I have worked for Hestercombe now for 15 years and 2024 has been one of the hardest growing seasons. I have never seen so many slugs! Slugs have never really been too much of a problem here. Ironically 'sluggagedon' came the year after the RHS declared that they no longer wanted to recognise slugs and snails as a pest. I am sure that the thinking for this came from aiding British wildlife- but what a year to declare it. This also meant that the RHS endorsed organic slug pellets that we used, came off the market, so we went old school. We had the kitchen saving eggshells, the cafe saving spent coffee grounds (I think this encouraged them with a caffeine habit), but in the end good old beer came to the rescue- as it often does!
All the plants this year have acted in very different ways to 'normal'. Lots of varieties were much taller than normal- literally reaching for the light in the dull weather early in the year. The perennial sweet peas are about a month later than usual- in fact we thought that we had lost them all. It is all very strange. The hardest thing about climate change is the unpredictability of the weather. The seasons aren't the same anymore. The rain is all or nothing. The strongest plants of course will adapt to survive but some will begin to weaken if they can't keep up with the changes. It is an interesting time to be a gardener and even more interesting to be a gardener of a historic garden. We are the observers of the change and have to keep notes and be watchful to stay resilient.
Across the gardens we are taking stock, almost taking an audit, constantly. I make notes throughout the year of gaps in the borders, failing trees, what needs control, where can we let go. The budget is small so we always consider what we can propagate instead of buy. It is always looking at the long game. For instance, the newest border in Rook wood was designed so that after 3-4 years we could start to split plants up and bulk up areas. This is the polar opposite of designing for a Chelsea garden. We aren't looking for instant impact but instead we are intent on watching the plants grow, seeing what works and what doesn't, and making a plan from there. It is a much more organic process but requires a lot of patience. Ben has even got trees in the nursery that he has grown from seed! Now that really is a long term investment. At the end of the summer we start our rounds of seed saving. The good thing about this is that the saved seed holds the DNA that will help the new plant be ready to survive in the similar environment. We also take lots of semi-ripe cuttings, mainly of some of the short lived plants like lavender, santolina etc, but also from some of the more unusual plants that we have, to make sure that we have stock. By February we will look at divisions in the herbaceous plants too.
At this time of year we look at tree health, making our big lists of tree work that needs to be carried out in the winter. Most of this is for safety, we keep an eye on ash dieback and other limb failure in the garden. But we also take time to look at the views across the landscape garden and to make sure that we are keeping them open where necessary. Many of the seats and buildings in the 18th century garden have what is called a goosefoot design which means that three or four views might radiate out from a central point, therefore resembling the shape of a goose's foot. And from these lines is often the captured view, so part of our work is keeping these lines of vision clear. We like to review it when the trees are in leaf but then also double check branches once the leaves have fallen.
You might have noticed the annual 'haircut ' in the landscape garden. We leave all the grass in the garden until now to cut- with the exception of the lawns at the cascade, mausoleum and valley of cascades. We do this to let any flower seed fall but also to help support the insects which in turn support our colony of lesser horseshoe bats by keeping them fed. We strim the path edges to make it nicer for visitors but the rest is left normally until July, although this year we extended it as the insects were quite slow to pick up in numbers this year so we wanted to give the bats a bit longer to forage. It's hard graft, especially strimming on the steep banks of the pear pond. We do a little bit every morning to keep up.
We are really looking forward to having Annabel Watts here for the Bampfylde lecture. Annabel and I have been in contact over the years to share seeds, plants and knowledge, and we have both visited each other's gardens several times over the years. The lecture will be a good opportunity to hear all the latest about Munstead Wood and find out what the National Trust plan to do with it, but also to look back at Jekyll's house and garden and learn about it from Annabel.
