I know this is risky to say but I’m feeling a lot more summery since the Summer Solstice on the 20^th.  As I write this, the sun is shining, and baby birds are everywhere in the Garden.  There are flowers in abundance, particularly in the Middle Garden, and cool shade to enjoy in the Wild and Woodland Gardens.  We have been getting our shears and clippers out to tidy up the woolly edges of our topiary (checking thoroughly for nests beforehand), here is Alison in action!

Our Bates Green Garden Wednesdays are going well, and we are delighted with the increasing visitor numbers.  Word seems to be getting around about Anu’s delicious home cooked lunches and cakes which all go down very well indeed.  The Garden and Wildflower Meadow are clothed in midsummer colour, and it makes the Garden Team so proud to show off the results of all their hard work.

We are currently celebrating the fantastic success of our student Emma Lindsay who won a Silver Gilt award for her show garden at the BBC Gardeners’ World Live Show.  Emma’s garden was called ‘Making Space’ and these are her words to describe the concept.

Art-making, like gardening, brings people together and becomes a language with which to transcend socio-political boundaries. Celebrating the beauty and generosity of more-than-human beings, a garden is the perfect shared space to dream, play, create and cultivate the important conversations that will heal our world. Whether used as a tool, material, ink or dye, every plant in this garden has a use which might inspire creative action.

As an artist and trainee gardener, I take great inspiration from my explorations of the East Sussex landscape. As such, this garden design is not only informed by the creative uses of plants, but also the geology and landscape of East Sussex, so that visitors might share a glimpse of the environment that cradles the artistic practice of myself and countless other gardeners and makers.

Well done Emma and a big thank you to the Garden Team for giving her so much advice, plants and support!

Emma is our current ‘Work and Retrain as a Gardener Scheme’ (WRAGS) student and will be working here until November.  Emma is our third in a line of good, committed trainees and we will certainly be recruiting for another in the autumn.  For information about the scheme please visit the WFGA website

On July 11^th Lizzie will return to hold a ‘Singing in the Garden’ workshop, do come along: you don’t have to be able to sing (I can vouch for that) but I promise you will find it exhilarating and so very uplifting.  The songs are easy to learn but so very beautiful and the Garden provides the perfect setting.