Snippets of news relating to gardens, the environment and the local area, CABAHS members’ posts about garden topics, gardening hints and tips, and short pieces about garden design and history
The Barbican isn’t a place one would normally expect to be among crowds of garden enthusiasts. But no-one was concerned about the venue, its brutalist architecture and its slightly bizarre layout. We were all eager to find our seats and hear the stories national treasure Monty Don had in store for us. And what seats! Our seats (thanks to a donation from a generous CABAHS member) were front and central, in touching distance of the stage (and indeed of Monty Don himself).
You may have spotted that the Charlton House Mulberry has just featured at Number 8 in the list of 20 Greatest Trees of Britain (the Telegraph) – what a well deserved honour!
I confess to being a bit of a Mulberry tree fan, having planted one in our garden in Westcombe Park just over 35 years ago. Our tree was a favourite retreat for my kids when they were growing up since, like all Mulberries, it has a very climbable branch structure and wonderful leaf canopy. Even Jerry our Jack Russell can climb up it when he has the momentum to chase squirrels!
Last year I bought my grandson a lovely children’s book about an old tree standing through the ages (What did the Tree See, by Charlotte Guillain) and reading it led me to ponder what our venerable Mulberry Tree at Charlton House might have been witness to over its 400 plus years?
The story would start in 1607, around the time the House was being built, when King James required landowners to purchase and plant 10,000 Mulberry trees between them, to start his ill-fated silk industry. When Sir Adam Newton bought the “Manor of Charlton”, it included six orchards, 260 acres of land, 100 acres of meadow, 200 acres of pasture and 200 acres of wood – so he certainly had space to please the King by planting a whole field of Mulberries. A pity that the wrong kind of trees were planted for silkworms and the climate was too cold for them to thrive. At Charlton House we know that “a few trees” remained by 1845 but our beautiful and venerable one is all that remains today.
It wasn’t all that “fair” this year, in fact it was fairly wet, but we had such a great day! So many volunteers and visitors turned out to support this traditional event, thank you so much everyone. As well as a huge number of plants for sale, we also had fun with the Gargoyle Trail in the Gardens, which were specially dressed up and Haunted for the day!
Inside Charlton House there were lots of craft and artisan stalls, Frilly’s was open and there were food stalls on the back lawn. The Heritage Hub featured the Ottoman stone and some interesting watercolours of Charlton House over the years. Local community groups had stalls in the Grand Salon and St Luke’s was open for tower tours. Spotlight Dance group and the Morris Dancers were on show as well.
The gardens looked beautifully Autumnal and we had over 85 children and their families charging about looking for bats, gargoyles, pumpkins and spiders!
Highlight of the day was the Splat the Slug game, all ages had a go!
Continue reading Horn Fair 2024Before the 1920’s, the ten acres of land at Canford Cliffs was heathland. But along came a man with vision, one Thomas William Simpson, and, with the help of his head gardener Mr Middleton, a magical garden was created.
Mr Simpson was a businessman and entrepreneur (margarine) and having visited many countries, knew exactly what he wanted. Influenced by the gardens and architecture of Italy, Japan and the UK Arts and Crafts movement, he and his gardener set about creating a series of gardens, starting with the Italianate gardens, then a necklace of paths and ponds which connected finally to his Japanese Garden, thus turning his vision into reality, right up until WW2.
The garden sadly fell into neglect following the conflict, but in the 1950’s and 60’s, a new owner set about restoring it, planting the magnificent trees we see today – their maturity and majesty makes this garden quite a magical place to explore.
Upon entry into the garden, I came into the Roman Garden, passed through the Grotto and into the very impressive Grand Italianate Garden, the focal point being the rectangular formal pond and beyond, the statue of Bacchus, the Roman God of Wine, sheltering within a temple at the far end of the garden. This sheltered, south-facing, formal garden is a relaxing place to sit and admire its many features. This garden then leads into Palm Court, a formal garden with its row of impressive Chusan palms.
Continue reading Compton Acres, Poole, DorsetJason Sylvan, Head Gardener at Charlton House, has designed the Old Pond Garden to be as attractive to wildlife as possible. Because we talk about monitoring moths, he asked if we could check how many moths are visiting the garden. We should have tried this in the warmer months when there are more plants in full flower but we had missed that for this year so we gave it a shot on a warmer dry night in September to test out a strategy.
As we wrote in an earlier post, we have been monitoring moths for the Garden Moth Scheme since 2013 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and since 2019 in Blackheath. The moth trap is a box with a light (our type gives off no heat), and below the light are two panels of see-through Perspex, one each side and shallowly angled down, with a slot/gap between them. The moths ‘funnel’ into the box, and it’s difficult (but not impossible) to get out. Inside are egg-trays, which provide resting places.
Why do moths fly towards the light? Until recently, the correct answer has been that nobody knows, but researchers in Sweden found the answer: for aeons, light at night was above and dark was below, so moths orientated themselves to fly with their backs to the light above. In artificial light – fires, candles, street lamps – they still try to fly with their backs to the light, circling round and round, and sometimes become disorientated.
The trap is placed before sunset, and collected at sunrise the next day. So an early start.
Continue reading Moth Night at the Old Pond Garden 18/19th September 2024Christopher Lloyd loved colour, and as I stand on the upper pathway of the Sunk Garden, here at Great Dixter, I notice the pops of colour from the spires of pink-purple Lythrum and terracotta-orange Crocosmia all around me.
Designed by Nathaniel Lloyd, Christopher Lloyd’s father, after WW1, this south-facing and sheltered sunken garden is enclosed by two barns, a magnificent yew hedge and a wall on the southern boundary, thus creating its own micro-climate and the plants love it!
If you went down to the park yesterday, we hope you had a big surprise, for all the ‘bears’ were gathering there together because.. of the Teddy Bear Hunt!
Thank you to all who came and donated or supported this fun event, and to all the (over 100) children who found the ten hidden Teddies and worked out the name of the Charlton House Teddy to get their treat. (It had to be Newton Bear of course, named after Sir Adam Newton, who built Charlton House). But what a huge range of ‘teddy’ soft toys came along for their photo-opportunity! (please post your pictures to #charltonhouseteddy).
And of course huge thanks to our volunteer/resident Artist who made the “Ted Head”, a brilliant attraction for both young and old!
The promised lovely weather was marred by a short rain-burst in the middle of the day to freshen everything up and make the picnic-ers dive for the Old Library, but it was only for 5 minutes and everyone came out again. We are so well used to it this year! The day was not only for the children, the gardens were looking particularly fine, with 35 different flowers in bloom.
A successful day and a lovely community event with collaboration between the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust, the Garden Volunteers, Charlton Library, Charlton Toy Library and Frilly’s cafe. Thank you!
Kathy A
If you go down to the Old Pond Garden this Saturday, you’re sure of a big surprise. For every teddy that ever there was, will gather there together because, today’s the biggest floral count ever!
If you have ever wondered which month is the most floriferous in the Old Pond Garden, I’m guessing it’s July. We are expecting lots of visitors this Saturday July 20th, 11-3, for the Teddy Bears Picnic, and they are in for a treat (as well as a picnic) as we have counted over 30 plants out in full flower. Can you spot them all? We will have an info board out so you can match names and flowers, while the kids are charging about finding the hidden Teddies. Works for all ages.
The Teddy Bear trail will be in the Old Pond Garden and there will be lots of photo-ops for you and your teddy with the lovely garden backdrop. See you there, better come in disguise!
Continue reading Teddy Bears 2024: If you go down to the Old Pond Garden, you’re sure of a big surprise..In all the years I have been visiting Sissinghurst Castle, I have never seen the White Garden look so lush; it was a ‘sea of white fluffiness’ and its loveliness took one’s breath away.
The White Garden is an enclosed garden, laid out in a formal pattern, with clipped borders of box framing brick herringbone pathways, punctuated by box cubes. These features provide structure and act as a framework and a contrast to the white flowers and grey foliage within their boundaries.
The focal point is the central gazebo, which is covered by the highly fragrant white rambler rose (Rosa mulliganii) – now finished flowering but later in the year produces rose hips. Beneath sits a maroon-coloured waist-high urn (1930s), planted with Thumbergia alata (a cream-coloured Black-eyed Susan).
Continue reading White Garden, Sissinghurst Castle
After years of repeatedly reading about East Lambrook Manor in Margery Fish’s classic book ‘We Made a Garden’ [book review], I discovered late in 2023 that the house and garden were to be sold. While the garden is Grade 1 listed and therefore protected to some extent, it may not have to be open to the public, so I determined to visit as soon as I possibly could. The garden is not open over the winter – its season begins with the snowdrop festival in February – so I waited nervously to see if it would re-open in 2024. It did, so plans were hatched as there was now a caveat on the East Lambrook Manor website that opening arrangements could change if it is sold.
On a sunny morning in early April we set off to walk from South Petherton, where we were staying, to East Lambrook. It was a lovely walk of just under two miles, leading us into a small village with some very nice front gardens… and we turned into a driveway with the manor house on our left, the Malthouse ahead and a beautiful tree with a host of snakeshead fritillaries (Fritillaria meleagris) below. This was The Barton – the former farmyard.
Continue reading A visit to East Lambrook Manor Garden
Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society 