July | 2023 | The Hospice Gardener

The last couple of weeks have been really busy at the hospice. We’ve had a new gazebo erected, the BBC have been to film our gardens, and we’ve planted up our part of the of BBC NW Tonight’s “Northern Star” garden prior to the Tatton Flower Show.

Firstly, the gazebo. It has been a long time coming, but definitely worth the wait. In was donated in memory of Tracy by her family and friends, and made by Woodmines, a local company specialising in bespoke gazebos. It arrived two days before the BBC came to film, and was constructed within the day.

The roof is made from sweet chestnut shingles and looks beautiful from both the outside and the inside.

We, and the family, are delighted with the final product.

The BBC came to film our gardens on the Friday. Thankfully the weather held out and they looked fabulous. We were due to have the weather forecast from the gardens, but due to unforeseen circumstances this sadly wasn’t possible.

Over the last couple of days four of us have been at Tatton planting up our garden, with a bit of guidance from The Ninja Gardener. I was surprised at how hard work it was and how long it took. The flower bed is 4m x 1.5m and contains a tree, two large hydrangas, two chairs and about 120 plants! We enjoyed ourselves and are delighted with the final garden, which I can’t show you until after the show opens.

As you can see from the above photo, it was VERY windy on the Friday and Saturday, which proved somewhat challenging. But thankfully we avoided most of the heavy rain showers. I’m so excited about the show opening!

The other thing that has happened in the midst of the gazebo, filming and Tatton, is that we have been judged as part of NW in Bloom. The two judges came on Wednesday and all seemed to go really well. They were both very impressed and one said that it was definitely the nicest garden that he had judged this year! Here are a few photos from this week.

We have had a lot of evening primrose growing this year. They tend to spread rather a lot, but look great and add some height to the flower beds. Another plant that does this are the Crocosmia ‘lucifer’. They have done really well this year, but my phone’s camera seems to struggle caputuring them (red very saturated).

I’m heading off to work now. Tatton starts this Wednesday (19th July) for RHS members, and is open to the general public from Thursday to Sunday. If you are going, come and say hello to me or my team who will be stationed at the BBC’s Northern Star garden.

It is with great excitement that I can announce that Wigan and Leigh Hospice has been asked to be a part of BBC NW Tonight’s show garden at the RHS Tatton Flower Show, which is held between 19th and 23rd July. There are going to be five community groups from the North West involved in the garden, which is being called “The Northern Star”. It has been designed by Lee Burkhill, aka The Ninja Gardener, from Garden Rescue fame. This coming Friday (7th July) BBC NW Tonight are coming to the hospice to film a short piece about the hospice gardens and their importance in helping patients and their families. And Kay Crewdson is going to present the weather from the hospice. I am so excited about it all. It will be lovely to show off our gardens to a wider audience, and especially great to be involved at Tatton, where I will be out of my comfort zone.

A few weeks ago we had a training session at RHS Bridgewater, where we were able to meet Lee and Kay and the other community groups involved.

Me with Lee Burkhill and some of the volunteers from the hospice

In order to get the gardens looking in tip top shape in time for the BBC, we had 23 volunteers come and help out, planting up hundreds of bedding plants kindly donated by Wigan Council. There were two seperate groups that came. The first was the “Early Engagement Team” from Wigan Council.

And the second was from Atlanta Insurance, who have been several times before helping to put up the Christmas trees.

The volunteers were amazing and got so much done in the day. I am very grateful!

This week is going to be exciting for another reason. A year ago the family of a young woman who sadly died at the hospice offered to buy a wooden gazebo for the gardens. It has been a very long process , but I think that it finally going to be put up this week. It has been made by a local company called Woodmines, who have so helpful. This is where it is going to go…

The base has been kindly donated a local company.

Once the gazebo has been put up I will post a photo.

The wildflower garden, which the gazebo is going to be in front of, continues to do well. A new plant that I haven’t seen in it before is Betony. Hopefully it will spread in the coming years.

Another wildflower that I hadn’t seen in the gardens before is common Centuary, a pretty, delicate pink flower.

One flower which we don’t have at the hospice, but which I recently saw in Suffolk whilst on holiday, is Tragopogon porrifolius, or salsify. What a stunning flower, and one which I may try to get growing at the hospice.

Last week Elaine, one of the regular volunteers, noticed a beautiful 6 spot burnet moth amongst the wildflowers. What a beauty!

I spotted another insect recently which caught my eye. A sabre wasp…

Back in March I posted about an ophion wasp which had stung me. The sabre wasp is another member of a group of parasitoid wasps known as the Ichneumons. Ichneumon wasps they lay their eggs in, or near, a living host, usually a caterpillar or other insect larvae. When the eggs hatch, the grubs start to eat the host alive, starting with the muscle tissue and leaving the vital organs till last, thus keeping the host alive for as long as possible. The female sabre wasp lays her eggs on the wood boring larvae of the large horntail wasp. In order to do this, she has to drill a hole into the wood using her long egg laying tail. This may take up to an hour, and if she finds a suitable host, she will lay her eggs on them. As grusome as this is, I was excited to see one as it justifies leaving log piles around the grounds. And it is lovely to see such a diversity of species.

On this note I am going to sign off to start getting ready for the busy week ahead. If you want to see the gardens, they will be on NW Tonight on Friday 7th July at 6.30pm. For those who don’t live in the North West, it can be watched on BBC i-Player from just after 7pm, but it is only available for 24 hours. And it would be lovely to see you at the Tatton Flower Show between the 19th and 23rd July.

Take care, JIM x