What do you call a glut of Medlars? Our Head Gardener James suggested a “medley” which I quite like the sound of. Maybe the tree has now reached maturity or maybe it was the careful and thoughtful pruning we did last year (I will admit that there was a lot of standing around looking at … Continue reading A Medley of Medlars
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RHS Spring Ornamental & Camellia Show
The weather has not been kind to us this winter with snow, cold and rain. Many of the shrubs that are usually in flower now were not even showing buds. However, Nick, Elaine, Cyril and Jo found plenty of blooms and foliage to take to the RHS Spring Ornamental Show and the Camellia Show. This … Continue reading RHS Spring Ornamental & Camellia Show
North Sussex NTV at the Pump House
The North Sussex National Trust Volunteers have recently started work on a new project in the area around the Pump House at Standen. This work has already seen us clearing the undergrowth around the Pump House to open up the area. The aim for the future is that the Pump House can be used for … Continue reading North Sussex NTV at the Pump House
Inspecting the Nesting Boxes
Here is Trudie doing part of the pre-spring clean-up. All bird and dormouse boxes are to be checked and cleaned ready for this year’s breeding season. The new Ecology Group helped with the task and found 6 of the 32 dormouse boxes had wood mice in, and two were full of acorns. Three others had … Continue reading Inspecting the Nesting Boxes
Honey Harvest
On 23rd August the Bee Group spun the first batch of honey from the Standen Apiary. This was taken from 'Pear' Hive which is the only one which has enough supplies for us to take from, whilst still leaving some food stores for the bees to use during the autumn/winter months. Hopefully next year if … Continue reading Honey Harvest
Cooking up Colour ~ experimenting with Natural Dyes
Synthetic dyes were first discovered in 1856. Before then all dyes were made from natural sources such as flowers, vegetables, berries, bark, roots, lichens, insects, and shellfish. Preferring the softer tones of the natural dyes over the harsher colours of the new aniline dyes, William Morris first started experimenting with vegetable dyeing of embroidery silks … Continue reading Cooking up Colour ~ experimenting with Natural Dyes
Murder in the Barn Cafe – Whodunnit?!
Wow! What a night. I can’t think of another occasion where the Barn Café was the scene of such excitement - or such mayhem. Moneypenny Productions staged their Murder Mystery event Dead over Dinner on 29th July to a packed room of guests dressed variously in colours appropriate to their table’s Cluedo character, in 20’s … Continue reading Murder in the Barn Cafe – Whodunnit?!
New Bee Group creating a buzz at Standen!
Standen's Apiary In April 2016 Standen’s General Manager decided to re-introduce bee-keeping at Standen. Margaret Beale kept an apiary in the orchard which extended far beyond the current orchards boundaries. (Margaret and James Beale were the original owners of Standen). The funding was initially through the National Trust with the aim that long term, the … Continue reading New Bee Group creating a buzz at Standen!
Welcome to our new website!
Welcome to our new website, we hope you like it. Some pages may have moved around so please do take some time to familiarise yourself with the new layout. More content will be added over the coming weeks. We hope to make use of the new blog feature to bring you posts about the garden, … Continue reading Welcome to our new website!