Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog November 2025
/
Wintry Meadow
The days have passed so quickly since our last report from the Walled Garden, and now, Winter approaches. The last of the Bramleys have fallen (thank you for your messages, telling us how you’ve stocked up, making puddings and pies!)
But there is still colour in the garden, as we begin the late autumn tidy -up. Our crab apple trees are the stars of the show at present, though fading fast …
And chrysanthemums are rewarding us with a splash of colour in the Bonkers Border, this one a gorgeous splash of pink, very cheering!
We see signs of nature’s confusion here and there, too. Two weeks ago, a Spring-flowering cowslip appeared in all its glory in the meadow! It’s been a tricky year in the plant world…
However, the snowdrop Elwesii hiemalis is flowering right on cue, as is Iris unguicularis ‘Walter Butt’ in the Med border.
After all the excitement of having demonstrations of live-forging by blacksmiths in the Walled Garden as part of the Museum’s events programme in connection with the Alan Evans ‘Earth Fire Iron’ exhibition, we gardeners are now knuckling down to some serious tidying up. We still have bulb-planting to do, and we want to ensure the Garden looks good for the run up to Christmas, too.
We relaxed during the long, hot summer…but weeds have returned with a vengeance, and plants have thrown down seeds as though to future-proof their existence!
The blacksmiths had experimented with making some tools for us – including a delightful boot-scraper which is already coming in very handy - as demonstrated in this photograph! After recent rain, some of us were walking 2” taller, the wet soil collecting on the soles of our boots!
And so, this month you will see us hard at work in the borders, retaining some of the sculptural seedheads, and getting to grips with our autumn jobs. We shall need our woolly hats, I think, and perhaps the odd slice of cake at tea break to spur us on…
