The garden is just starting to bloom and the team have been busy over the past few weeks with a variety of tasks. They have grafted various fruit trees, including apple from our own orchard. These may one day accompany and the cordons and espaliers which we hope to plant this autumn, which are being grown on a dwarfing rootstock to protect underlying archaeology. The team has also planted potatoes and onions in the vegetable garden and the bed at the entrance of the palace with shrubs and plants that were of specific interest to bishop Compton.
The Palace recently invested in a new tractor, which has come in handy when moving compost among other things, and a new shredder is arriving this week.
The team have got their work cut out over the next few months as they prepare for summer. The new garden apprentice Sophie says; ‘it’s all going to be hands on deck with sowing vegetable seeds outside because there is a lot to go in if you think about all the beds’. Garden apprentice Sara adds; ‘and a mown labyrinth is planned for one of the quadrant lawns as a challenge to garden visitors.
The composting system, which was completed in November 2014, is also working out well despite the bays initially being filled to the brim due to all the waste from the old compost heap being moved to the new one. Sara says: ‘within a space of a day we went from three empty bays to four very, very full bays. So we used everything in one and a half bays, maybe two bays, to mulch the vegetable garden, so now we’ve actually got some space again so we can use it for shredding and stuff’.
The team also coppiced the hazel in the woodland and then used what they coppiced to make ‘twigwams’, (inverted woven baskets), that will be supporting for climbing plants as they grow.
And after hours and days of pruning earlier in the year, the wisteria has just started blooming.