Gardening Work during October, November and December 2025

11/2/2026

During autumn and early winter, the flowering plants are dying back and the leaves are falling from the trees. There is always a lot of tidying up to do in the gardens while ensuring that some areas are left for insects and other wildlife to overwinter.

Developing a Stumpery area in The Tasting Garden

The area behind the old cherry tree in the north border of The Tasting Garden is very shaded so one of our volunteers has begun to develop a stumpery. This is a Victorian tradition of growing ferns and mosses among tree stumps and logs.

Over a period of four weeks in October and November the ground was cleared. Logs from around the garden were placed there along with a tree stump. Ferns were brought by volunteers from their gardens and spare ferns from The Storey Gardens transplanted.

Below is a photo gallery showing the progress in developing the stumpery. Click on an image to enlarge.

Other work

Our gardening coordinator was busy taking cuttings and required sieved soil to make up her potting compost.
A hot composter (Ridan) has been installed in the composting area and it was decided that the sloping ground below needed stabilising by planting rows of stinking iris.
The yew hedge by the Meeting House Lane wall in The Tasting Garden was cut by the LCC Grounds Maintenance Team as was the privet hedge in the Copper Beech Garden.
During October and early November, the copper beech leaves were collected up and stored in the composting area to produce leaf mould. All the leaves around the copper beech tree had to be removed for Light Up Lancaster. This was to enable the artist to layout his Mycelium installation. To see our report of Light Up Lancaster 2025 click here.
The bug hotel, built by The Bay: A Blueprint for Recovery in 2023, was in a poor condition. So it was renovated and secured to the wall between The Tasting Garden and the Meeting House with wires.