Gardener Stephen Gifford on Peel’s’ plenty in the Walled Garden

Stephen Gifford has spent his career tending to the gardens of Britain’s manors and estates. Today he can be found, pitchfork in hand, restoring Hampton Manor’s Walled Garden to glory its Victorian predecessors could only have dreamed of. Gardening is in his blood, and a year and a half on, the transformation speaks for itself. So, as new projects thrust the garden into the heart of life at the Manor, we thought it was time you heard from the man himself as to what you can expect to greet you across the seasons, sown with handy tips along the way… 

James and Fjona have been steadily weaving sustainable practices into the core of the Manor. So, we’d call it serendipitous that their decision to begin the restoration of the Walled Garden was accompanied by an introduction to Stephen, whose horticultural resume included an impressive stint at Ryton Organic Gardens. But how do you nurture an organic kitchen garden when quality produce is imperative? Stephen enlightens us:

“We’re lucky. Because the garden’s not been used as an allotment for so long, the pests haven’t found us yet. If there were anything threatening I’d use a thing called soft soap. If you see a plant going under then it’s best to nip it in the bud to prevent anything from spreading. But mainly I’ve been trained in preventative rather than reactive measures. If you can stop the pests from getting there in the first place then you’re going to do far better than attacking them once they’re settled.

Tip: “Try putting soft bottle tops on things that might get pecked, like newly planted seedlings. They’ll act as a barrier for a little while.”

So, with his bottle tops and soft soap in hand, lets dive into the seasons at the Manor:

Winter 

“Having such winters as we do means that the salads and flowers have to be greenhouse or polytunnel grown. The greenhouse area is being restored, and that will help a huge amount with the winter crops. We’ll be growing rocket, cress, basil, thyme, fennels and cucumber and Nastersian flowers. I’ve also started potting about eight varieties of tomato; yellow, white, stripy and sweet grape among them.”

Spring 

“Of course, this time of year we’re inundated with flowers outside, which the chefs pick almost every day at the moment. They’re loving the broad bean, pea and purple chive flowers, the lovage and something called sweet marjoram which is an alternative to oregano. One thing I will say is that the Peel’s chefs don’t like my frilly parsley. They want a thing called plain leaf, Italian parsley. They really are iffy about my lovely parsley!”

Tip: “A lot of herb flowers are actually very edible until they come to seed. Try leaving your radish pods for a couple of months. They’ll shoot up in hight, producing lovely, succulent little pods which are very edible.”

“As far as vegetables are concerned this is a bit of an odd time. It’s called The Hungry Gap. All the winter stuff like pumpkins, leeks and broccoli are finished, but none of the new stuff has started cropping yet. It’s such a verdant month, but actually most of the cabbages, kale and potatoes are still in the ground. You’ll go into the allotment and all you’ll see are a lot of onions, and you’ll think “there’s not a lot here”, but it’s all underground.”

Summer

“When we come towards Autumn I will be sowing a lot more leafy, herby things like rocket, pak choi and red, green and yellow lettuce. I’m certainly finding it hard to grow things that like slight moisture through these hot summers, like radishes. The tiniest bit of heat and dryness and the shoot up to seed and don’t have that crunchy root on them any more. Root vegetables like turnips also get stressed a bit more by the dry heat.”

Tip: “Try growing peas and French beans this summer. They thrive in the heat!”

“The walls used to be trained with fruit, so that was one of the first things that James wanted me to implement. We inherited quite a few blackcurrant bushes from the previous allotments so we made a bed around them. We’re also growing gooseberries, raspberries, loganberries, thornless blackberries and strawberries, all growing on the South and East facing walls. The fruit is behind the flower border because fruit flowers just as nicely as flowers do. We’ve also planted a couple of apricot trees on the South facing wall.”

“James also expressed an interest in more difficult fruits like blueberries and honeyberries, but they are a little more exacting in their needs because they need ericaceous soil and if you plant them in ordinary garden soil they will sulk. You have to have a special medium for them. This is something that I’m trying to spike and take a lot of cuttings of.”

The Future 

Something that Stephen seems enamoured with is the potential for experimentation. This is a space where he is free to grow the unusual, unexpected and altogether delicious produce that won’t be seen in your typical English country garden. We ask him what plant he’s most excited about growing, and he lets us in on a little green-fingered secret.

“Gosh, there are so many plants that I’m excited about. There’s one plant which is very off-beat called a tiger nut. It grows a lot of little roots, and when you dry them they’re just like nuts. I’ve got quite a few that I’ve sprouted, so I’m interested to see if they harden up. My liquorice roots are also slowly coming on.

Tip: “I’ll let you into a secret; I go to so many gardens, and on my garden rounds if I see a plant I haven’t seen before and is doing well, I pinch a little bit and try to plant it. It doesn’t do the plant any harm and I just take a couple of stalks and put them in water, then in the earth, and if they root then hey presto!”

There couldn’t be more trusted hands to tend this land. Keep a lookout for unique flavours and bountiful produce at Peel’s and, if you will, please ask the chefs “where’s the frilly parsley?”!