What have been the biggest challenges and successes?
The ground preparation remains our biggest challenge, as we knew it would be. We have inherited an incredible weed bed, in particular couch grass which to date we have dug out by hand to prevent the use of chemicals. Moving forwards to the next stage of the garden development we are exploring agricultural machinery to help us with time efficiency and productivity.
„After the first growing season, we caught up to discuss the highs and lows and see how the original vision was taking shape.”
The Dahlia beds have been incredible this year, they took a long time to establish but our patience has been rewarded with the most beautiful crop of velvety blooms, we have grown lots of new varieties and it’s been so exciting watching the buds slowly unfurl, each with its own personality and character. The wild flower beds and foxgloves have done well and all the tunnel crops have been amazing, we tend to prefer unusual botanicals so the black tomatoes, white squashes and vines have all been favourites. There are always a few ‘misses’, mostly disappointments with flowers coming through the wrong colour, size or, on occasion completely the wrong variety!
What has the garden meant in terms of your brand being more social - have people been visiting to see what you are doing?
Having such an enormous space and running a volunteer group has certainly meant that there has been a larger team in the garden than past years. This has seemed like a natural progression, particularly as our business grows. The garden is a very special place and welcomes guests, we love having visitors within the walls and sharing its seclusion and sense of restfulness. We have had a regular stream of visitors this season from the RHS, local historians, press, photographers and locals interested in the garden’s revival. One of the last structural jobs remaining for this year is to pave and build a bower at the centre of the first cultivated section; this will be a place to bring our clients and have lunch with the team, covered with fragrant rambling roses and surrounded by garden herbs.
