The Indian summer has evaded us for the majority of September, with a chilly but welcomed appearance of the sun to finish the month and bring in autumn. The crisp mornings and blue skies are a favourite sight for me this time of year and the sunshine helps keep spirits high as the thought of seasonal change creeps in.
With more than 160mm of rain falling throughout the month, the prolonged downpours have however been well received by the garden. The hydrangeas have made a late comeback and the general feel of freshness has been making its return.
The garden is slowly losing its free-spirited charm of summer and is being neatly trimmed ready for the colder months ahead.
We’ve been having a summer clear out around the Visitors Centre and entrance as the season comes to a close. The beginning of a new season is a great time to refresh the garden and make room for more light and space. We have trimmed the hedge around the court garden and removed lots of dead palm fronds which were beginning to become crowded and dark. The fading light that autumn brings doesn’t have to apply to the garden too!
Planting a legacy
If you have visited Trebah previously you will have seen the remnants of a large Pinus radiata trunk on the bank above Davidia Walk near the bottom of the garden. If you are a long-time member you may even remember it standing majestically above Mallard Pond. Sadly this historic tree had to be taken down for safety reasons following extensive testing that identified rot.
This month, 3 new infant radiata pines have been planted in the surrounding area, with the hope that atleast one can replace its predecessor and leave a new Trebah legacy.
Mallard Bridge Maintenance
The view from Mallard bridge to the pond and out to sea remains a special one which is gazed upon by thousands who stand in the same spot each year. Sadly the spillway and small pond below was beginning to look a little crowded with an invasion of Branched Bur-Reed and Reedmace. To keep this iconic view, we pulled on our waders and set out to remove excess growth.
Reedmace, often commonly but wrongly referred to as Bulrush, was mixed up in error by an artist’s painting of ‘Moses in the Bulrushes’ from a biblical story. He painted the basket in a clump of Reedmace, wrongly naming them Bulrushes, since contributing to a lifetime of confusing nomenclature query.
Tidying the banks
After the freedom of the wildflowers in summer being allowed to sprawl over the banks, there comes a time to simplify and strim back to a blank canvas ready to restart the cycle. Before strimming takes place, there is a solid effort to remove the serious perennial weeds and epicormic growth of the older trees. After this we strim the garden in sections, returning the garden back to its neatly trimmed slopes, helping to distribute the wildflower seed ready for another magnificent display next year.
Tree ferns
It’s been a busy month in the garden trying to keep the summer growth in check whilst giving first aid to anything that has struggled with the lack of water. The tree ferns have been one of the worst hit, with continued efforts almost daily taken to remove dead fronds and revive these beautiful ferns.
The majority of our volunteer workload has been keeping the tree ferns healthy which amounts to huge piles of dead fronds being transported out of the garden via our team and our little tractors.
Island gardening
Trebah is quite a unique place to be a gardener. You need to be fit, agile and willing to adapt to different environments, especially when that includes taking a boat on to the pond to prune the Gunnera on Mallard Pond island.
After paddling across as a pair, we landed safely and began carefully felling the giant Gunnera stems, damaged and displaced from the cruel Easterly winds which roll up the garden off the Helford Estuary. A little earlier than usual due to the dry weather and harsh gusts, the stems are left on the ground with the large leaves acting as a thermal blanket and a feed for the crowns.
Finally, we complete a circuit in the boat, cutting down the outer, harder to reach stems.
So as autumn rolls in we tick off another summer here at Trebah. Christmas, although still a long while off, is inching closer for the garden team as work is under way to collect and prepare material for our secret display. As the garden grows quiet in the weeks ahead, the team remains consistently engaged in managing this magical place.
