HEAD GARDENERS


her apples! by Liz Ware


Head gardener Linda Roberts really knows


How much do you know about our native apples? Every autumn, Linda Roberts, gardener-in-charge at the National Trust’s Snowshill Manor, near Broadway, gives visitors the opportunity to find out more about the many varieties of apple that are a part of our heritage.


Linda’s association with Snowshill has been a long one. She’s been tending the garden created by architect and collector Charles Paget Wade for the last 21 years. During that time she has replanted the orchard with local varieties of apples from Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire.


Linda’s gardening career started when, at the tender age of 15, she left school and was apprenticed to a nursery specialising in salad crops. Day-release at Pershore College and a spell at a tree and shrub nursery added to the skills she needed to work for the next 20 years as a self-employed gardener. It was during this time that she came across Snowshill Manor. She was asked to cover part-time for the gardener-in-charge who was away on maternity leave. By the time the position became permanently vacant, Snowshill had worked its way into Linda’s heart and she took on the position full-time.


In these days of constant change it’s refreshing to meet someone with the depth of knowledge of a garden that can only be gained by years of working its soil. Linda’s management of this tranquil Cotswold garden is guided by the notes that Charles Wade wrote between 1919 and his death in 1956. While he appreciated a good garden, Charles


Snowshill Gardens


Wade was not a plantsman. He was more interested in the shapes created by hard landscaping than he was in flowers. However, it is the lines of his walls, steps and alleyways that give form to what Linda describes as the ‘scramblingness’ of the planting.


Despite the many years Linda has spent working at Snowshill, there isn’t a section of the garden that she most prefers. She feels that the garden changes constantly, not just through the seasons but also in the course of each day. However, she does have a favourite time. On Saturday evenings during the summer, she often comes back to Snowshill to water. Then, she says, the light, the scent of the flowers and the peace is very special.


Linda is constantly trying to improve all areas of the garden in a way that will increase visitors’ enjoyment without changing Charles Wade’s aims. But, every autumn it is the apples that take centre stage. All of Linda’s regular 22 volunteers rally around to help with what has become a very special project.


There are about 50 local varieties of apple at Snowshill. Some years ago, Linda decided to give visitors the opportunity to taste them. Today, those early taster sessions have grown into an entire weekend devoted to apples. From the very start, Linda set herself a personal challenge – to collect and display more apple varieties than she had the year before. By last autumn she had managed to bring together an incredible total of 600 different sorts of apples for visitors to see, taste or juice.


Over the last few weeks of the summer, boxes of apples wing their way to Snowshill from all over the country. Friends and contacts from as far away as the Scilly Isles send samples of their local apples. This autumn, apples have been ripening much earlier than usual. There’s a lot of work and planning to be done if Linda and her team are to keep them in top form for Snowshill’s Apple Weekend on 22nd


and 23rd


Linda has replanted Snowhill’s orchard with local varieties of apples from Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire


www.nationaltrust.org.uk/snowshillmanor Tel: 01386 852410


Country Gardener 13


Will Linda beat her record again this year? Why not go along and see?


Every autumn apples take centre stage at the Cotswolds garden at Snowshill Manor where local varieties entertain visitors


October.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48