I want to share a secret…..

I was lucky enough to be let into the Secret Gardens of Sandwich by Steve Edney, the Head Gardener there who has been employed by Steph & Dom (the posh couple from Gogglebox) for many years to lovingly restore the gardens of the beautiful Grade I listed building that is The Salutation.

And what a job he has done, although he admits when he became a head gardener at 27 it was quite a challenge and he had to step up to the plate.

He soon realised how inadequate his plantsman skills were to try and piece back together the historic garden having been neglected for 25 years. Although a steep learning curve it has presented a study into plantsmanship, and he feels that he and the garden have grown up together.

The whole garden was redesigned by Steve, he has complete autonomy by Steph and Dom trusting him with their precious garden, he feels a big responsibility not to let them down as he wants them to enjoy it and use it and kindly share it with the public, Steve believes all historic gardens should be shared with the public.

Lutyens designed the gardens originally and while there is no definite proof of Jekyll’s involvement her influence is clear. She believed that a garden should offer unexpected views and visual surprises and should be made up of many ‘rooms’ each with its own character; a way of thinking that is certainly in evidence.

Steve explained how 18 months ago much of the 3 ½ acres of Grade II listed heritage gardens were flooded with salt water. He had thought a lot of the garden was dead but with tireless work by him and his team and luckily large amounts of rain they have managed to get it back.

It caused extensive damage, relocating everything in the bottom of the garden, including fish on the lawn and killing all the earthworms the smell from which was horrific.

They lost a laurel hedge, nine big trees, perennials and annuals, the woody plants fairing the worst. There has never been a study into the effect of salt water flooding so Steve is currently preparing a small white paper for Cambridge botanic gardens about it, certain species of plants being more susceptible that others.

Growth slowed down, leaf fall came much earlier and they didn’t get any good autumn colour in that part of the garden. He hopes this will be a benchmark for future reference.

When planning your garden Steve says, it may seem obvious, but the most important thing is to know your ground, if you plant the wrong plants for your soil you will simply be wasting your time and money.

There are loads he would love to grow but can't because of their silty thin soil but instead of trying and failing he simply admires these plants in other people's gardens.

There are, of course, benefits though to being on this Eastern tip, closer to Calais than the county town they enjoy some of the most sunshine hours in Britain.

The wallflowers in the tropical garden this year are tom thumb mixed, which Steve admits are not his favourite preferring a single colour but though all 1,500 of them may jar the eye with their colour they will look impressive, and the scent will be beautiful.

The long border is where they lavish most of their attention with 8,104 bulbs planted there. Bulb planting not being the most exciting job in the world but essential as they rely so heavily on late performing perennials and tender annuals so spring bulbs hold the show together for them.

They have planted 130,000 bulbs since he started and he wants to add another 100,000 in next 10 years. He doesn’t go for blousy cultivars as they burn out too quickly going instead for Darwin hybrids and old fashion cottage garden ones for their repeat blooming over 10-15 years ie. Queen of the Knight. This year they are a host garden for an

RHS trial on sunflowers (flower of the year) so they will be sight to behold.

They don’t spray anything they do not use artificial fertilisers, only organic insecticides if at all preferring instead cultural, biological and chemical in that order and then only organic as last resort.

Steve says it defeats everything we are about as gardeners to use anything else.

We viewed the nursery and greenhouse housing the Plectranthus collection in the hot house.

These are from Madagascar, South Africa and Australia and they have the biggest collection in the country, applying for national collection status, Dahlia and Echinops being the other collections they house with over 250 varieties of Dahlias alone.

The plectranthus are woodland plants in South Africa and are easy to propagate. Related to salvias, The Victorians used them as an indicator as they take on an orange hue to signal a drop in temperature.

They have 63 different cultivars, they love shade and are ideal for pots and containers so there is something for every area.

To be a national collection holder, you have to hold 75% of what is listed in the RHS plant finder and they are working with Kew and Wisley to swap and share. Also in the greenhouse were Dahlias, tree dahlias and cannas as they plant out so many of them, weaving annuals between them and selling them also, taking them to shows, these cuttings he started off in his airing cupboard at home in January.

Plants can be an expensive initial outlay but if you take many cuttings and propagate from that plant it pays for itself. They also grow dahlias from seed, registering two new varieties, one with his granddad 30 years ago, the tuber of which has never come out of the ground so is very hardy, he named it Weddington Pink as his family farm is Weddington farm, it is a pink cactus type.

On to the vegetable patch which is laid out the same as Lutyens centre plan for the white garden as there was no plan here it was blank so nothing to go by Edwardian gardens wouldn’t of had a vegetable area as they would have had as a pleasure garden, the kitchen garden would have been located just out of the garden.

Destined for the veg patch also I saw some apricots that were soaking in a sugar solution. They do this for a few hours before being planted as it gives the plants what they create in photosynthesis.

They will be planting tayberrys where they lost the laurel hedge in the flood, Steve says once you have a tayberry you never go back to raspberries.

The main Perennial Borders, 405sq m doubled sided border takes a fair bit of weeding, roses are the frame, Constant Sprite Rose, fragrance quite light but amazing flower power, turn of the century florist & Gertrude Jekyll for strongest scent and disease resistant. Dahlias, cannas and annuals are dropped in to full affect.

Romantic is the hope for the Meadow, up until May it is pictorial with lots of species plants and not so much for the wildlife, after that it is a proper wildflower meadow, orchids, birds nest orchid, pyramid orchids and bee orchids.

The meadow also houses the first hive here at gardens, which Steve is very excited about as has wanted them since he arrived, hopefully with honey to come, and more hives.

There is also an art installation by Paul Cummings, who was responsible for the poppies at The Tower of London.

Finally we walked through the White garden, which this year is becoming the black and white garden! Dark purples and red verging on black in flower and in foliage.

The garden at this time of year is more structural but being open all year round there is a chance to see it at all stages….I know I’ll be coming back to see it again.