On 03/01/15 22:31, Bob Hobden wrote:
"Jeff Layman" wrote ...

, Bob Hobden wrote:
I understand the National Trust is to try to bring back a significant
number
of it's walled gardens into production. My problem is that I've heard
they
intend to remake the old greenhouses as they were, all manual and in
wood,
instead of using modern materials and automation and things like double
glazing for the orchid houses. Personally I think that is crazy as the
old
Head Gardeners would never have countenanced such a retrograde step.
What do others think?

Well, if there weren't any Grade 1 or 2 listing, you could make an argument
for double glazing and LED lighting in any NT property. But they wouldn't
look right, and I guess the NT are using a similar argument for
greenhouses.

And would I want to visit such modern greenhouses to see how they were
being used to grow things? I very much doubt it.

I understand about the houses but the gardens are for growing produce and
that is their only purpose, so I see nothing wrong and everything right in
them using the most modern techniques and equipment to achieve that. The
Head Gardener, if he was still around, would embrace any modern improvement.
A super modern large greenhouse would be much more interesting than an old
plain museum piece, there are hundreds of those already. It's all about the
plants.

I am afraid that I disagree. You can't disentangle the houses and
gardens - they are inextricably linked. The gardens are for growing
produce, but not in a modern way. If you look at the "About us" at the
bottom of the NT webpages, the first thing it states is "We're a UK
conservation charity...". Note *conservation* - not modernisation. If
you want modernisation, you go to the RHS gardens, and perhaps some
other gardens open to the public. Where do you stop the "improvements"?
Are you going to get rid of all the heritage fruit and veg because it
doesn't crop as well or has poor disease resistance?

The NT has always had a problem with conservation of old buildings - how
far back does it go? What do you do with Georgian, Regency, or Victorian
changes to Tudor buildings, for example? Well, whatever is decided, it
won't include new central heating and solar panels on the roofs! Would
you put solar panels in the walled gardens to help heat the greenhouses?

--

Jeff