Our Gardens: High Summer 2025

As you can imagine, with the dry and hot conditions it has been a struggle to get enough water onto the garden. The new planting in the Flag Garden, Rose Garden and Jubilee Walk would ideally be more established to cope with these conditions. This is all part of the balance in a garden (which is hard to find at the best of times!) between nature and maintaining the formal style of Penshurst. 

We have given the sensory garden a general tidy and you may have noticed that the pagoda has had a makeover. A new feature which you will see develop over the next few months is this becoming the main information centre for the gardens and its ongoing maintenance. The aim is to inform and educate visitors on the management of the gardens, as well as providing some recent history of their development over the last few years. We plan on updating it through the year.  

We are now firmly in the summer maintenance round, keeping the weeds at bay (as much as possible), the grass cut (when it’s not brown) and the gardens watered. We use drip hoses for the herbaceous borders, but you will see sprinklers around the garden for new plantings and to prevent the borders drying out, as the drip irrigation struggles if all the ground dries out. We only use other watering methods as a last resort, so we haven’t stopped using the more water efficient drip hoses.  

Jobs and tips for the next few months: 

• Watching out for Pests and Diseases and getting on top of them. We use copper to control mould on the roses and the peonies 

• The Wisteria needs its summer prune to keep it compact or let it run if you are trying to cover an area 

• Deadhead often to keep things flowering 

• Start to have a think about autumn bulb planting for August ordering  

• Tie in or reduce ramblers after flowering for next years’ shape 

I hope you continue to enjoy the gardens with us this summer, along with all the events and activities on offer this year!

Tony Wiseman, Head Gardener

July 2025