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.