New Summer Bedding On The Victorian Terrace

**With autumn in full swing now we are certainly finding plenty to do in the gardens! Apart from the seemingly never ending task of leaf blowing and raking we have been chopping back all the Mexican daisies that grow in the walls. This reveals the beautiful stone work underneath and shows off the intricate structure of the Formal Garden. We also have some...

**Head Gardener, Claire Greenslade, shares tips on how we’re saving water at Hestercombe**: As you can imagine in the high temperatures we’ve experienced recently the gardens are beginning to suffer from heat exhaustion - just like the rest of us! At Hestercombe we are very conscious of our water consumption and use. We recognise that water is such a...

This is a Bellis perennis which forms part of the spring bedding scheme on the Victorian terrace. BUT... it has this strange mutation known as FASCIATION. When plants have fasciation the stems and flowerheads appear flattened and elongated. This can be caused by genetic mutation, viral infection or as a reaction to damage from frost, animals or...

My apologies for the lack of blog posts lately, but the more observant among you may notice that I am now publishing under a different name! My time and focus over this last summer has been taken up with organising my wedding, but now I am free to concentrate on writing blogs again! Last week we began the autumn chop back, which is a job I love because you...

**The tenth building in the Landscape Garden**: **The Terrace Seat forms a crucial part of Bampfylde's vision and completes the view over to the Mausoleum.**: **About the Terrace Seat**: The Terrace Seat, the newest addition to the Landscape Gardens, looks out towards the Mausoleum across the Pear Pond, and is the 11th seat to be installed at...

Sorry for the lack of blogs, we had a delivery last week of over 7000 bedding plants as well as our own home grown annuals to get in the ground so it has been a busy couple of weeks! Speed planting is definitely a required skill at this time of year and all us gardeners have to quickly find our second gear - there has also been a lot of early mornings and...

For many years now Philip (the CEO) has installed in me a mantra for the formal gardens..... 'It's all about theatre'. By this he means the drama that the gardens create. Thanks to Lutyens hard landscaping, the structure of the paths and walls makes an impressive impact when viewed from the Victorian terrace. All clean straight lines and symmetry, very...

It is HOT, HOT, HOT. The gardens team are wilting as quickly as the plants and my gentle coaxing and reminders about the how awful it was working in the rain last year are not helping! But we wouldn't be true Brits if we weren't moaning about the weather. All weather and climates come with their own set of problems, but, come on, this is a proper summer!! A...

**Hestercombe was something of a secret garden back in 1973**: The Formal Gardens were so run down that Somerset County Council, with the support of Somerset Fire Brigade, initiated what was to become one of the first major garden restorations in the country. **Read more**: The Restoration of the Formal Garden at Hestercombe 1973 to 1980 - a case study that...

**Winter Gardening Ideas: How To Look After Your Garden**: As the chilly nights draw-in make sure you follow these top tips on how to look after your garden over the winter with winter gardening ideas from Head Gardener **Claire Greenslade**. Cannas looking totally tropical on the Great Plat this summer **1. Lift tender plants**: Many tender species need...

**What a summer! I have never known such a prolonged drought in my 15 years of working at Hestercombe. I’m surprised, and pleased, that not only have the plants survived, but the team has too.**: **Very early on we took the decision not to water the lawns. Water is such a valuable commodity and as a public garden it’s important that we show a different...

**Have you ever been scared to start a project in the garden because of the enormity of it? It happens to all of us, especially when deciding on the size of the flower beds.**: - By _Claire Greenslade_, Head Gardener_ "Have you ever been scared to start a project in the garden because of the enormity of it? It happens to all of us, especially when deciding...

Philip gave us a tour of our 'new house' today and for some of us it was our first peek at the past, and to the future of Hestercombe. As you can imagine the house is a vast project. Parts of it are amazing while other parts are very 'officey' looking through years of County Council activity. But for me the most exciting part is the views down onto the...

The news of the badger cull in Somerset is so controversial that I feel I can barely mention it. But here at Hestercombe the debate is different. We are not asking whether they should be culled or not.... we are asking CAN THEY READ!! We have had a spate of what can only be described as badger vandalism! Badgers are creatures of habit and have decided once...

Some good news from the gardens: our gardeners Ben and Claire have been noticing that there are many more goldfinches at Hestercombe than usual. And rather incredibly for this people-shy species, one is even nesting in a standard rose on the Victorian Terrace! If you have a keen eye for bird spotting, then you may be able to just catch a glimpse on your next...

**Head Gardener, Claire Greenslade, on how we can adjust our garden planting to better suit long, dry spells**: The recent heatwave and ongoing extreme weather is very hard for our garden plants to respond to. Most plants like consistency and are adapted to specific climates, temperatures, topography, soil types and weather types. They respond to circadian...

**At last! The good weather is upon us, for now at least. So enjoy it whilst you can. And there were hundreds of you who did just this on Saturday at our Summer Fete which was a storming success and I can’t be too pleased that the sun shone for the day.** So here’s a few photos **Thank you to all involved**, the event wouldn’t have been the same...

The mowing season is upon us and it is a very exciting time of the year. Everything is starting to grow, especially the grass, so I thought that I would tell you about some of the different ways we mow in the Formal Gardens. **Rotary Mowing** The mower above is a Honda Izy, a four wheeled rotary pedestarian mower, but what does this mean? Rotary mowers...

So the late spring has in fact had quite an amazing affect on the garden as everything seems to have come at once. It's an awesome time in terms of colour and it's rare to admire irises, paeonies, roses, wisteria and cistus at the same time - I love it! It is like 3 months condensed into one. Gertrude Jekyll was a great colourist, it was one of her many...

**Hestercombe has a rich and diverse history; the first written record of the estate is from an Anglo-Saxon charter of 682.**: **Gardens History**: **Restoration**: **Hestercombe at War**: **Somerset Fire Brigade**: **Archives**: **Coplestone Warre Bampfylde**: **The Water Garden**: **The Terrace Seat**: The earliest remaining medieval feature of Hestercombe...