The gardens are really blooming at The Wakes, Selborne, once home of the great naturalist, the Reverend Gilbert White.
Following White's methods, a melon hotbed has been built out of a wooden frame, filled with a pile of fermenting manure. Covered with a glass frame, the temperature can reach as high as 40C.
During June, there should be huge melons, happily growing in the same way Gilbert White nurtured them in the 18th century.
On Friday, June 11, leading ornithologist, Dr John Eyre, will lead a guided walk through the Selborne countryside to hear the dawn chorus, followed by a hearty breakfast at the museum.
The museum's head gardener, David Standing, has returned from visiting The Houghton Library, at Harvard University, where he viewed the original drawings and watercolours of Selborne by Samuel Grimm to continue his expansion and development of Gilbert White's Gardens.
* For course booking or further information, please contact the museum, on 01420 511275, or go to www.gilbertwhiteshouse.org.
uk@gilbertwhiteshouse.org.uk
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