Garden Report

My report from the gardens department last year commented on the two previous years’ exceptionally high temperatures, and I mentioned that I feared what my report would include for 2020. Well, not in my wildest dreams could we have predicted the torrid times in which we now find ourselves.

The impact on the gardens from March onward has been severe. Due to the pandemic, for a number of months we maintained them with two gardeners, down from six, with four team members on furlough.Consequently, we have needed to adjust our maintenance priorities. We planned to totally neglect areas of the gardens that could be restored reasonably easily once we were back to normal, and concentrate our efforts on gardens with a higher profile which would have proven problematic to restore. This, coupled with the use of rotary mowers set to cut the grass longer, allowing us to dispense with more time-consuming cylinder mowers, saved precious time.

We are now back to a full complement of staff and, by the start of the 2020-2021 academic year we had for the most part caught up with maintenance work, and it was generally felt that the gardens looked well. I must say that the enthusiasm and high morale of all the gardeners never cease to amaze.

I don’t wish to dwell on the impact the Old Court refurbishments and construction of the River Room Café is having on parts of the gardens, but one positive has been an opportunity to ‘re-wild’ the margins of the main lawns at Memorial Court. This was possible by physically removing the top 6” of top soil that supported the wildflower border in the Fellows’ Garden, transporting it over Queen’s Road and spreading it over parts of the Memorial Court front lawns.

The soil contained a good amount of bulbs, corms and seeds, mostly martagon lily, fritillaria and annual seed of yellow rattle, common march orchid, and native primula. It’s an experiment, but we’re confident of a successful outcome.

We have had one leaver this year; Jesse Morris has left us to develop his own garden design, build and maintenance business. He leaves with our blessing and we wish him every success with his new venture.

Rut Gallmeier joined us in March. Rut came to Clare following her successful Traineeship at the Cambridge Botanic Garden and a year as Trainee at Churchill’s gardens and a period in the gardens at Anglesey Abbey for the National Trust. She has already proved to be a great asset to the department.

Finally I would like to finish by reassuring you that the gardens are in good shape and proving to be an important asset to Fellows, students, staff and alumni. The outside landscape is so important to all
our wellbeing.