Uppark garden and countryside

Summer skips by; it’s August already and there’s an autumn feel in the air. In the surrounding fields the harvest is well underway.

This is the view at the end of the South drive. A mature beech tree growing too close to a power line was recently removed. Beech trees don’t respond particularly well to severe pruning. That’s what was required here to ensure there was adequate clearance between the tree and power line. Compliance cutting is carried out by the utility company in this area every four years, in my time here, the frequency of power failures has dropped significantly; it can’t be a coincidence. The regrowth on the beech tree would have been regularly pruned as part of this compliance cutting regime. I considered this to be an unsatisfactory way of managing this tree so the decision to remove the tree and open up the view was taken.

Above: The newly created view from the end of the South drive. Take a moment to admire as you leave Uppark.

The head gardener position I hold here is frequently described by colleagues as “more of a ranger role” in truth I’m not sure what to make of this. I have such admiration for my ranger colleagues within the National Trust, but would never describe myself as a ranger. The depth of knowledge required for such a role is extensive and I think I’m only scratching the surface; I’m a gardener first, with a keen interest in trees and the natural environment. The woodland at Uppark holds a fascination for me and I feel the woodland margins, especially the areas that border the visitor car park are really benefiting from the approach we’re taking. Hedges are being layed by the garden team and the dark, oppressive, arboreal landscape is gradually being thinned, creating new habitats for both wildlife and wildflowers.

Below: Completion of a successful day of compliance cutting on 7 July 2015.

Garden

 

Above: The Wednesday garden and countryside team.

We’re making great progress in the garden, the newly opened cutting garden has been drawing much comment and admiration.

Below: Gypsophilla ‘Covent Garden’ flourishing in the cutting garden.

Credit here goes to Jenny and the highly creative cut flower team she’s assembled. At the weekend, I decided to work near the cut flower garden to see how much interest there was in this new area. There was a steady flow of visitors keen to see this lovely collection of flowering plants.

Above: An impromptu bunch of flowers from the cutting garden.

Last weekend, the South meadow was transformed into a “flying arena”, local bird of prey experts Hawking About put on a fabulous flying demonstration, it was great to see so many people utterly enthralled by this mesmerising avian display and skilful handling. My favourite quote from the weekend came from head falconer Kevin as the peregrine falcon banked around Uppark House at terrific speed:

Mind the windows!

I’m so pleased the house manager Sarah wasn’t in that day! If you missed the opportunity to see the falconry displays, Hawking About are at Hinton Ampner on Sunday (16/8) as part of their Tudor sports day.

Above: Image courtesy of Clare Seaman Photography

The last word has to go to the countryside. We’ve been making posts for a new dead hedge in the West copse in the South meadow (above). We’d like to turn this area into a natural play area and the new installation is shaping up well. If you do visit this area – please don’t move the hosepipe! We’re using this to mark the lines of the dead hedge.

Swags, Wreaths and Father Christmas at Uppark

This week the garden team are preparing for the Christmas season at Uppark. We’re decorating the stables for Father Christmas; he’ll be with us on 6, 7, 14 & 21 December from 11am – 3pm.

It’s all about the Swag…

We’re running two festive workshops this year; yesterday it was all about the swag. Becks from the catering team delivered an inspirational workshop full of great tips and ideas for dressing spaces for Christmas. The supporting cut flower team, led by Gardener Jenny, really enjoyed learning about this intriguing Christmas tradition.

…and Wreaths

Our wreath making workshop is today, we’re really looking forward to seeing the results of this second festive foliage event with all the foliage coming from Uppark garden. Below Judy and Assistant Gardener Jen during last year’s workshop.

Join Us at Uppark

Father Christmas at Uppark  – 6, 7, 14 & 21 December 2014 (11am -3pm)

 

 

 

 

 

Uppark Garden Tours – A Volunteer’s Perspective

 

Above Beautiful image of Uppark House and South Meadow taken by Stephen Allum during the recent Cameras at Dawn event at Uppark

I was lucky enough to join the Uppark Volunteer Garden Team in November 2013 but wasn’t really sure what I’d let myself in for until I’d completed my first rainy morning learning how to control an axe and getting to grips with the general principles of hedge-laying. By April, following subsequent involvement with Christmas themed installations in the garage and stables combined with some fairly reasonable chunks of screen creation, leaf sweeping, scrub bashing, shrub pruning, post-chainsaw clearing up, lawn mowing, edging, bed mulching, weeding and more mulching (yes, more of it) all throughout various flavours of West Sussex South Downs weather (either more or less welcome depending on one’s taste for rain!) all topped off with a couple of initial blog pieces, my eyes had been well and truly opened to the opportunities and challenges that an Uppark Garden Volunteer might expect to enjoy.

Above Uppark Garden Volunteers Joy (left) and David Edyvean (right)

Below Uppark Garden Volunteers From left to right –  Joy, Judy and Liz building a dead hedge

Given the range of our activities and Andy’s desire to develop his volunteer team, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised when he asked if I’d like to be put on the Uppark Garden Tour rota for the summer. I’m no stranger to speaking in front of various sized audiences but given my relatively narrow and necessarily amateur grasp of detailed plant nomenclature, I worried that this request really would reveal the charlatan behind the mask and let both the team and our visitors down. Once I’d thought things through, however, I realised that many of the visitors I’d spoken to since we re-opened in March had a genuine interest in how the garden team operated and wanted to know what we had been doing over the winter, what our plans were for the spring and summer and how insight into Andy’s vision for the garden would, if only on a fairly basic level, increase their understanding and enjoyment of the garden. I’ve decided to be upfront, explain that I’m not a plantsman but that I will answer as many questions as I can and that the aim of my tour is to communicate my growing love for the house and garden, provide insight into what goes on behind the scenes, describe what the garden team have been working on and add an interpretative twist to the major themes in progress.

Above A team of Alitex volunteers join the garden team to lend a hand

I needed to crystallise my understanding of key features of the garden whilst preparing for my version of an Uppark Garden Tour. I’m still learning but it’s fascinating to see how the story of the house and its high society connections, spill into and colour our interpretation of the garden. For example, I find it’s easiest to think of Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh working with Capability Brown whilst his son, Sir Harry, took up with Humphry Repton; the original model for the “urn on the mound” is in the Louvre and Mrs Coade’s artificial stone was an easy to work and weather resistant material popular with the very highest ranks of society although it’s use had largely died out by the 1840s; an entry in Sir Matthew’s 1758 account book makes mention of “Gothick seats at Uppark £70 19s 7d”; the original entrance to the house was on the east side and the North Portico and drive we’re all so familiar with today was a later Repton commission. So many tales – the Grand Tour, after dinner entertainments for the gentlemen, tunnels, The Time Machine, a dairy maid with an alluring voice….

Above Garden volunteer Judy (left) and former Assistant Gardener Jenny (right) at a Christmas wreath making workshop in 2013

Above Judus tree (Cercis siliquastrum) taken by Stephen Allum during the Cameras at Dawn event.

The tour also encouraged me to try and improve my plant knowledge and pay more attention to what I’ve been so busily weeding and mulching around. Jenny Swatton kindly gave me some pointers towards some stand out May plants and what to expect as spring moves into summer. Again, the characters and stories from the house are intertwined with those of the garden :– a planting project, begun by Assistant Gardener Jo in 2013 to restore one of our main borders to a much closer approximation of what it would have contained between 1810 – 1830 is also now starting to add some colour to the garden with its white Grape Hyacinth (Muscari) and yellow Spanish Gorse (Genista hispanica) and gold leaf Mock Orange (Philadelphus coronarius ‘Aureas’) already combining with the dark purplish green of  Bronze Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’) to bring some interest back to a formerly over grown northern area of the garden; the Judas Trees (Cercis siliquastrum) are starting to bud in a very colourful way; although now passed their best, the island bed’s Crown Imperial (Fritillaria imperialis) have been a constant source of interest over the past weeks; our recently established cut flower garden aims to provide a range of colourful decoration for the house this summer including Larkspur, Love In A Mist, Sunflowers, Lily Of The Valley and Bellflower; the re-designed and newly planted Scented Garden lies, we think, within the footprint of Repton’s proposed Rose Garden and we’re using a combination of old roses with an authentically calm colour palette with scented herbs such as lavender, rosemary and sage and herbaceous perennials including Hesperis matronalis (sweet rocket), Dianthus plumarius (cottage pink), Crambe cordifolia (flowering sea kale) to create an oasis of perfumed peace for all.

Nothing stands still in a garden and the house is full of surprises too. Try one of our Garden Tours, we run them every Thursday at 2:00 p.m, and don’t miss our eleven Unravelled installations which are now in situ until Sunday 2^nd November.

If you’d like to join the volunteer team at Uppark there’s more information here

 

 

 

 

 

Uppark Christmas Wreath Making Workshop

Judy and Jen from the garden team during our Christmas wreath making workshop.

Some great creations.

A frenzy of festive activity, leads to some beautiful wreaths.

#NTChristmas at Uppark

This year Father Christmas is at Uppark on these dates 1, 7, 8, 15 & 22 December 2013

The garden team have been very busy dressing the Stables this week and it’s a celebration of our wonderful Grand Tour theme in 2013. Earlier in the year we brought you Grand Tour Flowers and for Christmas, come sail with us as we bring you The Owl and the Pussycat.

Once this event is set up, the garden team will be turning their attention to preparing for our first Wreath Making Workshop on 5 December. This is now fully booked and if it’s a success, we may run more workshops next year.