A garden too big for its boots

"My garden is too big for its boots" declared Edward Augustus Bowles who lived at, designed and planted Myddelton House Gardens in Enfield (1865 to 1954). He was right about its size. Spanning eight acres in all, these gardens are seriously historic and impressive. I came for what I thought was just a morning visit and ended up spending a very pleasant whole day there, entranced by the tales told by the gardeners, and the variety of horticultural treats round every corner.

The gardens are the life's work of Edward Bowles, known to his friends as Gussie.  His legacy includes snowdrops, violas, crocuses and colchicums with the Bowles name a familiar one in the titles of countless plants, e.g Viola Bowles Black.  He was a significant member of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) of his day,  chairing its scientific committee and active in its work right up to his death.  One of his famous creations, the Eremurus bed, includes foxtail lillies, eucomis, ornamental grasses, sedums and dianthus, but parts of the garden now suffer from the self-seeded few-flowered garlic, said to be more invasive than wild garlic - there's lots here to keep the gardeners busy.

The glorious wisteria, whose bare branches you can see below, was grown by ‘Gussie’ from seed and now climbs high into a tree, smothering it in blue every May. The ostrich sculptures in wire have replaced the original lead ostriches which used to adorn this bridge, under which the New River ran.

The garden is at its very best in spring, although the imaginative gardening team led by their very able Head Gardener, James Hall, have planned for more summer colour this year, gardening in the style of Bowles – experimental and creative. Tulips were one of Bowles's many passions and the bulbs were usually out in profusion for his birthday in the Tulip Terrace, where he invited local boys and others in the Enfield community for a birthday tulip tea party every year.

Irises get special treatment at Myddelton House Gardens.  Many prize-winning specimens can be seen in their full beauty here.

The greenhouses are striking features, with peaches in one, espalier trained onto bamboo, their buds ready to fruit when I visited.   It was in one of the hot houses that I met one of the garden's ‘Heebeegeebies’ working on potting up Lotus maculatus plants.  Heebeegeebies (derived from HBGBS, Historic and Botanic Garden Bursary Scheme, run by English Heritage) are trainee gardeners, who have been part of the gardening team here for six or seven years.  They specialise during their two-year traineeship in different aspects of horticulture and Myddleton House Gardens is rightly very proud of them.

Bowles built a famous rockery, which is currently being restored, with the aim of re-introducing a water stream through the rocks.  After his death in 1954, the garden was kept alive, but some areas, like the rockery, became a bit overrun. Interestingly, the Royal Free Hospital and the London School of Pharmacy, who took over the garden, introduced pharmacological plants, and a pharmacognosy area remains to this day, although ownership of the garden has now passed to the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority. The National Lottery has given large grants of recent years, which have helped improve the grounds immensely.

Unusual and exotic plants abound, including the purple toothwort, a parasite which doesn't photosynthesise.  There is also an area dubbed by Bowles as the ‘Lunatic Asylum’, where he put any odd species he came across including some, like the twisted hazel, which have since become more commonplace in gardens. He also grew Japanese knotweed, which mercifully hasn't self seeded everywhere, unlike other imports Bowles brought home.

A beautiful replica of an Alpine meadow, full of plants from Bowles' travels abroad, has beehives, snowdrops, scillia, cow parsley and a three-cornered leek. Bowles enjoyed travelling throughout Europe seeking out new plants for the garden, reaching out as far afield as Egypt. 

Here is the three cornered leek up close, with its triangular shaped stem.

There is so much more to tell and discover about Bowles and his garden. There's a kitchen garden, with produce on sale, a lake, a rose bed and pergola and lots more.   I enjoyed reading The Crocus King, written by one of the gardeners, Bryan Hewitt, in honour of the man.  It's on sale near the excellent café on site. If you visit on Open Garden Squares Weekend (only just over a fortnight away now!) on June 18th or 19th, you may be lucky enough to join Bryan or one of the Heegeebeebies on one of the tours of the gardens.

Bowles was a charming eccentric, partially sighted as a child, who had a genuine love of philanthropy as well as botany and botanical drawing. His care of underprivileged children, known as the Bowles Boys (girls, unfortunately, didn't get a look-in) was as important to him as horticulture. The variety and extent of his labours in the garden are evident in the beauty and enormity of what he created. Often to be found on all fours weeding, he once said "I come out here sometimes and do an hour's weeding and when I finish I think I've spoilt it all".

Information on visiting Myddelton House Gardens on Open Garden Squares Weekend »

Plants to dye for

Walking down to the bottom of Mare Street in Hackney, you could be forgiven if you missed the slip of land which is Cordwainers Garden. It's tucked down the side of what used to be Cordwainers College building and is a treasure trove of plants used for dyeing cloth, on land reclaimed in 2010 by nearby residents from the brambles that threatened to engulf it.

This garment was made from plants grown here, and across a wide network of community gardens, schools, city farms, park groups, housing estates, local residents, individuals and the London College of Fashion.

I was amazed to see and learn about the range of colours you can make from plants.  Madder is a favourite staple for dyeing but they also use dahlia, avocado, carrot tops, tansy, woad, chamomile, sweet woodruff, marigold, nettles, rudbeckia and soapwort - to name a selection of plants used in the dyeing process and grown here.

They have made bunting of the different colours, and it shows the beauty of the delicate tones of colour, and how they all complement one another, as you can see above.  

To make the garment, flax, as in the picture below, was grown. It took 70 square metres of land to produce enough flax. 

Then it was harvested.

And stored.

Before being spun into thread and then woven and dyed, mainly using madder, alongside the different natural hues of the flax from the different places where it was grown.

There's nothing daunting about the dyeing process the way it is presented by Cordwainers Garden.  It can be done simply at the table on the plot.

And people can take delight in the results the same day - as you can see below.

Cordwainers has been growing dye plants for over five years, and has run classes to spread knowledge about the process.  The volunteers at the garden have also created a small garden for medicinal herbs and plants, tend 17 small vegetable plots, and manage to fit beehives and a pond into a wild corner.

As if this wasn't enough to occupy them, they are constantly out and about in their community, taking exciting and innovative projects to residents, such as making herbal tea bags, lip balms and willow crowns.  Earlier this year they led a group along Mare Street to record the variety of weeds in an urban street.

From time to time they get a little help in their endeavours - from 'The Good Gym', Barclays, Aviva and Standard Chartered.  Their efforts have not gone unnoticed, visits from royalty and Joe Swift of Gardeners' World fame have helped to spread the word about their excellent community work.

They are promoting good health through awareness of diet, and will be devoting one of their vegetable beds to South East Asian plants, reflecting the food eaten by the people of Vietnamese origin in the vicinity.

So, on Open Garden Squares Weekend, take a wander down Mare Street and look for the signs for the University of the Arts, and the garden behind the wire fence hoarding. I don't think you'll be disappointed.  Last year this was how you could spot it.

You can find out more about the garden on the following link to its blog

https://cordwainersgarden.wordpress.com/

Or on Twitter @cordwainersgrow

Further information on visiting Cordwainers Garden on Open Garden Squares Weekend

Gardeners who make our souls blossom

It was a sunny day in March that Kevin Powell, the Head Gardener of Park Crescent and Park Square Gardens, let me into his secret gardens, which border Regents Park.  The skies were blue but March winds bit into your face and you longed for some warm soil under your feet.   

This is a garden where trees take pride of place within a layout designed by John Nash.  The famous, semicircular, Nash terrace of houses borders the south of the gardens on the other side from Regent's Park and it was for the residents of the terrace and nearby houses, that the gardens were originally created.

Unique to these gardens is a connecting tunnel, called the Nusemaids' Tunnel, which burrows under the busy Marylebone Road.  Nursemaids from the houses did indeed steer their prams down the gentle slopes to the tunnel.

The tunnel is so designed and its approaches accordingly planted, that from ground level, looking across the gardens, it is cleverly concealed so that you wouldn't know it existed.

But it is a very beautiful tunnel. So lovely and, more to the point, so centrally located that it attracted the attentions of the board of the Metropolitan Line, who tried to demolish it.  They were stopped by the matter being taken to Parliament, and a further underground tunnel had to be dug under the Nursemaid's tunnel for the railway.  

The banks on one side of the tunnel approach were covered with an unusual periwinkle with curved petals. 

The gardens are beautifully maintained by the Crown Estate Paving Commission, which was set up in 1824 for this purpose, and, come June they should look a bit like the photo below

There will be lots of inspiring plant borders to view as you wander along ancient brick-lined paths laid out just as they were planned in 1817.  Some have acanthus at the back bordered by catmint at the front, others have agapanthus, globe thistles, echinops, fennel, bee balm, and achillea, to name but a few. And the simple formality of several small rose beds, all immaculately pruned, should also be glorious in June. 

Behind the scenes, in one of the sheds, I also got a glimpse of what the residents might get up to in the summer months on the secret lawns - a spot of croquet or chess, anyone?

At this time of year camellias were starting to bloom and there were several to admire like this one as well as daphnes and other winter-scented plants.

Kevin and his team of nine gardeners look after all the mature trees, including a beautiful Tulip tree, and try to maintain the traditional lay out of the space.  They are conscious of the historic urban environment in which the park sits, with the BT Tower popping up from one viewpoint, and the Nash Terrace from another.  Along many of the restored iron railings, the hedges have been replanted to give space to each individual shrub and a degree of flow and informality, creating an evergreen screen, rather than formal, clipped hedging, to preserve the privacy of the gardens. 

Around each tree the gardeners have cleared the grass and put down a wood mulch, a technique which benefits the trees and also creates interest across the lawns. Some of these 'tree circles' have been planted with crocuses and it was here that I spotted my first bee of the year.

As I bent down to look at the bee, one of the gardeners was passing and he remarked that the crocuses had come into bloom that morning.  He and the whole team take a sincere interest in their work and really value opening the gardens for Open Garden Squares Weekend, as this is the one time a year when they  can showcase the fruits of their labour to the wider public. Go along this June, enjoy what you see, and give the gardeners a bit of well-deserved praise.

As Marcel Proust said - " Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." 

Waiting for Spring

I felt the first stirrings of spring when I visited Cleveland Square at the end of February and sensed that shoots might soon be poking their heads through their thick winter blanket of compost.  Suzanne Etherton, the square's volunteer garden manager, was quickening her work rate as she tried to keep ahead of the relentless pace of nature and the seasons. 

This magnolia caught my eye as its branches, laden with just-opening buds, strained towards the light, eager to lap up what it could before the canopies of plane trees and prunus asserted themselves. Magnolia is one of the most ancient of the flowering plants and is said to have appeared on the planet before the bees did.

A local resident, Suzanne Etherton, started the transformation of the square five years ago when she was persuaded to take on the job. Her horticultural skills had been spotted on her small terrace nearby, and this Victorian garden square desperately needed a saviour.  Suzanne has grand garden squares in her blood, having been born next to the wide expanses of Ladbroke Square in Notting Hill Gate, where her mother bought her first plant from Woolworths and got the bug for gardening. As well as these laudable London influences, her style of planting draws inspiration from Karen Junker, Sarah Raven, Dan Pearson and Tom Stuart Smith.

Suzanne's first priority was the improvement of the soil, importing vast quantities of the very best compost so that plants had a chance of success in their competition with the trees for nutrition.   She also planted thousands of bulbs for a good show of colour in her first year, aided by funding from local estate agents, Lurot Brand, and a small army of children. Bulbs continue to feature - this pot of miniature daffodils is underplanted with three layers of tulips for a long display, and white narcissus as well as tulips abound in many of the beds.  This year alone 7- 8000 bulbs have been planted. 

Suzanne and her flexible workforce of gardening assistants have developed the square extensively.  Using a classical garden square structure, there is now a raised circular bed at the centre, under a cherry tree, where plantings of fritillaria, hosta, crocuses and geranium lie in the centre, with clematis spelling over the edge of the supporting wall. The geraniums include the bright blue 'Rozanne' variety as well as 'Hilary' and 'Beth Chatto', with purple lupins peeking up against the hosta as well as Japanese anemones.  A lesser known, smaller and less invasive anemone - the wild swan anemone also flowers later in the season.

Around the edge of the central circle there are four beds which include a riot of complementary plants, carefully chosen for a long season of flowers, such as peonies, tulips, lupins, echinacea, monarda, knautia, astrantia and dahlias. At the end of two of these beds are two white wisteria, trained just like standard roses, whose white tumbrels cover the bare branches later in spring. 

The iron supports for peonies and other tall plants stand proud at this time of the year, providing interest and expectation against the bare ground.  Plants such as cardamine quinquefolia, which was already out, disappear when the hostas emerge, continuing their vigorous growth underneath. 



Good gardening takes account of its environment and puts on a display in the darkest corners.  Here, much use has been made of plants with lime green foliage which bring brightness to shady spots. Acanthus (Loddon Anna) is a good example, as is Millium Effusum 'Aureum' and trilliums such as Silene Fimbriata, and hydrangea 'Annabelle' provides a contrast with its cream flower heads.  They can't stop creating new, beautiful spaces in this square in Bayswater.  The latest project, part-funded by Knight Frank, is an incline in a soggy and boggy area with circle blocks on the ground from a plane tree - hellebores will be planted at the top of the bank so that visitors do not have to stoop down to enjoy their nodding heads. 

Fruit trees such as fig, plum, cherry and apricot are dotted about the garden, along with a variety of herbs and specimen trees such as Parrotia Persica (a relation of the witch hazel) and a Japanese Snowball (Stirax Japonica). And the juxtaposition of lupins, poppies and thistles above swathes of sweet rocket and stock in June, when the garden opens for Open Garden Squares weekend, is a joy not to be missed.

Children have play areas in the square, which happily accommodates the mix of children exploring the undergrowth and great flower displays.  Residents use the square well and even bring out cups of tea for the gardeners. When I visited, one resident was walking her cat, Eric, in the garden and he tiptoed gently across the lawn, expertly avoiding the soggy bits, until he stopped by a hose for a drink. 

Cleveland Square was established in the 1850s.  Plane trees flank the square on three sides, with one side having the pleasure of direct access to the garden from a terrace of houses.  The Westbourne river runs under the square on its way to Hyde Park. Cleveland Gardens nearby has recently had its iron railings restored and Suzanne has plans for the future enhancement of this neighbouring square - so watch out for the emergence of another horticultural delight.

More information on visiting Cleveland Square on Open Garden Squares Weekend 

Communities Cooking

On the White City Estate growing vegetables and herbs involves all parts of the community - residents, school children, and restaurants.  And maybe it's that link with restaurants that has so successfully extended learning from just growing to cooking and preserving the fruits of the land.

And they do it all so beautifully too at Phoenix School Farm and Learning Zone,  with flowers like these Sisyrinchiums adorning pathways across this diverse and impressive space.   An inner-city acre of special horticultural interest, which has won almost every gardening award in the book.

Owned by Phoenix High School and run in association with Hammersmith Community Gardens Association, the farm won the Green Flag Award for 2015-16 and was declared to be outstanding by the RHS Britain in Bloom award in 2015.  2015 also saw the garden open for the first time for Open Garden Squares Weekend.  National Lottery funding for a community nutritionist has been used very imaginatively for a range of organic food promotions.  A pop-up farm produce stall, as seen here, is now a  much used community resource and focus for the garden.

Volunteers do everything to keep the garden running, including looking after the beehive and harvesting the honey. 

The school uses the garden all year round as an outdoor resource for all subjects in the curriculum.  There are regular growing sessions and healthy eating events at lunch time, after school and in the summer holidays. The children also look after the animals, which comprise seven chickens, two rabbits and five guinea pigs - and I watched as the chickens pecked at and gobbled up heritage rainbow corn seeds, red and pink and black.  

There are three polytunnels and two greenhouses, one of which is also used for a meeting/gathering space. 

School sixth-formers had been preparing for a lunch for local pensioners when I visited and bottles of chili oil were cheerily lined up ready for giving away - and they were awash with seed bombs of annuals such as sunflowers, calendula and nigella, all wrapped in clay and compost and labelled, ready to throw.

Taylor Woodrow workers often surface from tunnelling Crossrail to help the farm school.  This oven is their latest project.  They built the brick plinth and it is now awaiting a roof to complete the structure.  Made of sand, clay and straw, local people helped trample down the mud concoction for the oven with their bare feet. With a bit of luck and some fair weather, you may be able to sample some baking from it at the next Open Garden Squares Weekend. There's always plenty for Taylor Woodrow to do - the latest inclusion on their list is repairing the grape arbour in the central seating area of the Learning Zone.  Luckily the grapes had been harvested before the storm and next year the garden hopes to taste the wine from its first vintage.

Staff from four restaurants in the Salt Yard Group (Salt Yard, The Opera Tavern, Ember Yard and Dehesa) come every fortnight to taste and pick produce from the garden.  Food preparation is taken very seriously by the garden and is accomplished with flair and innovation - witness the Food Explorers project with primary schools, which included a smoothie bike - basically a blender on the back of a pedal bike - which trundled off to deliver healthy breakfasts using garden produce.  Fruity porridge, smoothies and scrambled eggs, courtesy of the chickens. Children have also made flour and bread and learned about herbs through making herb cheese

Cath Knight is the garden's Community Food Grower.  When I met her, she was busy shelling pea beans - an old fashioned cross of peas and beans. She comes up with ideas for inspirational projects and is changing the eating habits of local people - one family is now switched on to the peppery delights of nasturtiums, and others now know from direct experience how good home-grown produce can be.  Bringing communities together through growing and cooking is led by Cath with great panache.

Even as winter approached  there was lots growing on the farm for the scarecrows to patrol.  An ancient heritage barley was pushing forth its green shoots for next year's bread, and there were still curly kale and leeks to pick and savour. Blueberries were hunkering down for winter surrounded by heather.  It's easy to see why this garden is loved so much by local people.

Information on visiting Phoenix Farm on Open Garden Squares Weekend »

Open Glory

As if they weren't busy enough, Jackie Thompson and her dog Tilly, whom we featured last month, look after another secret garden in Hammersmith.  I went with them across the borough to the John Betts sheltered housing scheme, a short drive away from Sycamore House.

John Betts House was constructed in 1964 by Hammersmith United Charities and extensively refurbished in 1998.  Built up around an inner, secluded garden, it has presented its challenges to Jackie and her resident garden volunteers, as the garden area was used to dump the rubble from the building work - so the digging is hard.  As we arrive, Jackie's dog, Tilly, goes running off up the stairs. We try to keep up but Tilly eludes us, and we suspect that Tilly has been kidnapped by an admiring resident who has treated her to a second breakfast.  

Given the challenges of the soil here, the gardeners originally concluded that the only way was up and perfected the art of growing flowers in pots. The pots and hanging baskets which adorn the balconies overlooking the main, internal garden courtyard were still blooming in a very balmy December.  And the horticultural endeavours of the residents are being recognised locally - last year John Betts came third in the small community garden category of the London Garden Society Competition - catching up on its successful sister garden, Sycamore House.

Residents benefit by having a designated area for growing vegetables in raised beds so there are strawberries and vegetables aplenty in the summer.

The garden's centrepiece is a series of arches which were planted last year to create a blowsy, flowing feel, with the plants and grasses spilling over the central path, brushing by visitors as they pass. Lilies, fuchsia, gauras, a variety of grasses including Stipa gigantea and alstroemerias combined well to create this effect, with the Judas tree in the background. 

Planting up the many pots is undertaken together by residents, who take a very active part in preparing the garden for its annual opening during Open Garden Squares Weekend.  It has become a local tradition to gather together in May around a long table to pot up the hanging baskets and enjoy a spot of lunch. They also organise everything that needs to be done for the big day, from selling tickets and plants to brewing tea and baking cakes. Even residents like Rose in her nineties love to play their part.

And, after their labours, they meet to consider what to do with the proceeds from the plant and cake stalls. Last year, as well as a generous donation to a charity in Africa, they bought a swing seat for the garden, which now holds pride of place on the lawn amidst the flowers.

John Betts residents, their love of their garden and the way they work together so impressed students who came to visit them, that one, Juliana Amaa, wrote a poem about what she saw at John Betts when the garden opened for Open Garden Squares Weekend.  It's appropriately entitled 'Open Glory'.

June delivers warmth and sunshine
Strawberries, ripe and plump
Need only a handful. Red blotches
Cover my hands
The Damsons, the oranges, reds-mixing
After eating the first one, I want more
The taste
Like Summer's cinnamon. The fruits
Tingle in my mouth.
Licking my hands. Scarlet slurps soak up my hunger
Gorging on jam sandwiches and honeysuckle buns
Admiring the flowers
Hours flowing
Chatting, picking and eating
Juice drenches my fingertips
Gorging on strawberries and much more
Savouring the essence of the day
What I live for

Poetry is now a feature of several gardens which open for the Open Garden Squares Weekend with poets in residence for the day reading and writing verse,  with a little help from visitors. Watch out on our website for details of the venues for June 18th and 19th this year.

Further information on visiting John Betts House on Open Garden Squares Weekend »