Set within the very beautiful, private garden of Petersham House; head gardener Lucy Boyd offers a practical demonstration on staking. A rare opportunity to step foot inside the gates of Petersham House garden and pick up the secrets of what makes its borders flourish throughout the growing season.

A simple but invaluable technique, staking is a centuries old tradition.  Much favoured by gardeners throughout the growing season, staking lends support to tall plants like sweet peas, hollyhocks and delphiniums and climbing vegetables such as tomatoes, beans and peas.

Staking early in the spring will allow the supported plants to flourish, introducing structure, height and vibrancy to your borders through the year.

Within the 150" long running double border of Petersham House garden, expert gardeners Lucy Boyd and Rosie Bines will demonstrate how to use naturally coppiced hazel to stake a variety of garden plants and to create simple structures which will create a stunning visual feature in your garden.

Combining the practical with the creative, you will learn how to build nests out of pea sticks to support Oriental poppies, aconitums; structures for sweet peas and bean pole wigwams for your beans to scramble up. They will also offer their own top tips on how best to hide visible supports - allowing the plants to take centre stage, and why it is preferable to use biodegradable twine.

This seasonal workshop aims to demonstrate how you can have a beautiful mid-summer garden, bursting with colour and structure– easily achieved with this traditional method

Petersham House is the private home of Petersham Nurseries’ owners, Francesco & Gael Boglione.