the herb beds.

It’s a wonderful time to visit the walled garden and the museum temporary exhibition (until 1 September), Photosynthesis - which is all about the seasons and flowers.

Soon there will be plenty of jobs for us to tackle…the list is in our heads …but for now, for this summertime gardeners’ report, we hope you will enjoy these lovely photographs by Walled Garden gardener Philippa, taken on a hot Monday in August.

Photographs of planting in the walled garden

Volunteers going about their work…

Taking a well earned rest in the museum’s courtyard with refreshments from the museum café:

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog July 2024

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We are not in the Garden all the time …and the garden birds know it! Our strawberry plants look strong and lush, but we arrive on a Monday morning to see the blackbirds scuttling off across the path, raising the alarm. We are too late! The birds have scoffed all the fruit and there have been no strawberries left for us this Wimbledon.

Of the six precious apricots on our young tree, one has been nibbled by something with a sharp little beak, too. In our absence, our feathered friends are enjoying their summer diet.

We do have one little helper, however. Sometimes from behind the hedge or the top of the bank, we’ll hear one of the gardeners saying, “Oh, Good morning! How are you today? Have you come to help us?’ It’s our friend, the little raggedy robin, come to eat up the grubs we unearth as we dig and weed. The robin always looks as though he’s been in a scrap and is happy to join us.

 …And now to other Garden news:

As predicted for all black bamboo, by ‘The Don’, (as Cleo calls Monty from ‘Gardeners’ World), our Phyllostachys nigra in the troughs at the Pavilion has flowered, and then, died. It was planted about four years ago to form a living screen against the sun at the large glass doors.

There is hope; Helen cut it down and discovered fresh shoots at the base. We shall wait and see.

Meanwhile in the front garden, there is further progress. Geoff has given the beech hedge a summer trim and we’ve had the 3 very overgrown shrubs near the yew tree seriously pruned – in fact, we’ve removed one of them entirely as it’s been attacked every year by sawfly and loses most of its leaves soon after they’ve appeared.

The Anthony Abrahams sculpture, ‘Man with Raised Arm’, had become slightly unstable on its plinth and has been taken away temporarily for repairs possibly because of roots from a pink Japanese Anemone. Gardener Cheryl is creating a lovely plot in the dappled shade behind the railings.

And in the Walled Garden there is summer colour everywhere. Though the weather isn’t particularly seasonal, the rains have promoted some strong growth – the purple salvias and Berkheya purpurea, the reds, pinks, oranges, and yellows of the Bonkers are catching the eye of visitors.

Meanwhile, in the Stellata border, Carroll is continuing her mission to control Miss Willmott (Eryngium giganteum). Look at the top border when next you are in and compare with the images below; Carroll is making progress.

On the left is Miss Willmott from 2023 and on the right from July 2021 (back in the days when July was sunny!). The eryngium was rampant -and spreading through the other borders too! Now we are trying to deal with the consequences of such exuberance!

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog June 2024

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After all the excitement of May and the irises, for June we return to the nitty-gritty! In other words, weeding, digging, and trying to keep order!

An abundance of plants!

So, as some of our number go off on hols, the rest of us are occupied in some Very Important Tasks.

 First, there’s the hedge to keep looking ‘sharp’, not to mention the edges of borders… and the lawn needs cutting. We are lucky that Sarah’s mum has donated her battery-powered lawnmower- no more trailing leads, making the job a lot safer.

It’s no accident that the water in the dipping pond is crystal clear: Geoff’s first task every gardening visit is to check the pond (pictured below_, remove any debris on the surface and make sure the daphnia are doing their job. Only pond-skaters and water-boatmen allowed in here!

Then it’s time for Geoff to plant the dahlias again, pictured below in their summer bed:

Sarah and Helen have prepared the soil and have planted the summer veg: - runner beans, courgettes, pumpkins, squashes…. Sarah says the strict rules we have (Sarah’s!) on making our own compost are paying off, and the earth is rich and lovely!

The peas and broad beans look very good indeed, in the raised beds – we’ve passed congratulatory visitor comments on to the ‘veg team’. We’ve had to fence off the back of the volunteer shed to protect a small iris bed from being trampled.

But not everything has been plain sailing this June: The white wisteria had to be propped up after it tore from its wiring in gusty winds; and we found sawfly larvae happily eating all the Solomon’s Seal last Wednesday! (Ugh!)  (P.S. For those regular blog readers - we are keeping quiet about the Box (Shhh!) Nicola may have saved it! Read the story in our October/November blog).

 Meanwhile, the meadow, so glorious and so easy at this time of year, is full of bees and insects. And the leaning apple tree you may have noticed when you came in, is now standing up nicely again, though without this year’s crop of apples.

Ahh! Time to sit at the Pavilion terrace and soak in the views. Where else could be better?

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog May 2024

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It’s May, Chelsea Flower Show this week, and everywhere gardens are exploding with blooms after the long grey spell we’ve endured for what seems like forever!

Our Walled Garden has responded to the sudden warmth, and is putting on quite a show for everyone, gardeners glorying in praise from visitors as our plants show off!

Just to show you what I mean…

Though irises are in bloom for just a few weeks, they are briefly spectacular! No apologies for including so many photos in this Blog!

We’ve been lucky that in the short time we’ve worked in the garden, we’ve been given some beautiful irises from three different collections.

Our challenge is to use the irises in our mixed borders without their being smothered by other plants during the growing season. Iris rhizomes like to be baked - and we struggle to give them space to soak up the sun.

Last autumn/ winter we did some serious sorting out of certain plants which were getting a bit too adventurous in the Bonkers Border, in the process uncovering a few irises which were being stifled…

The iris display this May is possibly the best we’ve had so far. I can’t resist including a few more delicious flower images!

True, other aspects of the garden are looking good, too- some spectacular lupins, and the meadow in an ever-changing display of wildflowers:

What more can we say? The Museum Walled Garden is a delight this May - and a visit is completely free of charge.

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog April 2024

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Even as I write this news from the Walled Garden, it is out of date! – it’s that time of year when the Spring sunshine persuades petals to open and plants to shoot up….

You may still catch some of the tulips in flower if you visit this week, but after that, they’re gone. It’s ‘On with the Show’ time!

We had decided to cut back the tulip bulb order last autumn- we have always bought in new bulbs each year, to ensure a good show of blooms in the Spring- but this time, we decided to invest more in some species tulips, smaller but with a promise of returning year after year and bulking up.

Below is the ‘Rare and Fine’ species tulip, ‘Little Beauty’ in the Bonkers border, the ‘Praestans Fusilier’ and the yellow/red Orphanidea Flava:

Look carefully and you may still spot more of these smaller tulips in the borders, in shades of lilac, yellow and white. However, the larger tulips do make such an impact at a time when there is not a lot of colour.  

Below is the pretty pink viridiflora ‘China Town’ in the background; the deep purple ‘Queen of Night’ with maroon-black hellebores behind; and the ‘soft creams’ in the white border:

Last Monday in a biting wind (though the drizzle had stopped, and we had a little sunshine) the Gardeners tackled jobs that needed to be sorted, whilst we could still get to them.  Here’s Ruth, Sue and Penny in action:

Meanwhile, the peas are doing well in the raised beds. Sarah tells us that peas are tough! They will grow early in the season. And Nicola is giving the herb beds a makeover:

In between digging and weeding, though, we remembered to stop to admire our/your lovely Walled Garden.

Visit soon! It’s changed, already! 

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog March 2024

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A month of ‘many weathers’ (and a new discovery!!).

Now the Rubus Cockburnianus has been cut back to allow the flowers of Magnolia Stellata to shine, as the Walled Garden moves into Spring. Geoff carts away the prickly white Rubus, and Marion seizes the opportunity to make cuttings; if they ‘take’, (keep an eye on the plant stall, later this year) - you may have the chance to re-create Cleo Mussi’s lovely winter combination of Rubus and snowdrops, much admired by our winter visitors.

You can catch a last glimpse of the Rubus in the distance, before the cutting-down that day, in the same photograph which shows a welcome- and surprising - sight: the dipping pond has ‘self-healed’. It stopped leaking and began to fill with water again! Now topped-up, we’ve put back all the pond plants salvaged from the frost, rather a sorry sight last month. 

Meantime the hellebores have lifted everyone’s spirits, glorious even on dull days…

On the vegetable patch, Sarah has replaced the old soft fruit bushes with new gooseberries and blackcurrants.

But our purple-sprouting broccoli has proved a favourite meal for passing pigeons.! As a deterrent we first covered the plants with fleece; Sarah prefers a ‘humming wire’, so we’re trying both, to try to protect our crop.

There is much to enjoy: in the Walled Garden, the blossom on the apricot tree looks beautiful against the wall. At the top of the steps are the sweet-scented flowers of Osmanthus, while at the auricula theatre and in the borders, you’ll find bright yellows of narcissi.

Pile of stones

But who would have thought that the pile of old rocks and stones discovered during the works to rescue the Walled Garden and saved ‘just in case we might need them one day’, were holding a secret? …. Yes, we know that toads lurk there, and some lizards bask there in the summer sunshine…

….and Dinosaurs?

Look closely at the footprint preserved on this rock. It shows the impression of the heel and three toes of a Therapod!

Therapod footprint

Once, a raptor walked the land where we are gardening!

We know there is a rich seam of fossils in the walled garden, deep below the topsoil: we found ammonites, brachiopods, bivalves, during the works to landscape the garden.

This print was discovered last week by Professor Williams Blows who was visiting the Museum. The rock has now been removed for further study. Professor William Blows and previous curator Alexia Clark recently published a book on the ‘Cotswold Dinosaurs’.  This takes in the story of the collection of fossils discovered in Gloucestershire in the 1930s and discusses the different dinosaur species recovered. It is available in the museum shop for £5.00.

Finally, after that excitement, we return to the calm of the present-day Museum Gardens.  Have you discovered the ‘pocket garden’ under the yew tree, behind the iron railings yet? It, too, is a treasure.

 

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog February 2024

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2024 and Welcome Back!

The start of any gardening season is notable, but here at the Walled Garden there was the additional importance of marking the New Year with our celebration of the Giant Snowdrop Company. Our Snowdrop Weekend welcomed back to the Walled Garden and Museum visitors and friends who have in many cases truly missed access to this special place because of the extended closure this year.

Avon bulbs stall in the walled garden

Unfortunately, the weather gods were not on our side, gifting us extended periods of not very helpful days; the ground was either far too wet or too frozen to be able to attend to our tasks easily or with any form of comfort.

However, despite the dipping pond succumbing to cold temperatures, we persisted and by January 27th the garden looked a treat, even though we say it ourselves - we felt happy to let Snowdrop Season begin. Even the weather obliged!

As the first Galanthophiles arrived to collect orders from Avon Bulbs, here for their last sale before the Plant Nursery closes its doors, or to see what treasures were on the tables, it was gratifying to speak to folks who noted how clumps of snowdrops had bulked up in the borders and around the trees in the orchard in the last year or so.

Rubus - the Ghost Bramble

The nivalis, ‘common snowdrops’ so carefully planted individually by Geoff many years ago are now a real presence in the Stellata Border under the magnificent Rubus cockburnianus - the Ghost Bramble (pictured).

We had added short descriptions and prices taken from the original Catalogues to our display of bulbs sold by the Company - many visitors were overheard carefully working out price changes from the 1960s to now!

Corinne Hockley had been commissioned to make a series of snowdrop fairies for a trail as well as doing a workshop for small people. The fairies were a delight, each having an individual personality based upon the name and patterning of its own snowdrop flower.

Ruth - artist in residence on the snowdrop weekend

In the Pavilion, Artist in Residence our own Ruth spent many hours painting snowdrops using colours she has made from plants in the garden. Always fascinating to watch, Ruth shared ‘what she does and how’ with many visitors. Naturally tea and cake proved popular!

As well as interest in the snowdrops, we had visitors who took time to visit the vegetable area of the Pergola and raised beds which thanks to much hard work particularly by Sarah and Helen was immaculate! The composting area was well visited and discussed while prospective purchasers checked out what is in the ‘Holding Bay’ area for sale in due course. The bees, as temperatures rose, were out and about and the hedgehogs remained, we trust, tucked up in their houses during colder spells.

At the front of the museum the snowdrops in borders, planters and in the Yew Tree Garden were peeping through and it is a delight to see the range of colour of witch hazel, Salix ‘Mount Aso’ , hellebores, primroses, narcissus and cyclamen beginning to burst into life. It is then you realise just how welcome Spring is.

Galanthus elwesii 'Godfrey Owen' in the orchard of the walled garden

Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog January 2024

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A belated Happy New Year to All!

Gardeners enjoying a cuppa in the garden

After a couple of weeks off, we were back in action at the Walled Garden.

We’d moved plants about a bit before the Christmas break…and January meant we had to tackle the soggy stalks and broken stems.

We’ve had a few busy weeks trying to cope with the weather and to prepare for the Snowdrop event.

Now we can’t wait for you to see the Walled Garden again in its Winter dress. We’ve left some seed heads and stalks intact but cleared parts of the banks ready for Spring bulbs:

Don’t be fooled by the blue skies and smiley faces! It’s been very wet, then very cold! We’re all wearing layers and layers of clothing and have had to eat all of the ‘Christmas chocolates’ to keep our energy levels up while we tackled essential jobs.

Caroline has weeded meticulously around every snowdrop in the meadow and here, between the irises.
Helen, Sarah and Cheryl have prepared the pergola for the planting of new veg and soft fruit bushes.
Cleo, aided here by Rosie, has been up the ladder pruning the orchard trees and wisterias in the Garden. 

Frozen dipping pond!

Do come to see us as the Museum opens for 2024 (Saturday 27th January), with Snowdrops at the Walled Garden. After all our attention, we hope the plants will try hard to put on a show for you! (…and that the ice will melt!).

For more information please visit the museum’s snowdrops page.