The Gardens of Copped Hall – a talk by Nicola Munday. 

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Nicola Munday

At the March meeting of Aldersbrook Horticultural Society, we were pleased to welcome Nicola Munday, who has been a volunteer at Copped Hall since 1996, in 1995 the Copped Hall Trust was established with the aim of renovating some of the house and surrounding gardens. The parkland is now looked after by Epping Forest. 

Nicola talked us through the history of the Estate, first given to Richard Fitz Aucher by King Henry II in the 1170s, he built a manor house on the land, later in the Middle Ages the estate came under the possession of the Abbot of nearby Waltham Abbey and by the 1530s Copped Hall was a massive hunting lodge. After the monasteries were dissolved by Henry VIII the Hall was bought by Sir Thomas Heneage in 1564, who built an elaborate mansion on the grounds, and it is said that Elizabeth I visited Copped Hall on two occasions. In 1623 the Hall was bought by the Earl of Middlesex who improved the house again with an elaborate gate in the style of Inigo Jones and a turning circle in front of the house. At that time records show that the gardens produced asparagus, cauliflower, apples and yellow tulips (during the time of Tulip Mania). After the English Civil War King Charles II was a fairly regular visitor to the Hall and hunted and dined there often. During those years two fountains and a pool were added as well as a real tennis court. In the 17th and 18th Centuries the house was purchased by a number of aristocratic families and in 1742 John Conyers inherited the house from his father and decided to build a new house on the site but this time in the parish of Epping (the original house was in the Parish of Waltham Abbey). The new house was built between 1751 & 1758, the old one being demolished in 1748. This was a true Georgian house with a landscaped garden, taking in views across two valleys with a HaHa to keep out deers and other wandering fauna and a four-acre walled garden. 

By the beginning of the 20th Century the Estate was owned by George Wythes who had made his money building railway lines in India but in 1917 the house was gutted by fire caused by an electrical fault. The family moved into Wood House on the estate and during the Second World War the garden was looked after by local women and a couple of men unfit for service. In 1950 the house was sold and stripped of desirable building materials with many statues and pieces of architecture sold to other stately homes. 

In 1995 the Hall and surrounding land was purchased by the Copped Hall Trust – a group of people with the aim of preserving the ground and first floor of the house and some of the gardens. She showed us some lovely pictures of the garden as it is now – from fruit trees in the walled garden, bluebells, in surrounding grassy areas, specimen trees on the lawn and Spring bulbs in the rock garden. We hope to organise a trip to Copped Hall in the Autumn.

Tips of the month – March

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March is the month of spring but don’t forget that the weather can also have a more wintry feel. Stick to sowing indoors on a bright windowsill or in the greenhouse. March is also the month of longer days with plenty more time to get a head start in the garden.

Keep your flower garden sparkling

  • Tidy tatty plants: cut back old stems and foliage to just above the ground, taking care not to snip off new growth. 
  • Refresh containers:  check over planters, window-boxes and hanging baskets. Pick off dead or damaged leaves and flowers. Scrape away around 2.5 cm of compost from the top and replace with fresh compost. 
  • Prune roses: March is your last chance to prune roses, but avoid days when frost is forecasted because the pruned stem may split. Prune to produce an open-centred plant for good air circulation and to encourage new growth.
  • Prune fuchsias: cut back to one or two buds on each shoot to encourage a bushy growth.
  • Cut back buddleias: cut back last year’s growth to short stubs, just above healthy buds or new shoots, to encourage strong and floriferous regrowth.
  • Deadhead daffodils: snip developing seed-heads off so the plant directs its energy and nutrients back into replenishing the bulb. Leave the foliage in place as it will also feed the bulbs. 
  • Cut back cornus: and other shrubs grown for their colourful winter stems to encourage new stem for next winter. Cut them right back to their base. 
  • Penstemon: pruning back hard annually is recommended to avoid them becoming woody and leggy. It is best to wait until towards the end of the month or the beginning of April when there is no risk of frost. 

Preparing for colourful and wildlife-friendly plants

Fertilise and mulch your borders: mulch the surface with a 3 to 5 cm  layer of organic matter. It will improve the soil help to suppress weeds and trap moisture in the soil. 

Sow half-hardy annuals: zinnias, cosmos, nicotiana, marigolds, wildflowers….sown indoors in seed trays or plug modules by March or April will start flowering in June. 

  • Use peat-free, seeding compost. Fill the seed tray with compost and level the surface by running a piece of wood over it to scrape off the excess. 
  • Depending on the size of the seeds, either sprinkle then in a very thin layer or push the seeds one by one. 
  • Sieve compost over the seeds and label your trays so you know what is growing.
  • Using a watering can with a very thin rose head, gently water the seeds. An alternative, known as bottom watering, is to stand your tray in a shallow tray of water to properly saturate the compost. If using this method, pay close attention to how the tray feels, in terms of weight, once saturated (when the surface of the soil is moist) and use this as a reliable gauge for future watering.
  • Cover the tray or plug modules with a clear piece of plastic, to maintain an even temperature and to keep the soil moist. Or use a bespoke propagator that has its own plastic lid. Place in a warm place indoors but not in direct sunlight.
  • Remove the plastic cover as soon as the seeds have germinated. The young plants are ready to be “pricked” out when the second pair of leaves emerges. 
  • Pricking out seedlings: handle them only by their leaves, not the stem. Fill a new tray or small pots with compost and plant seedlings about 5 cm apart, burying the seedling up to the base of the first set of leaves. 
  • Pot individually: after 2 to 3 weeks the young plants will be large enough to be moved individually into pots or planted outside in well-prepared soil. Don’t allow the soil or compost to dry out and if you are planting outside watch out for slugs and snails. 

Divide perennials and ornamental grasses: early spring is the time to refresh herbaceous perennials and to propagate them. Large mature clumps of geraniums, astrantias or hostas can be split now to make more. Some ornamental grasses need division because they die out in the centre. They should be dug up with the outer vigorous sections replanted and the central dead part discarded.  

  • Split plants into clumps that are small enough to handle but big enough to make an impact. Discard any old woody centres. 
  • Dig up the clump using a spade an ensuring that you get all the roots. 
  • Separate the clumps using and old knife, trowel or spade and replant small sections into their new positions immediately. Water them well. 

Transplant foxgloves: Many foxgloves self-seed around the garden and seedlings often appear near the parent plant. These can easily be transplanted to other areas where they have more space to develop. Try to get as big a root ball as possible. Most foxgloves are biennial and you might not get flowers in the same year that you plant the plants. If you want biennial foxgloves to self-seed around the garden and flower reliably every year, you will need to sow or plant them two years in a row. 

Get dahlias under way:  in the greenhouse or in a frost-free growing space, pot up tubers in peat-free multipurpose composts, with the buds facing upwards. Keep moist and place in a bright location until they are ready to plant out at the end of May.

In the vegetable garden

Dig in green manure grown over the winter. Do this while stems are still soft. Chop up leaves and stems with a sharp spade before burying them in the soil.

Weed vegetable seed beds. As the soil starts to warm up and days get longer, weeds will thrive. Keep on top of them before they have a chance to set seeds and spread. 

Dig compost and well rotted manure into your vegetable beds to prepare for the growing season ahead.

First outdoor sowings: cabbages, broccoli, cauliflowers, kale, corn salad, peas, broad beans, parsnip and turnips, beetroots, carrots, Swiss chard can all be sown from mid-March, directly outdoor. 

Sow seeds indoors: using the technique described above for half-hardy annuals, in seed trays or plug modules, sow, sweet peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, aubergines and salads. 

Asparagus: Weed and mulch asparagus beds. Asparagus has shallow roots so weed by hand to prevent damage. March is also the time to plant new crowns. 

Potatoes: are mainly planted in spring, over several weeks, according to the variety. Seed potatoes chitted in February are ready to be planted  from mid-March when the soil temperature has warmed up to 6-10 degrees. Potatoes like rich, fertile soil, so dig in plenty of garden compost or well-rotted manure.

Rhubarb: mulch with a thick layer of well-rotted manure to keep it healthy and to reduce moisture loss. Take care not to cover the crown.

Raspberry: 

  • autumn-fruiting raspberry canes: cut to the ground to stimulate new canes, which will fruit in the autumn.
  • Summer-fruiting raspberry: cut the tips of the canes that have grown beyond the top of their supports, cut just above a bud.

Fruit trees: mulch with well-rotted manure or garden compost, taking care not to mound mulch up around the trunk.

Horatio’s Gardens – a talk by Charlotte Harris.

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At the February meeting of Aldersbrook Horticultural Society, Charlotte Harris, internationally renowned garden designer, spoke about the garden that Charlotte and her business partner, Hugo Bugg, designed and built for the Chelsea Flower Show 2023. The garden won a gold medal at Chelsea as well as being the ‘Best In the Show Garden’. Harris Bugg Studio is renowned as a values driven practice designing a range of gardens – residential; public; historic and botanic. 

Charlotte told us how the Horatio’s Garden that they had designed for Chelsea is being relocated to The Princess Spinal Injuries Centre in Sheffield. She showed us designs for the Chelsea Garden which were made after extensive research on the effect of spinal injuries, as well as planting plans and a film of the award winning Chelsea show garden. The garden was designed as a woodland garden to provide dappled light and the main trees used were Field Maple (Acer Campestre) and Black Stemmed Birch (Betra Niger). A number of Pods were constructed to provide private spaces for patients as well as stone built ‘cairns’. The show garden incorporated beautiful planting at a level that could be seen by wheelchair users, paths which are wheelchair friendly, and a water feature including replicas of tools used in the production of Sheffield steel. A Chelsea garden takes 12 days to build and 5 days to plant – it is a risky business and Charlotte told us about the 4 out of 6 trees that they were going to plant which became defoliated just before planting, even though they had bought them two years earlier! An emergency visit to a tree nursery replaced those trees. Chelsea gardens are judged twice in two days the judges were provided with wheelchairs from which they could judge the Harris & Bugg Chelsea Garden. 

Charlotte then went on to explain how the garden was being repurposed and rebuilt for the Hospital in Sheffield, sharing with us plans and 3D images of what it will look like when it is completed. It is being built on a car park, with a shelter belt provided by existing trees. The trees from the Chelsea Garden have been replanted in Sheffield and the stone wallers who built the cairns for the Chelsea garden will build the cairns in Sheffield. Once more the paths which will be built will be wide and reflect the shape of the River Rivelin. Perennial plants used in the Chelsea Garden were sold at the end of the Show and the money will be used to buy perennials for the Sheffield Garden. Horatio’s Garden is a wonderful charity bringing green spaces to hospitals for patients with spinal injuries and we are looking forward to hearing from Ashley Edwards, the Head Gardner at Horatio’s Garden in Stanmore, Middlesex who has been booked to speak to our group in February 2026.

“…wanted to tell you how much we enjoyed the last meeting. Really interestin. You all make the AHS work so well.” Sue, AHS member.

“Wonderful evening, thank yo SO much for organising it. Charlotte was an entertaining speaker and there was an awful lot about Chelsea Gold Medal gardens that I just had no idea about…” Sandra, AHS member.