Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2011/January 2012 | Page 87

GARDENING Gardening with Toby Beasley Toby Beasley, head gardener at Osborne House, brings Island Life readers up to date with what has been happening in the famous gardens – and beyond - in his regular column. Two significant things have happened just recently. First of all I had to speak at a conference in Germany and secondly we have just completed the replanting of the bedding display on the terraces. So what is so significant about me talking at a conference? Well it was held at Schloss Rosenau in Bavaria where Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, was born and spent much of his childhood. His family’s seat was in the Ehrenburg Palace in the small town of Coburg and three miles out of town is Rosenau, the summer residence. This is where Albert and his older brother Ernst spent much of their time and where many of Prince Albert’s ideas for Osborne and in particular the children’s garden at Swiss Cottage came from. So a real treat for me. Children’s gardens were much more prevalent on the continent during Albert’s childhood so it was only natural that he was encouraged to look after a small garden with his brother, a model fort was also constructed of ditches and banks, a bathing platform was built to aid swimming in one of the lakes and a Swiss Cottage was also built in the grounds. All of these elements were repeated at Osborne to help educate his own children. The Rosenau is now in the care of the Bavarian Administration of State Palaces, Gardens and Lakes and while the castle and the gardens immediately outside has largely been restored to their former glory, much of the garden has reverted back to woodland and meadows. It is now much more like a country park and was being enjoyed by plenty of dog walkers and cyclists. The conference was all about gardens within fortifications and luckily one of the things to survive in the gardens at the Rosenau is Prince Albert’s childhood fort; it’s not as good as Osborne’s one though! Back to the work that we have been doing at Osborne. We have just completed changing the bedding display. We started in mid-October and completed planting in mid-November. One of our quickest changes ever! Luckily the weather was with us. We did get some very heavy rain at the end of October but this served to water in the wallflowers particularly well as the soil was still very dry believe it or not. But I think I am right in saying that all the gardeners at Osborne really don’t like planting the spring