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It will explain the role a few of Britain’s great houses played in the course of the First World War and other conflicts.

The Historic Houses Wartime Trail reveals which HHA property was home to the last surviving war horse; which house was converted to an army hospital by a Duchess who acted as Officer to blame; and which property was used as a secret US naval marine camp in World War Two.

Many of those houses even have superb gardens, consisting of Castle Howard, near York, winner of the HHA/Christie’s Garden of the Year Award 2011.

Castle Howard’s 1,000 acres of grounds includes gardens with a proper baroque layout between two lakes and the famous Prince of Wales Fountain.

There is additionally a cascade, the Temple of 4 Winds and the Mausoleum, in addition to a walled garden.

Spring bulbs are entering their very own at present, and it won’t be long before the gathering of rhododendrons, rare trees, magnolias and azaleas are in bloom in Ray Wood.

The house, designed by architect Sir John Vanbrugh in 1699 for Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, is better-known for its role within the TV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited and is arguably the best Baroque stately home in Britain.

It has fabulous collections of paintings and classical sculpture.

Between 1815 and 1944, five Howards were killed in action and a lot of of the workers suffered bereavement – as commemorated on war memorials within the estate villages.

Castle Howard is open daily, although the walled garden might be closed for repairs in the course of the following couple of weeks.

For information visit www.castlehoward.co.uk and to determine more concerning the Historic Houses Wartime Trail click the link  www.hha.org.uk/friends-page/focus-on-properties/explorer-trails.html

There also are two other online trails to explore: the nice British Royalty Trail and the nice British Games Trail.

The trails are all available at the HHA website at www.hha.org.uk

BUT sometimes there are advantages available in giving tough plants the possibility of slightly protection, and the Victorians had a trick or two up their sleeve.

In the times of Downton Abbey, when “the enormous house” employed umpteen gardeners, in addition to having a walled kitchen garden within which the produce for Mrs Patmore’s kitchen can be raised and taken to the cook daily, there has been mostly more than a few greenhouses dedicated to flowers in addition to fruit: carnations, arum lilies, orchids and chrysanthemums would have greenhouses to themselves. There will be gardenias for the master of the house’s butonhole – the Victorians liked nothing greater than forcing hardy shrubs out of season.

Now when you’ve got an unheated greenhouse that stands idle, say from now until April if you happen to plant your tomatoes, why not bring some shrubs into bloom early and enliven your living quarters?

Forsythia, magnolia, flowering currant and lilac can all accept extra protection and encouraged to flower weeks ahead of their normal season.

Bought on the nursery or garden centre now, potted up in 12in or 15in pots of John Innes No.3 potting compost and stood outside until the hot Year, they are going to settle into their containers and will be brought under cover in January, February or March. By having a couple of at your disposal you could bring them into the greenhouse several weeks apart so you have a succession of blooms.

There is not any apply heat, the safety the glass provides might be encouragement enough to get shoots bursting and flowers blooming earlier than those outdoors. Bright light is all they want.

Keep an eye fixed on them for water (they may not need liquid feed until later in spring) and when the flowers begin to show colour, bring them indoors to embellish the home.

What did the Victorians do for us? They showed us the manner in terms of filling the home with unexpected flowers.

Don’t miss Alan’s gardening column today and each day inside the Daily Express. For more info on his range of gardening products, visit alantitchmarsh.com.

TOP TIP

PICK UP FALLEN LEAVES AND PUT THEM IN A SEPARATE COMPOST BIN TO MAKE LEAF MOULD – A MARVELOUS COMPOST WHICH MIGHT BE USED AS MULCH OR DUG IN AS A SOIL CONDITION

YOU may also restore second-hand tools bought cheaply at junk shops and car-boot fairs, that is a thrifty way for first-time gardeners to kit themselves out with everything they want. 

Clean, burnish and protect

If the top of a spade, fork, rake or hoe is caked with dirt, wash off the mud and debris in a bucket of warm water with a bit washing-up liquid, using a stiff brush, then allow to dry thoroughly.

Use a wire brush to take away the loose rust. Wash again and make allowance to dry. If there may be still some fine rust present, use wet-and-dry emery paper to take away up to you could, then brush clean. 

Restore the leading edge of hoes, spades and lawn-edging tools with a flat engineer’s file (cheap to purchase from DIY stores). Then spray all clean, dry, metal surfaces with aerosol oil, which includes WD-40, in any other case apply a coating of standard lubricating oil with a soft cloth. This may protect surfaces from further rusting, providing you repeat the method now and again, perhaps every spring and autumn.

Sharp practices

Clean and dry the blades of your cutting tools. Shears are best sharpened using a different device that matches directly to an electrical drill. After sharpening, apply spray-on oil. Alternatively, use the services 

of a neighborhood tool-sharpening specialist. Don’t sharpen stainless-steel tools; simply clean, dry and oil them.

Secateurs are useless if blunt and rusty, but superior makes are intended to be taken apart for sharpening. Unscrew the blades and sharpen them using a carborundum stone (another cheap DIY store purchase) lubricated with just a few drops of oil, then reassemble.

If you won’t be using them for some time, wrap them in oiled paper or cloth to avoid re-rusting, or store them in a dry place indoors. Secateurs without removable blades are trickier to sharpen. You should use a tiny sharpening steel or penknife-sized sharpening stone, or just downgrade a blunt pair to second-best for rough jobs and put money into a brand new one.

TLC for wooden handles

Broken wooden handles may be replaced instead of mended, since they have to be capable of withstand the complete force you can actually exert on them. To split the handle from the top, soak the joint overnight in easing oil to assist loosen rusted screws or tight fittings, or in hot soapy water if jammed in place by ingrained mud and dust. New wooden handles are available in from old-fashioned DIY stores, builders’ merchants and gear stands at gardening shows. 

If an old handle is scruffy but otherwise sound, rub it smooth with sandpaper, then paint it generously with linseed oil. Stand it in an empty tin can to gather any drips, allowing several days for the oil to soak in, then wipe with a soft rag before storing. Oil good handles on the end of every season and they’re going to last longer or less for ever. 

Start collecting small stocking- fillers from garden centres, for raffle prizes at local events, or as gifts for gardening friends.

Plant up patio containers for Christmas. With a big container, include red-stemmed cornus, a conifer or a small, standard-trained, blue-tinged holly tree because the centrepiece.

Do any little tidying jobs at the patio or within the front garden if you’ll be entertaining over Christmas, and kind out outdoor Christmas lights so there’s time to exchange them in the event that they don’t work. 

They make great patio plants throughout the summer and once the elements turns you may keep them on your kitchen along with your windowsill herbs.

Late February and early March is the appropriate time to sow chilli seeds indoors, and are available the summer you could possibly compare your plants with those on the increasing collection of chilli festivals within the UK.

This week RHS Garden Rosemoor has announced it should hold its first Devon Chilli Fiesta from May 10 to 11, with chilli experts accessible and chilli-based food, from chocolate to chutney, that you can buy.

Other chilli festivals include The Lakes Chilli Festival on August 2&3 at Dalemain House and Garden in Penrith, Cumbria, where you will discover snowdrops and aconites in the intervening time.

West Dean Chilli Festival, near Chichester in West Sussex, is on August 8-10, and the gardens are open to the general public now. Redevelopment work at the Spring Garden has just been finished.

Benington Lordship Gardens, near Stevenage in Hertfordshire, has its family event Chilli Festival on August 24&25, and its famous snowdrop special opening ends on Sunday (March 2).

And Scone Palace, in Perth, will host the Awesome Scottish Braves Harvest Chilli Festival on September 20&21, although which you can visit the grounds for gratis in the meanwhile until March 31.

Plant hunter David Douglas was born inside the village of Scone in 1799 and was a gardener on the palace before going off to find the Douglas Fir, that you can now see among giant redwoods and Noble firs within the Pinetum.

As for growing your individual chilli pepper, it couldn’t be easier: all of the seed companies offer chillies of varying intensity, so choose a couple of that fit you best then fill large pots with seed compost (one for every variety).

Next, water the compost in order that it’s ready for the seeds, which can be sufficiently big that allows you to space out, an inch or 2cms apart, so there are a dozen or so in each pot.

Cover with a half an inch or 1cm of compost and firm down, then label each pot so that you know what you’re growing.

Put the pots on a sunny windowsill or in a heated propagator, and once the seedlings produce a number of true leaves (rather then the initial seed leaves) you may gently lift each plant into individual compost-filled small pots.

The best solution to do that is to carry onto a seedling leaf – not the stem in case it breaks – and use a small dibber or pencil to ease the plant out of the large pot and into the small one.

About four to 6 weeks later the seedlings would be large enough to transfer to their final pots – although be sure you hold it by a leaf – then you definately can pinch out the growing point in order that the side shoots become bushier.

Once all risk of frost is over one can put out the pots in sheltered positions on your garden until the tip of summer.

The chillies themselves may be able to eat from in regards to the end of August, looking on how much sunshine they see – otherwise you can grow them in a greenhouse or conservatory for you to speed things up.

Even in case you bring the plant inside, though, you are able to leave the chillies at the plant for several weeks until you will need them for cooking up something hot and spicy.

But at the present of the year its 500 acres of landscaped parkland are exceedingly lovely too, and there are guided woodland walks available this Friday – November 15 – and next – November 22.

The 12th century castle, once the house of Henry VIII’s first wife Catherine of Aragon, is within the heart of the Kentish Weald between the North and South Downs near Maidstone.

This area was heavily forested and it still has acres of woodland one of several pretty medieval villages and sunken lanes of the rolling countryside.

The High Weald, where you’ll find Leeds Castle and nearby gardens resembling Sissinghurst and Chartwell, is a place of remarkable Natural Beauty.

Certainly, there are some wonderful trees to determine in the course of the guided Woodland Walks, as Grounds Supervisor Martin Leach reveals.

“As you walk down from the ticket check to the Cascade Garden, which was once the Duckery of Lady Baillie, the last private owner of Leeds Castle, you can see places to forestall where glimpses of the castle are located framed by Portuguese Laurel inside the Cascade Garden,” he explains.

“You may also notice the Pavilion de Canard (the Duckery), where Lady Baillie enjoyed sitting and taking within the view herself inside the 1920s and 1930s.

“The highlights of the Cascade Garden include three Jurassic trees: the Monkey Puzzle, Ginkgo Biloba and Dawn Redwood, and as you permit the Cascade Garden you’re met by a majestic Cedar of Lebanon tree. This Tree is most likely around 150 years old!”

The Wood Garden, that is the second one portion of the garden, has an extremely impressive roll call of trees.

The autumn colours of the Liquid Amber Oak are always spectacular, and the Beech and Copper Beech are simply beautiful.

There are golden leaves at the Birch trees, bronze at the Chestnut trees and a lot of berries at the Mountain Ash or Rowan trees, with more colour from the Lime, Ash, Alder, Hazel and Hawthorn trees.

The tour is included within the cost of admission and is without doubt one of the new free daily activities for families.

Near the castle, that’s also included within the entrance fee, is the previous kitchen garden, now an off-the-cuff cottage garden with low box hedges where there ought to be loads of rose hips on show and the final of the flowers.

Key to the Castle tickets last for twelve months from the day of purchase and are priced £21 for adults, £18.50 for concessions and £13.50 for kids.

For additional info visit www.leeds-castle.com

With such a lot of products being taken off the market lately, and the mood of gardeners getting ever-greener, it pays to grasp your way around the multitude of non-chemical remedies available to maintain pests and diseases under control. You’ll find some in garden centres or the equipment pages of huge seed catalogues, and others from specialist organic suppliers corresponding to Suffolk Herbs (www.suffolkherbs.com) and the Organic Gardening Catalogue (www.organiccatalogue.com).

Copper tape to discourage slugs

Tack copper tape along the timber rims of raised vegetable beds or sit copper rings round emerging crowns of at-risk perennials resembling delphiniums – this deters slugs and snails by delivering a weak “electric shock”. Copper tape with toothed edges is doubly effective, because the prongs stop snails climbing up and excessive . 

Lay pheromone traps

These are cunning lures that mimic the scent of receptive female insects to draw males, then glue them to the spot hindering breeding. Hang them up near target plants from the beginning of the breeding season. Differing types are available in for codling moth (ie maggots) in apples, maggots in plums, raspberry maggots and a brand new sort for leek moth – find it at the leeks page of Dobies’ seed catalogue (www.dobies.co.uk).

Create a barrier

Fine insect-proof netting (like a rough-weave fleece that screens out bugs without making crops overheat) may be used to entirely cover at-risk crops throughout their life and keep insects reminiscent of cabbage white butterflies out. They’re best for leafy or root crops – if used on crops that have to be pollinated, uncover plants after they start flowering.

Eco-friendly repellents and non-chemical baits

Look for environmentally-friendly slug pellets that contain harmless ferric phosphate as opposed to metaldehyde. Saucers of beer are an old home cure for trapping slugs and spray-on yucca extract deters them from crossing a treated area – use around the base of pots, as an example. Ring at-risk plants with prickly holly leaves as a deterrent or use Slug Stoppa granules, which absorb slime from mollusc trails and dehydrate the slugs so that they can’t move and are eaten by birds and other predators.

Natural powders and sprays

Products in response to rapeseed oil (eg Bug Clear) suffocate smaller insect pests by blocking their breathing holes, but leave larger beneficial bugs unharmed. Fatty acids (aka liquid insecticidal soap, eg Organic Bug Free) are modern versions of old remedies to be used on flowers, fruit and veg with small insect pests, including hard-to-tackle whitefly and red spider mite. Sulphur powder controls powdery mildew on flowers, veg and a few fruit, and pyrethrum powders or sprays (made out of chrysanthemum flowers) treat aphids, caterpillars, ants, weevils and flea beetles. 

Varieties with built-in resistance

Many modern types of veg has been bred with built-in resistance to certain pests or diseases – these are identified in seed catalogues or on seed packets. You could find partially carrot-fly-resistant carrots, club root-resistant brassicas and courgettes that shrug off mildew or virus. Some modern potato varieties deter eelworm, potato blight and/or other common problems. Many roses also are bred with varying degrees of resistance to disease – consult rose catalogues, reference books or growers’ websites. Young plants of a few tomatoes and peppers come in grafted directly to rootstocks that resist the type of root diseases often found in greenhouse soil.

Biological control

A large range of predatory and parasitic bugs is out there to tackle particular pest problems, including slugs, vine weevils, greenflies, chafer grubs or leatherjackets in lawns, and red spider mites, whiteflies or mealybugs in greenhouses. There’s also a mixed pack that treats several vegetable garden soil pests in addition ants. Introduce biological control early, once conditions permit, for max benefit – a second dose later is usually recommended. It’s pricey but effective if used very precisely.

Mother nature’s pest controllersGrow old-fashioned hardy annuals and herbs to encourage a healthy population of untamed beneficial insects corresponding to hover flies and ladybirds. Also supply food and water for birds because they eat huge numbers of caterpillars and aphids within the spring. Hedgehogs, thrushes, foxes and shrews will eat snails. 

Plant of the week

Miniature roses 

Visit any florist or supermarket now and you’re absolute to see pots of miniature roses. They last much longer than cut blooms – and are far cheaper – but a lot of people are surprised to be told that they aren’t house plants in any respect: these are real outdoor rose bushes that naturally stay around a foot high. These charmers are fine indoors for four to 6 weeks but must then be planted outside that allows you to keep them long-term. When the flowers are world wide, harden them off by standing them outside by day and bringing them in at night. Try this for several weeks, then prepare a rich bed somewhere sunny with well-drained soil or use a bath and plant them out permanently. They don’t need proper pruning as such, but tidy them up in spring.

Just as important because the blades, though, is the texture of the secateurs: they have to be comfortable to carry, non-slip and straightforward to apply.

Over the past growing season i’ve tried several different makes of pruning secateurs (rather than anvil or ratchet secateurs) and, although it really is on no account an exhaustive list of the easiest available to buy, these are my thoughts at the ones i’ve used.
 
Wilkinson Sword Razorcut Comfort Bypass Pruner (£19.99)

My favourite this year, largely since you just should squeeze the handle to take the lock off the blades. This indicates you are able to open it one-handed – perhaps if you are knocking down a wayward rambling rose shoot – and snip away immediately.

The blades are sharp and precise, made from prime quality SK5 Japanese steel, and feature a smooth action that just makes you need to prune everything in sight.

The cast aluminium handles are weighty without being heavy, and both have rubber strips to enhance your grip on them.

There is additionally quite a high curve at the top handle to avoid your fingers from sliding right down to the blades.

The only fiddly bit, ironically, is the metal catch to fasten the blades: it’s on top of the blades, that’s fine, but it’s worthwhile to push it very firmly.

Great gardening tool and compatible to girls or men with small hands.

See www.wilkinsonsword-tools.co.uk
 
Wilkinson Sword Deluxe Bypass Pruner 20mm (£21.99)

This is an improved pair of secateurs than the Razorcut Comfort Pruner, with slightly chunkier handles. They’ve rubber strips for better grip but not akin to high curve to prevent your fingers sliding towards the blade.

It has a plastic catch at the end of the handles it’s worthwhile to release before you should use it, and although this isn’t as convenient because the Razorcut quick release it can be less liable to wear as it isn’t near the blades.

The blades themselves are slightly bigger than the Razorcut and in addition produced from SK5 Japanese steel so that they are equally as sharp.

Burgon & Ball Sophie Conran Secateurs (£19.95)

These are probably the most deliciously stylish secateurs i’ve ever used. They’re slim, smooth and exquisite to examine, slip into pockets easily and are specifically designed for girls.

Unfortunately, though, they aren’t the foremost practical. Made out of a unique stainless-steel that it’s claimed won’t ever rust, they’re so smooth that they’re quite slippy, although this may not matter quite a bit if you’re wearing non-slip gloves.

They also are quite cold, again something which may be mitigated by gloves, and the brass catch is stylish but stiff.

Still, they’re lovely; and the blades cut beautifully and make a truly satisfying slicing noise. Definitely one for the women.

See www.burgonandball.com
 
Fiskars P68 SmartFit Bypass Secateurs (£22)

I am really impressed with Fiskars tools generally. They appear to be well designed and thought out, in addition to most economical, and these secateurs aren’t any different.

Although not as pleasing because the Wilkinson Sword Razorcut, you are able to open them one-handed by sliding the lock open along with your thumb – and shut them safely the identical way.

There can also be a dial-like catch that extends the blade’s cutting capacity from 12mm to 24mm. The smaller setting suggests that you don’t ought to exert any pressure at the handles for the secateurs to slot in your hand without it being at full stretch.

There is additionally a rubber strip at the top handle, for non-slip purposes, and the handles are coated carbon steel so that they are warm and non-slip everywhere and never too heavy.

The blades cut nicely, although time will tell in the event that they are as long-lasting because the Wilkinson Sword blades. But these are probably the correct ergonomically-designed secateurs that i’ve got used this year.

See www.fiskars.co.uk

Gardeners are obsessed by the elements. But it’s not surprising since most of our activities are governed by it. 

We watch the nightly forecast with more avidity than most and we open the bedroom curtains within the morning to look if the former night’s predictions were accurate – and i’ve to confess they’re better now than they’ve ever been.

But just checking what the elements goes to do is solely the half it. It’s a lot more fun to take a position for your own weather station and keep your personal records. Will this make you a closer gardener? Well, 

it might make you a more observant one, and it’ll remind you – after a winter of heavy rainfall like this – that the floor would be more with out nutrients than usual and should need bolstering with both fertiliser and manure to get it back in good heart.

The simplest variety of weather recording is a maximum and minimum thermometer that are hung outside in a still, sheltered spot to record the highs and lows all year long. It could be checked and reset daily and the temperatures may be either written down in a notebook in any other case entered on a spreadsheet in your computer. Correlating which plants were damaged by low temperatures (and just how low those temperatures were) offers you a demonstration of the hardiness of certain tender plants on your locale.

A simple rain gauge can be utilized to maintain daily tabs at the amount of precipitation (this type of lovely word for rain, snow and hail) and let you compare rainfall for a similar month in several years.  

More sophisticated ‘weather stations’ are actually available and needn’t cost an arm and a leg. They are often mounted indoors and may show you wind direction and speed (when connected to an anemometer in your house roof), maximum and minimum temperature, rainfall and barometric pressure. When the barometer falls rapidly you may prepare for unsettled conditions.

Many of those instruments now have wireless connections and so don’t involve a welter of cables wending their way from house roof to the rooms indoors.

And other than the usefulness the elements statistics can bring, they’ll fuel conversations corresponding to “Do you realize just how much rain we had last month?” or “Guess how hot it was yesterday”.

The latter can be a way off yet, but with a weather station at your elbow you’ll become, if not the oracle at Delphi, then certainly the font of all knowledge so far as local gardeners are concerned. This may also make an outstanding birthday present – tell that in your other half otherwise treat yourself. You recognize you’re worth it!

Don’t miss Alan’s gardening column today and each day within the Daily Express. For more info on his range of gardening products, visit alantitchmarsh.com.