That's all folks!

That's it, I have finished my WRAGS training, a year working in a large garden, except in my case I worked in two. I cannot believe I have come this far! I am a Mum of two, ex-Londoner, ex-PA to a Photographer. Someone who used to garden in their spare time and have an allotment but I had sat at a desk in a previous life and I knew I didn't want to do that again.

When I started as a WRAG I had barely completed my RHS Level Two and was pretty freaked out by the size of the garden at Houghton Lodge. I remember wondering how on earth anyone managed it and knew all the plants and what to do with them at which time of year. It took me a while to settle down.

Six months in at Houghton, I learnt loads but had to leave which lead me to find Heale, another beautiful and large varied garden. My knowledge has come on in leaps and bounds but still I have so much to learn.

I spent yesterday sorting and tidying with Michael, having a fire, collecting Gourds, cropping veg, weeding borders. All this in Autumnal glowing sunshine, I could not have asked for a better week to finish up.

Yet as one door closes another opens and I will be continuing at Heale straight into next week as their part time Gardener, which will include veg production for the house. I am so excited! Alongside, I will be working for another two gardens and within time will be able to give more time to it, as my children grow up.

As I packed up and walked away yesterday, it felt like the end of a really special time. I have loved every minute and feel the WRAGS scheme offers an insight into a world often hard to penetrate as an inexperienced outsider. It has allowed me to enter into a large garden, to work with Gardeners from different backgrounds, to learn techniques and good practice, to meet the public (who are the most generous in their enthusiasm for the work and effort in the garden) and to manage my time and probably most importantly take it easy! The garden needs care but the seasons turn on and on and it is not the end of the world if all the weeding isn't immaculate! Slow and steady.

I am so looking forward to the next chapter. Thank you to GG (Andrew Bentley) and Michael Maltby for their time, knowledge and endless patience with me.

Almost there...

The gardens at Heale are closing in just over a week and it is quieter than usual. The weather was very atmospheric this week, misty and really humid, thunder and lightning, heavy rain followed by sticky soil. Being in a valley, the garden often seems secretive and hidden, like the world is turning on the outside but not for us.

I spent a lot of time with the veggies again, getting to know the plots, hoeing and weeding and tidying up. I transplanted some more salad and we cropped veg for the house: Onions, Courgettes, Radishes and Mooli (white roots bit like a radish kind of carrot length), also Chinese artichokes, a member of the Stachys family and really weird looking, tiny maggot-like white roots.

When the rain came we did some pricking out of Digitalis seedlings and read up on plants, checking names and habits.

Michael named a reed for me that is in the river in the Japanese garden, it is huge and has spiky female seed pods: Bur-reed, quite a pretty structural plant but hidden unless you go and look closely at it.

I love a purple plant in the borders in the veg garden which is just flowering now with pretty tall white and fragrant spires: Actea simplex Atropurpurea. It likes moist ground so this one has got a bit dry and the colour is fading from the leaf.

I took time to have a peek at Kevin Hughes Plant Nursery a bit this week, otherwise we just walk past it week after week and plants come and go. Kevin has a really old Greenhouse full of stuff which I love! I don't think it will be standing for much longer so I finally took a photograph of it! I have always loved it, even when I visited before I worked here.

During Summer everything seems frantic and as soon as we work and weed and cut, plants grow back again but as the season turns, Michael is mowing a notch higher, the weeds are slowing down a bit, work becomes a bit more focused with time to think about where we are headed. 

Veg and new friends

The weather is turning without us even noticing really, sneaky Autumn, a nip in the air in the mornings, pretty warm by lunch then sun down as early as 7.30pm. I did notice some leaf colour changing this week though, the huge Gunnera leaves on the island across the river and the Hydrangea quercifolia seems to be getting redder (if that is possible).

In the veg garden crops are starting to go over, so this week we cropped Melons, Courgettes, Radish and Lettuce and in it's place we have sown new crops, Spinach, Rainbow Chard, Rocket to name a few. I transplanted some Winter salad into neat rows which was great practice for me.

As we are a member of the team down (who normally spent all their time in the veggies), we spent quite a long time in the veg garden tidying and weeding, preparing for the last few weeks of the garden being open. We removed Cosmos and will soon remove the Beans.

I was introduced to some new plants this week, so much to remember....Toad Lily was looking delicate and pretty in the Top Terraces (Tricyrtis formosana) and it turns out Kevin has some for sale in the plant centre. If I had wet boggy land I would certainly buy some but my own garden is pretty hot and dry.

I noticed a plant in another garden I visited at the weekend and found it at Heale too amongst the compost bins - Nicandra, a very upright strong plant with lovely flowers and kind of 'lantern' seed pods which hang. A member of the potato family, that was clear.

We cleared a whole greenhouse of Tomatoes and gave it the sulphur candle treatment, stinky! We have grapes coming in the prop, where we pot up and do general garden admin.

The gardens close at the end of the month and my WRAGS training finishes to co-incide. Still time to learn more and I am looking forward to it!

Herbaceous borders

This week at Heale, the last month of my WRAGS training (weep weep), saw lots of work in the herbaceous borders of the kitchen garden.

I like being in the Kitchen garden. Lots of visitors pass through and are always full of questions and chat. They love to see what we are up to and compare what they have grown, with what we have grown. The Gourds prove popular and visitors like the casual nature of the flowers and veg mixing it up together.

I spent a lot of time sorting through the borders with Michael and learnt a steady approach to a mess of plants. Edging the lawn path, dead heading, cutting back, weeding, removing unwanted growth. Sure enough you get there in the end and it looks so much better for your efforts. Light and air flows into the border and crucially it looks cared for.

Heale has the most beautiful Hydrangea quercifolia which sits bright red in the corner by the pond. The leaf colour changes through different shades of red. I can hardly pass it without stopping.

We cropped a lot of veg again from the kitchen garden including Chicory which has an interesting leaf and Beetroot. Michael has sown some new crops to keep production going, Spinach, Rocket amongst others.

The borders include plants such as Nicotiana langsdorffii and many Hostas, Ferns, Japanese Anemones, Solomons Seal, Iris and Oxalis (not any more I weeded you out!). The Oxalis has a strange transparent root which I had never seen before.

The task of managing an eight acre garden is huge and to think we spent most of two days in one tiny area only. Thankfully Michael is very calm about all the work ahead. If I were on my own I would be overwhelmed for sure. So slow and steady seems to be the way! Sometimes you get around the garden and see what is required, sometimes you just get your head down under a tree and focus. Each day is different and I like that.