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Gardening
In Your Garden Monthly gardening ideas and tasks by Andrew Staib, Principal Designer of Glorious Gardens Fairy Tale Gardens
Exquisite is the only word to describe the Arundel Castle Gardens. From the tropical beds, the vegetable areas or the newly renovated wilderness down by the lakes, the castle gardens join seamlessly a variety of styles and landscapes. Of course the well-proportioned, fairy tale looking castle helps but it is also the rolling hillocks, winding paths and secret rooms that give the gardens an exploratory and fascinating atmosphere. Much of the recent inspiring originality is due to the passionate endeavours of Martin Duncan, Head Gardener for the last 10 years. He takes me on a tour and I can barely keep pace with his lanky strides as we move from area to area. He takes time to greet his staff and make sure they are ok. It becomes clear that his wish to develop the gardens further points to an artistic sensibility. Everywhere is evidence of his projects.
“We have the Tulip Festival in April. There will be over 60,000 tulips and each year we are adding more. We
have also created the first Tulip labyrinth in the world. In the new English orchard over there, we have planted white and yellow Apeldoorn tulips that will combine with blue Camassia bulbs. And here we have the Stumpery - I created this a few years ago”. We look at giant tree stumps turned upside down with a host of Euphorbias, Ferns and Echiums sprouting from the gaps in the arches of the roots. It looks prehistoric but oddly suits the gothic looking Arundel Cathedral, which serves as a backdrop just 25 metres away. This area joins the tropical beds which, given Martin’s Zimbabwe origins, is a feast of well researched and successfully growing palms, tropical shrubs and ground cover. There are huge pollarded Paulownia trees, the Sapphire Dragon tree, plus Catalpas and Chinese Cabbage palms. We walk to the back of this area and come across a thatched hut. Again a structure like this could potentially look out of place but it is a natural fit amongst the vegetable parterres and sculptural Yew hedging. “We aim to build another of these down at the lakes
