That's one year gone already!

Standing in front of the Herbaceous Border in the Dairy - July 2018

So the time has finally come, my year working as a gardens student at Waddesdon has come to an end. I have learnt so much from everyone there and I really happy to have met so many knowledgeable people. This last year has gone by so quickly. Before I knew it, it was Christmas then Easter and then I blinked and August rolled back around again.
Here are some highlights from my year:

Bachelor's wing at Waddesdon Manor - August 2017

August 2017- Last August I arrived at Waddesdon and was immediately astounded by the size and beauty of the manor and gardens. I felt so fortunate to be able to work somewhere that clearly takes pride in their Victorian style bedding. The picture is from right at the beginning before I even started working at Waddesdon. I was due to move in that afternoon but I decided to explore a little in the morning.  It was great fun wandering around the grounds with my parents who were as equally gobsmacked.

Daffodil Valley - September 2017

September 2017- 3 weeks in and almost settled. I was missing home a little bit but having great fun at the same time. First time working with the Turf Team and we were on Daffodil valley cutting and raking the long grass. Truly hard work rolling the hay downhill so that it could be picked up by the tractor later on. Daffodil valley is home to a large collection of Daffodils and Orchids. The long grass is cut and then removed to avoid adding nutrients into the soil. Wildflower areas thrive on poor soil and if grass clippings are left to break down they make the soil more fertile.

Cylinder mowing - October 2017

October 2017- First time using a cylinder mower on a formal lawn and I think I did a pretty good job. Still room for improvement though. This picture was taken in the Dairy at Waddesdon. The craft gardener there is a fantastic teacher and really patient. My track record with machinery is sometimes ambiguous but I am improving, largely due to the team at Waddesdon, so that is all that matters.

Christmas trees arriving on site - November 2017

November 2017- Christmas! In November... Still seems way to early to me but after seeing the season through I totally get why they start preparing so early at Waddesdon. It is a massive spectacle including a fair, a few installations and a light show. I don't think I was very much help the day they brought the trees in but it was such a site to see. A truck brought the trees onto the estate and put them into position for us. The next couple of weeks saw us putting over 5000 lights on the entrance drive, silk street, trees alone.

Frozen pond in the Dairy. This is the same pond I fell into not long before this picture was taken.

December 2017- So much snow. I spent a lot of time at home this month because of Christmas but I didn't miss the snows in early December. Such a lot of snow in a short period of time for a place that isn't used to that. It felt pretty similar to the cold winters of home so I coped well enough. Still... I complained about the cold a lot. I think you have to. Otherwise, you go snow crazy!

Fruit pruning - January 2017

January 2018- This was another first for me. Fruit tree pruning. This month I helped the team in the Dairy give their apples and pears their winter pruning. We started by taking out any dead, damaged and diseased wood. Then we thinned out the branches so that in Spring the branches would have more air flow through them. Then we shortened the previous year's growth by about a third to encourage new growth in the spring. This was a quite a challenge in the beginning but once I had got my eye in, it became easier as the day progressed.

 

                          Herbaceous Border - February 2018 and July 2018

February 2018- I think this was my favourite project while at Waddesdon. This project started in February but actually ran right on until I left at the end of August. The aim was to design, plant and maintain a mixed herbaceous Border. Myself and another student came up with our ideas then combined the two to make one border. This meant right from the beginning we had to compromise about plants and ideas. As the spring and summer progressed we soon realised that we would have to make even more compromises. Due to the poor spring and then the heatwave early on in summer many plants failed to germinate, grew poorly or were very slow to start. This meant we had to choose some new plants for the area quickly and switch up the original plan slightly. However, I think it worked out well in the end and all of these lessons will be taken on forward in the future.

Spring bedding - March 2018

March 2018 - A lot of the Spring bedding went in in the October due to the Tulip bulbs. In March we had the last of the Spring bedding to put in which were mainly yellow, red and white Pansies. Although not as cold as it had been, the ground was still quite cold and my fingers went numb a few times.

Amelanchier planting at Windmill Hill - April 2018

April 2018- Although I wasn't involved much with the maintenance of Windmill Hill other than mowing. I was there to see the Amelanchier planting in the courtyard flowering. It was an absolutely wonderful display of the underused shrubs. It didn't last long but that made it even better and the day I saw it was one of those rare sunny days in April.

Planting the 3-D birds - May 2018

May 2018 - This is one of Waddesdon's best examples of bedding. This form of carpet bedding creates a 3-D artwork created from tiny plants inserted into a metal framework stuffed full of compost. I didn't really have much to do with this except for one day working on the back of the 'Robin'. Most of this repetitive and time-consuming work was done by one of the patient craft gardeners in the Ornamental team who spent over 3 weeks planting these birds.

Carpet bedding in the Parterre - June 2018

June 2018- This is another form of carpet bedding. We created a chain of gardeners to pass along each tray of plants which were then placed into position. A team of 4, including myself and another student, then laid each tray down into final positions. This whole process took a day to complete. This year's design was created by Michael Eden as a representation of the Manor in a pixelated manner.

Summer bedding in the parterre - July 2018

July 2018 - With all the summer bedding finally in place all that was left was to maintain it. This included dead-heading, weeding and an awful lot of watering. With the summer heatwave still in full throws and feeling hotter everyday, the parterre and other bedding around the garden had to be checked everyday. Watering was needed more often than not. This left not much time for a lot else to be done in July.

Chillies in the glasshouses - August 2018

August 2018 - This was my last month at Waddesdon and I wasn't even there very much. I went back home to Scotland to celebrate my birthday with my family. I was there though for the preparation of the Chilli Festival which if memory serves is happening this weekend. I spent a rainy day in the glasshouse 'polishing peppers', so many jokes. We used leaf cleaning wipes to clear the chillies of a faint white dust which had appeared on the plants over time. This was due to the hard tap water which is heavily alkaline. This is the same stuff which can cause your kettle to have a white coating on the inside.

Waddesdon Manor

I had so much fun at Waddesdon. If you are ever in Buckinghamshire, I really recommend a visit. It's a great place to visit with the family and has so much to offer.

With the year finally done, it is time to start something new. This last week was my first week as a 2nd year student working in Devon at a beautiful naturalistic garden. The Garden House is a small 10 acre site with varying styles. I am so lucky to be here and look forward to the coming year. I am sure I will learn as much here as I did at Waddesdon Manor.

The Garden House

The walled garden at The Garden House.