Castle Gardens Boasts Over a Thousand Metres of Hedging

Castle Gardens Boasts Over a Thousand Metres of Hedging: The gardening team at family-owned Bolton Castle near Leyburn have their work cut out every year.

With 1,018 metres of hedging, including 545 metres of their renowned privet maze and border edging, Head Gardener Jason Hanslip is keen to retain the family’s ethos of non-chemical intervention, so how does he manage his hedging meterage?

With Bolton Castle opening to visitors from spring to autumn, Jason, and Estate Workers Mike and Paul, need to keep its gardens tip top for visitors. All fungus and pests can be disastrous in beautiful gardens which rely on visitor enjoyment especially those that include managed hedging to reflect the medieval style of ‘room’ gardening that may have surrounded this well-preserved castle as well as a stunning maze. This means the gardens’ team need to be ever vigilant for any potential hedge plant fungus or disease.

Many of us often experience the feathery cobweb-style covering which affects our Boxwood plants, and its family of plants. Known as Box Blight, Boxwood is particularly suspectable giving our hedges unsightly brown leaves and stem die back. This fast-spreading fungal disease is caused by two types of fungus; Cylindrocladium buxicoa and Volunterra buxi. The Box Caterpillar is also a constant threat. Box tree moth/caterpillars are relatively new to the country but are becoming invasive very quickly.  The moths are active over the summer months, with the caterpillars overwintering in the hedges.  The first signs of an infestation is clear webbing over the plants.  Following this the plants will start to lose foliage, becoming very bare, and, if not treated the plants may die.

However, thankfully by taking a few steps the damage can be avoided or kept to a minimum.  We recommend using pheromone traps from April and changing the lures every month.  This will catch the male moths and also give a good indication of how active they are.  If caterpillars are present, Jason recommends using Steinernema carpocapsae nematodes which are a great biological control as they reproduce spreading to other affected areas.

As with any plant damage its always advisable to give the plant some fertiliser to help it recover from the attack.

Award winning Bolton Castle is keen to retain its reputation as one of the most lovely, manicured gardens in north Yorkshire, which also includes hedged rose beds and the acclaimed medieval herb gardens.  Here are more of Jason’s top tips to keep fungus and blights at bay, whether or not you have 1 metre or 1,000 metres of hedging to manage.

Good housekeeping is key:

• Keep all tools clean and sharp, regularly dipping them in bleach or disinfectant (at the recommended dilution rate) while clipping and after use
• Clean up clippings and debris after clipping plants, as the spores on fallen leaves can remain active for six days, bag up clippings and dispose of in your waste bin or centre do not compost these.
  • During dry spells use a ‘leaky pipe’ hose to water the base of the plants.
  • Avoid watering over the top as the water droplets can activate and spread the spores.
  • If planting hedging, plant them in open sunny spots as the blight can thrive in damp shady areas.
  • Cut out any affected areas making sure cuts are nice and clean, it’s advised to go back a little bit further than you might think.

Jason is using Yew (Taxus baccata) more and more at the Castle as it responds well to regular close clipping, and other plants to consider would be Coroakia x virgata and Podocarpus nivalis. Jason and the team also maintain two Hornbeam hedges, five Willow arbours and tunnel, in addition to the traditional Privet, Yew and Box.

Jason adds: “We are lucky here at Bolton Castle that the damp and humid conditions in which these diseases thrive, are rare. Whilst we have challenges with the location of the castle and garden on an exposed side of Wensleydale, we benefit from the breezes and winds which can make pests and fungal diseases trickier to spread.  Saying that, I always have my eye on our hedges to ensure diseases don’t take hold.  It’s a constant pressure to maintain these hedges and any tips I have for Bolton Castle are just as relevant to your average garden and gardener.”

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