17th Jan 08

Be seated please

Like any good theatre much of what keeps the garden show on the road takes place behind the scenes. Unseen and unsung this work is the backstage support system that creates the stage for the stars to perform upon. And just as it is difficult to imagine a theatre without its stalls so it is equally difficult to conceive of a garden without seating. In a garden the size of West Dean you are beginning to approach the numbers of seats found in a small auditorium, thus we have 40 benches,18 picnic tables and 90 chairs, a significant number both in quantity and capital invested. To protect that investment we have an annual maintenance programme that sees them in place through most of the year. Then in mid December they are all brought in, steam cleaned to remove the accumulated grime of the previous year, re-stained and put back to be in position for any sitting out weather in March, hmm. This equates to roughly 15 man days work so next time you are relaxing on a seat in the gardens think of all that has gone into providing your perch! 

Where is the Visitor Centre?

One of the things that distinguishes managing a garden from most other things is the dynamic nature of the material you are working with. To state the somewhat obvious, plants grow and the effect they created 10 years ago is not what they do today. In many instances this is a positive thing, assuming you got your planting right in the first instance and the objectives haven’t changed, but in others that may not be the case. The planting approaching the Gardens Visitor centre from the car park is a good example. Originally when the site was a newly created wasteland of  kerbing, tarmac and structures the aim was to create some green cushions to delineate, screen and soften the whole area. In that we succeeded, perhaps in some instances over-succeeded, to the point where visitors were having trouble finding the Visitor Centre! To address this issue we have coppiced the offending areas of planting, will gap them up with some hawthorn and blackthorn and will then let them re-grow and eventually maintain them as big hedge blocks to match the existing hedges that are  kept at about 1.75m. A useful by product of this kind of venture is a healthy pile of woodchips ideal as a free mulch when it has been stacked for a period.

 

Cut backs imminent

Another aspect of the gardens dynamism is its seasonal nature which, to a considerable extent, dictates the work calendar. Now the race is on to complete the tidying up of the borders before the bulbs emerge too far and start getting crushed underfoot or cut off with the shears. This is a job that really benefits from having a large number of people thrown at it if you are going to get through it in the time available and whilst dodging the worst of the downpours. Unfortunately, as always, it coincides with a whole range of other jobs so being able to parachute in a team of our hard working and willing volunteers makes all the difference!