Hidcote Gardens - Rooms with views

Mid September, a time when the garden is starting to wind down and the garden visits for the year are slowing. I couldn't resist saying yes to the All Horts gathering at Hidcote though. It's a garden I've loved for many years. The last time I visited was shortly before I left Garden Organic and moved south, at that time we were lucky enough to go on a staff visit and get a tour from the, then Head Gardener Glyn Jones. Glyn has now left to make a mark on the historic gardens at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-Upon-Avon.

My last visit was roughly 10 years ago, give or take, Hidcote had been a regular on my list of local gardens, one that I had taken Mum & Dad to visit. Sadly I don't think I have any pictures from back then but in my head the gardens were always sun baked and peaceful, my favourite border was always the famous red border, so even though I set out early in the morning in rainy gloom I was feeling optimistic for the forecast.

Lawrence Johnston was the originator of Hidcote, starting in 1907, his mother bought the manor house and he set about turning the surrounding fields into what is now an iconic garden in the Arts & Crafts style. The theme of the "Garden room" is not as new as the glossy magazines would have you believe, Plantsmen of the early 1900's had already started this trend of areas enclosed and themed with exits and entrances leading to wonderful vistas over surrounding countryside.

His influencers, such as Gertrude Jeykell & Alfred Parsons are now bywords for excellence in design. His peers and contemporaries were people such as Norah Lindsay & Vita Sackville West, known for her creation of Sissinghurst. Lawrence Johnston was a quiet man by all accounts far more at home creating his gardens than the life of a 1920's socialite, maybe that's why Hidcotes name is the one people remember rather than his? In the world of botany though this man was a giant! One of the unsung heroes of plant hunting, he went on plant hunting expeditions to Europe, Asia, Africa, China and South America. Each time bringing home a small gem for his gardens. He was also a great sponsor for other people, making it possible for Frank Kingdon Ward to travel in Burma, one of the people responsible for introducing countless Rhododendron species. W. T. Goethe & Edward Augustus Bowles travelled with him. Highly influential in every way, this quiet man bequeathed Hidcote to the National Trust in 1948 when he retired to his garden in France Serre de la Madone.

Back to present day!
Bearing in mind several points...
I haven't seen the garden in around 10 years
I never saw it this late in the season



The approach to the gardens has changed massively from what I remember, there is now a lovely new build (?) cafe and plant sales area. The signage around this area is pretty good I noticed as I rushed to try and catch up with the others. The entrance completely threw me out! Same gateway but now you enter through the entrance of the house itself, which is quite nice. I say this is a new thing but in reality I don't actually remember exactly how it used to be? I think it was through what is now a gift shop, anyway!

The first sight as you enter the garden is of a cute little parterre with an excellent choice as an alternative to box hedging, Euonymus fortunei 'Emerald Gaiety' planted up with summer bedding of Salvias and what I think are Bidens (I could be wrong on this, I was in a hurry) Rocky and I were almost an hour late, traffic, so we scurried to catch the end of the tour being kindly led by Sarah Davis the Assistant Head Gardener. Flying past the enormous Cedar of Lebanon I remembered the last tour I had been on before being surrounded by a fantastic scent of cherry pie! An entire bed of Heliotrope that even on this overcast day was able to envelope you with its mouth watering scent. I caught sight of our group, in the distance, and tried to negotiate the straightest path to them. This as it turned out included naughtily leaping some of the Trusts iron hurdles to gain access to the sacred Red Border where our group of intrepid gardeners were being treated to a private viewing! Quick introductions were made to those members I hadn't met before, hugs for those I had, a few pictures and then on to the plant house.

Talking mainly about the history and much needed restoration of the relatively recent addition (restoration?) of the wooden conservatory called the plant house. Sarah explained how only 10 or so years old it is already needing a lot of work to its wooden supports to keep it in good repair and the decision on how to fund this work is very much in the forefront of everyone's minds. Its such an important aspect to the garden not only in its history but also as a place to house and show some really gorgeous plants in their collection.

From there we moved to the long borders, an area I'm sure had only been recently planted up when I last visited, I wish I had managed to arrive on time. I could've asked more questions! They were just at the point of going from summer splendour into autumnal tumble. Still verdant with jewels of Asters shining through, just a hint of winter structure from the seed heads and exclamation points provided by the carefully manicured hedges.

We moved through to the Kitchen Gardens which had changed beyond all recognition for me, my last visit this area wasn't open to the public. It was an area like most gardens have, a graveyard of old pots, scruffy plants and dead machinery. Now fully in use as a Kitchen garden with a late crop of runner beans handily planted to the side of the path a quick taste test ensued.... they were lovely!

At this point our lovely guide took her leave and we headed for the cafe. I wont bore you with the details of what I ate but it was lots and it was lovely. We chatted and caught up with one another then headed over to Kiftsgate, this is where it gets funny...

We posed for our usual "All Horts" picture, as ever ably taken by Gerald, by the gates. We even looked at the signs with opening times and admission prices before ambling through the gates and up the long driveway. We perused the plant sales area and enthused over the Salvias when a deep baying ensued.

Release the hounds!

Hush puppy!

Introducing the resident Basset hound!

Somehow each and every one of us had failed to notice the massive signs at the entrance saying CLOSED ...oops!

Rocky singing the rusty gate song... F sharp?

So having failed in our mission we beat a hasty retreat back to the cafe at Hidcote to renew ourselves, chat a bit more, then myself and a few intrepid others went back to revisit areas of the garden we had missed on our whistle stop tour.

On reflection, the elements that make Hidcote, Hidcote are all there, no matter the season. The thought that was put into its vistas, the quiet areas, even the wonderful paving that changes throughout the garden to reflect the theme. Hidcote is undergoing some major renovations, replanting, but the ethos that Lawrence Johnston built the garden to is evident at every turn. 

"Plant only the best forms of any plant"

The Orchard revisited (Repost from 2013)

Originally posted on our Landshare Blog and several other places, heres a look at the Orchard Amy and myself planted way back when! I was SO proud of everyones efforts and all the years of preparation that brought us to this point, I still am and im sure the Orchard is now producing twice this amount 3 years on....

Bumper Apple Harvest

Posted on November 1, 2013 

This September we had the biggest harvest of Apples from our new Orchard to date. The Apples & other fruit trees have been planted over the course of 3 years, the last trees being planted in the spring of 2012.
They grow on a very testing site, exposed to the wind and on heavy clay soil. The fruit trees have had a tough start, but a little bit of tender care and the damp summer of 2012 meant they got their roots in properly, and are now starting to perform as they should. Undeniably it’s been a good year for fruit all round, even our small Vegetable garden Orchard has produced fruit and these trees were only planted in the spring of this year.
One of our volunteers has taken on responsibility for the large Orchard almost entirely and over the course of winter 2012 – 2013 he would come down to see me and tell me about how the pruning was coming along, retie any trees that had come loose, repair rabbit guards etc.

Apple blossom in spring

In the spring he mowed, keeping the grass low improved the air circulation around the trees and took out competition for moisture and nutrients. The spring show of blossom, although later than normal was incredible. There is nothing more beautiful than standing surrounded by fruit trees in full flower. The scent on a still day can make your mouth water!
Finally in mid August, our volunteer, Peter started coming back from the Orchard laden with boxes of Apples. At first it was a trickle, then a veritable flood of Apples. Once the kitchen had their fill and they had made Apple pie, Apple crumble, Apple juice and of course offering up our Apples au natural, we started to offer them for sale in our shop …. And still the Apples kept coming! It was beginning to feel a bit like a scene from the Magicians Nephew with crates of Apples stacked waist high and Peter warning me there was more to come, much more.

Some of the young trees laden with fruit.

At this point we had to get inventive as we had way more fruit than we could ever deal with so we contacted a local business, Biddenden Vineyards and consulted with a lovely chap called Julien, who offered us the solution of juicing our Apples. So a date was set for collection and a collaboration of the Rangers team and the Veg garden saw a bright Thursday morning in late September, and an army of Volunteers set off for the orchard with our hastily assembled Apple crates. Less than 2 hours later with big smiles the Orchard had been virtually picked clean.

A happy team of volunteers

We had estimated having about ½ a ton, we had underestimated, on final weight we had just under a ton of fabulous Apples. These were sent off for pressing and within 3 days we had our very own bottles of Apple juice. This means we can carry on enjoying the fruits of our labour, if you’ll excuse the pun, right into next year. Well, I say that, that’s if there’s any left as we’re selling it in our shop, and by all reports it flying out the door!

Me, and a lot of fruit juice!

Finally a quick note about the storm the other night, there were some casualties, relatively minor ones compared to how bad things could have been. A few small trees have gone down in the garden and wider estate, causing very little collateral damage. The worst thing to happen to the Vegetable garden was that we lost both sets of the south ends of the polytunnel doors, the wind had, despite our best efforts, ripped the locks off the doors, snapped the reams of baling twine we had wrapped around the handles for extra security, pulled the anchor points clean out of the ground and then proceed to thrash the doors back and forth till they cried mercy. Thankfully it appears that’s the worst it did and it shouldn’t take too long to replace them with something bigger, better and more resilient.

Lou – Senior Vegetable Gardener

Organic Veg the No-Dig way (repost from 2013)

Originally written for the Landshare Blog way back in 2013, this was subsequently reposted in several locations and the information included went on to make up part of the talks I give to groups about growing vegetables Organically and using the No-Dig method. I thought you all may like to see what we did there.

Apologies for the quality of the pics!

Our no-dig veg garden 6 months in...

Posted on July 12, 2013

An unusual year

So, halfway through the year, ok a little over but close and how is our No Dig system progressing? Some of you who visited us in previous years will hopefully be pleasantly surprised at how we’ve changed. We started converting our field over to 4ft wide beds at the end of last year and putting in place a system of composting and mulching them. This is how things looked in 2012…

The beds being converted over…

and in 2013…

Our team spent a lot of time getting the beds converted, and there is still more work to do, but so far we really are seeing the benefits. Working in this method allows you to grow veg in a more consistent and easier to manage way. There are some crops that at present we are not attempting, such as potatoes, carrots and parsnips. We will grow these again in the future once we have built up a decent soil depth but we are having some enormous successes with other crops such as Kohl rabi, Onions and Leeks.

Kohl rabi ‘Azur Star’

Onion ‘Bedforshire Champion’

Leek ‘Northern Lights’

We also converted our tunnels over to the No Dig system last year, the soil had become exceedingly depleted and had no structure to it at all. We had started to find that even our Tomatoes were struggling to produce decent vines, so copious amounts of manure were added. Its worth bearing in mind when trying this yourself, that not all crops love a high Nitrogen soil and that it can sometimes cause a chemical imbalance, locking up certain nutrients like Magnesium. In a covered environment this can be easily dealt with but when growing organically its best to avoid overfeeding plants in the first place. We planned our crop rotation very carefully to avoid problems and we are getting great results despite the cold start to the year. Below is a picture taken in late July 2011 showing how stressed our Tomatoes were.

and now….

We are proud to be harvesting from them already and the difference in growth is phenomenal!

We also are providing our onsite restaurant with delicious organically grown Cucumbers, and this year we are growing 4 different types. In the cutest cucumber contest its a close run race between Iznik F1 and Passander F1, producing a perfect Cucumber for your lunch box! Or for something a little more substantial you might want to try Louisa F1 or Camilla F1.

‘Iznik F1’

‘Louisa F1’

We have been having an enormously abundant year for fruit as well. In late April I despaired that the weather would improve and by late May I had almost given up, but it hasn’t done our fruit any harm whatsoever. We have produced over 30 kilos of Gooseberries alone, all to be cooked up into yummy desserts by our Restaurant. Not to mention all the Strawberries, Redcurrants, Blackcurrants and soon to be available from our Farmers Market stall, Raspberries! Below is a picture of our Loganberries and in the distance the North Downs.

One thing gardeners may want to keep an eye out for at this time of year is Gooseberry Sawfly. Able to decimate your plants in a day, they don’t just eat your Gooseberries they will go for your Red & White currants too! Organically you have very few options open to you as they must be dealt with quickly. The best and easiest option is to lay a old sheet under your bush and shake/flick the leaves till the horrible little blighters fall to the ground. When you think you’ve cleared one area move the sheet to the next and repeat process. Here’s the grim bit, once your plants are clean of the larvae and your sheet is covered in them you can then deal with the pest in an appropriate manner. How you choose to do this is up to you, but I suggest you don’t release them back to freedom. I would normally expect them a tad earlier in the year but it appears our unseasonable weather has knocked them out of kilter too.
I could include a Thousand more beautiful pictures of our lovely Veg. Garden as each one tells its own story but I run the risk of revealing my inner Nerd. Why not come and join us instead? See for yourself this unique venture into vegetable gardening and admire the best view in Kent …. well unless you climb to the top of the Tower that is.
Louise – Senior Vegetable Gardener

Disclaimer: Things will have changed a lot since this was written, so if you visit now do not expect to see things described above. Fruit varieties & placement may have changed as i believe bed layouts have also.

Historically thinking, Sissinghurst 2014 - Out on a high...

Sissinghurst

This is my final "Chronicles of Sissinghurst" and for many reasons was quite hard to write and as such i shyed away from it for a long time. I hope that ive done it justice and thank you all for your feedback on my previous posts. I'm so glad you've enjoyed reading them and delighted that some of you are now inspired to visit or revisit there. Its a truly fantastic place.
I really hope that in the end we did not only Vita but Adam and Sarah's vision proud.

2014 started in an odd way, the weather for once unseasonably warm, i remember this distinctly as i spent the first week or so moving furniture about and having to have the windows open at home.
The Christmas period had been, well lets just say unsettled shall we. At the Xmas party a good friend had become life threateningly ill, only moments before we had been sat chatting then... thankfully she has recovered. And as the new year got underway i found myself tying up some loose ends of an extremely challenging period of time but although this would take a while to finally settle i felt more optimistic than i had done in ... well, years!

Sissinghurst sunrises

At work, we were forging ahead with work on the fruit, using a method we had perfected over the last 3 years. First we would lay down cardboard, this smothered the perennial weeds, at the base of the rows. Then we would lay a good dollop of manure on top of the cardboard. This not only fed the plants it anchored the cardboard in place. On top of that we would put a good layer of straw, preventing weed seedlings from taking hold and giving a good moisture retentive mulch, cutting down on the need to water through dry spells.

I had a busy schedule of talks lined up as well, starting with a talk to St Leonards volunteer group. Robertsbridge school, who were working hard on establishing a school gardening group had requested a visit. I was also lined up to give an introductory talk to our volunteers on site, well 3 talks! Our volunteers were from across the site and all worked in various positions around Sissinghurst. There had been a lot of changes in the last 12 months both in staff and in operations. This was our yearly review to keep them updated before the season began and for some the only time they may get a chance to interact and become interested with the vegetable garden. From my point of view an important audience!

We were also trialling some lovely new salad leaves in our tunnels, mustard Golden frills and Red frills, I highly recommend

February rolled in wet, horrendously wet and stormy! Trees were coming down everywhere, i remember it well as it was my 40th and i nearly didn't make it to my own party! We had a hedge laying course run on the bottom of the plot in the previously mentioned "soggy spot", i now had put this down to a natural springs emergence as there where others on the same level across Sissinghurst. The course attendants battled hard and won through leaving us with a beautifully laid hedge.

But everything was suffering, everywhere was soggy and muddy, it was impossible to work on the beds, any foot traffic left the site a mess and using vehicles was unthinkable. The entrance to the Orchard became a mire as buggies and tractors continued to use it but on the field there was a vehicle ban, which although inconvenient was necessary.

This year promised us our first real crop of asparagus and each day i would excitedly sneak down and look to see what was happening, I knew we wouldn't get much as this was its second year, the real crop would come in 2015 but this was so thrilling!

Into April, always the busiest month of the year in my book, everything is growing. In the Glasshouse, despite issues with keeping it heated, we had a veritable forest of tomatoes itching to be planted out.

I had started some Ricinis seedlings for our ornamental bed which proved quite controversial with the "oh but its poisonous" viewpoint. Most things grown in a garden are, sweet peas, hollyhocks etc. but we still grow them. I think its incredibly important to take a balanced view of gardening and to teach people about it. One of my earliest memories was of my mum threatening me under pain of death if i was to eat a laburnum seed! I learnt and understood that it would kill me but we never chopped the tree down, unthinkable! Ricinus is the basis for Castor oil, a once widely used remedy. Anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant, it was once used to treat stomach complaints. It is also is the base for Ricin gas and yes that will kill you. The same goes for most medicinal herbs, Salix (willow) is the base for a now widely used pain killer and blood thinning agent, Aspirin, but if placed in direct contact with the skin it can cause severe chemical burns. Know your plants, they're important!
Ok, soapbox moment over!
Back into April, the pea and bean supports were in place and everything was being planted out and the Orchard looked amazing, One of our volunteers had taken over its management last year and he was doing an incredible job with it, pruning, training, mowing and caring for it. It was so good to be able to just relax into trusting someone was doing a great job. I knew that everything was being done properly but i would still walk up there regularly as it was just something wonderful to behold.

I'll admit though, for me, by may although everything looked good it didn't feel it. Various pressures were taking their toll and i was feeling increasingly isolated. I have no need to go into the reasons behind that as they're really not relevant to this story but suffice to say i was coming close to burnout, i was losing my joy. A place that i thought i would stay until i retired was no longer in my mind. Instead i found i looked forward to doing weekend duties where i would get a chance to view the Ornamental garden, it rekindled my desire. This was making me grumpy and short tempered though which wasn't fair on anyone. I realised without some serious support this position was becoming untenable and i would rather change everything in my life than wreck everything Amy, myself and the team had worked so hard to build.

It just so happened that the various outside projects i had said yes to, in the name of promoting the NT, Sissinghurst and the veg garden were not only giving me confidence in myself and my abilities but opening my eyes to opportunities!

I was visiting gardens and receiving a great deal of encouragement from like minded people, I was also given the opportunity to speak at the wealden times fair.

Wealden Times fair, Photo credit - Wealden Times, 2014

 This moment was to change the course of my future, little did i know it at the time. I was delighted later that day to be asked to be part of a "gardeners question time" style challenge where i sat next to a real hero of mine Tom Hart Dyke, but more on this later...

Waterperrys, Photo credit - Harriet Rycroft, 2014

Then i received my greatest challenge so far and in the spirit of saying yes that id adopted as my mantra i volunteered the team to help create a show garden for the 3 Counties Show! Working closely with Events and the Rangers team in a ridiculously short space of time we created a fabulous display that reflected all the different aspects of Sissinghurst, its gardens, history, estate and veg garden. I was still in my bossy, stressed out frame of mind at this point and someday i may get a chance to apologise wholeheartedly to the lovely supportive team i was working with but thankfully they knew me well enough and what was going on in my life to cut me some slack. This is a valuable lesson I've learnt and carry with me now as when i encounter others who appear in this manner i think back to how i was at the time and try to view them from that perspective. It helps both me and them, anyway, back to the point!

So the show!!

From my "back of a fag packet" style drawing the ranger team created these amazing false bottomed planters and with a few alterations we created something beautiful. The events team on a shoestring budget created a fantastic backdrop and i raided the gardeners nursery for plants that epitomised "Sissinghurst", I also was able to magic up some lovely examples of our Organic veg to complement the planting. Together we had pulled off something that takes most design teams 6+ months of planning and prep in just under a month! Having done lots of shows in the past i was amazed at what we had achieved and so we drove to the show with laden vehicles for set up....

Kate prepping the plants

Peter creating a laid hedge

James placing the finishing touches

At this stage of the game it was hard to imagine how we would ever be ready on time but that's always the way with shows, all smoke and mirrors...

but gradually it all fell into place....until (and i only found this out after we had left the site after setting up as Kate aware of the pressure i had been under had kindly decided not to tell me. Something i will always be grateful for) the judging commenced!

So on a drizzly grey July morning i arrived outside the tent to see this...

A sweaty, nervous half hour later i was allowed in and....

We had DONE IT!!

Judged by Jim Buttress this was no easy win, so proud.

L to R - Peter (ranger) Kate & James (events) relaxing

Like a dog with 2 tails!

but this was effectively my swan song with Sissinghurst, i wanted to go out on a high and i think id achieved that. I left the plot looking amazing with a great team of volunteers, id achieved lots in my time there. Things had changed so much from when i started and it was time for the next chapter in my life to start. Id made some wonderful friends whilst there, it felt right. So at the end of July i joined a new team but i leave you with a few moments from my years at Sissinghurt.

Picture credit Amy Wardman 2009

Picture credit Amy Wardman 2009

Picture credit Amy Wardman 2009

From the mad beginnings when all this was fields to.....

The abundant fruitfulness i left behind, thank you to all the wonderful people i met on my journey.

Sissinghursts wonderful vistas