Finish with a Flourish!

#CVGrounds_Compton+Verney_Ice+Decoration

I’ve been looking forward to finishing the year with a flourish, and with festive spirit abounding at the moment, it wasn’t long before my idea was set – with a plan to add a splash of colour to a pre-Christmas article! I hope you like them – a few frozen decorations snapped in the aptly named ‘Ice’ House Coppice.

It has been a very busy 10th Anniversary year for all at Compton Verney, and the grounds team have been busy with a range of projects large and small. If you’re a regular follower of this blog you will have seen articles about our William Morris meadow that was a major landscape project for us through into the autumn. Before this was the Moore Rodin exhibition which brought many major works of sculpture to the gallery and grounds this spring and summer – the grounds team were involved with install/de-install of the outside works and found the process fascinating.

In addition to exhibition related activity, we have also been busy planting the east park recently, preparing and sowing new areas for wild flowers, and sorting levels in the woodland garden area known as the Ice House Coppice. A very busy year indeed with much achieved between staff and volunteers – we even picked up an award for best maintained footpath!

So what do we have to look forward to in 2015? Of course there will be much more of the same with continued improvement to the grounds, particularly in the Ice House Coppice and throughout the planted areas. The lawns will be needing a little extra TLC next season (We can’t be having thistles on the mown areas!) and we’ll be creating a new mowing regime for the West Lawn where Dan Pearson is to create a William Morris Meadow – and of course I’m not forgetting Kern Baby that will magically appear on the south lawn!

The brand new East Park trees will need their hands holding for quite some time with regular watering to help them establish, and we’ve a host of new planting going into the coppice to further nurture that sense of space. Significantly of course will be the decision early in the year concerning our bid for Heritage Lottery finding for our Re-Viewing the Landscape project – this in itself is a major and time-consuming project but with amazing potential for the landscape at Compton Verney – fingers crossed for us please!

Compton+Verney_Gary+Webb_#CVGrounds_Ice+decorations

I guess therefore that it’s time for me to give a huge thank you for all the help and support we’ve received during 2014, whether it’s verbal encouragement, a shared blog article or re-tweet here and there, and of course the physical efforts from Adam and volunteer team – many thanks to you all!!

A sphinx on the Adam Bridge at Compton Verney, taken in 2012 after heavy snowfall.

All the very best for Christmas – and do keep an eye out for some photographic posts over the festive period – it’s just the opportunity I’ve been waiting for to search through the images I’ve been snapping all year!

Regards – Gary Webb, Head of Landscape & Gardens at Compton Verney.