Winter jobs at Belvoir Castle

January and February is catch up time in the garden, so on an estate like Belvoir it is full steam ahead.  Workshops need cleaning out, mowers and strimmers need servicing, broken tools need replacing.  At The Castle sometimes finding the tools is the biggest challenge - when working on such a large scale it is so easy to leave a fork, hoe, or spade in a bed; unfortunately I am most guilty of this crime with my memory having more holes than a colander!  

Sorting out next years signs

Here we are in the rose garden - it doesn't look that cold but it was freezing - everyone doing windmills with their arms to get the circulation to their fingers.  How brave our volunteers are! 

Some of this garden is thrown into permanent shadow when the large trees grow their summer canopy and because of this moss collects on the flag stones.  So the volunteers set to scraping off by hand, the algae and moss - a very boring task but as you can see the end result looks like new.

With over 250 roses to prune, Martin and I were keen to get started.  As well as the rose garden there are numerous varieties also climbing around the castle walls.  I have just found out there is one rose, the beautiful double yellow Rosa banksiae which has been in situ for over a 100 years!  And yes it needs some very careful pruning - it is probably 25' high and 40' across - luckily it is thornless.

And sometimes the cold gets a bit much...

Martin encouraging the work force!!

Thank goodness the sun came out..

Peto's Grotto

Here is a handsome old feature built at the beginning of the 1900's.  (designed by Harold Peto)  Originally there were some lovely wooden steps up the side of the grotto which have long since fallen into disrepair.  So now all the team are researching the possibilities of restoring this building to its former glory. 


And finally the strong winds have taken some causalities - this lovely variegated holly has fallen in the rose garden, bringing down with it half the yew tree.   On one of the outside walks another beautiful conifer has fallen.

Heuchera's enemy No. 1

As you may have seen from previous blogs we plant up a few summer pots.  

Lime Ricky Heuchera with Stipa arundinacea

As well as using annual plants which are good for vibrant colour and grow very quickly, I add some perennials to give height and substance at the beginning of the season.  The bonus of using perennials is that at the end of the season these can be moved into the garden beds in the autumn.

Heuchera obsidian

Phormiums are always useful as they give height and form, and there are many different colours.  I also find heuchera very good as this has evergreen qualities and there are many varieties with colours ranging from Lime Green to nearly Black.

BUT watch out.... for the pesky Vine Weevil

White legless grubs feeding underneath the heuchera

White grubs with light brown heads 10mm long

The Heuchera roots have been completely eaten off at the bottom

It is a common and devastating garden pest.  The adult weevils eat plant leaves during spring and summer, but it is the grubs that cause the most damage when they feed on plant roots, over autumn and winter causing wilting and often plant death.

There are various methods of dealing with this either non-chemical or chemical.  I use Provado Vine Weevil Killer, but remember you need to continue use to irradiate the problem.  

A Frosty Morning in Lincolnshire

These first three pictures were taken just by the roadside.  

The light was fantastic.

Nandina domestica - an evergreen shrub that has these lovely reddish purple leaves when young  and in the winter.  It is frost hardy, but can only stand temperatures down to -5C ..... 

... so no harder please Mr Frost! 










Taxus baccata fastigiata aurea - an upright golden Yew.  A great evergreen shrub that gives a garden real presence, with it's upright habit it looks like an exclamation mark in the garden.

Even the tennis court netting looked mysterious with the frost clinging to it!

Belvoir Castle's hidden secrets!

As well as maintaining the gardens, part of our responsibility is restoration and last month Martin and I were invited to join the Castle’s archivist to look at some garden plans that had recently been unearthed from Belvoir’s casket of treasures.

In a dark room, laid across a large desk were three beautiful hand drawn designs.  One of these was done by probably the most famous garden designer known to us all.  But you will have to wait for more information about him! 

Today I am going to tell you about the lesser known but equally inspirational designer, Harold Peto.  Originally trained as an architect, Peto turned to garden design in later life and was most prolific at the turn of the twentieth century.   The reason for his obscurity is the fact that little documentation is left about his gardens and designs’, so finding the plans at Belvoir is a wonderful discovery.  Peto made many trips abroad including America but was particularly influenced by the beautiful ornate Italian gardens and was possibly drawn to Belvoir because of its grandeur and terracing possibilities.

From the date on the plan we were able to trace two visits by Harold from the castle’s Visitors book.  It was so exciting to marry up the drawn plans with his documented visits.  Some of his drawings have pencil corrections over them, probably from gardeners working to his plans.  A lot of the design is in place but there is still some work to do to create the final picture.

If you have been following our progress you will know that we deliberated for some time over the shape of the yew hedges round the rose garden.  Now we have definitive plans of how they looked originally.  Thankfully Yew is one of the most versatile hedges and can be reshaped at anytime of its life.

Luckily for The Castle and for us all, the Duke and Duchess are very keen to reinstate the history of Belvoir gardens and programs are now afoot to bring together design’s from her Grace alongside Peto’s designs.

A great example of Peto’s work today is at Iford Manor which was his home in Essex. 

I long for some snow so I can sneak home and do more research on Peto!

Belvoir Castle - Happy New Year

Our first year working at Belvoir has flown by - and what a fantastic year we have had.  It has been a steep learning curve in many senses of the word - we are certainly fitter, and won't need to worry too much about working off the Christmas mince pies!

On a beautiful sunny New Year's day, we took our labrador Kizzie for a walk round the grounds to check out our 'work in progress'.

Spring gardens is always a magical place; very quiet, apart from the bird song and so picturesque.  We started on a new walk at the very top of the gardens which we are looking to open in 2013 to reveal another stunning view. 

Monkey Puzzle Tree

I took this picture from the top, showing the Monkey Puzzle tree; so called, after it is said 'the unusual branches would puzzle even a monkey to climb'.  The leaves are thick, tough and scale like, with very sharp edges. 

Because there are some beautiful and rare trees in the gardens, one of our projects is to name and plot them for the castle's records. 

The soil conditions here are quite unusual for this part of the country.  We have steep slopes with many springs and this creates ideal conditions for trees that like well drained soil that doesn't dry out, and also of course it is acidic; so mimics the conditions similar to the Himalayas'.

Acer griseum

This tree I could identify without reaching for the encyclopaedia!  It is the beautiful Acer griseum grown for its unusual peeling bark.  This slow growing tree suitable for small gardens will grow on most soil types, which makes it very appealing to many designers.  It has beautiful light green leaves which turn a brilliant red and orange in the autumn.

Acer Griseum  Paperbark maple

Acer 'Phoenix'

Acer Phoenix

This little beauty is called Acer x conspicuous 'Phoenix'.  In contrast to the last tree this is a rare maple with striped orange-pink and white bark.  It has large, cool bright green leaves in the summer which turn a fantastic fine gold in the autumn. This does need an acidic soil.

It won't be long before the Rhododendrons, azaleas, Camellias and Magnolias begin their display....  Please Mr Frost stay away!!

Belvoir Castle

Caius Cibber statues cover up for winter


This morning was the first really sharp frost but was luckily accompanied with a beautiful blue sky - a pleasant change from the miserable week of constant rain.  So it is time to make sure the 17th-Century Cibber statues are protected from the harsh elements of the coming winter. 

Cibber Statues at Belvoir Castle

During their time at the Castle the statues have been moved a couple of times.  Originally they lined the drive and were moved by the 5th Duchess onto the terraces and then again by Violet, wife of the 8th Duke, who was largely responsible for the gardens that we see today.  

All this I have read from the present Duchess's book 'Belvoir Castle', and understand that the 8th Duchess had the help of Harold Peto, a notable Edwardian garden designer.  Harold Peto created some of the finest gardens in England, inspired mainly by the Italianate style. 

This winter we hope to do a lot more research into the history of the gardens and find out who did what, when and where.... we'll keep you posted....

It is a great responsibility to have such treasures in our care, so this year we are starting a program of upgrading the winter covers.  Materials for this job are so good now that the new covers have two layers of silver bubble wrap sandwiched between a special hardy canvass.  The statue's now look quite strange - like green space rockets just about to take off!

New Covers for the Cibber Statues

More Statues in the rose garden

We will find out the history behind these two.

Results of an English Winter

In March 2010 Aimee asked me to help her create a New Zealand garden.

We were presented with a long mound of earth that had been placed to provide a barrier from the harsh winds and rain.  Some of the soil was extremely heavy clay where as part of it was complete sand – so another good challenge!

It is very difficult to plan a garden on such a steep slope, the soil will always erode and slide downhill which makes it is difficult to get plants established.  With this in mind we decided to terrace the whole lot.

As with all projects – it wasn’t plain sailing or should I say plain digging!  Some of the soil was so heavy, when you tried to throw the soil off the spade, the spade went with it!   A Mini digger was imported rather quickly and old railway sleepers were fixed together and used to hold back the soil. 

The workings were finished in the spring of 2010, some compost was added to the whole area and the planting began in April.  As you may know, there are some beautiful exotic plants that come from New Zealand, so it was an exiting planting scheme to create.  I used Hebes, Pittosporums, Phormiums, Eucalyptus, Olearias, and Griselinias amongst some of our own indigenous trees and shrubs.  We considered some tree ferns but felt the cold conditions of Lincolnshire would be too much of a test.

So where is the finished photograph...........

Aimee religiously watered the plants all summer, and they came on in leaps and bounds with no casualties by autumn.  However, on 22^nd November 2010, extreme cold conditions hit England causing disruption on our roads and devastation to Aimee’s garden.  Many garden plants can tolerate temperatures down to -5C and some down to -15C; but on the 28 November -17C was recorded, and one of my clients, (north of Lincoln), recorded -22C for 5 days.  Of the 8 Eucalyptus that were planted only one survived, Aimee lost all of her other New Zealand plants.

I returned with some trepidation to Aimee’s garden this autumn and was thrilled to see how the plants that had stood the extreme conditions, had blossomed. 

Did I mention the rabbits!

It was an extreme winter and a harsh lesson.  Beware when you go to garden centres and see the beautiful coloured exotic plants that come from warmer climates.

I guess we made a good decision about the Tree Ferns!