The arrival of rain at the beginning of September was welcomed by the garden…and the gardeners! Everything in the Bell House garden really perked up after the very dry spell, and we were all kept busy with the growth explosion.

September highlights, and things to look forward to, include:

The meadow areas in both the House Garden and Walled Garden are in the process of being cut back in sections. The cuttings are left for a few days before being added to the compost bins so any insects which have been sheltering there can find a new home. Cuttings are removed to reduce nutrients being added back to the soil as meadows thrive on poor soil. Our next job will be to scarify the meadows and add yellow rattle seeds to slow the spread of grass so more wildflowers grow. We tested removing the flower heads of docks this year rather than digging them out and we will see next summer if this worked! Big thanks to everyone who worked on the meadows as it is a labour intensive job. A shout out for Jenny who put her hand up every Saturday to tackle this job.

In the Walled Garden, the tomatoes are still going strong. We know that the cooler days and nights are coming so the tomato plants have been pruned, removing the leaves so that the plants direct their energy to ripening the remaining fruit. The garlic and onions were also lifted, and after drying nicely for a couple of weeks, have been happily received by all of us gardeners 😊. We have had a new delivery of bricks so that edging around the raised beds can continue, led by the expertise of Cookie and Reg. Our new mower finally arrived so we now have two electric mowers to help manage the grass and meadow areas next year.
Staying in the Walled Garden, you’ll see some “new” tables close to the Greenhouse. When a local garden centre closed down we picked up the tables which will be adapted to use as potting and demonstration tables. Also, at that end of the garden, the raspberries which were saved from the ground source heating works have never been super happy there so will be lifted and moved to another part of the garden. This bed will then be planted with Comfrey, specifically Bocking 14 Comfrey as suggested by Shelagh. Comfrey is one of the most useful and versatile plants that can be grown – it’s a fabulous pollinator attractor, a highly effective fertiliser and apparently has potential health benefits for humans (I need to find out more about this).
Over in the House Garden, there has been a fair bit of weeding action over September – in the Rose Garden, around the arch leading to the Rose Garden and throughout all of the main beds. Our winter project will be to improve and replant the long border with more perennials and grasses. We also plan to work on the quince and rose arch, pruning the roses so that they flower lower at the sides and leaving more light and space for the quince to grow over the arch itself.

Bell House Garden will be open again on November 5th.

Arrive anytime between 11am and 12:45. Tea and coffee will be available. We encourage a £5 donation that will go towards garden maintenance and activities. Free tickets are also available.

As the first September leaves start to fall and the nights become cooler, let’s reflect on the garden activities over the hot and dry Summer months.

Over in the House Garden, the Bog Garden pond has fared well. It has been a hive of wildlife activity with Damselflies and Emperor Dragonflies being spotted. The latter is a very large, impressive dragonfly - males are pale blue, with an apple-green thorax and a black stripe running the length of the body. Females are similar, but a slightly duller greeny-blue. Both are spectacular. A fact I didn’t know is that Emperor Dragonflies are a characteristic dragonfly of new ponds and, for the first few years, the larvae may be extremely common (courtesy of The Wildlife Trust). Dragonfly larvae have been spotted in our pond, in addition to water boatmen and smooth newts!

Behind the Rose garden, the meadow area has been cut in sections over the last few weeks. This is a technique used to extend the growing season of a wildflower area in the following year. I’m looking forward to seeing the results next year. Some of you may also have been lucky to have seen the leaf-cutter bees in the insect houses in this area. Check to see if they are still there the next time you are in the garden.

While we are on the subject of bees, Beekeeper Annie had a very busy week back in July with honey extraction in the Filmmaker kitchen. Here’s Annie removing the wax caps from the cells so that when the frames spin in the centrifuge the honey has an uninterrupted passage out of each cell and can be collected via a tap at the bottom of the centrifuge. It really is an amazing process.

Over in the Walled Garden, we have had plenty of produce over the Summer. Tomatoes and courgettes have done extremely well, as have our raspberries and beans and (for the first year I think) – aubergines 😊. We have also had success on the sweetcorn front and a special mention to the mashed potato squashes that are now coming thick and fast. There has been the odd “disappointment” and this year the winner has to be the white sprouting broccoli – all leaves and no actual broccoli heads!
Finally, the Walled Garden has given us a beautiful and colourful display of flowers this Summer. The poppies dominated in the earlier months but were soon followed by the towering verbenas and an abundance of nigella with the cosmos and rudbeckia following. Let us not forget our majestic sunflowers and exceptionally pretty morning glory and sweet peas. I am always excited to see what is blooming when I arrive in the garden.

We are very much looking forward to our Autumn time in the garden, and a big thanks to all of the hours and effort that everyone has put in over the Summer. The results are always worth it.

With thanks to the Gaynor Hayburn author of the Gardeners’ newsletter

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