My Name is Matthew Brewer, I have recently taken on the role of head gardener at Marwood Hill Gardens.
In all honesty, before last June, I had never heard of this garden but for a chance visit to Marwood whilst holidaying with my family. Upon entering the garden we naturally headed for the tearoom. Halfway through a ginger scone, an impromptu interview with the Garden Manager and my fate was sealed. Before joining Marwood I was working as a woodland Horticulturalist at RHS garden Harlow Carr in Yorkshire, together with a hardy band of volunteers clearing and developing its woodland.
My visit to Marwood simply blew me away, such a beautiful garden, it had everything.Tucked away in a sheltered valley and full of many horticultural treasures. How is it that I had not heard of this garden before? This must change! I had to work here.After getting back to Yorkshire I immediately applied for the role and many months later here I am.
The last few months have seen a flurry of activity to the garden. We have an incredibly gifted bunch of gardeners here at Marwood and a loyal base of volunteers who are happy to turn their hands to any job that needs doing. The main emphasis has been organising and tidying the behind the scenes areas.
Garden News
- Garden volunteer, Tony Stone, our chief carpenter has kindly been building us nine new benches for polytunnels and a further six new plant sales benches.
- Clearing previously unused areas, collecting and filling a large skip with waste, breathing new life into the garden.
- Updating our garden leaflet
- Garden volunteer John Everard our computer guru has been working closely with the team to further developing our plant record system, creating a new up to date garden map and helping us to update our champion tree trail.
- Upgrading our existing plant labels from bamboo canes to aluminum stakes
- Improving our plant recording system
- We have sourced and will be using a new peat free compost.
- We have purchased a new leaf blower for the garden, the days of laborious hand collection are over.
- The garden team have been busy repotting and propagating our plant sales stock as well as taking many cuttings of tender perennials.
All these tasks have shifted attention away from the actual garden. So as of late December, we have begun the big cut back. Working our way through our beds tidying and clearing in preparation for the oncoming spring display
