ALAN POWER: Hello and welcome to the National Trust podcast.

In this mini episode, we'll be going to meet Isabel Thompson, a

ranger on the garden team at Stowe and Hannah Richards, the

gardener on the team to learn more about the conservation and

ecology of the grasslands within the Grecian Valley at Stowe.

As I look up the length of the Grecian Valley, it's populated

with the most beautiful, gentle browning grasses and fading away

wild flowers and hints of a beautiful season before us. But

actually, what really dominates the view of this valley is the

magnificent temple behind me.

And the temple really gives it- gives the Grecian Valley its

name because it's a temple inspired by Greek architecture

and it was one of the first Greek inspired architectural

features within a garden in England at the time.

Hence the name the Grecian Valley. But standing next to me

is the person who looks after, monitors, cares for this

wonderful valley, Isabel. And Isabel, you're a ranger on the

team here at Stowe aren't you? And this is yours?

ISABEL THOMPSON: Yeah, I mean, I look after all the parkland here

and any spaces with long grass.

ALAN POWER: What will be the kind of main tasks that you'd be

looking to do throughout the season to create such a

beautiful sword.

ISABEL THOMPSON: This hay meadow is already so well established.

It needs very little management. You can fairly leave it to it.

I've recently been establishing a new hay meadow. So the ground

has been rotavated. It's been turned to make it flatter for

the mowers.

We've spread grass seed and recently we've taken an early

hay crop from one area and spread it on the new area. So

that will spread grass seeds and wild flower seeds and it will

really encourage it to come up with beautiful flowers. It's a

bit of a quick shortcut really.

ALAN POWER: But doing that, you know, taking the grass that

already exists in the landscape at Stowe and spreading it

elsewhere almost guarantees you a consistent- a consistent seed

bank, doesn't it? And a successful seed bank across the

estate?

ISABEL THOMPSON: Yeah, it does. And we try and encourage the

ecology here, make the place a bit more natural.

ALAN POWER: You say that really easily, you know, spaces with

long grass. But actually it's the, it's the spaces with the

long grass that hold such a rich population of insects, seeds for

the birds.

And you, you're doing a massive amount for the environment and

the insects and birds around here, aren't you?

ISABEL THOMPSON: Yes, I mean, you have to start right at the

very bottom. So by encouraging more grasses, more flowers,

you're going to have a greater range of insects, more birds and

more small mammals will come and eat those insects and then you

get the bigger predators like the Birds Of Prey.

There's a red kite lives just over there and he'll come over

here to hunt.

Quite often when I'm mowing. The red kites will follow me because

they know all the little creatures will come out of the

grass and I'll just stop and watch them.

ALAN POWER: And we're standing here, you know, in the grass at

the moment and it's beautiful. It's just going to seed some of

it. So it's perfect for some of the smaller birds and I'm sure

you'll probably get Goldfinches, you know, fluttering in and out

of here and feeding off it, but surely you can't do all of this

on your own.

ISABEL THOMPSON: No, I've got a fabulous team of volunteers who

really help me out.

So, quite often, if I'm out mowing in the tractor, they'll

have smaller mowers out, they'll have strimmers and they'll be

doing the bits behind me.

And if we're felling trees, they're there to make sure none

of the public get hurt and they'll tidy up the trees after

me. So I couldn't do it without them, they're wonderful!

ALAN POWER: Looking at it. There must be kind of seven or eight

acres of land here to look after and, you know, to translate this

into your own garden at home to see if you can benefit.

You know, there are elements that people could take away

seeing the Grecian Valley at Stowe and apply in their own

gardens at home?

ISABEL THOMPSON: Oh, absolutely. Yes. The best thing you can do

is just leave the spots that choose a little corner of your

garden for everyone that gets a bit of sun and just let it grow.

If you get lots of nettles, maybe start cutting some of them

back.

But they've got, great value as well and just leave it be and

you can sow wildflower seed mixes. You can get those quite

easily. And yeah, it's a really, really easy, simple thing to do.

And it's got such a huge benefit.

ALAN POWER: And from a gardener's point of view, you

know, you can, as you say, you can leave nettles and, you know,

as they, as they come to the end of the year, you know,

everything has seeds on it for the birds.

But I'm forever saying to people with perennial borders as well

in your own garden. If you leave the perennial borders,

everything goes to seed and it really helps birds get through

that early stage of winter as well, doesn't it?

ISABEL THOMPSON: Yeah. Absolutely. And it's so easy for

people to do. It's a bit less effort.

ALAN POWER: But here in the Grecian Valley, I mean, it's-

we're standing on a really natural, predominantly native

mix of grass and wild flowers and the population is- stunning.

But actually, we're standing in a very manmade area of the

garden because this is originally a Capability Brown

design when he was head gardener here at Stowe, isn't it?

ISABEL THOMPSON: It was originally meant to be a lake

but was never water tight.

ALAN POWER: No complaints from you. But I know Hannah, that it

wasn't an easy job, was it?

HANNAH RICHARDS: No, it wasn't. They actually removed 23,500

cubic yards of soil from here and it was all done by hand.

And I think you said earlier that nine wheelbarrows makes up

a cubic yard. So that's about 210,000 wheelbarrows of soil

that was removed from here.

So Capability Brown was actually Lancelot Brown, but one of his

great talents was revealing the capabilities of the landscape.

So he earned himself the nickname Capability Brown.

Capability Brown actually lived here at Stowe and we have his

marriage register here because he got married at Stowe in the

church that sits just inside the Elysian fields and it's rumoured

that his wife is buried here as well.

ALAN POWER: Thanks for listening to this week's National Trust

mini episode. Join us next week to learn about indulgence and

pleasure in store, sleeping wood to make sure you never miss an

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You can also email us at podcasts@nationaltrust.org.uk.

Until then from me, Alan Power. Goodbye.