Team: Formal.
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| Section view of the Walled Garden East before clearing. |
Today the whole team worked together and cleared the temporary bedding beds from the Walled Garden East. The Tagetes patula 'Citrus Mixed' & Salvia officinalis 'Purpureum' were still looking good but as with most bedding change areas, things have to ripped out regardless of whether or not they are past their best. To be fair the beds especially where the tagetes were had lost it's initial definition. We tried to save as much as we could, doing crates of herb cuttings - sage, rosemary & thyme for the restaurant. And we saved some of the plants themselves especially good strong ones, to be used in other areas etc. These were cut back but not into the woody parts. You could tell the signs of plants that had been fed too much nitrogen, as there would be a lot of top growth and not that great a root system. We were only able to stow away a limited amount, due to lack of storage etc. so the rest had to be composted.
There are two big diamond shaped like beds in the middle and six smaller outer beds that slot in between them. In the outer beds that formed the corners the beds composed of an outer ring of Thymus vulgaris with Rosmarinus officinalis in the corners. A carpet of the Salvia officinalis 'Purpureum' and some Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum' in the middle. On the middle outer smaller beds it was the same ring of thyme & rosemary and then a ring of silver Santolina chamaecyparissus, blue annual cornflowers, Centaurea cyanus and umbellifer Carum carvi, the latter had passed over. to To give the scheme 'structure these beds had 2 young Eucalyptus archeri and a young olive Olea europea (still in a pot) in the middle.
Then in the bigger middle beds an outer ring of Apium crispum - curly parsley with Laurus nobilis in the corners and the Tagetes patula 'Citrus Mixed', a climbing structure with Humulus lupinus 'Aurea' and Nasturtium majus "Crimson Emperor'. The smell was amazing.
Bedding is changed over here twice a year - for winter & for late summer interest. Designs are done for it 6 months in advance. Depending how well the garden does in terms of visitors annually, the budget set for this section is £800 - £900 per changeover. Summer bedding is planted out on 1st June. Bedding has been done here since the 1970s, but because of this the soil has over the years become tired and much diseased. There are many things they can't grow here like tulips because of tulip fire Botrytis tulipae (a fungal disease). It's especially bad in winter. The soil is not very deep, as the site has also been a waste ground for other areas. It almost has everything against it. It has been kept a bedding area, because apparently this is what visitors come to see and expect, but I feel in this day & age where the general public are more open, I think you could do a programme of letting the area rest or have it used alternatively and they would understand - my colleague Robert suggested doing a bedding with green manure for example.
They are trying to tackle problems a bit, for example Enrique on the team - his design is being incorporated this winter and it will entail turf parterres with gravel, this will help problematic weeds that they have had there (it seems a lot of chickweed - Stellaria media keeps coming up). And the soil used to be devoid of any life like earthworms. So in the last three years they have been trying to build up the organic material in the soil, first putting leaf mold in, manure and lots of green waste compost. It is only in the last year or so, worms were sighted again. The soil was definitely full of worms, lots of newts, frogs, toads, vole & shrews were hiding in the foliage.
