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Cressing
Temple
Tudor Garden Update - Mid Summer 2007 |
| Spring 2007 Update | Early Summer 2007 Update | Late Summer 2007 Update |
After the heavy rain of June and early July the Essex clay soil is heavy and sodden. Plants that prefer the typically drier conditions of summer, like lavender, are doing surprisingly well and their show of flowers is impressive.
Hollyhocks are now in bloom and have mostly managed to remain upright despite consistently brisk winds!
The wetter conditions have generally been good for fruit. Apples, pears, cherries, grapes and gooseberries are growing well. The vivid scarlet fruit of the morello cherry, Prunus cerasus, planted against the wall in the Forecourt Garden will soon darken to a purple black. This is also the colour of the ripe black gooseberry, Ribes ava-crispa, growing in the Potager. Fruit in the medieval & Tudor period was a seasonal delight and a good source of vitamins. Unlike today, fruit was rarely eaten raw and even thought a health risk unless cooked, stewed or fermented in some way.
Flowers in the summer garden include, honey suckle, soapwort, santolina, chicory – a wonderful blue colour, yellow loosestrife and dianthus. Cardoons and artichokes, members of the thistle family, will be flowering soon and are particularly attractive to bees & hoverflies.
As the use of water in the garden is at a premium the fountain will now be running at peak times only to reduce evaporation. However, if you particularly wish to see it running at other times please ask a member of staff.
William Rallison
Horticulturist
