Celebrating the launch of the National Trust’s Book of Nature Friendly Gardening, the Garden Museum is hosting a conversation on December 2 between five professional gardeners who have all been on their own journeys to adapt the way they garden in light of the twin climate and biodiversity crises.
Our expert panel are: Matthew Pottage, Head of Horticulture and Landscape Strategy at The Royal Parks; Kate Bradbury, a garden writer and broadcaster who specializes in wildlife gardening; Sean Harkin, Head Gardener at the Inner Temple Gardens in London where he has been evolving the historic Garden to combine biodiversity and beauty; Rebecca Bevan, the National Trust’s Specialist for Environmental Horticulture.
Their conversation will be chaired by Sheila Das, Head of Gardens at the National Trust, bringing insights of her own from her deep love of food growing and nurturing soil health. £10 Livestream. Book HERE.
Take a video tour on YouTube of garden designer Gertrude Jekyll’s former home in Surrey with Head Gardener Annabell Watts.
Munstead Wood was acquired by the National Trust in April 2023. Its garden was originally created by Jekyll in the 1880s with vibrant flowers, intricate footpaths and Victorian greenhouses. The design of this garden was ahead of its time due to the meticulously chosen architectural plants and color schemes.
Jekyll also worked with architect Sir Edwin Lutyens to build a house that could also be her workplace. Designed to look as if it rose from the ground, the house was completed with a dark room, workshop and flower shop to support Jekyll’s work.
(Note: Munstead Wood is not open to the public currently.)
The Gardens Trust has created a seven part series on Tuesdays, beginning September 12, to mark 50 years of UNESCO World Heritage, £5 each or all 7 for £28. Starting with an overview of World Heritage values and the changing nature of the UK list, the series will aim to enthuse people about individual sites around Great Britain, highlighting what makes each one exceptional, the advantages and challenges of being inscribed on the list, and the issues around sustainable future management of these global assets. 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 for the complete series HERE, or follow the links on that page to sign up for individual sessions. Since this is the final episode, you may wish to sign up for the single session.
Derbyshire’s Derwent Valley is the birthplace of the factory system, where water power was first successfully harnessed for mass production, ushering in the modern industrial age. The need for people to come together to work in the mills resulted in the rapid creation of new communities, complete with infrastructure to provide for their educational and spiritual needs. Today those early mills, and their communities, can still be seen in their stunning valley landscape setting, some barely changed in over 200 years. Their significance was recognized in 2001 when they were inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
Adrian Farmer has for 19 years been coordinating all heritage aspects relating to the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site – from planning responses to research, and engagement to promotion. He received the British Empire Medal in 2019 and was Highly Commended in the UK’s first Tourism Superstar Awards in 2012, for his work in this area. He has written eight local history books.
The Gardens Trust has created a seven part series on Tuesdays, beginning September 12, to mark 50 years of UNESCO World Heritage, £5 each or all 7 for £28. Starting with an overview of World Heritage values and the changing nature of the UK list, the series will aim to enthuse people about individual sites around Great Britain, highlighting what makes each one exceptional, the advantages and challenges of being inscribed on the list, and the issues around sustainable future management of these global assets. 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 for the complete series HERE, or follow the links on that page to sign up for individual sessions.
Week Two on September 19 is The Lake District with Harvey Wilkinson. The English Lake District is a self-contained mountain area whose narrow, radiating glaciated valleys, steep fells and slender lakes exhibit an extraordinary beauty and harmony. This landscape reflects an outstanding fusion between a distinctive communal farming system that has persisted for a millennium with improvements of villas, and designed landscapes during the 18th and 19th centuries. This combination has attracted and inspired writers and artists of global stature. The landscape also manifests the success of the conservation movement that it stimulated; a movement based on the idea of landscape as a human response to our environment. This cultural force has had world-wide ramifications.
Added to the World Heritage list in 2017, the complex nature of the Lake District inscription, based on three areas of outstanding universal value, led to the creation of the category Cultural Landscape, of which the Lakes is one of the first.
This talk will focus on the significance and role of the Lakes villas, gardens and designed landscapes.
With a background as an art gallery curator in historic buildings, Harvey Wilkinson has worked for the National Trust for ten years, acting as Cultural Heritage Curator for the largest land asset in the National Trust, which amounts to 25 percent of the Lakes total area. He works at a landscape scale, covering all the Trust’s built assets and significant early land acquisitions.
A short National Trust video will transport you to the gardens of Florence Court – a Georgian house surrounded by the rolling countryside of West Fermanagh. Discover how the estate, cared for by the National Trust, is being restored with recent projects focussing on the kitchen garden and the rebuilding of glass houses. Previous work has restored the sawmill, carpenter shop and forge. You’ll also find out fresh veg was once prepared in the kitchen and meet a volunteer helping to care for the 90 different varieties of heritage apple trees that grow here. Find out more about visiting Florence Court. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visi…
In 2020, Royal Oak donated $250,000 to preserve one of England’s most magnificent sites which was one of the first places in the UK to become a World Heritage Site in 1986.
Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal Water Garden is an awe-inspiring landscape, owned by the National Trust since 1983. Cistercian monks established the Abbey in 1132, manipulating the River Skell to harness its power for grinding grain into flour. Over time, the Abbey became one of the largest, richest, and most influential Cistercian sites in Britain until the Dissolution in the 1530s by Henry VIII.
In the early 18th century, John Aislabie began transforming his nearby landscape garden of Studley Royal into a picturesque design that incorporated the entire wooded valley, and featured a huge water garden with lakes, grottos, canals, and cascades. Paths were created with viewpoints that centered on classical statues and follies.
In 1767, his son William bought the neighboring Abbey ruins to incorporate them into the landscape and to create the ultimate vista or ‘Surprise View.’ Centuries later, the garden design is much the same, but this important landscape is often flooded from the River Skell. To save the site, the National Trust has partnered with conservation organizations, local farmers, and landowners to implement a natural flood management program.
Justin Scully, the General Manager, will update Royal Oak members on the on-going progress of these efforts, including the planting of woodland and hedgerows, the creation of ponds and meadows to slow the water flow. He will illustrate the changes and explain the challenges faced by the preservation team. Additionally, he will talk about the surviving relics of the Chinese Garden and the wider 18th century and monastic landscape, as well as exciting discoveries in the historic archives. Finally, Justin will update us on how Fountains has responded to the post Covid world. The webinar is free to Royal Oak Society members, $20 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.royal-oak.org/events/spring-2023-lectures-and-tours/fountains-abbey/
Northumbria is a region steeped in rich history—it boasts some of the most awe-inspiring landscapes in England.
Tour guide Rob Smith will take us on a digital journey to some of his favorite places in this stunning region. We will uncover the magic and nature of Northumbria from the sand dune-covered coastline to the wild heathland and thick wooded valleys.
We’ll start with the iconic Hadrian’s Wall, built by the Romans over 2,000 years ago to defend their empire against marauding invaders, and explore National Trust site Lindisfarne Abbey, an ancient holy site from the Viking era, which now features a climate defying garden by Gertrude Jekyll.
We will pause to admire magnificent castles like Warkworth, which inspired scenes in Shakespeare’s plays, and learn about the county’s fascinating industrial past whose resulting wealth was used in the construction of grand houses like National Trust’s Seaton Delaval and Cragside House, designed by renowned engineer Lord Armstrong.
Our tour will culminate with a visit to some of the beautifully decorated pubs of Newcastle. With Rob as our guide, we will experience Northumbria in a unique and immersive way, discovering the secrets and beauty of this fascinating region. This Royal Oak Foundation Zoom event is $30 for Royal Oak members, $40 for nonmembers. Complete registration details may be found at https://www.royal-oak.org/events/spring-2023-lectures-and-tours/northumbria/
The Gardens Trust presents a series of 4 online talks on some of the well- and lesser known historic gardens of Ireland Wednesdays from 1 Feb £5 each or £16 for all. Register through Eventbrite HERE., or visit https://thegardenstrust.org for more details. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us). A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards. This second in the series on February 8 explores Annes Grove with Neil Porteous.
Annes Grove in North Co. Cork has an international reputation as a plantsman’s garden. Ostensibly, the creation of Richard Grove Annesley (1879-1966), the garden is in part ‘Robinsonian’ and part a ‘Paradise Garden’. The talk details the garden’s history and its recent restoration.
Neil Porteous is a free-lance historic garden consultant working in Ireland. He has an BSc. Hons in Horticulture and an MA in garden history. Neil worked for many years as a Head Gardener and Gardens & Parks Advisor for the National Trust, latterly, Head Gardener at Mount Stewart, Co. Down.
The Suffolk Gardens Trust is pleased to be offering a series of four talks to highlight some aspects of the county’s rich gardening heritage. It is offered as a companion to the newly-launched co-operative project on ‘Suffolk’s Unforgettable Garden Story’ by The Gardens Trust and the Suffolk Gardens Trust, with funding by Historic England. This seeks to encourage research into the historic parks and gardens, public parks, cemeteries and other good examples of designed landscapes of Suffolk, with the overarching aim of adding layers of protection to these green spaces and to promote their future survival.
This ticket (click HERE) is for this individual session and costs £5, and you may purchase tickets for other individual sessions via the links below, or you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 4 sessions at a cost of £16 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.
This final installment on November 23 is on Ickworth Park. Ickworth’s clayland park provides a fascinating setting for the architectural developments of the Hervey family from John, created Baron Hervey, then 1st Earl of Bristol, to the sad demise of the 7th Marquess in 1999. The Earl Bishop provides an eighteenth-century interlude that takes us across Europe, into Ireland and back to Bury St Edmunds, his architect wrote: ‘The Rotunda is a monument to the idea of Italy in the English mind’ but for his widow it was his stupendous monument to folly. The formal gardens were laid out in the early 1800’s to replicate the floor plan creating what is arguably the first Italianate garden in the UK, now a National Trust property.
Caroline Holmes is Academic Tutor and Course Director for the University of Cambridge ICE, lecturer for The Arts Society, and is the author of 12 books. Her consultancies include devising planting for The Poison Garden, Alnwick, Humanist Renaissance inspired gardens around Notre Dame-de-Calais and currently for a new development near Thetford, creating two areas to celebrate the Queen’s Green Canopy and other public spaces. She has presented Viking TV features and her garden was filmed in September. Academic but not dry she has spoken on every continent except Antarctica.
The Arts and Crafts was an ethos rather than a style, and it is therefore difficult to define in simple terms. Taking the example of Standen in West Sussex, a garden created in harmony with Philip Webb’s designs for the house, this lecture will examine how the Arts and Crafts was manifest in gardens, both in planting and in design, and will look at the work of amateur gardeners as well as professionals. The relationship between gardens, architecture and interior design will be explored through the lens of the remarkably complete example at Standen. The influence of key figures such as William Morris, John Sedding and Thomas Mawson will be assessed, as well as their legacy in the twentieth century in the work of designers such as Gertrude Jekyll and Nora Lindsay.
Dr Caroline Ikin is a Curator at the National Trust, with a portfolio including the gardens at Standen and Nymans. She has previously worked for the Gardens Trust and is a writer specialising in C19 art, architecture and gardens. Caroline is author of The Victorian Garden(Bloomsbury, 2012), The Victorian Gardener(Bloomsbury, 2014), The Kitchen Garden (Amberley, 2017), and is currently working on a new survey of Victorian gardens to be published by Bloomsbury and the National Trust. She regularly contributes book and exhibition reviews to various publications, while her PhD thesis examined the designed landscape created by John Ruskin at Brantwood. This ticket is for this individual session and costs £5. Register on Eventbrite 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.
