• Summer pruning wall trained fruit, Winterbourne House and Garden, Digging for Dirt, Monthly Masterclass: August
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    Monthly Masterclass: August

    Do it: prune wall trained fruit Step 1 Wall trained or growth restricted fruit trees such as espalier, fan and cordon trained apples, pears and plums should be pruned in late summer exposing ripening fruit to additional light and air. Pruning should only take place once the bottom third of the current year’s growth has…

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  • Mammillaria. Snapshot, Jo Gooding, Digging for Dirt, Winterbourne House and Garden
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    Snapshot: Jo Gooding

    Jo Gooding is a Birmingham-based photographer with an eye for detail, subtle shades and tones. A former exhibiter in our own Coach House Gallery, Jo is also a Project Support Officer for the University of Birmingham where, in between a busy work schedule, she makes time to indulge her passion for plants at Winterbourne. We…

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  • Cutting box hedging, Winterbourne House and Garden, Digging for Dirt
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    Monthly Masterclass: July

    Do it: trim box hedging Step 1 Box plants (Buxus sempervirens) can help create formal structure in the garden. Their neat evergreen leaves and naturally dense habit mean they are perfect for clipping into a low hedge or topiarised shape. Not only this, but they also grow happily in awkward dry and shady spots. Box…

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  • Walled Garden, Monthly Masterclass: June, Winterbourne House and Garden, Digging for Dirt
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    Monthly Masterclass: June

    Do it: weed control Step 1 No matter how much preparation work has taken place the odd weed species will always appear in summer ready to challenge ornamentals in a battle for supremacy. Annual weeds reproduce in a single year before the parent plant dies leaving only offspring behind. Some, like hairy bittercress, spread but…

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  • Candelabra primula, The Comedy of Errors, Winterbourne House and Garden, Digging for Dirt
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    The Comedy of Errors

    William Shakespeare may have known a thing or two about writing a farce, but over the years the Winterbourne team have been responsible for some hilarious horticultural mishaps fit to rival anything described by the great Bard. A comedy of cultivation errors – there has even been the odd case of mistaken identity… “I started…

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