September 2013 | The Garden 5150 The Garden | September 2013

Harlow CarrRHS Garden

Recent and future developments at all four of the Society’s gardens ensure inspiring standards of horticulture. At Harlow Carr in North Yorkshire, new projects are building on an already impressive foundation

Author: Alison Goding, Garden Manager, RHS Garden Harlow Carr

today and tomorrow

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I first came to Harlow Carr as a student in 1997 when it was still run by the Northern Horticultural Society. Despite having few resources and a

small garden team, the passion that the garden evoked among its staff was overwhelming. It was the toughest year of my horticultural training, working on heavy clay, in sub-zero temperatures and a wind that

The stream is central – literally – to Harlow Carr, and the relationship between it and the garden is a defining characteristic. Within the Streamside garden, paths echo the meandering beck, and beds ebb and flow in their design to reflect fluidity. Running east to west, the natural watercourse is a haven for wildlife such as dippers, tree creepers, weasels and voles. Like a thread it knits the formal and woodland sides of the garden together with distinctive yet lush planting.

New plantings began in January 2012, replacing some of the design

which had not changed since the days of the

Northern Horticultural Society. Many plants were lifted and divided, creating repeat planting. Within the new

design plants such as Iris ‘Shirley Pope’,

Primula pulverulenta

The Streamside todayKey plants: many selections of Primula, including P. pulverulenta Bartley hybrids and the eponymous P. Harlow Car hybrids; other moisture lovers such as Rodgersia.

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prevented by using the practice of ‘willow spiling’. This traditional technique uses live coppiced willow stems pushed vertically into the ground and horizontal rods woven back and forth, basketweave-style. This ‘living hurdling’ has done much to stabilise the bank and has provided some excellent planting pockets. It also provided a sustainable source of willow (harvested every two years) for use in the garden. »

Bartley hybrids, P. Harlow Car hybrids and Rodgersia pinnata ‘Chocolate Wing’ blend together. Further along the path, Gunnera manicata, Lysichiton americanus, more Harlow Car primulas and Himalayan blue poppies (Meconopsis) continue to inspire. These plants thrive in the cool moist air here, which also provided an ideal location for the RHS Plant Trial of perennial blue-flowered Meconopsis which concluded in June.

Dealing with floodsIn recent years, heavy rainfall has caused flash flooding, which led to large pockets of erosion, undermining tree roots and rocks. While our flood management plan is being phased in, further damage is being

A view within RHS Garden Harlow Carr, on the

outskirts of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, looking

from the Streamside across the Main Borders

towards the Alpine House.

Live willow ‘spiling’ is used on Harlow Beck

to reduce erosion.

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Meconopsis ‘Lingholm’

One of the Primula Harlow Car

hybrids.

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September 2013 | The Garden 5352 The Garden | September 2013

RHS Garden Harlow Carr RHS Garden Harlow Carr

Alpine Zone bedsSince the completion of the Alpine House four years ago, the Alpine Zone has continued to develop. The slate crevice walls have been most successful, providing an ideal setting for plants such as Globularia trichosantha and Lewisia tweedyi; and each year our horticultural trainees are given the opportunity to plant up their own alpine troughs for display.

The main focus for future development will be the two grassed areas in front of the Alpine House. At present the turf is left to grow long with curved paths mown through it. This meadow effect has led to the idea of creating an alpine-type meadow of annuals, perennials and bulbs similar to those found in the Picos de Europa in northern Spain.

Harlow Carr Horticulturist Amy Smethurst visited the Picos this year on an RHS-funded bursary with the Alpine Garden Society. She studied alpines and wildflower meadows in their native habitat, and we hope to create something similar here.

tomorrow

Key plants: Dionysia, Androsace, Saxifraga.

could bite your fingers off, and yet the garden worked its way into my heart.

In 2001 the Northern Horticultural Society merged with the RHS, making Harlow Carr its fourth and most north­erly garden. Its history is embedded in the landscape – with water at its heart, running through its gullied veins. Although mineral springs had been discovered here centuries before, it was not until 1840 that a spa was developed on the site, including a bathhouse with heated sulphurous water, and a pleasure garden.

The spa’s popularity dwindled between the wars; eventually in 1949 the Northern Horticultural Society, led by Colonel Charles Grey, chose Harlow Carr (at that time spelt ‘Harlow Car’) as a place to trial plants for hardiness in the North of England.

Harlow Carr through the years1844 Hotel built and gardens laid out around the natural springs

1946 Northern Horticultural Society founded; Harlow Carr was made the society’s HQ

2004 Gardens Through Time feature on BBC television series

2010 Bramall Learning Centre

and Library opens

With the ever-increasing interest in fruit and vegetables, the Kitchen Garden welcomes more visitors than ever. It has everything from chickens to sweet peas, and is a hub of creativity demonstrated in the living willow trellis constructed by the gardeners.

On the slope south of the Alpine Zone, the garden is laid out in a series of raised beds. This allows the soil to warm up faster, and each year the soil is improved with our own compost. This demonstrates how to manage heavy clay soil and how to plan crops for the best use of space.

Flowers and herbs are planted among the vegetables as companion plants to deter pests, but also to encourage beneficial insects, particularly pollinators for fruit.

Planting follows a three-year rotation cycle and includes heirloom cultivars such as tomato ‘Aunt Ruby’s Green Cherry’ and ‘Crimson Flowered’ broad bean. Sweet peas are always a favourite, along with our cutting garden and its drifts of annual flowers, perennials and bulbs. A stand of coppiced willow supplies the garden with much-needed material to create plant supports, edging for beds and creative projects.

Rhubarb has a long association with the North and we grow many Yorkshire selections such as those from the Stockbridge Technology Centre (selected for forcing). ‘From garden to table’ is the ethos of this garden, reducing food miles and eating crops freshly picked. We invite local chefs to demonstrate at events, cooking in an outdoor oven – using Harlow Carr charcoal created on site using our own charcoal burner.

Kitchen Garden

can be heavy at times, which has caused substantial flooding over the last nine years, most notably in 2004/05. All these elements combine to create a mosaic of environments, which makes the garden a truly special place.

Green philosophySustainability underpins decision­making at Harlow Carr and was an important factor in the 2005 redesign of the Main Borders, the focal point of the garden. The prairie­style planting includes bulbs and herbaceous peren­nials with grasses planted closely together in drifts to provide support.

Wildflower meadows are part of the surrounding environment and we continue to integrate them even in formal parts of the garden, increasing biodiversity, particularly near the Bramall Learning Centre.

More recent developments have included the Alpine Zone, high on the south side of the garden with views across the woodland.

The Main Borders (above) have a long season of interest; springtime bulbs

(including many alliums), are followed by bright masses of perennials and grasses.

Here Monarda and Agastache provide a vivid and long-lasting summer display.

todAy

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1954 Plantsman Geoffrey Smith (right) becomes Superintendent

2009 Alpine House

opened

2012 Anti-flooding

measures implemented

2001 RHS and Northern

Horticultural Society merge

19401840 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2013

1950 Gardens

opened to the public

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‘Broadwalk’, Nov 1951.

Climate and soilThe garden covers 23.5ha (58 acres)and is 155m (508ft) above sea level. Its soil is acidic clay, varying between pH4.8 and pH5.6 across the site, and heavy to work – so we take every opportunity to add compost and grit to new planting. We will grow more of the hardy, acid­loving plants that thrive here, such as rhododendrons, camellias, heathers and Meconopsis.

The lowest recorded temperature last winter was ­14.5�c (5.9�f); as with other RHS Gardens we have had to rethink our plant selection due to prolonged cold. The topography of the site also influences planting, as temperatures can vary by a few degrees on a winter’s day – from the comparative warmth of upper slopes to a hard frost by the stream. Rainfall

Turfed areas in front of the Alpine House will

become an experimental alpine meadow feature.

Harlow Carr’s Kitchen Garden (above), below the Alpine Zone, demonstrates good ways to tackle growing produce on heavy clay.

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54 The Garden | September 2013

RHS Garden Harlow Carr

Ongoing developments at Harlow CarrManaging the environment sensitively is of utmost importance at Harlow Carr. One thing we cannot do is predict the weather and what it unseasonally throws at us. Having a sustainable drainage plan in place means that by 2017 we will no longer experience the ravages of flash flooding. Many tributaries flow into, and through, the landscape here. Some are natural springs; when the water table rises, Harlow Carr really feels the impact.

In phase two of the plan we intend to expand a small pond on the Lower Tarn lawn to help control the flow of water running through the garden into Harlow Beck. This will also allow us to refurbish old planting areas, to renovate many of the small tributaries around the pond that have become silted up, and to reposition large rocks that have become displaced.

Expanding visitor horizonsThe ‘Woodland Vision’ part of the master plan is well under way with the creation of new paths through the woodland and into the arboretum. This includes increasing our numbers of Rhododendron species and camellias, which thrive on Harlow Carr’s acidic clay soil.

A Birch Walk, and new understorey planting with trees for autumn colour, are all designed to draw the visitor to places within the garden they have never been before. We are particularly proud to hold a National Plant Collection of Dryopteris (ferns). National Plant Collections are important to the survival of plants – and with this in mind we have decided to build up our collection of Meconopsis (Himalayan blue poppy), which was once the symbol of Harlow Carr.

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The Alpine House (opened 2009) allows us to grow more than 2,000 alpine plants, including many different Androsace and Dionysia.

Bulbs play an important part to our year, as our growing season is not as long as in southern England. Early-season impact is important, so each year we plant thousands of bulbs, including a river of 20,000 Narcissus ‘Actaea’, N. ‘Petrel’, and N. ‘Thalia’.

Harlow Carr is very much a legacy, and it is a privilege to work in the shadow of Geoffrey Smith (Super-intendent 1954–75). He brought the garden to prominence through his impassioned work and creative spirit, passing on to us an extremely special garden that will continue to delight for many years to come.

Lake enlargement and Gardens Through Time The Gardens Through Time are seven compartmentalised gardens built to commemorate the bicentenary of the RHS in 2004. Celebrated by the BBC TV series of the same name, they plotted gardening trends through history from the Regency period to a contemporary garden inspired by the past.

Nearly 10 years on, these gardens have evolved from the original planting schemes. Still influenced by their histori­cal context, and keeping the structure of the gardens intact, we regularly try to create something different, yet relevant and inspiring to visitors. For example, the Mid­Victorian Garden, where once formal bedding was displayed, became a potager bed with a mix of orna men tal flowers and vegetables – which then became a meadow mix of annuals and

more recently a cutting garden.

Tomorrow

Visiting RHS Harlow CarrRHS Garden Harlow Carr, Crag Lane, Harrogate, North Yorkshire HG3 1QB (satnav HG3 1UE); 0845 265 8070 www.rhs.org.uk/harlowcarr

Open: Daily (except Christmas Day) 9.30am–5pm (to 4pm, Nov–Feb) ✤ Events: see RHS Life, p89.

Expansion of The Queen Mother’s Lake was completed in 2012. Enlarging it was integral to the garden’s sustainable drainage plan, instigated to help us cope with an increas ingly wet climate. The associated land scaping work included removing the Late Victorian Garden during the first stage of the redevelopment of the Gardens Through Time, to become a more sculpted area of pathways and herbaceous planting from 2016.

‘Festival of Britain’ is No. 5 in Gardens Through Time.

The Bramall Learning Centre and Library, completed 2010.

Children enjoying the new Craggle Top

Treehouse.

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The Queen Mother’s Lake is a haven for wildfowl and wetland plants.

The Queen Mother’s Lake is a haven for wildfowl and wetland plants.