The jury is still out on whether it’s too early for festivities but Christmas has definitely arrived at Trebah this month!
We have brought the outside in, collecting and drying wonderful seed heads, flowers and grasses to use as natural decorations.
Although the garden is looking a little more bare now, it remains as beautiful as ever in its own way. Each season brings new sights and interests, and winter is no different. The lack of leaves have created views and vistas you don’t get throughout spring and summer and when we get that burst of winter sun, the outlook beyond the garden to the Helford is quite striking.
It’s been a very busy month in the garden with the team splitting their time between carrying out their usual outdoor duties and taking on an additional Christmas project.
We’re mindful not to let standards slip in the garden, so we have been working extra hard to keep both indoors and outdoors looking great!
Taking the chop
Our much-loved, long-stemmed friends are gone for another year. Neatly tucked in under a valley of Christmas hats to keep them warm and fed over winter.
Thankfully with our wet, mild winters, the leaves of the Gunnera break down over the season themselves to save us from taking them away. The leaves act as a protective layer, sheltering the crowns from frost, as well as breaking down into a mulch to provide food and nutrients.
The valley looks a little strange now when you think back to summer but it is amazing to think these 10ft stems are back to full size again by next August.
Still Hedge Cutting
Other than that short-loved cold snap that caught us all off guard last week, it’s been a very mild autumn. So much so that we are still mowing grass and cutting hedges. The Griselinia by the Amphitheatre has had its last trim before heading into winter where growth should start to slow until it warms up again next spring.
We also cut the Myrtle and Euonymus hedges by the entrance to Fort Stuart, dodging the hail stones and trying to warm up icy fingers.
It’s hard to believe things are still growing so much at the end of November!
Mediterranean Planting
At the far end of Beach Path, closest to the sea, we have been filling in gaps with a range of mostly Mediterranean plants. The aim is to continue the planting scheme from the very end of Beach Path where the Grevillea and Banksias are, further up the garden.
There are a mixture of plants ranging from Callistemon and Correa to Cistus and more Grevillea.
This added interest should enhance this area of the garden, and given a few years will establish into a lovely addition to the Mediterranean border.
It’s Christmas!
I know, I know it’s still November, but here at Trebah we like to kick of the celebrations earlier to enjoy the cheer for a bit longer! So much effort goes into every last detail that just decorating for December wouldn’t do it justice.
Aside from the very cute Elf’s Potting shed area, the gardeners have been hard at work creating a very natural masterpiece! Almost everything you see on the tree and decorating the pillars has been foraged, dried, processed and strung up, wired on or poked in by just 2 of the team.
The pillars were a total mission of trial and error and our first time doing anything on this scale. We were unsure if the fresh foliage would hold and continue to look good throughout the Christmas period, but so far so good!
Using natural materials can be tricky and presents a whole other set of challenges to think about: the temperature, humidity, the time, the natural opening of seed heads and the mess that can bring. Everything is all an experiment and we have learnt a lot in the process: for example, the Acanthus seed pods that were hung on the tree are never usually exposed to the level of heat and dryness that the visitor centre has when in the garden, meaning we didn’t realise that their way of dispersing seeds is to explode quite violently which scattered seeds all across the room. After seeing this we quickly adapted by cracking each one open before they had chance to do it anymore themselves.
Another example of learning on the job was the Hydrangea garland we created as the ‘tinsel’ for this year’s tree. If you have seen the tree you’ll notice that it hasn’t made an appearance. Sadly our 30ft dried Hydrangea garland was left a little exposed to the elements over the last (very wet) weekend before it was due to go up and went mouldy and damp at the last hurdle. I suppose there’s always next year!
So overall a very busy month both in the garden and out. The leaves are falling and it is very slowly starting to think about hibernation, although it’s yet to look too wintered!
There are also some beautiful flowers out just in time to keep some added colour and winter interest.
Be sure to come and visit to see the wonderful work the Trebah team has been doing both in the garden and the visitor centre, or book tickets for the family to enjoy Stories With Santa, every weekend throughout December.
