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Working Holidays
at Hidden Valley Gardens.
Do you love gardening and hand weeding?
Free accommodation for one or two people in luxury Touring caravan in return for
a few hours gardening per day.
Ring 01208 873225 for leaflet
Wanted
Reliable garden lover to work 1 day or 2 half days per week from March to
October.
Mainly weeding, plus some nursery work and plant sales.
Ring 01208 873225 for detailsWelcome to our new garden and nursery project.
We moved here from a cold dry garden in North Yorkshire in November 1999,
bringing with us over one thousand plants. Our initial year was spent moving
soil and trying to eradicate docks, thistles, nettles, and bindweed. The
smallholding had been run as a �Pick Your Own�, but the fruit plants and bushes
all needed replanting.
As the soil is clay the exceptional winter rain in the first year held us up as
we could not get on the land for weeks on end. The winter rains have been a
little less since and we have put in a series of �French drains� to catch the
water and direct it to the pond. We have therefore been making some headway.
We are developing a garden with many themes and we are also encouraging wild
flowers, butterflies and other wildlife, especially around the pond area. Most
the plants in the nursery are propagated here, many from seed collected in the
garden, and the mature plants are displayed in the various flowerbeds.
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Tour
of Garden
Leave the plant nursery area by the four wooden steps between the beech hedge,
and turn right. (If you wish to make a donation, there is a stone collecting box
before the four steps. This year we are supporting The National Gardens Scheme,
which supports a number of charities.) On your right is the long border, which
is planted with rich hot colours and purple foliage. This leads down to the
boggy area with primulas, bog iris and other water loving plants. The pond is
spring fed, but it has too much pondweed, which we are trying to check (shall we
get a pair of ducks?). We have planted some purple loosestrife and dogdaises
here and soon hope to add to the wild flowers. The pond was full of tadpoles in
the spring and has dragon flies in the summer.)
Proceeding back up the garden, you can take a number of routes: the winding
grass path passes a bed of some miscanthus grasses and red canna, with other
mixed planting. Further to the right is the iris bed. This area is very wet in
the winter when the springs appear. We are experimenting to see which iris grow
best and have planted: Iris ensata, I. sibirica, I. laevigata, and some
pulmonaria.
Above the iris bed is the new fruit tree & soft fruit area. The garden was a
pick-your-own business but the fruit was virus-ridden and drowned in weeds. We
planted the area with grass to get on top of the weeds. We now have some new
rows of strawberries, & raspberries. The old blackcurrants had �big bud� � we
cut them down to the ground & the regeneration strategy is working.
Beyond that is the large greenhouse, brought from
another Cornish nursery, where it was even larger. There is a story about how we
moved it, but that would take far too long to tell! At the bottom of the garden
a woodland garden is being developed, with meadow grasses, wild flowers and a
circular bed planted for bees and butterflies.
Back to the garden walk. In the upper garden and to the left is a large
rectangular bed with grass paths passing through the middle. There are four
golden yews, which will eventually be trimmed into cones. The planting here is
yellow, white and lavender blue. Above the rectangular bed, each side of the
�clothes line� bed, are the stock beds, used mainly for plant research and
propagation.
Proceeding towards the small greenhouse is the Mediterranean garden. This is the
driest part of our garden. Here we have an Italian cypress, together with cistus,
rosemary myrtle and lavenders. The gazebo is newly built with a view of the
countryside. The design was inspired by one in the Abbey Gardens on Tresco.
Either side of the gazebo are two wooden obelisks made by my father.
Proceed now to the patio area in front of the house by taking � with particular
care � the steps opposite the small greenhouse (or take the longer, less steep
route on the grass paths). The area in front of the house catches all the sun
from mid-morning, and we have a new pond, and some raised beds using the old
stone from the barn, enabling us to grow plants which like even drier conditions
The bed behind the new hut has plants that require some shade and shelter. In
the spring there are many primroses and small bulbs. Now proceed to the plant
sales area from where you started the garden walk.
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Plant
Sales area
The plants are mostly grown in the garden, and there
will be different ones for sale each year. If you wish to buy some plants and I
am not available, please leave the money and red price labels in yellow box.
There is �do-it-yourself� tea or coffee with biscuit in the new hut.
Occasionally on a Sunday afternoon we have special cream teas � see poster
Bed & Breakfast
We
do have bed & breakfast accommodation available in the house. This consists of
two double and one twin en suite rooms with television and tea making
facilities. It is �24 per person per night, with a �4 single night
supplement. (�32 for single occupancy of a double room). Children (5�12
years) are half price. (Please note that The Accommodation is non-smoking and
that we are unable to accommodate pets in the house)
Tricia Howard Telephone no. 01208 873225
Web site address:
www.hiddenvalleygardens.co.uk
Our garden/nursery project is
receiving support from Cornish Horticulture Enterprises under Objective One
funding for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
This
project is co-funded by Cornish Horticulture Enterprises underObjective
One for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
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