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.

Back to peace

A week away from Heale and I have missed the quiet, the stillness, the birds and the space. My friends the Chickens pootled around me these last two days and I saw a Sparrow hawk and we had a moment, he looked right at me, I looked right at him and he flew away.

The weather is changing but I love a rough breeze and a rain cloud and then wow, the sun. Being outdoors.

We got onto pruning another Rose on the balustrades this week, Rosa Kew, another old Rambler and it is very satisfying to see it transform from a muddled mess to a structured framework ready for it's glory next year. Michael (our Volunteer who feeds us very well every Wednesday) helped us and we had a chance to chat.

We cropped a lot this week, a wonderful array of colour and textures, Courgette, Lettuce, Chard, herbs, Potatoes, Spring Onions, Radish and Tomatoes. The Tomatoes are going strong and keep giving. They get fed daily during the week and pinched out . We noticed Whitefly this week so sprayed and also used some sticky bug sheets to hang in the greenhouse, an almost instant help, poor bug(gers) don't stand a chance!

I even got to squish Caterpillars that are attacking the Brassicas (my children would so love the freedom to do that) and removed dead leaves from the crops and gave them a bit of love to help them on their way.

Weeding and edging remains a task most weeks, this time the Harold Peto pond beds. Always things of interest though and this job gives you the time to visit areas you walk on by. Irises and Lemon Verbena and I weeded out something which gave such a strong whiff of aniseed, it was fab (possibly Poison Hemlock, Conium maculatum). Having read about it, I don't like the sound of it much. I may have thought it a carrot top if it weren't for the strong smell, nature telling me something thank goodness....

We finished trimming Jasmines in the Greenhouse, to avoid the drizzling rain. We have several Jasmines that are in pots and trained to canes to create a spiral. They received a serious haircut and new ties. A strong vigorous plant that doesn't mind a bit of a push and a shove.

The garden is quietening down but plenty still to see and colour peeping out if you care to look.

Times they are a changing

This week at Heale saw t'other Michael (full time veg Gardener) leave. I started when he started so I hadn't worked with him for long but I enjoyed our time together and it is a shame he has moved on.

So, a man down, we continued with our work. Michael (HG) showed me how he trains rambling Roses to the balustrade at Heale. Very old Roses that have been there long enough for me to take serious care not to do them any harm. Rosa blush rambler needed a haircut and we took the process slowly and methodically. You begin by assessing new and old growth to work out what to lose and what to keep. You then untie the whole plant and begin to prune before tying in again to your wish. Michael has a great eye for the visual and takes great care to ensure the Rose looks its best. Not only that but the pruning work allows air and light into the plant and the horizontal training restricts oxygen to the plant, reducing leafy growth and stimulating flowers. In addition to tying in, Michael likes to weave the plant through the balustrade which gives the visitor a view of the rose (as it faces the private garden), Attention to detail. I am hoping for a good show of pink next year when I see it!

We summer pruned a very old Wisteria and Michael had been saving some new shoots to train into a gap between the Wisteria and a Box hedge. He created a support and we tied the shoots on with string. I shall have to return in my old age to see if it worked - only a few decades before it catches up with the rest!

We edged and weeded Yew hedging and removed moss from the walls. We removed unwanted Maclayea cordata (towering plant with grey/green rubbery leaves and pinkish flower stalks) and nettles etc. We had a friend visit - Lunar - and he decided to hide when the sky turned bluey black and the wind swept up.

When the rain came we went over secateur maintenance again which was hugely useful.

The weather is perfect to me right now, warm, breezy, some light rain now and then to keep you on your toes and to stave off the endless watering, it makes you feel alive and in tune. We are definately on the turn, chill in the air and leaves colouring. Roses are showing hips and today we saw Cyclamen darts popping up under the Yew by the river. The Sheep were moved to better grass as we noticed them bleating a lot more (help I'm hungry they were saying).

New challenges ahead and a change of season. That is why we all love gardening so much.