A second joint seminar between Professional Gardeners’ Guild Trainees and Historic and Botanic Garden Bursary Scheme Trainees took place at Dunford House in Sussex between 6th and 9th October 2011.
On the Friday trainees visited Parham Manor, where Tom Brown the Head Gardener and his team gave them the opportunity to take part in some ‘hands on’ training, planting bulbs for naturalising, clearing a herbaceous border and preparing both the bed and the plants for replanting. Surplus plants were potted up ready for resale in the plant centre. Blessed with good weather, this proved to be an exciting day which was enjoyed by all the participants.
Saturday gave the opportunity to visit Petworth House, where a tour of the Capability Brown landscape with Head gardener Gary Liddle was followed by a tour of Lady Egremont’s private garden with Head Gardener Jonathon Arnold and Lady Egremont. The rest of the day was taken up with question time for a panel of experts and a talk by Martin Duncan of Arundel Castle about his experiences of managing gardens both in the UK and abroad. This led neatly into Sundays visit to Arundel Castle and a tour of the garden including the Duke and Duchess’s private garden.
The weekend was another outstanding success thanks to the organisational skills of John Humphries of the PGG and Fiona Dennis of the HBGBS.
All PGG trainees were funded with grants from RHS Bursaries.