‘First Frosts,’ Abbot’s Hall Walled Garden
November 2013
This month saw the arrival of the first frost and with it some beautiful sights in the garden. The globe Artichokes and kale looked particularly statuesque in the early morning light.
Traditionally this is the time of year that vegetable growers dig over the ground, incorporating as much well-rotted manure as they can get their calloused hands on. This benefits the ground two-fold – firstly by improving soil structure and secondly by providing nutrients. A garden can never have enough organic matter and Abbot’s Hall Walled Garden is no exception, with its free-draining soil desperately in need of bulking up. Having used up all available stocks on the museum site we approached local company Material Change who very kindly donated 20 tons of soil improver to the walled garden project. A rich, dark, free-flowing material suitable for digging into the existing soil, the soil improver will kick-start our cutting border, vegetable beds and fruit trees everything will benefit! So a big thank you to Material Change from everyone at the Walled Garden.
The Walled Garden team have been getting creative this month as we geared up to run a stall at the Museum’s Christmas Fayre at the end of November. The newest member of our team has been intrinsic to the success of this stall. Once a florist, Terry has not let her talents go to seed. She has been the driving force behind producing fantastic table, wall and door decorations made from collected greenery, pine cones and poppy seed heads.
The Fayre was a great success with lots of families enjoying the Reindeer in front of Abbot’s Hall along with Santa’s grotto, whilst Christmas shoppers perused the wares and tasty treats on offer. The Walled Garden stall looked fabulous with bunches of Christmas foliage, posies of culinary herbs done up with red ribbon, root vegetables, Curly Kale, Golden Gourds, plants and seeds for sale as well as hand made decorations. Thank you to everyone who helped and supported us with all of this.
For those that missed the Fayre, there is still a chance to purchase decorations, vegetables, seeds, plants and those mysterious Golden Gourds on our produce stall outside the Osier Café on Friday lunchtimes leading up to Christmas. Remember…Seeds make great stocking fillers!
Lucy Skellorn
Heritage Garden Intern
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