Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog March 2024
/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.
