Friends Newsletter Spring 2023

Moving from Winter into Spring

Paul’s Spring report covers a busy season of tree sales and more work to the new aboretum and tearoom garden

Hello to Verity in her role as trainee assistant gardener. Hopefully many of you will have met her by now. A few more planting days ahead of us. Take advantage of the last chance to buy your trees at 30% discount.

Friends and volunteers are vital to Stone Lane Gardens

We say goodbye and thank you to some of our lovely hard working and enthusiastic volunteers and welcome new volunteers and Trustees to keep the momentum going in 2023.

There are several roles needing volunteers for the year ahead. Please get in touch if you would be interested. Meanwhile, a big thank you to all our Friends and volunteers for your support.

Here are some photographs from lizmaryphotographydevon to encourage you to visit as winter turns into spring

Work begins around the tearoom garden

Dry weather needed!

With 2 weeks of dry weather, the conditions were right for work to commence on the route down from the New Arboretum (Kenneth’s Field). This included the screening of the staff car parking area, the new compost bins and toilets and the levelling and redesign of the tearoom garden. The work was overseen by designer Annabel Crowley and carried out by Alec Robinson.

Volunteers helped Paul and Verity to construct a new compost bin, level and rake the lawn ready for the turves to be laid.

The new paths allow visitors returning from the New Arboretum to skirt the side of the tearoom garden and give access to the toilets and provide level access from the yard.

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The tearoom will be opening on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays this summer. Please check the website before your visit as the tearoom relies on volunteers to run this service for our visitors. We will be opening indoors only from April 7th. The new turves will need time to establish.

Stone Lane Sculpture Exhibtion 2023

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Sense of Place

The Stone Lane Sculpture Exhibition for 2023 will opento the public on June 1st with the Private View

on May 31st.

The theme, ‘Sense of Place’ reflects upon the relationship between sculpture and the lived experience of
place. With Dartmoor as its backdrop, the exhibition presents a dialogue between artist and
the natural world, site

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and memory, longing and belonging, human histories and contested
territories.

£1000 Ashburner prize, to be awarded for the sculpture that best represents the theme.

Our 2023 selectors are :
Neil Musson – A renowned international artist who transforms the way in which people experience
their immediate surroundings.
Professor Paul Fieldsend–Danks – Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive Arts University Plymouth,
Professor of Fine Art
David Savage – Stone Lane Gardens Trustee

We are grateful this year to Caradon Granite for sponsorship of the Ashburner Prize and to Jackson Stops for sponsoring the private view.

Finally, we are now seeking an additional sponsor for 2024. Any ideas?

Paul’s Garden Manager update

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Winter in the garden is a quieter time, when we can tackle the jobs that we haven’t time for in the growing season. Fewer visitors also means we can get some of the heavier work undertaken. Brambles have been cleared from many areas around the garden and ditches/streams cleared of debris. We removed overhanging branches from several large trees in the border hedges, helping our plants and trees thrive. Several trees were blown down in gales. They were all suffering, and close inspection of the broken and rotten roots suggested honey fungus as the cause. These were all processed and removed from the garden.
We have worked to renovate the area above the bottom pond. Verity and I transplanted several Bog Myrtle (Mirica Gale) from another part of the garden and also split and replanted a large grass and a Giant Rhubarb (Rheum).

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We continue to spread our snowdrops around the garden, by splitting the larger clumps and replanting them over an ever-expanding area.
Our paths and bridges require regular maintenance, and we have undertaken some path repair and replaced timber on one of the bridges.

Research We are carrying out ongoing propagation trials, to improve our methods for tree production. Dan Crowley of Westonbirt (National Arboretum of the Forestry Commission) visited the garden recently. He is involved in tree conservation work for Westonbirt and BGCI. He is a useful contact for us, as we strive to play a useful role in ex-situ conservation work, something we proved with our successful Megrelian birch project (Georgia).

Nursery Tree sales have been reasonably good this winter, with several local orders for large numbers of trees. Sadly many of last years grafts grew too leggy, being confined to the polytunnel in the drought. So they were too tall to ship as ‘small’ trees this winter and had to be taken off the shop. However, they will be good to sell as ‘medium’ trees next winter. Our grafter received this year’s grafting material in late January and I expect to hear how successful he has been in the next few weeks. With the alders, we undertook a lot of hardwood cutting propagation in March and also carried out some layering. We await the results of that work with interest. We will soon start germinating the majority of the Greenland seeds, which will be very exciting!

Finally, in preparation for the Spring, we are busy lifting all the unsold trees in the nursery and lining them back out ready for another year of growth.

Estate The pedestrian gate on the way into the yard from the car park was considered a hazard as people occasionally tripped over the sill (you had to step over it). We have now made a new pedestrian gate and farm gate, removing the hazard. A brand new gate would have cost £400 minimum, so by re-using existing materials we saved the charity some cash. This is a principle we apply wherever we can around the estate.

New Arboretum Several trees died during the drought last year. These have now been replaced. We have also ordered in the materials we need for new plantings in the new arboretum.We have just received about 40 trees from our Trustee Keith, mostly originating from Keith’s expeditions. These will go into the new arboretum. The majority are seldom seen in the UK, so will be of future interest to visitors and botanists, as well as being lovely trees in their own right.

Sculpture Exhibition We will be removing the few sculptures that are still left from last year’s exhibition, with the winner going to a new site on the estate.

Volunteer Barry has made a metal tray that can be fitted on the 3 point linkage of the tractor to help with lifting and transporting heavy pieces. This will be good for everyone’s backs!

Visitor experience The signs my brother printed for us have mostly been erected around the car park and yard.

With the moving of the Admissions kiosk to the top of the yard, visitors cannot fail to see how to pay and it is a more obvious and welcoming arrangement. I am arranging for a 3D map of the yard area to be created by the same artist who designed the map in the car park. This can go next to the admissions kiosk. Anna and I will also discuss how best to make use of the old admissions area.

Staff and volunteers Verity, our new trainee assistant gardener has proved a real asset. She has been learning grafting, hardwood cuttings, layering, seed sowing, vegetative splitting, principles of pruning, using hand tools, lifting and planting trees, tree packing, botany, using 2 stroke and 4 stroke petrol engines, using rotavator, Health & Safety.

Chagford Conservation Group very kindly spent another session at the garden, clearing out the bottom pond and de-silting the silt trap, among other useful tasks.

Our regular volunteers are back on a Friday. They are all doing a a great job and we have also welcomed Sally’s new puppy Po. Sadly it looks unlikely that Simon will be re-joining as a volunteer. He has worked tirelessly and with a very positive spirit for a long time and is sorely missed. But circumstances of his employment mean he can no longer spare the time to volunteer.

Changes to the team

We say goodbye and thank you to Ruth Duerden, who has devoted so much of her time over the last four years to her Trustee role, latterly covering the tearoom, and many aspects of welfare and safety of our staff, volunteers and visitors as well as compiling the online sculpture catalogue and Friends newsletter. Ruth has promised her family that she will shine her beam of sunshine onto them first next year.

Tim Imrie moves away from his post of Trustee, having served the max term of 6 years. Being a glutton for punishment, he will keep going with the book-keeping until a volunteer replacement can be found. Tim has worked incredibly hard to keep the finances in order and to oversee the upkeep and repair of the property. He is a dab hand with a paintbrush as well.

Meanwhile, Debra Witting is stepping into the Treasurer role, bringing her valuable experience in business and community groups

Our lovely Sandy Lipo, who came into our lives as a garden volunteer and then played a valuable role as a trustee has spear-headed our social media communications. She leaves to devote herself to her business and motherhood.

We welcome Susie Pope, who is already deeply into running this year’s annual sculpture exhibition, with Nick Parker to introduce her to the role and provide expert support. Susie is also the Trustee nominated to take an overview on property matters. No doubt her background in managing a farm will be useful here.

Volunteer fundraisier, Chris Griffiths also leaves us after sterling work and several successful fund-raising bids.

After many years of volunteering and applying her project management skills to organising events and setting up the tearoom, Anna Imrie now adds a Trustee role to her portfolio. Anna will also be organising the tearoom again, this year concentrating on Fridays and weekends and she would love to recruit volunteers to welcome visitors and serve cream teas on these days. Please do contact her if you would be interested. Tearoom volunteers usually work in pairs, so it’s a nice way to socialise. It can be very rewarding to see how much our visitors enjoy their visits to the garden and the sculpture exhibition.

We welcome our garden volunteer Sally Fulford in her new role generating our social media presence.

All this leaves us with a vacancy for another trustee, preferably interested in contributing their ‘people skills’ and for volunteers to fill the book-keeper and fund-raising roles. We are also looking for a minute secretary and someone to develop our Friends Membership.

Shakespeare in the Garden and Music Fest

Three Inch Fools

The ‘Three Inch Fools’ energetic and musical performances of Shakespeare have proved popular with our audience and last year’s version of Twelfth Night was as good as ever.

We look forward to another magical evening under the trees

We can’t wait to welcome Shakespeare and the Three Inch Fools back into the garden next year.

Provisional date for performance of ‘As You Like It’ is Wednesday 23rd August.

Save the Date for the Music Fest

The Music Fest is booked for Sunday 23rd July

Legacies

Last but not least!

We have been so grateful for the Legacies from the Wills of Friends of Stone Lane Gardens.

A substanital legacy from Margaret Cruft has been devoted to the development of the New Arboretum, while a donation from the estate of Jane Somers Cocks has supported the garden restoration fund.

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This is a wonderful way that our ‘Friends’ can help to leave a lasting gift contributing to the future of Stone Lane Gardens and the beautiful National Collections of Birch and Alder.

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Moving from Winter into Spring

Work begins around the tearoom garden

Stone Lane Sculpture Exhibtion 2023

Paul’s Garden Manager update

Changes to the team

Shakespeare in the Garden and Music Fest

Legacies

Get Involved

About Us

Contact Us