We've Reached 100!

Well, I can’t believe it! This is the one-hundredth post from the gardens at Betley Court. It’s fair to say, we’ve been through quite a bit together. When I started the blog for the Dead Gardeners Society, it was intended as a way of putting news about the gardens in the public domain. In sharing our milestones, we thank National Lottery players, who, by picking their numbers every week, support heritage projects like Betley Court Gardens. I also thought it would be good to share what we were doing in the gardens, what was flowering or being planted. I could not have envisaged that I’d be writing about a devastating fire, the flooding we’ve had, TV film crews visiting, or indeed the time a cow broke into the garden!

Reaseheath students, working in 'bubbles' to survey the woodland

This week, we began what we will hope will be a mutually beneficial relationship with Reaseheath College, our local land-based college. The students from the Forestry and Arboriculture department will be using our woodland as their outdoor classroom during the next academic year. On Friday 24 students (all lads this year) presented themselves for duty, complete with hard hats and chainsaw trousers (I assure you, that’s the correct term, I looked it up!).

Mini bus arrives from Reaseheath

We’ve already presented the local authority with a management plan for our woodland, and have permission to take certain trees down, and cut back others. We’ll also be seeking further ideas from the Reaseheath students. One of the great features of their course is they need to learn how to advise future clients on how to manage their woodland, so their suggestions will also count towards a number of modules for their coursework.

Tree health analysis - students surveying in the woodland

So far, the lads have put forward some novel ideas such as dead wood mazes, a ‘QR’ label scheme for specimen trees, and opening out a little used part of the gardens. It is wonderful to have fresh eyes on the garden, and we are very much looking forward to seeing what they come up with. The new visitors’ hub has come in to its own, providing our educational partners somewhere to grab a cuppa from, and take comfort breaks. The lads even washed up their mugs before they left! We could not have accommodated them with facilities we had previously, so the hub has opened out what we can do with educational groups. And I think as long as we keep the biscuit tin topped up, the Reaseheath lads will be happy! 

The lads even left the kitchen nice and tidy!

As we wait for the arrival of our new brochure for the gardens, Andy, our graphic designer from A Spark, A Flame, A Fire has turned his attention to building us a website. We’ve seen some of the site already, and it is looking good. Nigel and I need to sit down and sort out the information Andy needs to complete the copy. We could just do with a few more hours in the day! 

Dan and George's mellow brick wall

Dan and George, our two young builders have finished the wall to clad the ugly breeze blocks at the end of the garages. One of the things we’d asked them for when we got them in was to ensure the new wall blended with the existing 18th century wall next to it. They’ve created a lovely mellow wall, reusing Cheshire red and Staffordshire blue bricks reclaimed from demolition work on the main house after the fire. They’ve even mimicked the patterns in the courses to match those in the walled garden wall. All-in-all, a job well done. 

All best wishes 

Ladybird Su