To celebrate the garden being part of the RHS partnership scheme this year. We have a monthly gardening treat that is free with admission or your RHS membership card!
All events are drop in and run from 10:30 until 16:00
Rose Pruning Day: 24th Jan
Meet the team responsible for the maintenance of the collection of heritage roses in the six quarters beds in Gilbert White’s garden. The roses will be undergoing their annual pruning and staff will be on hand to give demonstrations of pruning techniques and answer questions on the rose collection.
Snowdrop Day: 14th January
Snowdrops will be in bloom on Baker’s Hill and the orchards. Tours will be laid on throughout the day around the areas of snowdrops as well as taking in the historic features of Gilbert White’s 18th century landscape garden.
Open Greenhouse Day: 20th March
The greenhouse will be busy as the propagating team prepare plants for this season’s planting and sales. Meet the team, find out about our plant production operation, watch the system in action and ask questions.
Kitchen Garden Planting Day: 17th April
Gilbert White’s 18th century kitchen garden will be gearing up for seed sowing and planting. Meet kitchen gardeners and watch as soil is prepared and a range of heritage vegetables seeds are planted to produce crops for our own kitchen.
Heritage Gardening Day: 15th May
See familiar and not so familiar garden tools from the past being used in the garden at Gilbert White’s House as well as gardeners in the costume of the 18th century. Find out about the day to day workings of an 18th century Hampshire garden.
Meadow Day: 19th June
Our 12 acre wildflower meadow will be in bloom and members of the team will be on hand to give tours of the meadow throughout the day and answer questions on meadow management and the plants, butterflies, reptiles and mammals to be found in the meadow.
Scything Day: 14th August
Scything plays a big part in the management of wildflower areas within the garden as an aspect of our sustainability policy, to maintain traditional skills and as an immensely satisfying way of managing our orchards and wildflower areas. See how we use modern Austrian scythes, learn how they are set up and maintained and the way they are used most efficiently.
Kitchen Garden Harvest Day: 18th September
Kitchen garden crops will be being harvested , cleaned and stored ready for use by our café kitchen. A range of heritage vegetables will be being harvested and the kitchen garden given a seasonal clearing and tidying. Meet the kitchen garden team and ask questions on all aspects of traditional vegetable growing.
Fruit Picking Day: 16th October
The heritage fruit trees in the orchards at Gilbert White’s House will be being picked as they were in the 18th century when Gilbert White wrote his ‘Garden Kalendar’ recording his daily gardening activities. Meet the fruit picking team and see the heritage apple and pear trees planted according to his notes from the 1750s and 1760s.
Blub Planting Day: 13th November
The garden team will be preparing beds and planting bulbs in the style of the 18th century based on Gilbert White’s gardening diary. Talk to garden team members and learn how bulbs were planted in Gilbert White’s time and how we manage and protect our plants in the 21st century.