gardening – Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society

‘Unearthed: the Power of Gardening’

I visited the ‘Unearthed: The Power of Gardening‘ exhibition (on until Sunday 10 August 2025) at the British Library recently, the third gardening-related exhibition at a non-garden-related institution that I’ve seen in the past few years (I’m sure there have been others!). The first two were ‘Rooted Beings’ at the Wellcome Collection in 2022 and ‘Soil’ at Somerset House earlier this year.

Illustrated herbal in Old English, about 1000-1025.
Unearthed exhibition at the British Library, 2025 — Beautiful gardening illustrations from the 11th and 17th centuries

Sketches of gardening tools by John Evelyn, approx. 1660-1680. Unearthed exhibition at the British Library, 2025 — Beautiful gardening illustrations from the 11th and 17th centuries

This exhibition, as the title suggests, was more about the actual act of gardening than the other two, and as such had quite a lot in common with the permanent display at the Garden Museum. The British Library’s advantage was its access to phenomenal (and in some cases phenomenally old) examples of historical books, and its focus on gardening and gardeners, rather than the gardens.

An Audience with Monty Don

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).

What did the Mulberry tree see?

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!

Green canopy of a mulberry tree — Morus nigra trunk

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.

Pat’s Jobs for June

What a strange spring this has been as everything has grown so tall ….but then some things especially vegetables have hardly grown at all and are struggling as there has been little warmth.

Giant Foxglove - 8 foot tall — Giant Foxglove – 8 foot tall

Cephalaria a foot taller than usual — Giant Foxglove – 8 foot tall

Anyway we soldier on….

1. Divide spring flowering bulbs as soon as foliage fades. My own stock has diminished and badly need splitting.

2. Prune ornamental cherries when flowering has finished making as few cuts as possible as they have difficulty healing.

3. Tie in shoots on sweetpeas which are finally growing and revelling in the cool conditions.

4. Cut early flowering hardy geraniums to the ground when they finish as they have a tendency to seed everywhere…unless you want them to of course.

May Plant Sales 2024

May is the month for plant sales! We held two this year, our big annual one was held at Charlton House on Saturday May 18th, along with the Blackheath & Greenwich WI and a select group of other market stalls. The plants were all set out in the Peace Garden which is not only a lovely setting but also meant we didn’t have to carry them too far! Visitors started queueing outside the gates before we opened at 10, aiming for a bargain and a bit of horticultural conversation.

People buying plants — Peace Garden 10.05 am

Queue to buy plants — Peace Garden 10.05 am

Our plants had mostly sold out by 12.30, which was a bit sad for latecomers. But volunteers were on hand to chat about the gardens and Stella presented her findings about the history of the garden in the Old Library.

We also had a “Bugs in the Beds” trail for the little ones and Frilly’s was open all day.

And another year goes by..

OPG Diary – April to December 2023

Unbelievably, the last “diary” post I made about the Volunteer scheme was back in March, when we had just started to dig up the palms in the Front Lawn and hyacinths were just coming in to flower. The year is not quite done, but the Volunteers have worked a total of 2,724 hours, I feel quite tired just thinking about it!

We have posted about our events, like Bunnies in the Beds, but not about the important work that goes on behind the scenes, under Jason’s direction. So in April, we pruned the Pomegranates and the overgrown parts of the Wilderness and front shrubberies were tackled. Paths were mown through the grassy areas and Jason got RBG’s agreement not to mow in certain parts of the estate – saving them time and making our life greener.

Arch cut in hedge — Paths in the Wilderness

Long grass paths — Paths in the Wilderness

The final palm roots had been removed by May (they were HUGE!) and preparation and planting started in the front beds. The Peace Garden beds were re-shaped, they will be better for functions like weddings and coincidentally there is now more “bed” available to plant into! The Wilderness paths really came into their own as the grass around them became taller. When he wasn’t mowing the paths, Pete bravely tackled the area around the Substation, which was full of very thorny shrubs like Pyracantha and Berberis, really unpleasant to work with. The rose beds at the front were tidied and some major Long Border weeding started.