Spring 2022 in Abbotsford's Gardens

Head Gardener Tim discusses what the gardening team have been working on this Spring and what's new to see in the Abbotsford gardens.

The garden team aided by our amazing volunteers have been busy in the garden planting out a variety of vegetables and annuals.

The Spring weather this year has been fairly kind to us apart from occasional high winds, meaning we have been able to plant out with confidence without worry of frosts. This time last year we experienced cold, frosty nights into the first week of June limiting our planting programme.

Varieties of vegetable planted include Beetroot Chioggia, Cabbage Serpentine, Celeriac Mone, Climbing French Bean Cobra, Radish Long White Icicle and Swede Tweed. All our vegetables are grown from seed along with our annual companion planting.

Including Cosmos Antiquity, Cosmos Candystripe, Cosmos Lovesong, Dahlia Redskin and Bishops Children Cornflowers, Nigella, and Rudbeckia. When harvested, many of our vegetables are used in lunches at Ochiltree's cafe or available to purchase in shop.

The Mindfulness Garden is now completed with a small water feature and a wonderful bespoke Oak bench inscribed with a Scott quotation on wellbeing- ‘The freshness of the air, the singing of the birds, the beautiful aspects of nature. It seemed there was pleasure even in living and breathing, without anything else.’

The garden can be described as a room within the Morris Garden, where people can have a quiet moment surrounded by colour, sound, fragrance, and nature.

We have incorporated more roses into various parts of the garden. These include Lochinvar, Lady of the Lake, Meg Merrilees and Ann Geierstein. They are complemented by perennial planting and Clematis climbing up bespoke metal trellis in the Walled Garden.