The Cherryburn Garden – a place for nature and people to thrive

A Garden For All

The garden space at Cherryburn is an accessible space with seating, wheelchair-friendly and pushchair-friendly paths, ready to welcome you.

In summer our mid terrace is full of life and the gentle humming of bees and other insects enjoying the wildflower terrace. Two important additions on the terrace are Leucanthemum vulgare and Phacelia tanacetifolia. The Leucanthemum flowers year after year and spreads all over covering the area in a beautiful spray of white, and the Phacelia, all be it annual, often self-seeds freely and pops up providing the terrace with a delicate floral fragrance.  Both are loved by insects and visitors alike and are a crucial part of our wild garden.

Summer is great for the Cherryburn allotment too, which is in full swing at this time of year. Potatoes are ready to be dug up and the edible flowers surrounding the allotment are delicious and beautiful. Our produce table is abundant with courgettes and herbs and salad leaves, as well as freshly tied garden poseys. Clover patches, which we leave when mowing, are providing some relief in the endless green of the lawn spaces and food for the bees and insects buzzing around.  Across the Tyne Valley from our silent space, you can watch the farmer in the fields driving their tractor or tending to cattle.

At the end of summer, plums are being collected, but we make sure to leave some for the birds and insects. Depending on the weather - our gardener and volunteers could be watering in the allotment or hiding in the greenhouse from the rain! Some cutting back can be done to continue to encourage flowering, but we try not to cut back too much in order to provide cosy homes for insects in the up coming colder months.

The garden is designed to support wildlife and to remain characteristic of the natural landscape as Thomas Bewick would have experienced it. In fact, the key ‘rules’ for the garden are that all the plants must be recognisable to Bewick and/or that they will encourage wildlife to thrive. 

The space has a natural look and a wilder feel, with easy to source plants to inspire you to create your own planting schemes at home.

The garden project celebrates the legacy of Thomas Bewick with features and designs inspired by him and his work, ready to delight many more generations of visitors.   

 

Going Forward 

By reimagining the garden at Cherryburn, our hope is that the space is now accessible to more visitors – including wildlife – and that the changes ensure it remains sustainable for the future. 

Our aim is to let the garden progress naturally – next year’s garden will be different to this year’s as it continues to mature and is nurtured by the new gardener and volunteers – so it will be wonderful to see the garden change and flourish across time. Next steps include the planting of trees and plants for pollinators. 

Bewick used a woodblock print of his own thumbprint as a mark of authenticity in many of his publications, together with the handwritten inscription ‘Thomas Bewick his Mark.’ We are fundraising to produce a large-scale reproduction of Bewick’s thumbprint and inscription, in mosaic form. Visitors could choose to walk on the mosaic barefoot, which, with accompanying planting, would create a sensory garden experience. We are also fundraising for a bird hide, inspired by Bewick’s knowledge of birds, which he illustrated extensively in ‘British Birds.’ The hide brings Bewick’s work into the garden, extending the museum into the outdoor space and enabling visitors to ‘notice nature’ through Bewick’s eyes. The hide won’t be set up as a silent space to spot rare birds in the traditional sense, but a place to see common birds and draw, paint or photograph them. 
 

Please do share your photos of the garden from your visits, we’d love to see them and hear what you thought about this new space. Follow us or tag us on Facebook @CherryburnNT or Instagram #hadrianswalltynevalleynt