South West in Bloom Gold Award

South West in Bloom Gold Award.  On 4th October there was the highlight of the Regional Britain in Bloom awards in Yeovil.  Clovelly Community Gardening Group was proud to receive Gold in the Champion of Champions category.

Lucy Halliday, Head Gardener, Clovelly Court Gardens

The gardens team are over the moon about their contribution to this.  And so pleased that our closer collaboration with the Clovelly Community Gardening Group and lovely villagers has supported Clovelly in blooming this year. Planning has already begun in earnest this week for the Bloom activities throughout 2019 with hopes to fill the Clovelly year and its wonderful community with plenty more horticultural highlights.

Detailed work

Work has also begun on documenting the herbaceous borders in the lower walled garden in order to reinvigorate these in 2019. A scale drawing is being constructed to allow winter planning which will culminate in the first section being overhauled in spring. This gives some great plant identification practice for the team.

We have been honing up our machinery health and safety and maintenance skills too with a special workshop to support staff in making the best of our equipment. Our mowers have been busy as such a mild damp autumn is generating growth all around the gardens, more reminiscent of spring. Our sugar snap peas have put on an extra growth spurt instead of slowing down. However, most summer crops are completing their life cycles, even if the weeds are not.

This is a bountiful time of year still and we’ve had the enormous pleasure of bringing in the rest of our squash harvest to display while the skins cure for storage on the original Messenger glasshouse tables. It’s quite a sight, created by two of our fabulous volunteers. Pumpkins are being reserved for the village children.

During a week where autumn harvesting is the main theme, we have juice pressing scheduled to dovetail neatly after the harvest.  So there’s been a big push to get all the picking completed now that the great summer pruning effort is complete. We owe a massive debt of thanks to three of our volunteers, a Clovelly family, who have worked tirelessly for 5 days straight to help undertake and coordinate the picking with myself and the team.

We are now ready for pressing and are really excited about our upcoming Apple Day on the 24th October.