The hidden gardens of lockdown

As some of the UK’s best-loved gardens prepare to reopen to the public, we ask the head gardeners what has been happening behind their closed gates

There are benches in the grounds of Knightshayes, a National Trust property in Devon, that head gardener Jess Evans has never sat on. During a normal spring, she’d be busy overseeing a team of six gardeners and 50 volunteers as they tend the walled kitchen garden and 25 acres of formal garden and woodland that surround this grand Gothic Revival house. But this has not been a normal spring. When lockdown was announced, the garden closed its gates and the rest of the team were laid off.

For the next three months, Evans continued to work in the grounds with the help of just one other gardener. And while the lack of helpers meant that she was busier than ever, the absence of visitors also allowed for some moments of reflection, a chance to sit on one of those benches – albeit briefly – or to wander the woodland paths through banks of rhododendron, hydrangeas and camellias, and simply soak up the magic of the garden.

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The hidden gardens of lockdown

As some of the UK’s best-loved gardens prepare to reopen to the public, we ask the head gardeners what has been happening behind their closed gates

There are benches in the grounds of Knightshayes, a National Trust property in Devon, that head gardener Jess Evans has never sat on. During a normal spring, she’d be busy overseeing a team of six gardeners and 50 volunteers as they tend the walled kitchen garden and 25 acres of formal garden and woodland that surround this grand Gothic Revival house. But this has not been a normal spring. When lockdown was announced, the garden closed its gates and the rest of the team were laid off.

For the next three months, Evans continued to work in the grounds with the help of just one other gardener. And while the lack of helpers meant that she was busier than ever, the absence of visitors also allowed for some moments of reflection, a chance to sit on one of those benches – albeit briefly – or to wander the woodland paths through banks of rhododendron, hydrangeas and camellias, and simply soak up the magic of the garden.

Continue reading...

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Meet the makers: Benchmark – in pictures

When Terence Conran met Sean Sutcliffe in the 1980s, he offered the young furniture-maker the use of the former Habitat HQ, a stable block on the grounds of his Kintbury estate – and Sutcliffe has never left.

More than 30 years on, the Benchmark workshop they founded together still champions impeccably crafted sustainable design. The studio uses natural, biodegradable materials, champions local suppliers and repurposes waste timber as fuel.

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Meet the makers: Benchmark – in pictures

When Terence Conran met Sean Sutcliffe in the 1980s, he offered the young furniture-maker the use of the former Habitat HQ, a stable block on the grounds of his Kintbury estate – and Sutcliffe has never left.

More than 30 years on, the Benchmark workshop they founded together still champions impeccably crafted sustainable design. The studio uses natural, biodegradable materials, champions local suppliers and repurposes waste timber as fuel.

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‘I’ve felt supported by my plants’: how one exotic garden burst into life in lockdown

Visitors are the lifeblood of Jimi Blake’s exotic Irish garden, so what did he do when they had to be kept out?

When Jimi Blake closed Hunting Brook Gardens, in County Wicklow, Ireland, at the end of March, he went into a frenzy of propagating. “I’ve grown 1,000 plants from seed,” he says, including the rare umbel, Monizia edulis (a tree carrot that comes from the cliffs of Madeira), squash, sweetcorn, peas and Florence fennel. “I’ve had time to start a vegetable garden, which I hadn’t done in years. I usually spend a lot on plants, but I’ve realised I don’t need to. My polytunnels and greenhouse are as good as a plant fair.”

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‘I’ve felt supported by my plants’: how one exotic garden burst into life in lockdown

Visitors are the lifeblood of Jimi Blake’s exotic Irish garden, so what did he do when they had to be kept out?

When Jimi Blake closed Hunting Brook Gardens, in County Wicklow, Ireland, at the end of March, he went into a frenzy of propagating. “I’ve grown 1,000 plants from seed,” he says, including the rare umbel, Monizia edulis (a tree carrot that comes from the cliffs of Madeira), squash, sweetcorn, peas and Florence fennel. “I’ve had time to start a vegetable garden, which I hadn’t done in years. I usually spend a lot on plants, but I’ve realised I don’t need to. My polytunnels and greenhouse are as good as a plant fair.”

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Meet the makers: the woodwork of Takahashi McGil – in pictures

Takahashi McGil is run by husband-and-wife team Mark McGilvray and Kaori Takahashi. The duo met at the Wimbledon School of Art, and now make hand-chiselled furniture and homewares.

“Much of what we buy is mass-produced,” says Judith Harris, who chose the duo to join Toast’s New Makers initiative. “Because of this, we are turning more to the handmade, objects we can connect with on a more human level.”

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