What’s happening in the Walled Garden this Month.
Update for August
This month is peak for harvesting tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beans, courgettes, plums and blackberries and our early apple varieties such as Discovery and Worcester Pearmain. Honey from the hives in the Walled Garden itself is also now available to buy.
Weeding and watering is ongoing and the lack of rain is challenging. Our new rain gauge awaits some action!
We had a very successful stall at the South Yorkshire Festival held in the grounds of the Hall and were pleased to see lots of visitors come along to the Walled garden too.
The major work to reskin one of our Polytunnels has now been completed. We are very grateful to Penistone Area Council for support from their Environmental Grants and the Freshgate Trust Foundation.
Apple News
Many visitors ask us what we do with our wonderful apple harvest . Last autumn, in addition to the production of apple juice and sales on Apple Day, we were delighted to supply the brilliant catering students at Sheffield College with a range of varieties. They devised an amazing dessert which was part of their entry into the Young Restaurant of the Year and it won Best Dish of the Finals. They called it Apple Orchard and was made up of spiced apple cake with Green Balsam , apple mousse with Nancy Jackson, caramelised apple with Adam’s Pearmain, and poached apple with Sykehouse Russet. Congratulations to all the students involved.
We are already gearing up for the apple and pear harvest this year and it looks like being a good one despite the dry summer. There will be a new pressing for our pasteurised apple juice and we are looking forward to harvesting lots of apple varieties which will be available for this year’s Apple day on Sunday October 11th.
Green Flag Award 2026
We are very pleased to report that we have been awarded the prestigious Green Flag Community award for 2026. This award recognises sites managed by voluntary and community groups. It’s a great testament to the hard work and dedication of the volunteers who care for the historic Walled Garden, ensuring that it’s maintained to a high standard for visitors to enjoy.
Update for July
Thanks to a great effort by volunteers during the recent heatwave, the indoor and outdoor beds have come through unscathed. Watering will continue to be a priority in July as more crops with come into harvest. The battle against weeds will also continue.
We expect to be picking tomatoes, red and blackcurrants and gooseberries as well as continuing to harvest broad beans and sugarsnap peas. We’ll continue to mow and strim, including in the orchard. A very successful ‘big mow day’ last month has helped us get paths and edges under control and may be worth repeating in July. There will also be summer pruning of espaliers and trees to start in the orchard.
Replacement polythene has been delivered for the major job of replacing the skin on Polytunnel 1. We expect that work will be done at the end of July by contractors. In readiness for that, we will need to clear the polytunnel, particularly near the walls and afterwards reinstate the storage units.
There will be large amounts of good quality polythene available to take away after the new skin has been fitted. We are really keen that this is re-used if possible. Please get in touch via our contact form if you are interested.
Update for June
We are in peak growing season now and harvesting has started with delicious strawberries from the polytunnel. ( We also have strawberry plants for sale, 3 varieties, Florence , Cambridge and Honeye). Outdoor beds are being cleared and planting has included beans, peas, spinach, beet, potatoes and onions. Still to come this month will be courgettes, squash and more green manures. We have been helped by 2 great days of work from Corporate volunteers as well as our own great team of regulars every Tuesday and Friday.
Watering will be a continuing priority and we have upgraded our hose system for the outdoor beds and an automated system for the polytunnels is being trialled . We are also harvesting more rainwater from the polytunnels.
Thanks to a grant from Penistone Area Council’s Environmental Grant Scheme we are now able to order replacement polythene to reskin the polytunnel that was damaged in storms over the winter. The existing polythene is ripped in one or two places but there will be large pieces available for reusing, please get in touch if you may be interested.
Update for May
Our Blossom Day on May 3rd was very enjoyable, despite the drizzly weather. It was perfectly timed for the orchard blossom which looked very beautiful and a fine reward for our intrepid visitors.
Growing priorities for the month include further seed sowing, preparation of outdoor beds and weeding , weeding and more weeding.
We are looking forward to hosting 2 corporate volunteer days this month, there is always plenty to do in the walled garden and we know the days are very much enjoyed by the participants.
Our volunteer try out session is on Friday May 29th, check out the events page for more information.
Update for April
Work continues on preparing the indoor and outdoor beds, seed sowing is ramping up . The fruit trees have been given a spring helping of manure, and the fruit bushes will be next. The buds are forming but blossom is probably a couple of weeks behind last year. We’re looking forward to our Blossom day on Sunday 3rd May and welcoming visitors , it is a beautiful sight to see the orchard and espalier trees in bloom.
Apple trees for sale
please note that the list below is indicative of the varieties we have , but sales of trees has been halted until the winter.
Trees for sale as of 9 March 2026
Available from 2022/23 grafts on MM106 rootstock
Sharleston Pippin x1
Hunthouse x2
Green Balsam x1
Yorkshire Greening
Acklam Russet
Available from 2024/25 grafts on M26 rootstock
| Laxton’s Fortune | x2 |
| White Melrose | x2 |
| Discovery | x1 |
| Devonshire Quarendon | x1 |
| Flower of the Town | x2 |
| George Cave | x2 |
| Ashmeads Kernel | x2 |
| Lady Sudely | x1 |
| Grenadier | x1 |
| Newton Wonder | x2 |
| Yorkshire Beauty | x1 |
| Cevaal | |
| Charles Ross | sold |
| Hunthouse | x1 |
| Worcester Pearmain | |
| Keswick Codling | x2 |
Now we are back with regular Tuesday and Friday volunteer sessions and the work has really started apace. We have completed the pruning tasks in the orchard and the soft fruit bushes. There’s also been a lot of work on preparing indoor and outdoor beds and general clearing of the decks. Seed sowing has started and the potatoes are chitting.
February 2026
We’re coming out of hibernation now , volunteer sessions will start again on 24th February and we will be working each Tuesday and Friday after then.
We will also be busy finishing the orchard winter pruning which has been held back a bit because of the dire weather. Fingers crossed for some gentle spring weather.
there will be work to do preparing the beds, and other tasks to get ready for the growing season, including tool cleaning and maintenance, installing more water collection and irrigation systems and cleaning the polytunnel plastic.
Despite the mist and rain , the garden is full of birdsong and the snowdrops are out.
RHS Flower Show Wentworth Woodhouse 2025
The Wortley Walled Garden volunteers grew most of the plants for one of the long border show gardens at this year’s RHS Flower Show at Wentworth Woodhouse. The designers of the The Edimental Kitchen Classroom are Sam Penrose @sjp_architecture and Jo Jo Tarbet. We are delighted to announce that the garden was awarded an RHS Silver Gilt. Congratulations to all our volunteers that helped make this happen. To help celebrate we are opening the walled garden on both Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th July 12-2pm. Read more here
June’s Jobs
The volunteer try out afternoon went really well and we look forward to welcoming new volunteers as a result.
The growing priorities for the month will include :
- Picking strawberries in the polytunnel and outside.
- Complete planting out cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, sweetcorn, beans, squash, courgettes.
- Seed sowing including more salads, and green manures.
- More work on the permaculture garden.
- Growing on the plants for the Wentworth Woodhouse RHS show starting 16 July
- And of course watering, mowing , weeding.
Finish the sales display stand.
The orchard seems to have brushed off the effects of aphids from last month and the fruit is setting really well. At some point we’ll need to look at summer pruning and thinning out, but probably not yet!
Here’s to a great summer!
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