Remembrance

It’s an unnerving week in the world at the moment, as the USA decide on their next President, and in most of the UK we enter our second lockdown during the Coronavirus pandemic. Yet Betley Court Gardens remains a little centre of calm, the coming and goings of nature seemingly oblivious to all our manmade dramas.

Autumn colour in the woods

The apparent calm around Betley Court belies the efforts going on behind the scenes as we work towards the house rebuild. Following our successful planning application to rebuild the roof at Betley Court, we’ve now received permission to create a building compound at the front of the house on the lawn. Whilst it is upsetting to lose part of the lawn, albeit temporarily, this will allow construction vehicles to come on site and drop-off deliveries. The tender documents for the rebuild are out, and we’ve been meeting with prospective contractors who wish to submit quotes for the work. Nigel has a long day this week, meeting with representatives from each company in turn to answer questions on the rebuild. 

Frost on the lawn

There was a decent frost when I arrived at Betley Court this morning. When Victorian landscape designer, William Barron created the sunken lawn at Betley Court back in 1866, I don’t know if he realized he’d also created a perfect ‘frost pocket’ for the gardeners that followed him. Frost pockets describe the habit of cold winter air to roll down slopes, and collect at the bottom, creating chilly micro-climates in hollows, prone to killing off all but the hardiest plants. His design was for an Italianate parterre – ‘a pattern in the earth’, marked out with coloured, gravel-filled scrolls, punctuated with specimen trees and shrubs such as clipped yew. Perhaps, then, it didn’t matter that the sunken lawn caught the frost so badly?

Frosted forget-me-nots in the flowerbeds

Gardening in a frost pocket does throw up some challenges; there are some plants sold as ‘hardy’ that haven’t made it through a Betley winter, much to my disappointment. However, the current design of six beds, bounded by clipped box hedges and shapes gives us a resilient structure all year round. Some plants, such as the dahlias, are cut down by the frost, and I will need to retrieve the tubers to grow on next spring. Others, like annuals, have dispersed their seeds to grow next year.

The flowerbeds in winter

Elsewhere in the gardens, our native wildflower planting down by the Visitors’ Hub has received its first cut. We’re leaving the clippings for a week or two, to allow the seeds to drop, then they’ll be raked up to prevent the ground becoming too nourished. Wildflowers do better in impoverished soils. Hopefully we should get a good show next summer.

Scythed wildflower areas by the Visitors' Hub

In readiness for Remembrance Sunday, Melvyn and Shane, our handymen have installed our ‘Tommy’ in the Peace Garden. Tommy is one of the life-sized sculptural cut-outs of a WWI soldier created for the artwork ‘There But Not There’. The sale of these sculptures commemorating the fallen, raises millions for the Royal British Legion and other charities. We are very proud for the Peace Garden at Betley Court to be part of this nationwide installation.

Our Tommy, in pride of place on the side of the dovecote in the Peace Garden 

You may recall that our Tommy was recovered from the cellar of Betley Court from under tonnes of debris. While Melvyn was restoring Tommy’s paint work, he created a copy in plywood. He’s an ex-forces man himself, and his Tommy has been installed in Leek in time for Remembrance Sunday.

Tommy's shadow

It’ll will be an unusual Remembrance Sunday, as people find ways to mark the 11^th of the 11^th, without attending mass gatherings. Never-the-less the fallen will be remembered.

All best wishes

Ladybird Su