New neighbourhood nursery launched at Tatton Park

The community garden was unveiled at the RHS Flower Show.

The estate’s productive gardens are one of the largest and most complete kitchen gardens of any National Trust property.

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Until now, one of the three walled gardens has been used for storage, propagation, potting and compost making.

Plans have now been launched to turn this space into a sustainable nursery to tackle the challenges of climate change.

The idea is to create a modern working nursery with a friendly, informal meeting hub.

Simon Tetlow, head gardener at Tatton Park, said: “We are often seen as the house up on the hill but we want this to be an open, welcoming and productive space for everyone.

“It can be a place where people can sit and eat cake and enjoy a cup of tea together, whilst talking about plants.

“Volunteers can learn, grow and experiment.

“We’re all facing climate change together.”

Metal worker Alex Worthington, whose business Workshop Hot is based in Knutsford, has built a frame for the new community space.

Simon said: “We want to use local craftsmen.

“This is great for Knutsford.

“We want to be able to share and swap ideas and come together.

“Tatton Garden Society is already involved.”

The community garden will show visitors horticultural techniques that focus on sustainability.

This will see a strong emphasis on reducing imported plants and composts, together with combining old and modern gardening methods.

The garden will adapt Hugelkultur, a horticultural technique which uses decaying wood debris and other compostable biomass to build low maintenance garden beds for growing vegetables, herbs and fruit trees.