A welcome relief to the weather!

You couldn't help but notice the sheer amount of sun that has been present over the last month. The gardens here at Dudmaston sure have taken a beating from them, that's for sure. Any kind of work is made twice as hard when your working in 25-30 degree heat, in full sun. So it's been a little slow over the last few weeks. Thankfully we had a break in the weather, long enough to have a good thunderstorm as well as a bit of rain. After repairing the damage (due to the torrent of water) to the paths we were finally able to get on with the job at hand.

The Local firemen were here running training operations in the case of a fire at Dudmaston hall, after rescuing one of their own from the balcony (who won't be receiving his Oscar anytime soon) they proceeded to give the main lawn a good watering.

A couple of weeks back we had a work experience girl, Debbie, who came to work in the gardens for a week from sixth form. I've been told this is a fairly irregular occurrence, having maybe one or two before in 15 years. Guy, the gardener-in-charge was on holiday so it was up to me to look after her and give her a good idea of what is involved in being a gardener for the national trust. Which is pretty tricky seeing as I've only been here for 6 months! Anyway, I did my best and tried to give her an insight into what it's like working and getting work with the NT these days. Its a subject that is very close to my heart, as I'm very keen to get more young people interested in horticulture and potentially get us a long term work placement student in the very near future. This was a great tester for what could be.

Like most teenage girls, she was reluctant to get in front of the camera but I finally got a snapshot of her pretending to cut back some Campanula lactiflora. Along with the regular gardening duties of weeding, watering, pruning and such, I was able to get her identifying and making some signs for plants. Which is actually quite a big part of being a gardener for the trust these days it seems, getting that information over to the general public.

Also, like most 17 year olds, she didn't know what she wanted to do with her life! I cant blame her, I think its pretty cruel to make young people decide their career path so early, I only studied horticulture in an official capacity 4 years ago and only in recent year have I decided where I wanted to be and where I want to go.

I wish her the best of luck and I hope she takes my advice and volunteers somewhere before she thinks about attending college.


Most recently, our Wednesday group got some excellent work done over in the ladies bath. The Bath is a really nice feature in the Gardens but it doesn't get the attention it deserves. Overgrown with ladies mantle, ferns, rhodos and a whole host of other plants has made this area look like a jungle. After getting my feet a little wet (literally) and clearing a substantial amount of material it looked much better!

Also, the pump, which has been on the fritz for some time, was finally repaired. Pumping water up from the big pool and up to the ladies path, we now have flowing water in the area.

You might not think it, but the sound of water really made the biggest difference. I like watching people as they walk through the gardens, how they move, where they go, what they like to look at. The path down past the ladies bath in a major footpath, almost everyone uses it. Its the fastest way down to the big pool as well as the main entrance to the garden from the dingle walks. Normally very few people give the bath a second glance, but the sound running water really started to draw people in.  Another testament to the fact that gardening isn't just sight and smell, but sound and touch too.

 

 

Scorchio

So, as promised here is how the new path by the Watcher looks, a Pretty significant improvement and its settling down nicely.

 

I've been on my own for a couple of week now, Guy Lory, my boss is on holiday and the day to day running has been in my hands. I was half expecting the garden to be completely upside down and on fire by the second day, fortunately things have been going smoothly with 1 more week to go.

 

The focus has been on trying to keep the regular jobs getting done, but I've taken the opportunity to try and get some interpretation in place. Putting up one of our a-frames and choosing a couple "plants of the week", it was a pretty easy decision mind you! Cornus kousa is well into flower now and we've been getting a lot of questions about it. I say "flower", but really what your seeing are bracts, which are modified sepals, which are the first protective leaves which emerge before the flower. The ACTUAL flower is that teeny tiny little ball in  the centre. You might think this is rare, but actually its a pretty common evolutionary development for plants. For instance, sunflowers and daisies; the classic flower shape you might think? Actually the flowers are in the centre (florets) and the outside petals are pseudanthiums, which is greek for "false flower". Anyway, C. kousa is a pretty god damned stunning plant and they really stand out in the gardens at Dudmaston. We have two types, Chinensis and Norman Haddon both of which are up in the American gardens, they are worth a visit if you've never seen one or in fact missed them on a recent visit.

 

That being said, we also have Kalmia, Digitalis, Campanula lactiflora, Cystus battandieri, Phlomis fruticosa and a whole bunch of stunning roses to be seen in the gardens right now!

Also, this heat is killing me! I went out with David Williams, a volunteer ecologist who is cataloguing some of the solitary wasp and bee species that are pretty prevalent on the grounds here at Dudmaston (owing largely to the old sandstone masonry). We had a stroll around the grounds and saw quite  a few interesting things, I learned a lot. I have to say that the best part fo the day was seeing a Kingfisher up in Comer wood though!





New arrival at Dudmaston

Its been a huge couple of weeks here in the gardens at Dudmaston, besides seeing the end of the Rhododendron flowers (some are still clinging on) and the roses breaking buds and filling the garden with scent and colour, there was one new arrival...

My daughter was born! We named her Willow, to go with our son Rowan, attemping to build an arboretum under my own roof. Granted with hindsight it would have been easier to bonzai a few trees and keep them about the house. Live and learn. As such I've been off for 2 weeks on paternity, so I was unable to update with a couple of the more interesting jobs that we did a fortnight ago.

 

The path down into Gerard's wood had been getting more and more overgrown, to the point where it looked less like the entrance into the garden and more an extension of the woods. The aim was to simply carry on the path that the rangers had started on the woodland trail into the gardens. After a day of driving back and forth using one of the rangers pick-ups, we carved out a new pathway running from the gate to the watcher using some fine gravel. Which, all in all, looked quite nice, it was definitely an improvement, to an area which had very little attention to it, but receives a lot of visitor traffic.
 

 

 

 

So after pathing all the way to the watcher, me and Guy stood back and realised something, that it would have quite an impressive views if some of that foliage was cut back. Luckily we had one of our big groups of volunteers in on the following day....

 

I'll have to update in the next couple of days to see how it has settled in, 5 trailer loads of plant material, mostly Alnus (Alder) and Tilia (Lime) so we didn't remove anything terribly interesting, but what we got was totally worth it.

Ferrets, Falcons and Fletchings



Two of the dozen or so birds that were on display.

Even though I wasn't supposed to be in this weekend for the fathers day event I couldn't help but pop down with my family to check out the two great events we had on! The folks from Feather Perfect came to display their amazing array of birds of prey. The flying went pretty smoothly, except when one of their falcons named Chris decided to perch in the Cedar tree on the main lawn and refused to come down, cleaning his beak in protest.

Also they had a couple of ferrets with them, used for driving rabbits out of holes, while I didn't get chance to stay and see what they had planned, the gardener's here at Dudmaston would have appreciated a little assistance in dealing with our floppy eared adversaries.





Where's Chris? Like where's wally, but with a bird of prey...

We also had the Scouts archery group, shooting some tradition and modern bows and longbows as well as running have a go sessions. As a bit of a history geek, I was very keen to have my go at shooting a tradition bow, but when I asked if they had any traditional longbows over 60lbs my answer was a dry look and a simple "not for you". Shucks! Still, the modern 30lbers were still a lot of fun and I will admit I went back a couple of times to get my fill! Although it was a fathers day event it wasn't just for the big kids, there were some great miniature bows for some miniature archers to try out too...

All in all it seemed like a very successful and popular day! Watch this space for more events going on in the gardens! If the birds of prey really interested you, we have a Falconer who is going to start coming on a more regular basis. He is currently in the process of training his 2 year old birds and will be bringing them in to acclimatise them to the public. While they don't fly, they are still impressive creatures to behold and William (our falconer) is a font of information about falconry both old and new. 

The new Gardener at Dudmaston

3 months ago, moving day.

As this is my first post (of many) I'll take the chance to introduce myself. I'm Mark McCormack, the new assistant Gardener at the National Trust run estate of Dudmaston Hall near Birdgnorth. I studied art when first leaving school and went to Stafford College and then Swindon University while I decided what it was I wanted to do with my life.  I made the decision to go back to college while working at a supermarket chain  to turn one of my interests into a career, horticulture.


Fast forward 3 years, one horticultural degree, a 2 and a half year old son, a new haircut and an imminently pregnant wife later and here I am working in my dream job, living on site at one of the most beautiful estates Shropshire has to offer!



The heather borders in April.

 

 

I started at Dudmaston on the 4th of March and have just about passed my 3 month probation, in that time I've learned, or at least been reminded of the fact that despite walking away from college with a triple distinction in Horticulture at level 3, in the top three of 35 students, as well as working and volunteering in several large gardens and estates, I still have a lot to learn!

In the coming months and years, I'll be trying to update this blog at least once a week, keeping everyone informed of everything that is going on in the gardens, from what work we are doing, upcoming events and even what plants are worth seeing in the gardens right now.....

 

Speaking of which, up in the American gardens; RHODODENRONS AND AZALEAS! Just a small taster of what is currently flowering here at Dudmaston, we have an impressive selection of Rhodo's and Azalias.