Spring in yellow and blue

 "And then my heart with pleasure fills

And dances with the daffodils."

William Wordsworth, 1804

daffodils in white

Spring has well and truly sprung in the Gibside walled garden and daffodils are without doubt this season's stalwarts. Immune to attack from our resident rabbit and deer populations, proof against the coldest, darkest, wettest winter weather our climate can throw at them, they return each year to lavish us with their golden smiles. Their "sprightly dance" continues this week, and whilst we can't quite lay claim to Wordsworth's ten thousand at a glance, there are certainly plenty to delight even the most discerning eye.

Narcissus 'Double Campernelle'

One of my favourites is the miniature trumpet daffodil 'W P Milner' whose shyly downcast heads and delicate pale yellow colourings seem to bring their own light to shady nooks. Our long border plays host to a showy Victorian favourite, 'Double Campernelle'; a daffodil that flaunts its ruffled petals as gaily as any cabaret dancer might twirl her skirt. Inside the walled garden hosts of daffodils fringe our productive garden plots in shades of lemon, white and richest gold.

Daffodils aren't the only yellow flowers to herald the spring either; they're joined by primroses, cowslips and another of Wordsworth's sweethearts - though the bane of many a gardener - the celandine. Around by the orangery, mahonias are fast coming into bloom in fragrant acid yellows, and the faces of pansies mimic the colour of sunshine, their petals stained with contrasting deep dark centres. Even the trees are getting in on the act, and our Norway Maple (Acer platanoides), on the north eastern side of the orangery, is in full lime-yellow flowered splendour this week.

Hyacinth 'Blue Jacket'
and Norway Maple

Cool blues have always formed the perfect accompaniment to warm yellows in the garden, and it seems no other season's colourful pairings have quite the same natural beauty as those of the yellows and blues of spring. Though dormant through the summer months, delightful blue anemones come out to play in the light of spring, and ours, paired with some daffodil 'W P Milner' are a treat for those with half an eye on the ground as they wander towards the orangery from the walled garden.

glittering scilla

On the same path, and continuing through to the ice house wood, the tiny blue flowers of hundreds of scilla glow; these little woodlanders thrive in the dappled sunlight of our deciduous woodland. Once the leaves appear on the trees, the scilla flowers will fade away and they'll store up the goodness of spring sunshine in their bulbs for next year. Again, like so many of spring's specialities, these are miniature dainties, scattered like sapphires on the earth and it's only if you take the time to get up close and personal with them that you'll see their petals glittering.

in focus: Hyacinth 'Blue Jacket'

But if it's a real punch of colour that you're looking for, then head over to the orangery to indulge in the vivid tones of 'Blue Jacket' hyacinths. Forget understatement, here is a riot of flowers, massed and ready, in terracotta, the air filled with the heady scent of their blooms. This is surely the most magnificent of all the floral displays that are on offer at Gibside this week.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Also looking good at Gibside right now:

tiny white anemones in the woodlands

drumstick Primulas in the walled garden

metre tall Fritillaria imperialis,
just about to bloom, in the orangery

Bats and Newts

Well, we've had a very interesting week so far!

On Monday we were checking our bat boxes, so we could find out which boxes were occupied by which species.  Out of 56 different boxes set in clusters across the estate, we found 18 bats.  There were two boxes with seven bats in, one with three and one with one bat.  All the bats were female soprano pipistrelles.  This is unusual as we usually find male bats too, but then we haven't checked our boxes this early in the season before.

We also found some old birds nests, and snalis and other invertebrates, so not only bats use bat boxes.
 
Even more exciting, we have a icence to ring any soprano pipistrelles that we find in the boxes.  This is similar to bird ringing, but bat rings go on the forearm, not on the leg.  The bat rings don't close completely like bird rings do, but they are an omega shape, and the bottom is left open, so it doesn't puncture the wing.  The rings are very light, and they won't interfere with flying or feeding.  Ringing the bats in the boxes means that we can track their movements during the following box checks to see which groups stay together, if they move between bat boxes, and around the estate.  It will also be interesting to see which females are still here during the breeding season, and how many males move in too.  We'll keep you updated the next time we check the boxes!



A ringed soprano pipistrelle bat

 On Tuesday night we set out bottle traps to survey our ponds for newts.  The traps act like lobster pots, and over night the newts swim or crawl into the pots and can't find their way out again.  In the morning we check them all and identify and count the newts, then let them go back into the ponds.  This morning we found 101 newts from seven different ponds.  We found all three species of native newt - smooth, palmate and great crested. 


A pale male palmate newt





The large newt in this photo is a male great crested newt with a partially formed crest - it will develop more over time.  Females dont have a crest.  The other two newts in the photo are male palmate newts.  You can identify them by the thread-like filament at that sticks out of the end of their tail (if you look closely).

 We've got our fingers crossed for another good catch when we survey the second half of the ponds tonight!

Caught on Camera

I recently caught this video footage of a red squirrel visiting a feeder for a snack of nuts and seeds.  Proof that they are still present here at Gibside.

Unearthing the past in Gibside's walled garden ...

earth-moving in the walled garden

Since the walled garden finally shed its car park status at the end of March, things have been moving fast. The past 2 weeks have seen Gibside's walled garden being excavated once again in the continuing story of its restoration. Neither grave-digging, nor hunting for buried treasure, we have in fact been uncovering an important part of the history of the walled garden: planting plates.

brick-edged 18th century planting plate

The majority of the plates discovered date back to the 18th century and were part of the New Kitchen Garden project initiated by George Bowes during the 1730s. As part of this project a row of fruit trees - probably a mixture of apple and pears - was planted down each side of the main path. The planting plates, which look surprisingly like modern day patios, were positioned underneath each tree so that root growth could be controlled: this meant that the height of the tree could be kept within picking reach and that its fruiting vigour could be maintained. Today, if we buy a fruit tree from a nursery or garden centre, it will be grafted onto a dwarf rootstock which will do both of these things for us ... but in those days, the rootstocks were primitive and coarse, so additional solutions were called for.

18th & 19th century plates exposed

We found over 30 plates, most of which consisted of sandstone slabs of paving arranged in a square approximately 2m², but others, more elaborately, were edged on 3 sides with brick. This was not the only surprise we encountered however, for when we uncovered the plates in the west of the garden we found that some had circular brick "plates" superimposed on top, and in a few cases we found no trace of the sandstone squares, and only these rough brick rings. We believe, because of their depth and size, that these are later 19th century additions used due to improvements in rootstock technology.
 

plate number 3 is catalogued

Time constraints, and wildlife factors (eg: ensuring the safety of our Great Crested Newt population just coming out of hibernation) meant that our small team of archaeologists and volunteers needed to clean and catalogue the plates as quickly as possible. Therefore, on the 18th April, the last of the remaining plates were once again safely interred in their earthy abode.

The role of the plates doesn't end here though for they will play a continuing part in the walled garden's 21st century incarnation. We have carefully marked the centre point of each plate and will be establishing 2 new apple tree borders (at the end of May) where the originals once stood.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Head Gardener Keith Blundell as the plates prove elusive

a brick culvert and an unusual plate

tools of the trade: spade, brush, kneeler & pointing trowel

the digger waits for filling in to begin

The Great Wall at Craster

Wednesday 27^th March 2013

Today the Conservation team were at Craster, helping local National Trust Wardens, Kevin and Jane.

This trip (an annual event) had been planned for January but was cancelled because of snow. Except for several brief snow flurries during the drive up to Craster the day was dry but cold.

Part of the new wall with Dunstanburgh Castle in background.

 

A long section of dry stone wall stretching from Dunstaburgh to Craster is in the process of being repaired. Our task was to move stones which were to be used in the repair and make piles of them near to the wall to facilitate the job for the dry stone wall constructors.

The Team Digging out burried stones

Tipping the stones near to the construction site

A length of new dry stoe wall.

Spring is in the air and much of Gibside's birdlife is busy preparing for the coming nesting season.  Look and listen for woodpeckers drumming on dead trees and branches as you ramble around Gibside's woodlands.  They do this to attract a mate and advertise their presence and have favourite drumming spots around their territory boundaries.  If you here one you can be sure it is a great spotted woodpecker as green woodpeckers don't drum but rely instead on a 'laughing' call and lesser spotted woodpeckers are uncommon so rarely seen.

Cherryburn Nature Scape

After the Wednesday group had made a start the previous day it was time for the Thursday group to turn their hand to building the Cherryburn Nature Scape. Rob the Ranger at Cherryburn had come up with the design and we were helping him build it.

Along with some other jobs that needed doing around the site, the team were soon getting stuck in.

The day soon ended and we had managed to get everything done. Lots of fun was had by the team building the play scape, I just hope the children enjoy playing on it as much.