Report to follow - a selection of our photos below:
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Last year, Jan Pancheri, Head Gardener For Westminster Abbey, gave us a talk about the Abbey Gardens (see November 2023 Blog post). And on April 18th she took 14 of our members on a guided tour round the Westminster Abbey Gardens, ending in refreshments served in the Abbey greenhouse. Report to follow - a selection of our photos below:
When our tour finished, Anne went on to tour The Abbey itself and took these photos:
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At our last meeting on Thursday 11th January Debra Craighead and Susan Bennett came to our monthly meeting to talk about the the National Garden Scheme. Many of our members have previously enjoyed visits to gardens opened to the public under the NGS scheme, including the wonderful one at 5 St Regis Close, owned by Susan Bennet and her partner Earl, but I don’t think anyone was aware of how the scheme came into existence or its role in funding so many good causes. Debra told us about William Rathbone a wealthy Liverpool merchant and philanthropist who was so impressed with the care given to his dying wife by a nurse, Mary Robinson, that he decided that such care should also be made available to those who could not afford to pay for it themselves. With the help of Florence Nightingale and the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI), the District Nursing service was begun in 1887. It was in 1927 that a member of the QNI Council, Miss Elsie Wagg, suggested that the nation’s love of gardens could be used to raise funds for the District Nursing service. In 1928 the NGS was founded and in that year 609 gardens were open to the public, charging one shilling per person and raising £8,191. Many famous people, including Winston Churchill and Vita Sackville West, were willing to get involved by opening their gardens too. In 1948 the National Health Service was founded but money was still needed for nurse training and for the care of retired nurses. From the 1980s onwards the list of charities benefitting from the NGS open days included Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie Hospice UK, the Carers Trust and Parkinson’s UK. In 2002 the Prince of Wales became a Patron, and in 2016 Mary Berry became President. By 2019 and their 35th anniversary, the NGS had donated £17 million to good causes. In 2022 the year after the lockdowns, they donated £3.11 million. The National Garden Scheme website and their annual booklet gives a guide to and information on all the gardens participating in the scheme. You can search by location, garden name, opening dates, and their facilities, e.g. refreshments, wheelchair access, dog friendly, plants for sale, etc. Click here: National Garden Scheme to connect to the NGS website. NGS gardens you may like to visit: 5 St Regis Close, Alexandra Park Road, Muswell Hill, N10 2DE 20 Hillcrest, Winchmore Hill N21 1AT - open 9th June Highwood Ash, Highwood Hill, Mill Hill, NW7 4EX - opens 12th May 21 Oakleigh Park South, N20 9JS - opens 16th June 190 Barnet Road, 'The Upcycled Garden', Arkley, Barnet, EN5 3LF - opens 19th May
For our November Meeting we welcomed Jan Pancheri, Head Gardener at Westminster Abbey, as our speaker. Nearly all our members attended and were very receptive to what proved to be an entertaining talk. Jan obviously enjoys her job very much and took us through the day to day running of the gardens, an imaginary walk through the separate areas and some of the history of the Abbey. She interspersed her narrative with anecdotes which made the gardens very accessible, not remote official spaces. All to the accompaniment of a piano tuner in the next room. Jan said she was used to such disturbances as the Abbey site houses Westminster School and she is used to competing with choir practices! The Abbey was built on Thorny Island in a marshy area outside the then City of London. The gardens were used by the monks to grow food and vines for wine. Since taking over as head gardener Jan has tried to give the gardens a more historic feel. The buildings around them have protected status and this has to be factored into any improvements. The soil is very good but because of the buildings rain does not penetrate the area very well. As a result many of the plants used are drought resistant but in keeping with the historical nature of the site. During the Covid lockdown a resident Canon took on the responsibility of watering but many basic gardening jobs were not undertaken. After the reopening there was much catching up to be done. One of Jan's major projects has been to create a herb garden in the large College Garden. The space was originally a knot garden which had become untidy. The monks would have used herbs for medicinal and culinary purposes. Produce now grown is available to residents of the Abbey and other plants are used in workshops on educational visits for children. The Herb Garden was opened in 2010 by the late Queen Elizabeth. Our allotted hour passed very quickly. A very enjoyable afternoon. Many of us bought Jan's book - The Gardens of Westminster Abbey. It is full of lovely photographs and hand drawn annotated plans of the gardens. The club are proposing a follow up visit to Westminster in the Spring to see for ourselves this 'hidden' treasure of London.
All illustrations and photos shown here are by Jan Pancheri
Joe emailed us a selection of old photos that he used in his talk, including photos of the original pond on Winchmore Hill Green, the Old Buckle & Vaughan grocer's shop, now a restaurant that has kept the same name, Stone Hall, sited on Church Hill, which was demolished around 1930 (new developments were built on the site), and an old aerial photo showing The Green and surrounding roads.
The Conservatory was built in 1934 in the style of a Victorian one. It is thought that it was partly used to raise plants to use in the beds and borders of the park. Over time financial cuts meant that the number of Park staff was reduced and the glasshouse could not be maintained. Sadly it became vandalised and not safe for the public to visit. In 2010 a major refurbishment took place providing new glazing and decoration. Volunteers are now responsible for its running with some financial assistance from the Council. The Conservatory houses plants found in a sub tropical climate. A temperature of 15C has to be maintained throughout the year by using boilers. At larger establishments such as Kew different buildings are used to house different species here they are cleverly housed under one roof. Many of the plants are eye-catching. There are various leaf shapes, some very large, and exotic flowers. Areas exhibit cacti, orchids, bromeliads and insecticides. Attempts are being made to establish a food plant section with a banana plant, a papaya tree (with fruit) and a coffee bush. A strange hanging growth called Spanish Moss is used to keep the orchids area damp. It absorbs moisture and then slowly releases it above the plants. There is also a rockery and a small pond with goldfish. Some of the plants you can see in the Conservatory Volunteers run the Conservatory and are responsible for the maintenance of the plants and building. This includes checking the temperature daily and watering. The plants grown prefer rainwater and this is collected from the roof of the Conservatory and stored in two tanks holding 10,000 litres which are embedded in the floor. Events are held throughout the year including plant sales, children's activities and musical evenings. The Conservatory is open on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons and relies on contributions. It's local and accessible by buses from Alderman's Hill. Why not pay a visit?
For our August meeting, instead of the scheduled speaker, we welcomed Joe Studman, who gave us an entertaining insight into the Bowles family of Myddelton House and Forty Hall.
They progressed, often through marrying for money, from printers in Seventeenth Century London to landed gentry in the Enfield area. Perhaps of most interest to our gardening club was ' Gussy' Bowles. He was a self taught horticulturalist, botanist, writer and artist who lived there all his life and tended the gardens at Myddelton House. He inherited the estate in 1918 having already been busy in the gardens for two decades. The pond, paths and structural planting pre-date his work. Areas such as the Alpine Meadow were inspired by his plant hunting holidays in the Alps, taken it is said, in the summer months to combat his hay fever. The Meadow in Spring is carpeted with snowdrops, fritillaries, daffodils and his particular favourite crocuses. He became known as the ' Crocus King '. He was a great supporter of community projects such as the hospital and the grammar school and also encouraged local people to use the gardens and help maintain them. Being less interested in the house he lead a Spartan existence for much of his life with no gas or electricity. Henry Ferryman Bowles, his brother, lived next door at Forty Hall. It was this branch of the family that had royal connections. Joe gave us much information to digest and perhaps for some a nudge that a return visit to the gardens at Myddelton House was overdue. We were delighted to welcome so many members as well as two guests to our annual Mini Show, and with so many entries too, which was brilliant! You'll see in the photos below that the Potato category was surprisingly popular with 9 entries! This was our first Mini Show in the new hall and we were a little anxious that as the hall was smaller than our previous venue, we would have difficulty fitting in enough tables for exhibits as well as enough chairs for everyone, but we managed! As usual we were very pleased to welcome back Graham Deal, our judge who is always very conscientious and thorough in his judging. This year we had two categories for our Craft competition: Textile and Non-Textile and we also for the first time awarded the RHS Banksian Medal for Best in Show. This May we welcomed a familiar face as our speaker. Nick Dobson returned to tell us 'The terrible and triumphant story of the tulip'. He outlined the spread of the flower from its home in the wild in Turkey westwards to the Netherlands, Britain and then on to the U.S.A. We learned that the colourful Spring flower although a delight to the eye of all gardeners has a history filled with intrigue, thievery and fortunes made and lost. Cultivation of the tulip began in Persia in the tenth century and by the sixteenth century there was Tulipmania in Turkey when owning tulips became a symbol of wealth and prestige. The flower was more highly prized than human life in some cases. Later in the Netherlands houses were bought for a handful of tulips and special Delftware vases made to display them. These are now sought after collectors items.
After an informative history of the tulip Nick then told us the best way to grow them in our own gardens. As always his talk was enhanced with beautiful, bright pictures, all kinds and colours of tulips except of course a true blue! Many members vowed to try harder to thwart the Grey Squirrels next year and produce our own colourful tulip displays. Nick has shared his booklet Tulips: A Terrible, Triumphant Story with us which I haven't been able to attach to this blog, but I can email to anyone that would like to read it. In April we have an activity, potting up, rather than a speaker. This originated so that members unable to access nurseries could have a choice of bedding plants enough to fill a hanging basket or a tub. A photograph could then be entered in our Mini Show in July. This year the Bank Holiday weekend made the purchase of plants more difficult. We had to buy early or risk no choice of plants. Joan, our Chair, made a valiant effort to ensure that all the plants survived any frost or lack of water (see her pics below). On the day we had to be very organised. Our present hall is smaller than our last venue so there was less space for movement of members. In the event all had a choice of eight types of plants. Any surplus was then sold. It was a lively afternoon with plenty of interaction and many thanks to all those who helped restore the hall to its original tidy state. A very busy but enjoyable meeting.
Our speaker for the March meeting was Wendy Hartnell, the Volunteer Community Talks administrator for the Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust. She spoke of the work of the Trust which is based in St Albans. It looks after a variety of nature reserves and habitats. These include wetlands, ancient woodlands, heathland and wildflower meadow. Some of the reserves are designated sites of Special Scientific Interest. Volunteers from the 23,000 membership are trained in maintenance jobs for the upkeep of the sites. These might include clearing chalk streams of silt, cutting reed beds, or mowing wildflower meadows. The aim is to bring wildlife back from the brink and H&MWT has succeeded in improving the outlook for populations of water vole, the small blue butterfly, lapwings and rare wild orchids. As requested, a section of the talk was devoted to one reserve, Gobions Wood, near Brookman’s Park. Its origins were as the 18th Century Pleasure Gardens for a large country estate. Designed by Charles Bridgeman, it attracted visitors from London high society, including Queen Caroline. The large house is long gone, but the gardens are now a haven for bluebells and wood anemones in the Spring and unusual fungi in the Autumn. Wendy’s delivery was enhanced by pictures illustrating her narrative. Questions followed the talk and interest was shown in visits to some of the sites. Relevance to gardening was that we should try to encourage some ’wildness’ in our gardens to create habitats for various birds and creatures. We could also aim to ensure wildlife corridors through hedging to aid the survival of hedgehogs, a great slug eater!! H&MWT seems to be a very active organisation with plenty of talks, days out and fund raising events to suit all.
The Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust very kindly supplied these photos for our blog. Link to website: Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust Wild About Lawns – Pop UP Tuesday 4th April 2023 10am – 1pm Grebe House, St Michael’s St, St Albans. FREE |
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