The Garden House Summer School Report!
Posted:15 July 2012
Our four day long horticultural summer school in early July illustrated the great diversity to be experienced in the gardening world from the formally structured and controlled, to the wilder and seemingly uncontrolled! It was inspiring and heartening, meeting and talking with so many interesting people, all passionate about what they do (not least Bridget and Deborah!).
Day 1. Hankham Organics. One of our tasks at Hankham was to work on the rows and rows of healthy salad greens being grown under glass. We teased and lifted these humble offerings from the ground while being fed the story of the organic dream and the complex reality of holding the ecological reigns of nature’s wild child, the summer glut. As we left we were reminded that if you don’t leave any beasties on your plants for predators to eat you will lose your predators, themselves food for others – and so the organic cycle continues!
Day 2. Great Dixter. A complete change to the rows and rows of vegetables, this is a garden of great beauty and extravagance. Divided into lushly planted rooms, there is beauty and surprise at every turn. What a privilege to work there for the day under the eagle eye of head gardener Fergus Garret and his enthusiastic team. We split and potted on dahlias intended for a burst of October colour, planted wonderfully named gourds such as Turks Turban, Jim Jams and Lunch Ladies on top of the haystack-like compost heaps, and learnt to stake plants the ‘Dixter way’. We then descended on the nursery – as you can imagine, it was somewhat depleted upon our departure!
Day 3. Sussex Prairie Gardens. A local Sussex ‘super star’, and a complete contrast to Great Dixter in age, development and style. Paul McBride explained how he and partner Pauline transformed a boggy, clay field into the spectacular garden that it is today, giving us a comprehensive and highly informative tour of the garden, telling us about the perennial planting that is Sussex Prairies specialism – swathes and swathes of tall and colourful plants and grasses. Paul even went in detail about the type of compost used to mulch no question went unanswered! We were then let loose with shears, stakes, buckets and various hand tools to trim, weed, support and shape (there were definitely some budding ‘green’ sculptors among us!) under the watchful eye of Paul, Bridget and Deborah.
Day 4. Friday’s gardening, in a local garden, brought us all back down to earth with a great dousing of rain! However there was plenty to get on with undercover including a fun horticultural quiz and much recapping of lessons learnt through the week. This was followed by delicious and generous lunch, hosted by Bridget & Deborah – a perfect way to reflect on the rich diversity of our week together as gardening folk, and round off a superb few days! As one person noted before we said all our good-byes: ‘I feel relaxed but tired, and definitely inspired to get out in the garden!’ Thank-you.