Our Chairperson Jane’s review and detailed reporting and expansion of the recent talk given to SEEOG members by Matthew Oliver from RHS Hyde Hall.
Matthew Oliver, (an Essex man, trained at Writtle, and has worked at Hyde Hall ever since), gave us an interesting talk about the Global Growth Vegetable Garden at Hyde Hall.
Designed in 2015, by Lady Xa Tollemache, garden designer (inc. Chelsea Flower Show, Helmingham Hall, Wilton Cloisters), sponsored by Witan Investment Trust, Hyde Hall Garden Curator Robert Brett (Cambridge University Garden & Eden Project), led the in-house work team.
Partly inspired by the Olympic Park gardens at Stratford, influenced by gardeners such as James Wong and others promoting ‘Edimentals’ – edible ornamentals. It was to educate and inspire people about edible plants from around the world, and how we can make use of them too.
I assumed the RHS team at Hyde Hall designed this garden, but that was before I understood the financial practicalities that organisations, such as the RHS, are constrained by. The RHS is the leading gardening charity in the UK, and has many overheads due to its expansion into multiple sites across the UK. Any new project has a price tag, so sponsorship and/or grants, are essential. And, I guess, sometimes the money is easier to get when a well-known or influential designer is involved.
It was established on a ‘brownfield’ site – an old nursery at Hyde Hall. The work began in 2016. Expensive Italian porphyry paving sets were used to pave and define the shape of the garden. Although expensive, and having a large carbon-footprint, it is low maintenance and very resilient to high usage. (But I think SEEOG would have preferred a more local alternative).
Matthew said he isn’t a fan of raised beds; they are ‘unnecessary’ unless for access for people with disabilities. Raised bed materials need replacing, another avoidable expense.
The raised beds were made with 18” & 12” untreated green oak, from France/Germany. (A carbon-footprint I think SEEOG would have wanted to avoid, as we do have local alternatives). A layer of sandy grit was put on top of the original clay soil. Matthew wanted to use 50/50 clay loam, to fill the beds, but it was a 3:1 mix of sandy loam, from British Sugar Topsoil – collected from sugar-beet washing, where pounds of sand are washed off, along with topsoil, all’ free from contamination’ – and Hyde Hall clay soil, that was used. On top of this another 3:1 mix of British Sugar sandy loam with Melcourt compost, to add humous.
All the hard work of transferring pavers, sand, grit, soils and composts – hundreds of tons of them each – was done by Matthew and his gardening team, in all weathers.
N.B Matthew is a self-professed ‘committed digger’, he is definitely not into ‘no dig’.
The resultant soil mix had a ph of 7.8/7.9 so a pine bark mulch was used to bring down the ph. And green manures have also been used.
The circular shape of the garden, represents the globe, the quarters within are for plants from Asia, Europe & Middle East, North & Central America, and South America. There is a bespoke 14m (46ft) wide octagonal glasshouse at the centre, donated by Hartley Botanic, where less hardy edibles are grown.
A lot of the plants grown in the glasshouse are from North Africa/Mediterranean.
There are also grassy mounds around the paved garden, for trees, shrubs and bulbs, all edibles. There are 350 species of edible plants in the garden!
Questions were asked about the RHS’s policies on sustainability and organic methods. Matthew explained that the new president, Keith Weed, will bring in ‘broad reaching’ sustainable targets. Matthew agreed that the RHS isn’t organic, but their vegetable gardens throughout the country, and the Global Growth Vegetable Garden at Hyde Hall are all ‘run along organic principles’. He also said that the RHS has been peat-free for a long time. I believe they sell Melcourt peat-free in their shops?
There is a 3 year crop rotation, in each of the garden’s quarters, but the plants are changed completely sometimes.
Matthew has learnt a lot about different types of edibles, and how to eat and cook them. He recommended James Wong’s books as a starting point, and Joy Larkcom’s. The chef at Hyde Hall restaurant has also been creative with the produce. They are keen on ‘plot to plate’ principles, and cook as much as possible from the garden, for the restaurant.
I have numbered notes, where Matthew described various ideas behind the choice of plants:-
Bog standard ‘grow your own’.
Garden ornamentals – that you can eat – eg. hostas, dahlias, day-lillies, mahonia berries.
‘Supermarket plants’ from a ‘globalised world’ – quinoa, chick peas, lentils.
‘Weird and wacky’ – lupins, vila-vila solanum (sticky tomato), West Indian gherkins, horned melons.
And next I have a list of the most successful plants in the Global Growth Veg Garden:-
Tropaeolums ‘Ken Aslett’ (mashua), a tuberous nasturtium – raw intense mustard flavour, texture of marzipan. Milder when cooked. Not full sun, cabbage white can be a problem.
Oca – oxalis tuberosa. Frost sensitive, ‘day neutral’, fleece in Autumn. Potato-like, small, multi-coloured.
Sweet potatoes – ipomoea batatas. Caroline Rudy/Beauregard improved * recommended. Don’t plant shop-bought tubers. Secondary rooting, tubers forming.
Vila vila – solanum – lychee tomato – spiky! Seed heavy, crop heavy.
West Indian gherkin – cucumis anguira. Eat like an apple- rubbery spines and all! Climbing, more rampant than cucumber. Polytunnel/greenhouse crop.
Watermelons – taste better than shop-bought. Yellow doll, Sugar Baby, Bush Baby. Grown on jute nets and paracord. When is it ripe? If you tap it, it should make a taut drum sound, can leave longer if not sure.
*Matthew’s fave..Chilean guava – ugni molinae ‘ka pow’. Ugni berry, evergreen, spring flowering, bullet-proof, heavy cropping late end Sept/Oct. Autumn strawberry! So sweet! Tastes of strawberry Starbursts (Opal Fruits for us oldies!). Red Devil is a new one, Butter Ball has orange leaves. Can grow in a pot. No pruning; 5yrs growth only knee high. Feed with fish, blood, bone, springtime, mulch with Hyde Hall compost.
Rhubarb – originally from Asia. Our national collection at Wisley and Harlow Carr RHS sites. A.G merit ones, 8/9 grown at Hyde Hall. Grandpa’s early – forced, Fultons Strawberry Surprise – red stems, stunning!
Yardlong – asparagus bean – grow outside. Red Noodle. Sow later, likes hot weather. Get from Jungle Seeds, Real Seed Co. Eat raw or cook like French bean.
Cinnamon Vine/ Chinese Yam – Caribbean/Africa. Outside, ornamental foliage – grow at back of border. Eat root – aerial tubers produce new plants. Hard work to harvest tubers, easier to grow and harvest in 25 lt pots.
Solanum retroflexum – Wonderberry – makes a great jelly for scones! Edible deadly nightshade. Hybrid, American botanist. A prolific weed, dripping with fruit, annual, soft fruit. Has pips, bit seedy.
Phaseolus vulgaris – common bean/French bean – amazing colours. Stew/soup beans. Drying beans. Orca, Ying Yang (black and white yingyang detail), Red Soldier, Nuns Belly-Button. Jacobs Cattle Gold. Check out photographs online/in seed catalogues, amazing! Heritage Seed Lubrary. Montezuma’s Red. Climbing better than dwarf.
Matthew has started seed saving – seed guardian. Essex variety of peas. Beans & Herbs, Real Seeds
https://www.realseeds.co.uk/
In the glasshouse;
Kiwano – Horned melon, Africa.
Ocra
Another part of the garden coming – fruit garden.
Jane Ponton
