Winter Newsletter 2023

Newsletter

WFGA Winter 2023

NEW GARDENS Welcome to the following new training gardens:

Wester Campsie Farm, The Cedars, Hinton House, Sortridge Manor, Fortampton Court, Milton House, 20A Inverleith Row, Adams Farm, Federation House, Westwell, Alscot House, John Marley Centre, Old Park, Braemore, Little Orchards, Old Park Barn, Priory Estate

A wintery scene in Aldbury, Buckinghamshire

News, workshops, plants Dear Members As the dust settles from Guy Fawkes night, the rain has finally stopped and I’m hoping to get into the garden to plant the tulips.

You will have read in our last newsletter, that our Chair of the last six years has now stepped down. Vanessa has done an amazing job, widening our provision and our network and steering us through the pandemic. We are so grateful for all her hard work!

I know at first hand the value of the WFGA, completing my WRAGS training in 2003. This launched me into an exciting and varied career, specialising in horticultural education. I’ve worked on a large country estate, designed gardens, built show gardens and, I hope, helped to launch a new generation of gardeners and horticulturalists. Having joined the Board as a Trustee last year, I am delighted that they have now asked me to take on the role of the Chair and continue Vanessa’s good work.

The WFGA is a fantastic community supported by our members, a great office team, Regional Managers with their specialist knowledge on the ground and the Board of Trustees.

Our Trustees come from a range of backgrounds and bring their specialist expertise, so essential for keeping the WFGA on a sound footing. If you’d be interested in joining us, do let me know.

Best wishes Sue Reed, Chair

An afternoon at Pelham Plants

Trustees

A hot August afternoon, brings members and friends to dappled shaded gardens of Pelham Plants in the Sussex Weald, for a sunny garden and nursery tour After a rather cool July, it was an absolute pleasure to arrive at Pelham Plants on a gorgeously hot and sunny August afternoon.

23 WFGA members and friends visiting this beautiful nursery and garden which nestles in a wooded area in the Sussex Weald. Owner and nurseryman, Paul Seaborne, began by telling us a little about the symbiotic relationship between garden and nursery which, Paul says, ‘creates a garden which changes a lot. Because of division and replanting, it evolves over time’.

One of the beautiful borders at Pelham Plants

Starting our tour of the gardens, we gather under the dappled shade of several silver birch. Ferns, aconitum, and shade-loving grasses add to green softness of this shady area.

We walk through curvy natural-shaped borders, full of colour and contrasting foliage.

The beds are used as stock beds for the nursery, so constantly changing and shifting in design. Stipa gigantea, Gaura sinuata and Thalictrum add a breezy effect. In the next part of the garden, we are walking amongst shoulder and head-height plants. Colours are clear and bright, foliage lush and green. The soil here is clay and Paul has been adding organic matter, salt-free grit and sand to the beds to break up the heavy soil. Over the years the beds have heaped up adding to the height of the plants, which seem to embrace and surround you as you walk amongst them.

Hornbeam hedges protect the plants from strong winds and add definition to the areas in the garden.

We walk down to the cool meadow full of flowers and grasses and back up past more beds which include the beautiful milky-lime blooms of Hydrangea paniculata.

We have tea, most welcome in the heat of the afternoon, and sit to chat but before long we can’t resist the lure of the plants surrounding us and are roaming the nursery, eager to buy the fabulous plants on offer.

WFGA member Wren Rose says ‘I was impressed by how generous Paul was with advice on how to get the best from the plants he sells, from his considerable experience growing them in his garden. The quality of the plants was excellent, and the warm welcome from Paul and his husband (with humour, tea and cake!) made the visit special’.

WRAGS Garden Owner Diana Hurrell described the garden as ‘A garden of great variety - enter through magical, dappled shade; on to vivid borders humming with bees; tranquillity and contrast of a simple area of 2

mown grass and silver birch between hornbeam hedges (Paul described it as a ‘sorbet’); lots of well positioned seats; very tall planting in areas giving the feel of being totally enclosed; wonderful borrowed old woodland landscape; vivid late summer colour, masses of helenium.’ Diana went on to say “Paul said he's not a garden designer, but you could have fooled me, the structure and planting is masterful - and nicely quirky. He was a very warm, generous and knowledgeable host, as was Glenn”.

I’ll finish with a comment from Sheilla Potts, a WFGA member who travelled from London by train to spend the afternoon with us. Sheila says ‘”lovely day, lovely garden and people”.

Sarah Farr, Regional Manager for East & West Sussex

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR LATEST WRAGS GRADUATES Jude Sellen-Cole, Rosa Huczynska, Laerke Jonassen Hass, Gemma Barrie, Carina Stere-Jones, Sandra Hull, Lucie Bennett, Nicole Pethybridge, Joanne Nice, Scarlett Wryley-Birch, Helen Haley, Laura Woolley, Marie Roux, Natalie Price, Chloe, Serpell-Rand, Alex Bell, Julia Maxwell, Michelle Johnston, Amanda MacCaw, Janey Parker, Paola Sandrinelli, Jessica Ryall, Lauren Whiteleaf, Melanie Gautier, Claudy Fox, Jenna Hartley, Fran Wilson, Sarah Mackin, Melly Chapman

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Trustees

JOIN US AND ENJOY OUR GARDENING BENEFITS •

apply for our unique, practical, horticultural training scheme, WRAGS and spend a year working and learning in a beautiful garden

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join our workshops, practical skills days and garden visits

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get help in your garden from our enthusiastic trainees

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network through our forum, newsletters and social media

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access bursary opportunities

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discounts on gardening accessories

For more information go to: www.wfga.org.uk or contact admin@wfga.org.uk

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The Asian Hornet Rebecca Teare is on the alert for an invasive bee killer. Read about how you can help protect our nations valuable bee population This year a beekeeper in Kent lost 16 of his 17 hives. The culprit? An invasive non-native species of hornet that has swept through Europe, decimating honeybees and other native pollinators. If we think it’s just a honeybee problem, it isn’t. Asian Hornet’s diet is only 20% honeybees and 80% all other pollinators.

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you need do is to upload a photo and the location.

It’s vital that we can raise awareness at home and at work. If you are working in any green space, you can play a vital part in alerting the NBU to any sightings. Next Spring, we will be asking members of the public to help us monitor and trap young Asian Hornet queens as they emerge from hibernation, before they can establish nests.

Lobby government (DEFRA) to request increased funding for the NBU, to help them address the Asian Hornet threat whilst resuming normal honeybee disease inspections.

Thank you on behalf of all our native crawlers and buzzers!

Rebecca Teare The Asian Hornet has now invaded the UK, with over 60 nests destroyed this year by the hardworking National Bee Unit (NBU), the government body responsible for bee health in England and Wales.

A single Asian Hornet nest can east 12kg of native pollinators! Beekeeping associations are doing their best to support the NBU, but here’s what you can do: •

Download the Asian Hornet Watch app from your App store or use this QR code at the bottom of this article. This will help you identify Asian Hornets vs similar native species to report any suspected sighting. All

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Trustees

From Manchester to Monet From one artists garden, to another, one WRAGS trainee grows his skills at Southland Gardens in Manchester and Monet’s home at Giverny Floating aboard a small boat, in the middle of the famous waterlily pond surrounded by hundreds of tourists was a spectacular, if nervewracking, way to spend my first morning working in Monet’s garden in Giverny. I had arrived the previous day from Manchester, scheduled to work August 2023 as an intern in France, having begun my WRAGS placement a few months earlier. It would be an unforgettable experience.

I began my WRAGS placement in April 2023 at Southlands in Manchester. I started there as a volunteer in October 2022, following a visit to the garden of Maureen Sawyer during an NGS open-day earlier in the year. I began working half a day a week for a few months and by March 2023 I had decided to finish my career in financial services to become a full-time gardener.

I was so impressed with how friendly and warm the staff were at Giverny, from Jan Huntley (Head of Internships) to the head gardener JeanMarie Avisard, to the young apprentices. I had been apprehensive how I would be received, particularly as my French was poor at best, but they could not have been more welcoming.

Seeing the garden for the first time was a slightly surreal moment, to see in-person the sights that I had seen many times in pictures and Monet’s own paintings. I was initially surprised at some of the conditioning of the garden, perhaps judging it by the typical garden open to the public in the UK. There were many weeds, and the lawn was slightly long and scruffy looking. But Monet’s garden was, like his paintings, in the impressionist style. Colour was at the forefront and once I had adapted my eye I was all the more appreciative of the place and its beautiful, informal style.

My month at Giverny would be varied, moving to a new sector of the garden at the start of each week, each with its own team of permanent gardeners. In addition to the water garden, there is the main garden outside the famous house, which was split into east and west, with the fourth sector being production where all the plants for the site are propagated.

Tom and family at Giverny

This variety of work has parallels with my WRAGS placement at Southlands in Manchester, where the garden is no wider than a typical garden, but is over 100 metres in length, split into several smaller gardens, each with its own distinct character and style. My typical days at Southlands, working alongside Maureen, will see us complete a number of varied tasks, with one week very different to the previous. It is hugely impressive and a fantastic place to work and is enjoyed by hundreds of visitors every year as part of the NGS. Whilst at Giverny, I met four fellow interns: two Australians, an American and a Norwegian. This

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added value to the experience being as we regularly exchanged experiences and future plans. We stayed on site in shared accommodation and in addition to this were provided with a stipend towards expenses.

One of my favourite jobs at Giverny was lifting, trimming and replanting the Iris in the main garden, a job that we completed in a team over a few days – moving row by row through parts of the garden. This is undertaken on a rolling five-year basis, with some Iris prepared each year. Having only just started working as a gardener I had no experience of working in a large team in a large garden. I was surprised again at how much autonomy was given to the gardening team. From the heads of each sector being able to determine policy for their sector, resulting, in different views on when and how to dead-head pelargoniums, to me as a mere gardening intern being given license to choose where to position new plants. I had been asked to plant out a dozen young herbaceous perennials, all yellow flowering. These were to be planted into any gaps I could find in the yellow flowering border, but there was no more instruction than that. Height and form of the plants were informally arranged, with colour being the dominant and formal feature. The colour of the planting was like the painter’s palette, with small borders assigned to particular colours.

Perhaps the highlight of the trip was the access to the garden outside of normal opening hours. The garden was open to the public from 9.30am-6.00pm every day, and this being August the garden was very busy throughout.

Tourists remain on a fairly strictly controlled path, with large sections of the garden out-ofbounds. As a gardener, I was given a key to the garden to enter at any time, bringing family with me. Taking my family across the waterlily pond in the setting sun is a very special memory.

We are delighted to share with you that The Giving Team at the Wiltshire Gardens Trust, have initiated a new grant for members of the WFGA who are WRAGS trainees.

The WFGA are thrilled that WGT wish to assist our members in this way, and that they value the career development that WRAGS can offer to new gardeners in their area. We are grateful to WGT and our Regional Manager, Emma Moffat, for working together to provide this opportunity.

Grants will be made by the WGT for a maximum of £200 towards the purchase of garden tools.

Applicants for the grants must be ; • WFGA members, • Are currently training within the WRAGS scheme, • Have a strong connection to Wiltshire, whether training in a Wiltshire WRAGS Garden or living in Wiltshire Eligible Applicants will be sent the Application Form by WFGA, when they receive their confirmation of their WRAGS Placement. The application will then be returned directly to the WGT. For more information on the Wiltshire Gardens Trust, please go to; www.wiltshiregt.org.uk

Tom Derbyshire

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Trustees

Growing in Scandinanvia Kara Goldsmith, Plant Propagator, uses the Christine Ladley Bursary to fund research to support her professional development I work at Pershore College as a Plant Propagator for the college nursery. I am a member of the International Plant Propagators Society (IPPS). It is with thanks to the Christine Ladley fund that I was able to attend their annual conference in Denmark this year. This association consists of commercial horticulturalists, mainly plant nurseries. Meeting each year in Europe, people network with other growers by visiting gardens and plant nurseries to discuss current topics.

This year’s theme focused on roots, peat free substrates and the use of bio-stimulants.

On arrival I was taken to the local cemetery in Koge, an important part of Danish culture. Each family has a plot where they have the option to plant it out themselves or maintained by the cemetery gardener. Traditionally plots have box hedges, but have been replaced with yew or conifer, because of box diseases.

Koge Cemetery We subsequently headed to Sweden to visit two nurseries and a garden near to Malmo. At a tree nursery, Stangby Plankskool, where large trees for urban parks and avenues are produced, they explained that the trees are

microchipped. Chips contain information on seed sourcing and production, so trees are traceable. The use of herbicides and pesticides is limited.

A visit to Scandinavia’s largest nursery, Splendor, where at least 50% of production is propagated on site with the rest sourced from Germany, Norway and Denmark. This family run business has a strong ethos on soil health.

To support the biodiversity of the compost they brew their own compost tea made mostly from fish, which creates a friendly fungus to stimulate plant growth.

We visited an extraordinary garden and nursery, Klinta Tradgard, developed by Peter Korn and Julia Andersson. They build, design, and consult perennial planting projects in public and private spaces, and have a small plant nursery. Peter grows his plants in sand beds. The beauty of growing in sand is that it needs little water and the mycorrhiza in the sand stimulates the plant growth without the need for fertilisers.

Plants are propagated on site. They plant as many as they dig up and manage to produce 200,000 plants a year.

We visited Danish nurseries in the Zealand region at Gunnar Christensen’s Plantskole nursery. With its own conference centre. We listened to talks on bio stimulants and new types of peat free composts coming onto the market. A test garden enables the nursery to find out what works in this environment and is also a place where buyers can see what is coming on to the market.

We visited a vertical farm, Nordic Harvest, that grows salads and herbs for the supermarkets.

It takes three weeks from seed to harvesting and produce 7kg of salad per metre square.

The process is labour intensive as every step is

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manual, hygiene must be monitored closely, and the harvesting done by hand. A move to automation will cut costs with the rise in energy prices.

Test Garden at Plantskole

Spending the day in Copenhagen I noticed how traditional planting in public places has been replaced with prairie style planting using perennials and grasses and no need to rip out annual bedding and much easier to maintain. Despite the cool October temperature, there was still lots of colour provided by echinacea and colourful grasses.

I learned so much about how nature can support a commercial growing and I was inspired by Peter Korn’s sand beds which I would like to try at home and in the workplace. Thank you Christine Ladley for your support!

Kara Goldsmith

Finally, we visited Copenhagen University’s agricultural research centre, where they hold the country’s fruit gene bank and hold various collections of fruit such as apples, grapes, and soft fruit. To raise funds for agricultural research they produce their own cider, liqueur and juice and the money goes towards research and maintaining the fruit collections.

A row of newly planted apple trees for a trial for local growers The conference ended with a discussion on biodiversity planting. Talks from three landscape designers and growers whose designs encourage biodiversity mostly in urban settings and public spaces, stressed that this type of planting, supports local biodiversity and improves mental health.

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Trustees

An introduction to permaculture A blazing fire provide a warm welcome to WFGA members keen to learn about sustainable, harmonious horticultural practices On a bitterly cold, dry East Lothian Sunday, we were greeted by a blazing log fire in the Tullochs wonderful barn near Haddington for our course on Permaculture, run by Nenya Milne.

“What do you know about Permaculture?” she said. Silence…. The happy mix of WRAGS past and current along with other interested attendees, were not sure whether we knew at all! So began our very informative day with Nenya, who has been teaching permaculture for over ten years in the Edinburgh area. She runs courses on permaculture and uses the practice in the gardens where she works, and we were fortunate she agreed to run a course for the WFGA in Scotland.

In the 1970’s, an Australian ecologist called Bill Mollison spent many years observing how natural systems work. He and his student David Holmgren discovered that natural systems such as forests and wetlands are self-sustainable, providing their own energy needs and recycling their own wastes. Each different part of a natural ecosystem works together performing important tasks. Bees pollinate, birds provide pest control, certain plants fix nitrogen for other plants, etc. Everything performs in a useful way and can be applied to the design and creation of sustainable agricultural and gardening systems.

So, what is Permaculture? Permaculture is a design system for creating sustainable human environments that provide for their own needs without exploiting or polluting. Observing plants and animals and their functions and working with them in harmony. Simply, it is a philosophy of working with rather than against nature.

We were provided with a mass of information, whilst carrying out some simple exercises illustrating the interconnection between

plants/insects/animals and what happens when some are not present anymore. Our day was mostly indoors, but we walked around the Tullochs lovely natural four-acre garden which has been planted up with many trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants and boasts a large pond.

Nenya presenting in the barn

With the assembled gardeners in mind, Nenya explained Mollisons design principles, from location to efficiency, stability, zones, biological resources, succession, and diversity stopping at relevant points in the garden. We discussed working with nature thereby making less change for the greatest effect. Nenya furnished us with many practical principles and left us with plenty to discuss, consider and adopt in our gardens in 2024.

Thank you Nenya

Caroline Straker Nenya Milne, founder Perennis Permaculture https://perennis.weebly.com/

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From volunteer to trainee WRAGS trainee, Andrea Cristinacce, learns from scratch in the beautiful Horatio’s garden in Shropshire I have been helping as a volunteer since 2021, coming in to clean the garden room and greenhouse on Thursday mornings. I have been lucky enough to secure a place at Horatio’s Garden,Oswestry, working one day a week over the next two years as a WRAGS trainee.

It is such a friendly and welcoming team at the garden and Alex and Shaz have been lovely to work with. Alex makes time for my questions, and I have learnt so much already in the short time that I have been working alongside him. I have also enjoyed working with the volunteers and meeting patients and their families too.

Flowers from the ID test – do you recognise them all?

My favourite gardening jobs are pruning, deadheading and propagating. I will never tire of the magic of sowing seeds and watching them germinate. It is so satisfying to step back and look at a patch of ground, when you have weeded and mulched and planted your new plants, and watching them the grow. I love the methodical process of gardening; it has a therapeutic nature that encourages me to slow down – great for my ADHD brain!

Over the last couple of months, I have been watering, feeding, deadheading, pruning, sowing seeds, taking cuttings, potting on and planting bulbs. I have learnt about vine weevil and rose sawfly and how to manage these pests.

I have been helping Alex, with the garden therapy sessions for patients on Friday afternoons and he’s started teaching me the scientific names of the plants and gave me a plant ID test.

I love nature and the outdoors and have spent the last twenty years or so working in ecology and wildlife conservation. I studied Zoology at Liverpool University, doing a Masters in Ecology and Conservation at the University of Norwich, which has enabled me to work in some incredible places, such as Indonesia, Mauritius, Reunion and Hawaii.

Moving around with lots of different jobs and raising a family, I have not previously had time to get stuck into gardening, resulting in quite wild and unkempt gardens, with a few carefully tended pots. Great for wildlife, but I’m not sure the head gardener here would be too impressed!

My family and I moved to Baschurch in the middle of the first lockdown and into a house with a bit of outside space. I started doing a bit of gardening and found it peaceful and relaxing, particularly during the lockdown.

I decided to enrol on the RHS II course online with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. I learn well by doing and a quick Google search led me to Horatio’s Garden, and I decided I wanted to volunteer. Not only would I be learning how to garden in a beautiful setting, but I would be meeting people from the community, something that was difficult during lockdown. This led me to the WRAGS scheme, and here I am two months into my traineeship, looking forward to seeing the garden grow and change over the seasons but also becoming confident enough to call myself a gardener!

Andrea Cristinacce WRAGS trainee

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Trustees

Trustee Search

The WFGA is looking for new Trustees to broaden the range of skills and experience on the board of trustees. We are looking for individuals with backgrounds in the Media, Marketing & Publicity Areas, but would also welcome those that have other specific skills. The charity is in a strong position and is looking to build upon our reputation and legacy

Role Description The position is voluntary non-executive. Expenses may be claimed in line with our expenses policy The board meets four to five times per year, online and face to face meetings.

Trustees are expected prepare for meetings and to be available for consultation by the Chair outside of the cycle of meetings If you would like to be considered, please send a CV with a covering letter outlining your interest in the position Full details of the Trustee role and what is involved can be found on our website under ‘Working with the WFGA’ or by contacting chair@wfga.org.uk

SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATE If you are ‘social-media friendly’, check out our pages and feeds, and spread the word by following or liking them. You’ll find us here: Facebook: facebook.com/wfga.org LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/women'sfarm-&-garden-association-the-/ Instagram: instagram.com/wfga_uk/ Twitter: twitter.com/WFGA_

RHS STUDENT MEMBERSHIP All WRAGS trainees are entitled to Student Membership of the RHS. The details are contained in the WRAGS Trainee pack. Please use the information there to contact membership@rhs.org.uk

GET YOUR WFGA NEWS DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Don't forget to register on the website to access the Members' Pages, the Forum to receive our email updates. On the home page of wfga.org.uk. click on ‘New User’ and fill in the user registration details 12