Brodick Castle Garden – what have we been up to?

Autumn at Brodick Castle has been something to behold this year, with a wide range of striking colours on display. These have ranged from the bright yellows of the tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) to the splendiferous shades of the American sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua). Both were complemented by the bronze leaves of the common beech (Fagus sylvatica) – the stand of beech trees by the castle was a particular highlight of the past few weeks, especially on the (very) occasional bright day.

The gardens at Brodick Castle are perhaps some of the warmest in Scotland. The climate here is ideal for growing unusual plants as a frost is very rare. However, the biggest challenge in growing conditions here is definitely the wind (the gusts are raging as I write this) and excessive periods of autumn and winter wet. It is for the latter reason that an important job of the last few weeks has been to lift some of our tender plants that were ‘plunged’ earlier in the season, while protecting others in situ such as the banana plants. I have no doubt that a lot of these plants could be left unprotected and would survive the winter; after all, many of our tree ferns are never protected from the winter conditions but they quite happily set seed in the woodland. It would, however, take longer for some of the plants to establish in the following growing season.

Our preferred way to provide protection to the plants left in situ is to build a frame using bamboo or birch harvested from the garden, and then to pack it full of bracken. The materials for this task are often collected with the help of our garden volunteers. The frames themselves can be things of beauty, but this year, with time and labour at a premium, the easiest way was to use netting to keep the winter bedding in place.

Another fairly major job undertaken over the past month or so has been lawn maintenance in the walled garden. This was well overdue and focused on the middle two lawns in this space. An excessive amount of moss and thatch was removed from the lawns through the scarification process before the lawns were aerated, top dressed and overseeded. The moss has certainly bulked out the compost heap! The plan is to carry out the same process on the remaining lawns next autumn, before continuing the turf maintenance regime on rotation in the coming years.