It has been a fabulous year for the gardens here at Farringford. The weather has been kind and despite a slow start, the gardens have looked their best yet. It was not all good though. We had remarkably poor harvests of squashes and pumpkins and some of our fruit trees did not fruit.
It was a bad start to the year for pollinators, and as a result of the national Big Butterfly Count in July, Butterfly Conservation declared a butterfly emergency. The poor weather conditions early on were likely to have contributed, but fortunately, we noticed butterfly numbers here at Farringford increased when the weather improved in August and into September. As a garden we aim to be as sustainable as possible. We use cultural and biological methods of pest, disease and weed control, grow pollinator friendly plants, and create habitats to provide shelter for wildlife. In the past couple of years, we have increased unmown areas and left herbaceous perennials uncut for longer. We even keep weeds such as Dandelion, Creeping Buttercup and Daisies in the lawns!
This autumn has been perfect for Dahlias and late flowering Salvias, and they have continued flowering well into November. The stars of the garden this year have been the tree Dahlias that are now over 6ft tall. They have towered over our ticket office for much of the summer and the weather has even been mild enough for some flowers.
The garden team have been working hard to keep everything looking good and we have been lucky enough this year to achieve recognition for our efforts. In July we won Best Small Tourist Attraction and were overall winners at the Wight in Bloom awards. In September, the Estate won a Gold and the Walled Garden won a Silver Gilt at the South and South East in Bloom Awards.
In November, The Royal Horticultural Society announced that we are regional winners of the RHS Partner Garden of the Year awards for the South East and Channel Islands Region. This competition was purely based on visitor votes, we are so pleased our visitors have enjoyed their time here and voted for us. We would like to thank everyone for their wonderful comments and feedback.
Over the winter months we will be improving some of the walled garden planting and keeping our fingers crossed that the Yellow Rattle seeding in the new meadow has worked! We look forward to opening our gates and welcoming visitors back in spring 2025.
“Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells across the snow:
The year is going, let him go.”
Ring out, Wild Bells, Alfred Lord Tennyson