Boston Flora

Tag: Kent Gardens Trust

  • Tuesday, September 27, 5:00 am – British Spa Landscapes: Gardens for Health Tourism, 1609 – 2022, Online

    A strong tradition of health tourism at spa resorts in continental Europe has identified the ‘Kurpark’ and ‘Kurgarten’ (spa parks and spa gardens), as a subtype in garden history, in which the planted environment is an integral part of the visitor experience, an important element of ‘the cure’. Of the many spas in existence at some time in Britain, landscape designed for ‘taking the waters’ has featured in a high proportion of the locations. This series of talks looks at notable examples, identifying the characteristics and influence of their planned landscape.

    For visitors to spas, the supposed curative properties of the waters were only part of the spa experience. The facilities and ambience were also vital in choosing where to take ‘the cure’ and although a scenic location was most desirable, designed landscaping had an important part to play. A potential suite of plantings including tree-lined avenues (well walks), embellishment for pump rooms, promenade parks and pleasure gardens were used to support and promote spa visiting. This Gardens Trust talk, second in a series on British Spa Landscapes, summarizes recent research on parks, gardens and avenues directly associated with ‘taking the waters’ in British spa locations, identifying what remains long after medicinal spa visiting has declined to almost zero in this country. Illustrated with selected – and some-times surprising – examples from England, Scotland and Wales, it will also consider the extent to which remaining spa landscapes are acknowledged and portrayed as important aspects of spa heritage.

    As modern spas have morphed into facilities offering pampering and relaxation rather than medicinal water treatments, the talk will present the most recently designed spa garden at Carden Park in Cheshire, recognizing a continuity of intent in the creation of green spaces with therapeutic value.

    Karen Emery is an educator, having taught in schools, colleges and running a prison education department, as well as working with industry to foster education-business partnerships. As a qualified ITG Tourist Guide since 2013, garden visits are part of her repertoire, which led to an MA in Garden and Landscape History from the University of London in 2021 with a dissertation on designed spa landscape in Britain. Since then, she has become active with the Kent Gardens Trust as researcher and co-ordinator for garden research projects in part of the county. www.kentgardenstrust.org.uk

    A ticket is for this individual session costs £5, and you may purchase tickets for other individual sessions, or you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 5 sessions at a cost of £20 via the link here. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.

  • Wednesday, January 26, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm – Balmoral Cottage, Benenden, Online

    A visit to the extraordinary and charming garden around Balmoral Cottage in Benenden, Kent has become a ‘must‘ for all lovers of topiary. This Gardens Trust lecture , co-sponsored with the Kent Gardens Trust, on January 26 at 1 pm Eastern time will attempt to recreate the magic on our screens. £5. Register HERE.

    Just over 30 years ago, Donald and Charlotte Molesworth were, by good fortune, able to purchase the almost derelict small house that stood in the abandoned old kitchen garden of Collingwood (Cherry) Ingram’s house, The Grange. They moved in with one light bulb, a bed, a small table , 2 dogs, a donkey , 7 hens, and boxes of Narcissus pseudo-narcissus from Donald’s father’s garden, yew seedlings as part of a wedding present, and numerous plants in every conceivable kind of container. A new garden started to form in their minds the next day.

    Thousands of boxwood and other cuttings were taken, the old kitchen garden dug over and weeded to form a temporary nursery, and a pond was dug by a friend as a wedding present! A detailed plan emerged, and in time became a reality. Donald had gained inspiration from a wonderful garden made by his father; Charlotte had become inspired by the topiary loved by her mother. The fusion of interests at Balmoral Cottage has resulted in a marvelous blend of weird and wonderful topiary interspersed with quiet niches filled with plant treasures of all kinds.

    Charlotte Molesworth is a professional garden designer and artist and has built up a reputation for her topiary designs. Donald has been a horticulturist for as long as he remembers!

  • Wednesday, January 12, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm – Restoration House, Rochester, Online

    This Gardens Trust online talk on January 12 at 1 pm Eastern time is sponsored in conjunction with the Kent Gardens Trust, and is £5. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards. Register HERE.

    As the Italian Water Garden nears completion visitors can sense how the beauty of the past has inspired this magical blend of house and garden hidden away in the heart of historic Rochester. It is the culmination of 27 years of creative endeavour by owners Robert Tucker and Jonathan Wilmot. A new ‘restoration’ (the house is named for the visit of Charles 2nd in May 1660 on his way to London from Dover) has breathed fresh life, piece by piece, into three quite different areas of the garden, with each component using materials and craftsmanship of the highest order. It required the energy and persistence to battle with the local council and unsympathetic developers, and TO WIN, and then to share the results with the public.

    In this talk, Jonathan Wilmot will outline the main features of this invigorating story. Head Gardener, Sarah Pollard will talk about the plants, the parterre, the established trees and the hard work that combine to create a harmonious whole, and about looking after the lemons that now flourish in the Italian garden. Jonathan Wilmot is one of the co-owners of Restoration House, and Sarah Pollard has been Head Gardener for over 10 years.

  • Tuesday, April 27, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm – Why Our Gardens Should Change: Adapting Our Gardens for Insects, Online

    We are in the midst of the 6th mass extinction event, with extinctions occurring faster than at any time in the last 65 million years. ‘Bioabundance’ is in decline, with recent studies showing that insects in particular seem to be disappearing fast. If it continues, this will have profound consequences for mankind and for our planet. Dave Goulson will explain why insects are in decline, and suggest how we can all help to tackle this crisis, by turning our gardens and urban greenspaces into oases for life. He will discuss the many things we should do, and those things we should not do, to welcome bumblebees, butterflies, and a plethora of other wildlife into our gardens and into our lives.

    Kent Gardens Trust (organized jointly with The Gardens Trust) present an online talk with Dave Goulson, Tuesday 27th April at 2.00 pm, £5. Register through Eventbrite by clicking HERE.

    Dave Goulson is Professor of Biology at University of Sussex, specializing in bee ecology. He has published more than 300 scientific articles on the ecology and conservation of bumblebees and other insects. He is the author of Bumblebees; Their Behaviour, Ecology and Conservation, published in 2010 by Oxford University Press, and of the Sunday Times bestseller A Sting in the Tale, a popular science book about bumble bees, published in 2013 by Jonathan Cape, and now translated into fourteen languages. This was followed by A Buzz in the Meadow in 2014, Bee Quest in 2017, and The Garden Jungle in 2019. Goulson founded the Bumblebee Conservation Trust in 2006, a charity which has grown to 12,000 members. He was: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council’s Social Innovator of the Year in 2010; given Zoological Society of London’s Marsh Award for Conservation Biology in 2013; elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2013; given the British Ecological Society Public Engagement Award in 2014; given Zoological Society of London’s Clarivate Award for Communicating Zoology in 2020. In 2015 he was named number 8 in BBC Wildlife Magazine’s list of the top 50 most influential people in conservation. In 2018, 2019 and 2020 he was named as a “Highly Cited Researcher” by Thompson ISI. He is a trustee of Pesticide Action Network, and an “Ambassador” for the UK Wildlife Trusts.