August 2025, Jon's Journal

Hello everyone,

While the recent showers might be disappointing for some holidaymakers, for us here at Trebah it’s actually very good news. The garden, perhaps like yours at home, has been fairly dry so far this summer. Our team of garden volunteers have been working to trim the rather crispy brown dry fronds from the tree ferns throughout the garden to keep us looking smart. The hydrangeas have also been showing signs of being thirsty, which I remember mentioning last month. Cornwall is of course fortunate to be more wet than many other parts of the country, but certainly time everything had a good drink.

We all hear about climate change and the trend towards hotter, drier summers and wetter, stormier winters. The evidence of the garden teams records of rainfall at Trebah over the last five years this is becoming a localised trend in our microclimate too. The effects of which we all need to consider in our daily lives, but when you have a garden with an important collection of plants and trees to care for it can become more tricky. We can irrigate to an extent in certain areas as we are fortunate enough to be able to source water from a borehole, however it’s impossible to cover the whole garden so we need to think about other ways to help. One way is mulching around plants during winter to help trap moisture and provide food.

To help with that, last week a new compost area was completed near our plant nursery, which the garden team have begun to fill. If the science is right, we hope to begin using our own mulch for use over the coming winter to help from next year on. The reality with environmental change is that we need to adapt and not resist, so in the long term these trends will need to inform how we plant and care for gardens in the decades to come.

Our Insect Safari children’s trail is providing a lot of fun for everyone and our events programme continues in earnest. We host Jemima Puddle-Duck with Quantum Theatre on 7^th August and Zoolab returning with all manner of creatures for more children’s workshops on 12^th August, Craig from Squashbox returns on 15^th, our own gardener James Meredew is running a cyanotype workshop on 16^th and for something different we welcome Kernow Chamber Players for a Jazz Afternoon in the Amphitheatre on 26^th August. You can browse all upcoming events on our website and please book in advance wherever advised to avoid disappointment.