An Interesting Year In The Garden...

This year has been an interesting one.

It has been my first full year as head gardener at York Gate following Ben Preston’s departure (Ben left to set up his own nursery, Cliff Bank, located between Huby and Harrogate).

My initial plan was to have a very chilled out first year as head gardener and just garden the garden and let the site run smoothly for a year. It was a nice plan, but it is definitely not what has happened!

As I mentioned last time, we have been working on revamping the White Garden, planting new trees and shrubs and creating a mixed native hedgerow between the car park and the meadow. I think the craziest thing of all for us this year has been having the Gardeners’ World team at the garden to film us, not just once, not twice, but three times.

The first time was a short video which saw Adam Frost visit in the spring where he spoke about the design of the garden and how water plays a massive part in connecting the different rooms of York Gate. Then Adam and I planted up a stone trough in the paved garden with a selection of succulent plants from the greenhouse.

The second visit was by Frances Tophill in the summer; she focussed on the plants growing in the herb garden and also had a look at the park display at the back of the house which is made up of a mixture of house plants and shade tolerant hardy plants. The third and final episode was the most exciting for us as they filmed the whole programme from the garden (Episode 26 if you want to look it up). This time four presenters came to the garden - Adam Frost, Frances Tophill, Rachel de Thame and Jamie Butterworth.

Adam revisited the trough that he and I planted earlier in the year. Rachel worked with Ellie on a section on begonia propagation and Frances spoke with Tom about the kitchen garden and edible flowers, whilst Jamie took to clipping the yew buns in the Pavement Maze.

I know I can speak for the whole York Gate team and say how privileged we feel that Gardeners’ World picked our small Yorkshire garden to feature three times this year, but it is a testament to the effort that the staff and volunteers across the whole site put in to make our garden the one-of-a-kind special garden that it is.

Mark, Sarah and Ellie have been doing fantastic things in the nursery, taking the number of plants and the interest of the species we grow to the next level. The next major jobs the nursery team will be undertaking are sorting out all the snowdrops we will have for sale during our snowdrop week in February and also creating some wonderful moss kokedama for the garden and for sale. In previous snowdrop weeks we have only had snowdrops for sale but this year we will also have cyclamen, other bulbs and some interesting winter-growing perennials.

Our snowdrop kokedama get hung around the garden and have been a big hit with visitors as it allows them to get up close to the beautiful nodding flowers without lying on the floor or holding a mirror on a stick. Last year we tried a few kokedama with other plants, including ferns, cyclamen, small grasses etc. and they worked really well, complementing the other flowering plants, trees and shrubs whilst providing interesting structure and form.

A major job we have been working on this week is pruning the large older trunks of the 14 hazel trees in the Nut Walk. The trees are bent over into an arch but as the stems get older, the trunks get thicker, so we need to periodically replace them. Because hazel trees sucker from the rootstock all we need to do is select a replacement trunk and tie that in once the older woody trunk has gone. Not only does this refresh the whole structure but it gives the new growth added vigour and better flower power. The best time to view the Nut Walk, in my opinion, is when it is in full flower in February during our snowdrop week. The female flowers on hazel trees are tiny and go mostly unnoticed unless you carry a hand lens in your pocket. But the male flowers are long, yellow, dangly catkins that sway around in even the lightest breeze and absolutely complement the carpet of our York Gate favourite snowdrop Galanthus ‘S. Arnott’.

As for your own garden, there are plenty of winter jobs to be getting on with. If the ground is not frozen solid, now is a good time to spread plenty of mulch in the form of bark, compost or better yet every gardener's personal favourite, leaf mould. You can also do any major hard pruning you are planning for shrubs such as Forsythia and Philadelphus. The winter is a good time to give your trees, shrubs and roses an inspection for the three D’s - dead, diseased or damaged.

While you are inside enjoying your mulled wine and favourite Christmas film (Die Hard in my case – yes, it's a Christmas film!) in the warmth of your house, it's easy to forget about the animals that can't come inside and sit on your lap in front of the fire. Please remember to refill your bird feeders especially on a frosty day. Fat balls and suet feeders go down a treat at this time of year. If you also have bird baths, remember to pick out the ice or to pour warm water onto them to thaw them.

It is also important to think about the aquatic inhabitants of your garden. If your pond doesn't have moving water and the surface freezes solid it is difficult for the gaseous exchange to happen, so poisonous gases like methane and nitrogen from rotting leaves and vegetation cannot escape. The temptation to smash the ice must be ignored as the vibrations through the water can startle and sometimes kill the animals in the pond. A great prevention method is to float a football in your pond. The ice doesn't form around the ball, especially if you remember to go out and give it a spin every now and then.

This is my last article for the year so I would just like to take the opportunity to thank the readers of my work and the visitors to the garden. I would also like to thank all of the wonderful York Gate staff and volunteers who put in so many hours of hard work to keep the whole site in top condition and our visitors full of coffee and cake.

It’s hard to imagine life without gardens like York Gate. Green spaces sustain, nurture and support us, but they also tell the story of the people who grow, tend, protect, design and build them. Despite the contribution their work makes to our collective wellbeing, people working with plants, trees, flowers or grass need help. Jobs in horticulture can be hard – seasonal, low paid and dependent on good health and family support. 36% more people asked Perennial for support this year, and as the only UK charity helping everyone working in or retired from horticulture and their families, the charity relies on the support of all of us who enjoy the benefits of their hard work.