Latest news with #Tremayne
Daily Mirror
17-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mirror
Strawberries will grow better in your garden if you do one simple thing
Don't lose your prize crop of these quintessentially British berries to common pests and gardening pitfalls with easy steps that even experts love Life in the garden is getting busier as plants and flowers burst into life, bees start buzzing, the dawn chorus breaks the silence each morning and common pests are flying and crawling around again. But let's not lose early crops to hungry visitors - there are plenty of tried and tested tactics to ward them off. With strawberries, for instance, when fruit starts to develop, cover the soil around the plant with black plastic or straw - this will prevent the fruits from making contact with the soil and rotting. Then use environmentally friendly methods to keep slugs away - one of the most effective can be extremely satisfying (if you're not scared of handling the critters) – is to just pluck them off after dark with the aid of a torch. And use nets to protect fruit from birds. Here are my other jobs to do in the garden this week: On sunny days, it can really heat up in the greenhouse. Use shading when necessary and keep everything watered daily. In the veg garden you can sow outdoor courgettes, runner beans, French beans, sweetcorn and marrows as well as successional sowing of radishes, lettuces and spring onions. Thin out seedlings sown earlier. Plant outdoor tomato plants and pinch out side shoots. Inspect gooseberries for sawfly, remove if found and prune current season's growth back to five leaves. This shouldn't remove any developing fruit which grows mainly on old wood. If you haven't been sowing from seed, there's a huge selection of flowering plants available in garden centres now – plug plants are good value and will leap into growth in the heat. Aphid watch – especially if you have lupins and roses. You can remove by hand or with a hose. If you like it to look manicured, lawns will need weekly mowing so make sure you have a compost bin or area to put clippings to good use. Or ditch the lawnmower and let the bees feed on the daisies and clovers. Breathtaking gardens that anyone can visit Watching the VE Day commemorations made me consider a garden, which while being rejuvenated took on a deeper meaning – for lives lost in The Great War. It's on a hillside near Mevagissey in Cornwall and for decades it was lost, overgrown and forgotten. The Lost Gardens of Heligan now span over 200 acres with productive gardens, formal layouts, subtropical valleys and woods. But its story gives it such emotional weight. The Heligan estate belonged to the Tremayne family for more than 400 years. In the 18th and 19th centuries, successive generations developed it into a showpiece of Victorian horticulture. There were pineapple pits heated by horse dung, melons, espaliered fruit trees, and glasshouses believed to have been designed by Sir Joseph Paxton. At its peak, the estate employed 22 full-time gardeners but in August 1914, everything changed. Thirteen of those gardeners enlisted to fight in the war and only four returned. Before leaving, several of them signed their names on the wall of a small lavatory behind the greenhouses – now known as the Thunderbox Room – beneath the words: 'Don't come here to sleep or slumber'. It was an informal roll call, left behind when none of them knew if they would come back. With the workforce gone and post-war society shifting, Heligan entered a long period of decline. By the 1920s, the Tremayne family had moved, and the house was let to tenants. The gardens became wild. glasshouses collapsed, borders disappeared, and structures were swallowed by vegetation. That might have been the end of the story, if not for a chance encounter in the early 90s. Tim Smit, an archaeologist turned music producer, had moved to Cornwall. He met John Willis, a Tremayne descendant who had just inherited the land, and together they began exploring what remained. What they found stunned them. Under the overgrowth were walls of espaliered fruit trees, rusting tools hanging in place, and the Thunderbox Room, with the names still faintly visible. It was clear Heligan was more than a lost garden. It was a site of memory. And so began one of the largest garden restoration projects in Europe. The team had little to go on – no complete planting plans or working drawings –but they pieced things together from zinc plant labels and estate documents. They rebuilt the pineapple pits using horse manure as heat, restored heritage apple orchards, and replanted the walled vegetable gardens. Today, Heligan includes several distinct areas. The Sundial Garden is enclosed and packed with traditional perennials and heritage varieties. The Italian Garden, with its formal layout and lily pool, brings a more structured feel. The productive area – the kitchen gardens and melon yard – now supply the on-site cafe with seasonal produce. Plant of the week: Syringa 'Little Lady' The lilacs are beginning to bloom and release their intoxicating scent. While it's true they're not much to look at most of the year, they make up for it with their fragrant flowers. If you're a lilac lover but have limited space, here's a compact variety which grows to around 4-5ft in height and can be grown in a pot. The pale lilac flowers are fragrant and do best in full sunshine The Jungle is perhaps the most striking area. A deep valley with a subtropical microclimate, it is home to tree ferns, gunnera, bamboo, and palms. A raised boardwalk and rope bridge allow visitors to walk through the canopy. Further afield, visitors can walk through woodland to find sculptures like the Mud Maiden and the Giant's Head, or explore wildflower meadows and wildlife areas now part of Heligan's ecological mission. The estate has become a model for regenerative land management and low-impact horticulture. In 1997, a Channel 4 documentary and bestselling book by Tim Smit helped bring Heligan to national attention. What made the story compelling was the sense this was also a war memorial – a tribute to those who worked there. The Thunderbox Room is now officially recognised by the Imperial War Museum as a living memorial, and on Remembrance Sunday, the estate holds a moment of silence. Heligan receives over 300,000 visitors a year, but is grounded in its purpose: to honour the people who made the garden, and to keep their legacy growing. it is a working garden, where tools are used, produce is grown, and the past is deeply felt. It's a reminder that history doesn't always need a statue. Sometimes it's enough to bring something back to life.
Daily Mirror
17-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mirror
Breathtaking forgotten gardens anyone can visit with unexpected bonus
The Lost Gardens of Heligan have a tragic history that makes a wander around its beautiful 200-acre plot, with its formal layouts, valleys and woods, deeply poignant Watching the VE Day commemorations made me consider a garden, which while being rejuvenated took on a deeper meaning – for lives lost in The Great War. It's on a hillside near Mevagissey in Cornwall and for decades it was lost, overgrown and forgotten. The Lost Gardens of Heligan now span over 200 acres with productive gardens, formal layouts, subtropical valleys and woods. But its story gives it such emotional weight. The Heligan estate belonged to the Tremayne family for more than 400 years. In the 18th and 19th centuries, successive generations developed it into a showpiece of Victorian horticulture. There were pineapple pits heated by horse dung, melons, espaliered fruit trees, and glasshouses believed to have been designed by Sir Joseph Paxton. At its peak, the estate employed 22 full-time gardeners but in August 1914, everything changed. Thirteen of those gardeners enlisted to fight in the war and only four returned. Before leaving, several of them signed their names on the wall of a small lavatory behind the greenhouses – now known as the Thunderbox Room – beneath the words: 'Don't come here to sleep or slumber'. It was an informal roll call, left behind when none of them knew if they would come back. With the workforce gone and post-war society shifting, Heligan entered a long period of decline. By the 1920s, the Tremayne family had moved, and the house was let to tenants. The gardens became wild. glasshouses collapsed, borders disappeared, and structures were swallowed by vegetation. That might have been the end of the story, if not for a chance encounter in the early 90s. Tim Smit, an archaeologist turned music producer, had moved to Cornwall. He met John Willis, a Tremayne descendant who had just inherited the land, and together they began exploring what remained. What they found stunned them. Under the overgrowth were walls of espaliered fruit trees, rusting tools hanging in place, and the Thunderbox Room, with the names still faintly visible. It was clear Heligan was more than a lost garden. It was a site of memory. And so began one of the largest garden restoration projects in Europe. The team had little to go on – no complete planting plans or working drawings –but they pieced things together from zinc plant labels and estate documents. They rebuilt the pineapple pits using horse manure as heat, restored heritage apple orchards, and replanted the walled vegetable gardens. Today, Heligan includes several distinct areas. The Sundial Garden is enclosed and packed with traditional perennials and heritage varieties. The Italian Garden, with its formal layout and lily pool, brings a more structured feel. The productive area – the kitchen gardens and melon yard – now supply the on-site cafe with seasonal produce. The Jungle is perhaps the most striking area. A deep valley with a subtropical microclimate, it is home to tree ferns, gunnera, bamboo, and palms. A raised boardwalk and rope bridge allow visitors to walk through the canopy. Further afield, visitors can walk through woodland to find sculptures like the Mud Maiden and the Giant's Head, or explore wildflower meadows and wildlife areas now part of Heligan's ecological mission. The estate has become a model for regenerative land management and low-impact horticulture. In 1997, a Channel 4 documentary and bestselling book by Tim Smit helped bring Heligan to national attention. What made the story compelling was the sense this was also a war memorial – a tribute to those who worked there. The Thunderbox Room is now officially recognised by the Imperial War Museum as a living memorial, and on Remembrance Sunday, the estate holds a moment of silence. Heligan receives over 300,000 visitors a year, but is grounded in its purpose: to honour the people who made the garden, and to keep their legacy growing. it is a working garden, where tools are used, produce is grown, and the past is deeply felt. It's a reminder that history doesn't always need a statue. Sometimes it's enough to bring something back to life. Plant of the week: Syringa 'Little Lady' The lilacs are beginning to bloom and release their intoxicating scent. While it's true they're not much to look at most of the year, they make up for it with their fragrant flowers. If you're a lilac lover but have limited space, here's a compact variety which grows to around 4-5ft in height and can be grown in a pot. The pale lilac flowers are fragrant and do best in full sunshine Jobs to do in the garden this week... On sunny days, it can really heat up in the greenhouse. Use shading when necessary and keep everything watered daily. In the veg garden you can sow outdoor courgettes, runner beans, French beans, sweetcorn and marrows as well as successional sowing of radishes, lettuces and spring onions. Thin out seedlings sown earlier. Plant outdoor tomato plants and pinch out side shoots. Inspect gooseberries for sawfly, remove if found and prune current season's growth back to five leaves. This shouldn't remove any developing fruit which grows mainly on old wood. Growing strawberries – when fruit starts to develop, cover the soil around the plant with black plastic or straw - this will prevent the fruits from making contact with the soil and rotting. Use environmentally friendly methods to keep slugs away and nets to protect fruit from birds. If you haven't been sowing from seed, there's a huge selection of flowering plants available in garden centres now – plug plants are good value and will leap into growth in the heat. Aphid watch – especially if you have lupins and roses. You can remove by hand or with a hose. If you like it to look manicured, lawns will need weekly mowing so make sure you have a compost bin or area to put clippings to good use. Or ditch the lawnmower and let the bees feed on the daisies and clovers.
The Irish Sun
06-05-2025
- The Irish Sun
Exotic English gardens lost for centuries is named one of the best in the UK
THE Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall has been named one of the best in the UK. The gardens after 'lost' as a result of World War I - but has just won a King's Award. Advertisement 5 The Lost Gardens of Heligan is one of the best gardens in the UK Credit: Alamy 5 There are hundreds of species of plant and flower in the gardens Credit: Alamy The Lost Gardens of Heligan was first developed in the mid-18th century and were cultivated by the Tremayne family, with the creation of rides for horses, walled flower gardens, and a melon yard. It was thriving up until World War I, when the Heligan gardens were left to ruin. The 'lost years' were between 1914 and 1990 when they were rediscovered and the restoration project became one of the biggest garden transformations in Europe. The year 1991 marked the restoration of the Italian Garden, and the Lost Gardens of Heligan officially opened to the public on Good Friday in 1992. Advertisement Read More on UK Gardens In 1994, the Flower Garden was restored and in 2024, The Lost Gardens of Heligan welcomed its eight millionth visitor. The Lost Gardens of Heligan is split into three parts and is home to the UK's only outdoor jungle which has exotic plants. In the jungle are four ponds, giant rhubarb, banana plantations, bamboo forests and avenues of palm trees. The jungle has a microclimate which is at least five degrees warmer than gardens in the north of the UK . Advertisement Most read in News Travel It's where you'll also find one of the longest Burmese Rope Bridges in Britain, stretching 100 feet above ancient tree ferns. The Pleasure Grounds were first laid out 200 years ago - they have historic pathways and plants. The seaside town of Newlyn in Cornwall has been dubbed as one of the 'coolest' places to relocate 5 The gardens were 'lots' after World War I Credit: Alamy 5 But were rediscovered and became a huge renovation project Credit: Alamy Advertisement Some plantings are over 150 years old, and are home to the national collection of camellias and rhododendrons which were introduced to Heligan pre-1920. Like many gardens in Cornwall, Heligan reaps the benefits from a mild climate. The Productive Garden has 300 varieties of fruit, vegetables, salad and herbs which supply the on-site kitchen and are incorporated within the daily lunch menu. The Lost Gardens of Heligan is now one of the best gardens in the UK and in May 2025 was honoured with a King's Award for Enterprise. Advertisement Laura Smit-Chesterfield, managing director of The Lost Gardens of Heligan, said: "The team at The Lost Gardens of Heligan are delighted, honoured, and proud to receive a King's Award for Enterprise." That's not the only award it has won - over the years, The Lost Gardens of Heligan has been named Britain's Finest Garden and the Best Garden in the UK. Tickets for The Lost Gardens of Heligan for adults are £28, children between 5 and 17 are £12.50, and children under five go free. Here's another Advertisement And six exotic UK gardens you can visit year round where it feels like the Caribbean - even in winter. 5 The Lost Gardens of Heligan has a tropical garden with a pond Credit: Alamy
Scottish Sun
06-05-2025
- Scottish Sun
Exotic English gardens lost for centuries is named one of the best in the UK
It has the UK's only outdoor jungle PLANT IT Exotic English gardens lost for centuries is named one of the best in the UK Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THE Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall has been named one of the best in the UK. The gardens after 'lost' as a result of World War I - but has just won a King's Award. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 5 The Lost Gardens of Heligan is one of the best gardens in the UK Credit: Alamy 5 There are hundreds of species of plant and flower in the gardens Credit: Alamy The Lost Gardens of Heligan was first developed in the mid-18th century and were cultivated by the Tremayne family, with the creation of rides for horses, walled flower gardens, and a melon yard. It was thriving up until World War I, when the Heligan gardens were left to ruin. The 'lost years' were between 1914 and 1990 when they were rediscovered and the restoration project became one of the biggest garden transformations in Europe. The year 1991 marked the restoration of the Italian Garden, and the Lost Gardens of Heligan officially opened to the public on Good Friday in 1992. In 1994, the Flower Garden was restored and in 2024, The Lost Gardens of Heligan welcomed its eight millionth visitor. The Lost Gardens of Heligan is split into three parts and is home to the UK's only outdoor jungle which has exotic plants. In the jungle are four ponds, giant rhubarb, banana plantations, bamboo forests and avenues of palm trees. The jungle has a microclimate which is at least five degrees warmer than gardens in the north of the UK . It's where you'll also find one of the longest Burmese Rope Bridges in Britain, stretching 100 feet above ancient tree ferns. The Pleasure Grounds were first laid out 200 years ago - they have historic pathways and plants. The seaside town of Newlyn in Cornwall has been dubbed as one of the 'coolest' places to relocate 5 The gardens were 'lots' after World War I Credit: Alamy 5 But were rediscovered and became a huge renovation project Credit: Alamy Some plantings are over 150 years old, and are home to the national collection of camellias and rhododendrons which were introduced to Heligan pre-1920. Like many gardens in Cornwall, Heligan reaps the benefits from a mild climate. The Productive Garden has 300 varieties of fruit, vegetables, salad and herbs which supply the on-site kitchen and are incorporated within the daily lunch menu. The Lost Gardens of Heligan is now one of the best gardens in the UK and in May 2025 was honoured with a King's Award for Enterprise. Laura Smit-Chesterfield, managing director of The Lost Gardens of Heligan, said: "The team at The Lost Gardens of Heligan are delighted, honoured, and proud to receive a King's Award for Enterprise." That's not the only award it has won - over the years, The Lost Gardens of Heligan has been named Britain's Finest Garden and the Best Garden in the UK. Tickets for The Lost Gardens of Heligan for adults are £28, children between 5 and 17 are £12.50, and children under five go free. Here's another pretty 'secret' garden in England that is more like going to China and Egypt. And six exotic UK gardens you can visit year round where it feels like the Caribbean - even in winter.
The Sun
06-05-2025
- The Sun
Exotic English gardens lost for centuries is named one of the best in the UK
THE Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall has been named one of the best in the UK. The gardens after 'lost' as a result of World War I - but has just won a King's Award. 5 5 The Lost Gardens of Heligan was first developed in the mid-18th century and were cultivated by the Tremayne family, with the creation of rides for horses, walled flower gardens, and a melon yard. It was thriving up until World War I, when the Heligan gardens were left to ruin. The 'lost years' were between 1914 and 1990 when they were rediscovered and the restoration project became one of the biggest garden transformations in Europe. The year 1991 marked the restoration of the Italian Garden, and the Lost Gardens of Heligan officially opened to the public on Good Friday in 1992. In 1994, the Flower Garden was restored and in 2024, The Lost Gardens of Heligan welcomed its eight millionth visitor. The Lost Gardens of Heligan is split into three parts and is home to the UK's only outdoor jungle which has exotic plants. In the jungle are four ponds, giant rhubarb, banana plantations, bamboo forests and avenues of palm trees. The jungle has a microclimate which is at least five degrees warmer than gardens in the north of the UK . It's where you'll also find one of the longest Burmese Rope Bridges in Britain, stretching 100 feet above ancient tree ferns. The Pleasure Grounds were first laid out 200 years ago - they have historic pathways and plants. The seaside town of Newlyn in Cornwall has been dubbed as one of the 'coolest' places to relocate 5 5 Some plantings are over 150 years old, and are home to the national collection of camellias and rhododendrons which were introduced to Heligan pre-1920. Like many gardens in Cornwall, Heligan reaps the benefits from a mild climate. The Productive Garden has 300 varieties of fruit, vegetables, salad and herbs which supply the on-site kitchen and are incorporated within the daily lunch menu. The Lost Gardens of Heligan is now one of the best gardens in the UK and in May 2025 was honoured with a King's Award for Enterprise. Laura Smit-Chesterfield, managing director of The Lost Gardens of Heligan, said: "The team at The Lost Gardens of Heligan are delighted, honoured, and proud to receive a King's Award for Enterprise." That's not the only award it has won - over the years, The Lost Gardens of Heligan has been named Britain's Finest Garden and the Best Garden in the UK. Tickets for The Lost Gardens of Heligan for adults are £28, children between 5 and 17 are £12.50, and children under five go free. Here's another pretty 'secret' garden in England that is more like going to China and Egypt. And six exotic UK gardens you can visit year round where it feels like the Caribbean - even in winter.
