Gardening Newsletter
Dear Residents,
Welcome to the first in a new edition of the gardening newsletters. January is a time of fresh starts, so what better time for us to introduce and revive our channel of communication. The new gardening newsletter will be a solitary communication, distributed twice a year for the benefit of the residents. It will give us an opportunity to keep residents informed as to what we have been doing past and present, and our intentions and tasks for the months ahead.
Firstly, we – the gardening team – all hope you enjoyed the festivities and that we have a much better year in 2021!
This is being written at the beginning of 2021, and what a strange year the last one has been, for all of us, not just the gardeners.
On the gardening front, the changeable weather has been most noteworthy, with an autumn and extremely mild winter, during which it rained almost every day, (and most likely will carry on like that for a couple of months), preceded by a summer, which was pretty warm for long periods. (This, and previous gardening newsletters, have referred to the weather a lot in recent years; gone are the days, it seems, when summers were continuously hot, while winters were full of snow and ice. It’s harder to predict these days, and especially challenging for the gardeners to know with certainty, when to plant and when to prune – and even an all-year-round activity like mowing the grass, has to be considered in a very ‘ad hoc’ way, and constantly replanned.
WINTER PRUNING
While the gardens are largely dormant during the winter months, the gardeners’ certainly are not. January is on the cusp of the new growing season, daylight is slowly on the increase, and spring will soon be upon us. Winter pruning is currently taking place around the estate, paying particular attention to our summer flowering shrubs. There is always a slight anxiety when pruning at this time of year, due to the lingering risk of frost. Given the vastness of the estate we have to make calculated risks, which enable us to utilise our time as productively as possible, allowing us to keep up with nature’s increasing demands.
MULCH
A ‘short tutorial’ about Mulching is needed here, as the aforesaid Mulching is key to our approach as the estate gardeners.
Mulching is the process of distributing a layer of material to the surface of the soil. It has many practical environmental benefits, such as retaining soil moisture, improving the fertility and health of the soil and suppressing weed growth, as well as giving the gardens a neat and tidy appearance. We are extremely privileged and lucky to have the ability to produce our own biodegradable mulch on site, using foliage and other, green and brown, garden waste, which is cost effective, eco friendly and self-sustaining. While mulching can be carried out throughout the year, the optimal time for mulching is mid to late spring. The gardeners will soon be distributing the mulch to some of the beds around the estate. Unfortunately we do have limited stock available at any given time, until we are able to replenish them; which means we will have to be considerate as to which areas stand to benefit the most.
Early signs of spring will begin to appear in February, as we start to see bulbs, peering through the cold soil, and snowdrops performing along the banks of the lake. February is a turbulent month with unpredictable weather conditions, so while the colours and joys of spring are certainly on the horizon, there will still be time to complete some late winter pruning.
There is much to look forward to this year with the additional planting in late autumn of narcissi’s and tulips. During these challenging times we will continue to do our upmost to maintain this little oasis for your pleasure and endeavour to bring some peace, joy and colour into your lives.
Best wishes,
The Gardening team
(Simon, Peter, Mary, Kelly, John & Garry)
