Garden of the Week
It's helping to improve people's mental and physical health
Despite its impressive overall size, Helmsley Walled Garden is divided into smaller, more intimate gardens that urge you to go off and explore. These include the physic garden, a clematis garden, the white garden, a garden of contemplation and a kitchen garden. The latter supplies produce for the Vine House Café, as well as for the staff and volunteers. There are also community allotments – an area of raised beds, where local people can ‘own’ a plot for a small annual fee and grow their own flowers, fruit and vegetables.
The garden is gardened almost entirely by volunteers. Tricia Harris and June Tainsh run it overall, planning and setting out priorities. The planting style is very relaxed and informal. “We've no pretensions about being a manicured garden. We don’t want visitors to be overwhelmed by the five acres. We want them to think that they could do it and take home smaller ideas. We hope people find it inspirational.”
At this time of year there’s masses of flower colour and form to enjoy. “Top of the list would have to be the rudbeckias with their brilliantly sunny, daisy-like heads,” says Tricia. “The asters are flowering their hearts out in Alison’s garden and there’s plenty still happening in the clematis garden, with ‘Doctor Ruppel’, ‘Paul Farges’, ‘Vince Denny’ and ‘Praecox’ to name but a few still in full flower.”
Tricia is particularly fond of the clematis garden, as she planted it up around five years ago. “I learnt so much. I didn’t even know there were such things as shrub clematis before I started researching what to put in. The variety of colour, flower shape and flowering times means you can have clematis flowering from early spring right through to late autumn and beyond. It’s a joy.”
The hot border still looks colourful, although it becomes very 'tawny' by the end of October, as the seed heads of achillea, echinacea and miscanthus grasses all develop. “The kniphofias all around the garden are beacons of orange and yellow, and unless there’s a very early frost, the dahlias create a froth of colour around the dipping pond.” Tricia never used to be that keen on dahlias; “I used to think they were too much faff!”, but having them here has changed all that.
“Special mention must go to ‘David Howard’ – it’s a thoroughly good doer. It will put up with a lot and is hardier than some, rewarding you with large, bronzyorange flowers for as long as it stays a reasonable temperature.”
An 8m (26¼ft) long laburnum arch is neither as long nor as imposing as the one at Bodnant, but Tricia loves it. “When it’s in flower,
I like to stand under it and listen to the buzzing of all the bees that flock to it. In a garden built to have as few shady areas as possible, it’s also a cool place to sit, rest and enjoy your work.”
The garden features a lot of fruit trees, mainly apples, but there are also pears, peaches, nectarines, plums, damsons, cherries, crab apples and a medlar. They are grown in a variety of styles, from freestanding in the orchard, to espaliers and cordons on the walls, to stepovers in beds. “We want to show visitors that they can grow fruit trees whatever space they have available.”
Two imposing greenhouses are features in their own right and provide a range of services. The three-bay ornate Orchid House, which doesn’t contain orchids any more, is used for displaying plants that need a little bit of extra warmth, with a working area for overwintering tender plants and propagation at one end, and somewhere to run courses and display exhibitions.
But, for Tricia and the team, it’s not all about enjoying the garden at this time of year – there's still plenty to be getting on with. “We’ve got all the usual autumn hedging and turf maintenance tasks to do. We’re also planting iris and bulking up our tulip display in the orchard. I’m sowing salads under glass for the winter, and we’re also sowing green manures in the kitchen garden and wildflowers in our annual meadow.”
As well as being a beautiful garden, Helmsley Walled Garden plays an important role in social and therapeutic horticulture – supporting and developing people to improve their mental and physical health through gardening.
Trish says: “It’s a visitor attraction, but we see the prime purpose as a therapeutic space for everyone – visitors, volunteers and staff. Everyone benefits from being in a beautiful, peaceful, green space. We use the money we earn from visitors to help us fund the opportunities we provide for disadvantaged adults.”