This week we caught up with new Head Gardener, Tim to find out about the works taking place this summer in the Walled Gardens at Raby Castle. Part of our ground-breaking Rising Developments, the Walled Gardens are currently undergoing a massive transformation. Read on to find out more and even pick up 5 horticultural tips for July!
Hello fellow gardeners and plantaholics,
My name is Tim Marshall. I am the new Head Gardener here at Raby Castle, Park and Gardens and here’s my July update.
As we start an exciting period of immense positive change with the redesign of the historic five-acre walled gardens as part of The Rising Development, I will be working closely with Lord and Lady Barnard, world class garden designer Luciano Guibbilei and Richmond based landscape architect Alistair Baldwin to bring this beautiful and complex garden, along with the surrounding landscape scheme to life!
Alongside this, we have our trusty onsite gardening team of three Craig, Ben and Daniel which will soon increase to four when our Assistant Head Gardener, Jeremy joins us in the middle of July. As the garden progress gathers pace, we will be growing the team (quite literally!) with further gardening roles and volunteer opportunities. Throughout the month of July, the team will be working in the main garden to clear debris and items to be reused at a later date as part of the restoration elements in the historic walled gardens.
Here are my horticultural tips for the month of July:
- During dry periods cut your lawn on a higher cut and allow the clippings to lie on the lawn surface to try and reduce water loss.
- Make sure that you keep on top of the weeds in your borders by hand weeding or hoeing on a warm sunny day.
- Remove side shoots from your tomatoes. Let them focus on producing a good crop of fruit rather than a lot of foliage.
- Collect as much rainwater as possible and recycle grey water.
- Deadhead bedding plants and repeat flowering perennials to prolong the display.
To find out more about Tim’s history and what attracted him to working at Raby please visit our blog.
If you’d like to be the first to hear about upcoming gardening roles please visit our Careers page.