Autumn in the garden. The explosion of colour in beds and borders is dying down, wildlife is scurrying for cover, preparing for a winter snooze. Time to tidy up, cut the grass one last time, let the garden rest and recover.
Unless you happen to be Brendan Arundel, head gardener at Helmingham Hall.
Another busy open season may have drawn to close, the visitors, gardening clubs and coach parties departed for another year, but in a garden like Helmingham, work never stops.
The challenge, he says, is to ‘keep it fresh’, so that, when the gates open each spring, the steady stream of visitors are surprised and delighted whatever point in the season they decide to drop in.
Helmingham Hall is home to the Tollemache family, who have lived there for more than 500 years.
Out of necessity and a love of her surroundings, Xa gradually learnt and embarked on a career as a highly successful and sought-after garden designer.
Much of the garden you see today has been created by her with her long-serving head gardener, Roy Balaam.
Much as her mother-in-law did, Sophie is overseeing the gardens, working with Brendan to develop them for the 21st century.
She’s very aware of Helmingham as a family garden created by Xa.
‘With the maternal spirit she brought with her when she came to live here,’ she says. Now she’s following in her footsteps.
Heritage and conservation are top priorities.
The gardens also need to be commercially viable, so they must appeal to modern visitors, which means constantly coming up with ways to attract and engage people of all ages and backgrounds, that are also compatible with the ancient surroundings.
Helmingham offers a calendar of events throughout the year from classic cars, to contemporary sculpture exhibitions, to heritage plant fairs and a spectacular winter light show.
The gardens are the stunning backdrop to all that, a wonderful place to while away a few hours, with the courtyard shops and Wright’s Cafe thrown in. Thousands of people visit every year, many of them several times, some of them every week.
They come to see the Walled Garden with its magnificent herbaceous borders and flourishing vegetable plots, the rose garden, knot garden, apple walk, orchards, parterre and more.
They are a mix of students, retired people, career-changers. Sophie also considers herself a volunteer, learning ‘on the job’ while studying for a Level 2 RHS qualification.
Helmingham is one of 14 gardens offering placements for students on the Historic and Botanic Gardens Training Programme, alongside others such as Chatsworth, Audley End, Holkham and Osborne. One lucky student gets to work full time for a year in one of the gardens.
‘The gardens are more than just a spectacle,’ says Brendan. ‘They are part of a family home and we have to be exemplary in everything we do, employing best garden practices.
‘At this introductory level, we’re able to provide a really good grounding in horticulture.’
Indeed, Jonathan Zerr, who started his career as a volunteer at Helmingham, went on to become this year’s Young Horticulturist of the Year.
Originally from Hamburg, in Germany, his ambition is a career in the management of historic plant collections and fostering cultural heritage and biodiversity within the setting of historical gardens.
He was awarded a £2,500 bursary grant to explore gardens with botanical interest worldwide.
‘It was hugely encouraging to bring on a student in that way,’ says Brendan. ‘We’re very proud to have Jon working with us in the garden.’
Sustainability and environmental responsibility and also key to the future for Helmingham’s gardens.
‘People who work with the land have tremendous responsibilities,’ says Sophie. ‘Our perception of gardens is changing and with a showpiece garden it would be easy to engender practices that aren’t sustainable, just to achieve something that looks good.
It’s important to retain the characteristics of the garden that make it recognisable as Helmingham, but subtle changes are all possible without changing the nature of the place, and potentially even enhance it.
Growing billowy wild flowers on the banks of the moat, allowing the edges of walks to encroach and creating a wild flower meadow make Helmingham even more enchanting and attractive to visitors and wildlife alike.
‘It’s probably key to why we have so much diversity,’ says Sophie.
We’re trying to encourage life and everything starts with the soil,’ says Brendan.
* Helmingham Hall Gardens are open May to September, Monday to Thursday and Sundays, 10am to 5pm, including bank holidays, Well behaved dogs on leads are also welcome. Check the website for the date of the 2025 opening.
*The Illuminated Garden Trail is on November 15 to December 18.
* For more information, visit Helmingham.com
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