The Harewood Learning team have this Monday begun work on the Harewood Learning Garden, and have learnt first hand the hard work of gardening!

Our aims of the first gardening session were to clear the corner of the garden ready for our pond area to be built, and begin work on our habitat pile.  The corner of the garden in the picture below is going to be where we dig our pond, so the first job of the day was to clear everything from this corner, before any digging could begin.  After raking leaves up from the area to become our pond, we soon came up against a large barrier in the form of a very troublesome shrub called a Philadelphus.  With very deep roots, this shrub was well and truly rooted in the ground, and consequently delayed our preparation of the pond area, as we were unable to remove it!

The Philadelphus shrub, which needed to be removed before the digging of the pond could begin

All the leaves raked from the area and the Philadelphus shrub still not removed!

After battling with the Philadelphus shrub, our next job in the garden was to rake the many dead leaves that had fallen in the flower beds.  This was a long job, as the piles of leaves were very deep, and we had been told to watch out for toads, who liked the damp piles of dead leaves!

The flowerbeds of the Learning Garden, ready for raking

All the leaves we raked had to be collected, as we would be using them to make our habitat pile, in another area of the garden.

For the habitat pile, we needed to rake all the leaves into a very large mound, in our wilderness garden.  Once the leaves were all in a pile, we gathered lots of branches and twigs from the garden, and laid them on top of the leaf pile, to creat our habitat pile, which we will continue to add to next week.

Further progress on the garden to follow…

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This Spring the Harewood Learning Team have introduced new sessions for Schools, including a new session in the Walled Garden for pupils to get hands-on experience of planting, growing and harvesting their own crops as well as learning about the wartime ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign!

Harewood Head of Learning Jennifer Auty with one of the Kirk Hammerton pupils taking part in our new Walled Garden ‘Dig for Victory’ School Session

Head Gardener Trevor Nicholson delivered the first session to pupils from Kirk Hammerton Primary School who were thrilled to see their pupils learning while getting their hands dirty and having fun in the fresh air too!

The new ‘Dig for Victory’ School Session allows pupils to discover more about the ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign and get some hands-on gardening experience to learn what life was like in the wartime years when rationing and food shortages were part of daily life.

This extended session also reveals more about Harewood’s involvement in the ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign as well as the wartime years at Harewood when the Terrace was dug up to create vegetable plots and the Gallery in the House was used as a ward for the convalescent hospital.

You can find out more about our Learning Sessions for Schools on our website www.harewood.org/learn and contact us to request a brochure learn@harewood.org

Read more about the Gardens on our webpages…

The team at Harewood House are excited to introduce our new project for 2012, our Harewood Learning Garden, based in the garden of our Second Hand Bookshop at Terrace Cottage.

Trevor Nicholson, our Head Gardener here at Harewood will be leading this project, along with Jennifer Auty, Head of Learning,and the team at the Bookshop, fronted by Audrey Kingsnorth.

Using the proceeds from the extremely successful Second Hand Bookshop the team at Harewood will develop a ‘Learning Garden’, with local schools invited to take part in the care and growth of the garden.

The garden will be a focussed biodiversity and wildlife garden used for teaching children about the importance of gardening, wildlife, habitats, insects and plants.

Biodiversity is defined as the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, meaning that different plants and wildlife species will create a multi-layered habitat in the garden.

By combining sustainable practice with planting and features to increase biodiversity, the garden will offer a species-rich habitat for a range of garden insects and mammals. It will also provide a unique and rich learning experience for its visitors. The garden will offer a wealth of habitats for wildlife including:

• Insect boxes
• A pond
• Bee and butterfly friendly plants
• Log shelters/habitat piles
• Compost heap
• Bird boxes
• Bat boxes
• Hedgehog hides

The garden of the Second Hand Bookshop at Terrace Cottage is the site of our new Learning Garden

The garden will be split into two areas –

The ‘formal’ garden behind the bookshop will continue to have a lawned central area, but the borders will become a vegetable plot, herb garden, flower border, mixed shrubs, and a fern and woodland area.

The ‘paddock’ area to the side of the garden, accessed via the wooden gate will become a ‘wilderness’ garden. This will contain compost bays (for leaf mould and general compost), a wormery (potentially suppied by Willyworms), an insect lodge, habitat piles, and willow sculptures and nature themed artwork.

Our Learning Department and Gardening Team will be starting work on the garden from this Monday, to begin our fanatstic new project.

We will keep you updated with all the progress of our garden – subscribe to our blog!

The Harewood Learning Team.

Harewood Gold made from Harewood Hops

If you follow the path around the Lakeside at Harewood, you’ll come to the Walled Garden, the oldest garden at Harewood. It was already under construction when building at Harewood House began in 1759. Its purpose was to provide the kitchens there with the finest fresh fruit and vegetables.

Horticultural skills of the very highest standard were nurtured there; new and exotic plants and food crops were introduced and specially designed buildings made to grow them in. It was extensively refurbished in the 1930s, with modern glasshouses replacing most of the old hothouses.

Today the Walled Garden is still a working kitchen garden growing a wide variety of both heritage and modern varieties of fruit and vegetables as well as several varieties of hops…

The Walled Garden is enclosed by old red brick walls, built at great expense, as brick wasn’t as cheap as stone, but prized for its heat retaining properties. Hop growing is a classic use of these walls – 7 different varieties grow here including Fuggle, Mathon and Whitbread’s Goldings Variety. 

Wharfebank’s Martin Kellaway & Harewood Head Gardener Trevor Nicholson

These hops are now hand-picked by staff and volunteers every September, reviving a tradition to produce Harewood’s own modern brew of bitter and pale ale. 

Harewood’s new Ale will be available this winter and throughout the year in 2012 to purchase from the Courtyard Shop.

Look out for our Harewood Gold event next September… ‘Harewood Gold: From Hops to Ale’

Find out more on our Gardens Webpages… http://www.harewood.org/grounds/gardens

Armed with a well deserved glass of wine in one hand and yet another deadline in the other, I feel ready to tackle this issue’s column…

It’s the dreaded 6 week holiday, a time feared and dreaded by most working parents. Except teachers, as they have the holiday too so are able to take care of their own kids. That’s not a dig by the way, teachers work really hard and I am full of admiration and respect for anyone who goes into teaching and does it well. But how do you entertain your kids for that long? Get other people to take care of them? Well you may have to rely on family and friends, but if you do get enough time off from work to enjoy the odd day out can I thoroughly recommend Harewood House www.harewood.org. I recently went there with Adam O’Neill who does our ‘drivetime’ show here on Capital and we had a marvellous time exploring the house and gardens. Unfortunately, we forgot to go below the house to check out how the other half lived, which I will do on my return. It’s wonderful place and has plenty going on; a grand historical house, kids play areas, a lake, bird garden, including penguins and flamingos. My favourite part is the specialist gardens, especially the Himalayan garden and Cascade.

Its beauty is overwhelming and I could have stayed there for hours blissfully dreaming the day away, but my son was more interested in climbing and going on the zip wire. Entrance prices vary as you can purchase a ticket for the grounds only or a full ticket which includes a tour of the house. It’s well worth a visit. Staying on a garden and outdoor tip – have you checked out the gardens at Roundhay Park? The winning canal lock garden from Chelsea fl ower show is on display alongside a couple of other previous garden entries. The canal gardens by Tropical World have been massively improved since my last visit and these gardens are free to have a gander. There is a small fee to go into Tropical World, which is great on a wet, cold day as it is reminiscent of a tropical climate. The park itself is excellent to yomp around with lots of open space, woodland, lakes and a folly in the form of small castle. Go on, get out there and have some fresh air.

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