It may still officially be winter but it is a good time to get out on a crisp sunny day to enjoy the displays of snowdrops, the harbinger of spring, at West Dean. The award-winning gardens re-open on 3 February after the winter closure.
This month Sarah Wain writes about the significance of the Victorian glasshouses.
The walled kitchen garden at West Dean was the original "top ground" or upper kitchen garden, with the existing layout developed in the 1990's. Today the area is laid out using the classic Victorian design. Read more about this award-winning area which attracts visitors from around the world.
Gorgeous autumnal weather - dry still and colourful means there's something for everyone to enjoy in the gardens. Glasshouse cleaning has started in earnest and we're moving from a season of glasshouse displays to the housekeeping months, so still a busy time.
For the past 25 years Jim Buckland has managed West Dean Gardens with Sarah Wain, Gardens Supervisor. Read more about Jim in this blog with his plants by numbers....
Autumn weather can be glorious - it's my favourite season, and we're hoping that the sun will shine this autumn to entice you into the gardens at West Dean.
25 Years of Glorious Gardening
In 1991 Head Gardeners, Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain, began renovating the 19th century landscape at West Dean Gardens. To mark this we've been celebrating 25 Years of Glorious Gardening this year at West Dean which we continued with a Garden Party on the picnic lawn.
Find out what's involved in volunteering at West Dean Gardens in this blog about Thelma Jack, a keen gardener and horticulturist, who has been helping out for over nine years at West Dean. Having trained as a teacher, studied horticulture and taught rural science for many years, Thelma certainly has a lot to offer. The team spirit between the staff and volunteers makes her feel like they are one big family.
Is there a more exhausting job than hauling long one-inch diameter hoses full of water around a garden and remembering to turn them off and on? Probably, but at the time it doesn't seem that way. After all the rain in June, July has been incredibly dry at West Dean, great for flowers but not so great for vegetables.
Oh July! The month we've all been working towards from the beginning of the season thinking unreasonably that we will be on top of all the early seasonal work by the time it arrives - not so!