Garden news & views – Page 4 – Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society

King John’s Nursery and Garden, Etchingham, Sussex

On a gloriously sunny day in May, a visit was paid to the garden at King John’s Nursery. This ‘naturalistic’ garden is set within a beautiful landscape of ancient trees and meadows. We were given a laminated map of the garden layout and proceeded through the old honeysuckle-clad, wrought-iron gate to the garden beyond. This led us to the first garden room, beautifully planted in soft-pinks, the focal point being a circular, brick-built pond, fed by an imaginative water-gully. This led us into the gravel garden room, consisting of sun-loving and tender plants displayed to great effect on a slab-table, an artefact that many of us would love to possess for our own gardens!

Honeysuckle-clad wrought iron gate entrance to the garden

First garden room, planted with soft-pink flowers — Honeysuckle-clad wrought iron gate entrance to the garden

From there we entered a magical place – a charming meadow with mauve-blue spires of camassias threading through and rising above the grasses, a stunning contrast to the shades of green all around. White-flowered camassias were in bud, ready to take over and bloom in the next week or so. In one corner of the meadow sat a toadstool circle, an enchanting addition for children to let their imaginations run wild. We exit beneath the clipped hedge archway into a larger meadow which includes an herbaceous long border, consisting of many taller plants such as grasses and flowering angelica. We follow the path around, to a shaded woodland dell and admire the luminosity of the rhododendron’s stunning white flowers by a gateway entrance, cow-parsley billowing alongside solomon’s seal and pass beneath the 350-year-old oak tree. Amongst the grasses, glistening in the sun, wild orchids are to be admired. We sat on the bench to absorb the idyllic setting before us, noticing glimpses of an old apple orchard beyond the boundary.

Spring in Cornwall

I have just spent a very happy week at Duloe Manor, a complex of self-catering holiday apartments and cottages near Looe in Cornwall. The main house was built in the 1690s for the Rectors of the local church. The whole complex is set in lush gardens of around three acres: a few mixed beds contained lovely combinations of saxifrages, irises and other familiar perennials while in less formal areas, swathes of wild garlic provided backdrops for beautiful pink campions as well as English bluebells in full bloom. In the car park several banks of pale yellow primroses remained stubbornly but delightfully in flower! Majestic rhododendrons provided splashes of magenta and purple.

A mixed bed contained lovely combinations of saxifrages, irises and other familiar perennials

Majestic rhododendrons provided splashes of magenta and purple

Plant Sale, Cakes, Trails, Tours, Talks!

Date for your Diary: Saturday May 18th from 10am

Preparations for our annual Plant Sale are well under way and it’s shaping up to be a GOOD DAY! The Garden volunteers have been potting up for weeks and CABAHS members have been sowing, taking cuttings and splitting their prized perennials. We will have a lovely selection for sale. They are not garden-centre plants – they are better, because we know how well suited they are to our local conditions!

The WI bakers have also been busy, and promise their usual delectable display of cakes. There will be other market stalls too and Frilly’s will be open for drinks and snacks.

For the kids, we have a “Bugs in the Bed” discovery trail around the Old Pond Garden, with a prize if (when) they solve the puzzle.

Centre for Wildlife Gardening

28 Marsden Road SE15 4EE, Open Sunday to Thursday inclusive, 10.30 to 16.30. No charge

We are members of the London Wildlife Trust, which runs the Centre for Wildlife Gardening (CWG), but it was word-of-mouth from a volunteer at Christchurch Community Garden that made us aware. We visited on London Marathon Day, passing through a crowded Blackheath Station on our way to Peckham Rye Station.

Marsden Road itself is remarkable: its houses all along have designer ironwork gates & railings on wildlife themes, and each lamppost has a ‘squirrel’ high above. These, and the wildlife-themed iron gates to CWG, were designed by Heather Burrell: bollards at the entrance and within were designed by Antony Gormley: a gable-end has a large mural of a Goshawk.

Book Review: Sissinghurst – an Unfinished History

Adam Nicolson, Sissinghurst: An Unfinished History - book cover

If you are a history buff, this book will engross you from start to finish. Adam Nicolson’s extensive research reveals that a Sissinghurst dwelling was recorded on the site in AD 843. The Kentish inhabitants’ lives of hard work, industry and hardship over the centuries are brought to life by descriptions of everyday life. The expansion of a smaller house into a Manor House in the sixteenth century by a local lad made good, to the sad demise of the dwelling and its appalling conditions during the housing of the French prisoners in the 18th century is vividly told.

Book Review: An Almost Impossible Thing

Fiona Davison, An Almost Impossible thing - book cover

Professional gardening has long been a man’s world. The title of Fiona Davison’s book comes from a letter written by the retiring Director of Kew Gardens, Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1906. His unambiguous advice to Miss Symonds who fancied a job tending plants was to forget it. Yet women did enter the world of horticulture in the early decades of the twentieth century and Davison follows six of them as they make inroads into this male bastion.

The Woodlands Farm Cottage Garden

If RHS gold medals could be given to individual gardens, then The Woodlands Farm Cottage Garden deserves that honour. I am, at the moment of writing, sat on one of the many benches enjoying this charming garden.

Volunteers started working to create a cottage garden back in 1998 and now, 25 years on I am gazing at their ‘gold-medal’ creation. The garden has everything one would want: wide gravel paths edged with brick or logs meandering around several large informal flowering beds; a rose and clematis-framed timber pergola walkway; glasshouse; summerhouse; raised vegetable and fruit beds; propagation area; pond; a bug hotel; and, very importantly, tables and chairs for family snack times.

Beds in the Woodlands Farm Cottage Garden

A wren has announced its arrival on the beautifully pruned Exochorda and children and mothers are coming in to excitedly explore and admire the garden’s loveliness. From my bench are carefully pruned shrubs arising tall from the spring beds. This allows visitors to clearly view the purple honesty, inky-blue aquilegias, mauve vinca, forget-me-nots, narcissi, tulips, camassias, allium buds, geraniums, hellebores, wallflowers, bergenia, primulas, lamiums and more – all looking their very, early-spring best. Masses of tall cow-parsley are breaking into flower in front of the flowering choisya and viburnums, creating an harmonious effect. And I’ve spotted purple-stemmed cow parsley looking extremely healthy, as well (most envious!)

Seat in the Woodlands Farm Cottage Garden

This cottage garden is sheltered and faces south. It is surrounded by mature trees and many evergreen shrubs so it has its own little micro-climate.

Before I leave, I glance once again at the charming, delicately-pink blossom on the spreading branches of the old apple tree. With a table and chairs set beneath its canopy and spring flowers in the foreground, it is a really lovely vision. And it’s a gold-medal from me! The garden is open to the general public. More information about Woodlands Farm Trust here. Do visit before the spring flowers fade.

Anna L

Batley Park, The Standard, London, SE3

The residents of London, SE3 and SE7 are treated to a two-month spectacle every year when the spring bulbs burst open beneath the London Plane trees in their local green space, called Batley Park.

Batley Park consists of a triangular space at the heart of the south-east London shopping centre, known as The Standard, surrounded by the busy, one-way B210 road.

During the winter, the park comes alive with the thousands of purple, mauve and white crocus sprinkled amongst the green sward, followed quickly by swathes and swathes of yellow daffodils, glowing like bright lanterns in the soft sunlight. It’s mother nature’s tapestry and a lovely sight to behold.

Crocus and daffodils among the trees in Batley Park

The park’s existence is all due to local campaigners, including The Rev John William Marshall, in the late 19th century, unhappy about the appearance of their village green. At that time it was known as Sheepgate Green, and due to their determination the space was transformed. Trees were planted and railings installed and thus renamed Batley Park, after the philanthropist, William Fox Batley, who contributed to the improvements. In 1889 a final touch was added – a Memorial Fountain was included on the south-west corner of the park. If you have not yet seen this year’s spectacle, do visit the park whilst visiting The Standard. At the time of writing I noticed that the daffodil clumps were still producing buds so that means local residents can enjoy this display for a few more weeks.

Anna L

Anna’s Visit to the Tibetan Peace Garden, Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, Lambeth

After the busyness of a visit during half-term to the Imperial War Museum, it was relaxing to visit the adjacent Tibetan Peace Garden on an amazingly warm and sunny, winter’s day in February.

This is a lovely, partially enclosed garden which was opened by the Dalal Lama in 1999 and it was named ‘Samten Kyil’, meaning the Garden of Contemplation and this is exactly what the designers have achieved.

The garden is made up of two parts: an outer garden of trees and lawn sweeping around and enclosing the inner circular garden, the whole bordered by a circular pathway in which to enjoy the views. White-barked Himalayan Birches, making a striking contrast against the green and blue of the grass and the sky, are interspersed with Weeping Cherries and Prunus serrula (Tibetan Cherry) with polished, red-purple bark.

Sparkle in the Park 2023 – Avery Hill Park, SE9

As a special, early, Christmas treat, on a very mild evening on 30th November 2023, a friend and I visited Greenwich Council’s Light Festival, the magical Sparkle in the Park, held this year at Avery Hill Park. This was Greenwich Council’s 4th Sparkle in the Park event, this time featuring many new displays, and it was nice to see the many artists being acknowledged for their spectacular creations. The excitement was palpable as the winter wonderland trail lead visitors through an illumination of lights and enchanting displays amongst the trees.