Gill Butler Orli, Head Gardener
At this time of year, the sun barely makes it over the top of the glen into the walled garden. But when it does, it finds the south facing greenhouses straight away, and brings some welcome warmth to the ‘babies’ waiting in the wings – seedlings of vegetables and flowers, and cuttings taken at the end of last year.
It also lights up the striking colours of willow and dogwood stems, just some of the surprisingly colourful displays at this ‘dead’ time of year. On a sunny day, an intrepid honey bee might make its sleepy way from the beehives to forage for pollen in the viburnum blooms or the hellebores, and it will soon find the snowdrops in bloom.
We have been planting more rosa rugosa along both sides of a path to produce a rose-hip hedge in late summer, a welcome feast for our eyes and for the birds. We have a regular group of blackbirds which have cleaned up all the apple windfalls, and are still foraging under the trees in the orchard, hopefully picking out the more damaging bugs and caterpillars, so doing us a favour at the same time!
Recording the weather, as we do here in the walled garden, we are aware of just how kind this winter has been so far. One day in December, the temperature topped 17C, and has never been below -6C (and that was as far back as November). On a sunny mid-morning, when the sun has warmed us all up, the birds can be singing almost as if it is April. But when it dips below the horizon, not long after lunchtime, and we are left with the bold stripe of frost on the grass, that was never warmed enough to melt, we are reminded that it is still winter for a few months yet.
