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Famous National Trust Parterre to be made more climate resilient and more sustainable

wimpole parterre cambridgeshire july 971847

 

Andy Jasper, National Trust director of Gardens & Parklands, said: "When the National Trust took on the care of Wimpole, the parterre had been lost for several decades. The scheme we have today was created in the 1990s to replicate what had been there in the 19th century.  

“The formal design was very effective but is getting harder to maintain, so it's time for a bold, pioneering new chapter. We couldn't be more excited to be working with some of the UK's most experienced, respected and acclaimed landscape professionals". 

“We'll bring together their talent and contemporary thinking, with our passion and experience of gardening with the grain of nature, to create a parterre that's more environmentally sustainable and climate resilient while still being beautiful and sensitive to the history and character of the garden.”

I may be old fashion, but in all the articles I have read in trade papers such as Horticulture Week and the National press it seems to be all about change. Are we throwing out the baby with the bath water? Although the current version is a 1990s reproduction of the original parterre, it is a piece of history that I get the feeling may be lost forever. Yes this fine and import style of gardening is high in maintenance and can suffer problems with diseases and drought, it must be kept.

 

I await the plans with interest and wonder if I am barking up the wrong tree or is this the big change of gardening that we are having forced upon us. Five designers for one garden plan, is that sustainable gardening?

 

Maybe I am jumping to conclusions, but what I do not want to see is a let's all live happily together with mass repetitive plantings of native subjects that we might not be able to even care for if we find a Spanish slug in the area. Please, designers maintain the original concept in this situation and yes there is room for the new ideas and designs but don't change what is part of our garden history.

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