About two dozen of us found our way along an unmade track through Wareham Forest to arrive for our visit to Careys Secret Garden. We were given a warm welcome and a hot drink in an open pavilion overlooking part of the garden.
The Victorian Garden is about three and a half acres and south facing. It is surrounded on 3 sides by a tall 150 year old brick wall. The fourth side has only railings so the frost can roll out towards the sea, an example of Victorian skilful planning. The garden area had been untouched for about 40 years when it was bought by the Constantines in 2019 and restoration work commenced.
This has led to mixed tasks of uncovering and rediscovering old treasures while looking forward to what sort of garden is needed for our own times where climate change plays a very important part in future plans. There are two permanent gardeners Dan and Dom who are currently managing the garden with part time helpers. The place is full of experimentation, both with plant varieties and growing techniques, so it is very stimulating for gardeners to visit.
After short introduction, we were divided into two groups, which changed over halfway through. My group started with an introduction to undertaking propagation, the gardens have their own nursery nearby to provide plants for sale to visitors, thus helping fund garden expenses. Then there was a practical session where we were allowed to choose from the gardens about forty varieties of salvia and take our own cuttings. This was tackled enthusiastically by my group, but making choices of which varieties to select was very difficult as there were so many interesting choices of colour, leaf and height. There are plans for this collection to become part of a Dorset wide national collection of salvias. In the outdoor classroom area our cuttings were carefully planted into suitable containers, we then changed over with the other group and went on a tour of the gardens.
The gardens are managed to be sustainable, organic and full of biodiversity. The owners also own Lush cosmetics and so fragrance is an important part of the garden. As we were interested in cultivation, our tour started with the compost area which was huge, with various experimental areas including a wood burial/mound as well as traditional composting methods. After this we visited the stumpery, a food forest full of interesting edible trees and shrubs. There followed a walk over the meadow fruit orchard with its osprey sculpture to mark the reintroduction of these birds close by and a look at the rose garden with some late flowering blooms.
This was the end of a most interesting visit, with most of us having our souvenir cuttings to take home. We now wait for next spring to see how efficient we have been, and how many new salvia varieties will appear in our own gardens.
