Creating a Canvas

The Winter Walk was started in 2006 by then head of site Matthew Wilson to extend the season of interest and attract visitors all year round. Since he left in 2009, the walk has been overseen and developed by horticulturalist Russell Watkins. As a showcase garden, the walk is tidied up after leaf fall. Bare earth between plants is then covered with a mulch of compost to protect the soil and add organic matter. Mulching is completed by late December to avoid damaging the newly-emerging shoots of snowdrops and other early bulbs. The coloured stems of dogwoods and willows are usually cut back every year in early spring, with some plants selected for the occasional ‘year off’ to allow them to build up their energy levels, depleted through producing new stems. In smaller gardens, cutting back a third of older stems encourages some new, richly bright ones while still retaining the structure of the shrubs throughout the year. The cut stems are flexible and can be pushed into the ground and woven together to create low hurdles for edging borders. The path through the walk runs in a south-east to north-west direction. On a sunny day, Russell advises visitors to begin at the south-east end so that, with the sun at their backs, the colours, shapes and textures of the plants are shown to best effect ahead of them. It is important to consider how sunlight will light up winter plants when planning any garden. Russell is always trying out new plants and, as with all gardens, some experiments have not always paid off. He introduced leucothoe for their attractive leaf colour, but they have not done well, and plants that do not perform are not tolerated for long. “Everything on the Winter Walk has to earn its keep because it has to look as good as it can through the winter months,” he explains. “I am quite ruthless. I give them a couple of years, and if they don’t perform, they’re out.”