November 2021

14 Buckden Roundabout November 2021 Village News FRIENDS of BUCKDEN TOWERS OPEN DAY & ARTISAN PRODUCERS MARKET Sunday 26 th September This year FoBT joined forces with Alison Fedorowicz of Saragu- sta Spirits Co. to hold a joint event incorporating an “ Artisan Producers Market ” alongside tours of the buildings and grounds and other activities. Helped by the exceptionally good weather this combination proved to be enormously successful. The Artisan stall holders sold most, if not all, of their stocks, and FoBT did really well with the Tours, the Knot Garden Displays, and the refresh- ments. There were 22 stalls in all selling locally produced craft items, plus a book stall, and a very busy refreshment stall. Almost 100 people enjoyed guided tours of the estate, plus there was a demonstration of traditional wool dyeing using products grown in the Knot Garden as the source material. And to cap it all, Katherine of Aragon turned up, beautifully adorned, as part of Buckden ’ s Scarecrow Festival. The photographs, and front cover, illustrate many of the stalls and really capture the atmosphere of the day. Thank you Mar- tin Shirley for your great shots. This sort of occasion doesn ’ t succeed without the help of many volunteers. Our huge thanks to everyone who contrib- uted to making the day such a happy and successful occasion. Thanks also to The Claretians for their support and the use of their historic premises. News from the Knot Garden The gardeners have completed the first cut of all the box hedg- ing, but now we ’ re back to cutting the box in the bed in front of the medlar tree. This was the first hedge to be cut and has grown quickly during the summer. The next jobs will be to start the autumn trim of the yew hedge, bushes and climbing plants. The laurel was pruned in late spring and over the sum- mer and has put on more than we cut! We will save the job of cutting until next spring. There ’ s been a very good crop of figs and grapes, the birds have really enjoyed them. The fig tree has put on masses of new growth over the summer and needs a severe prune. Some of the almond trees have been badly affected by the weather. We hope to have them looked at by a specialist in the next few weeks. We ’ ve enjoyed seeing so many visitors to the garden during the summer and during the Buckden Towers Open day. A real benefit has been the very generous donations that visitors have left. We ’ re able to start on some of our renovation plans. The new planter to fit on the concrete square by the pear trees will arrive at the beginning of November. The groundwork materials for renovating the weed covered Bishop Russell bed will be arriving in the next ten days so the weedkiller should have time to work before we need to start removing the slate. We will take out all the plants and weeds, lay weed supressing membrane, plant new Santolina and Gold- en Marjoram, then return the slate. It ’ s going to be a very busy winter!