Liz Ciskanik

2024/25 RHS Interchange Fellow on placement from the USA to the UK

My first month at RHS Garden Wisley I joined the Edibles team to work in their World Food Garden and Orchard. I was blown away by the orchard revitalization project that turned an irrigated and pesticide controlled production orchard into a biodynamic and sustainable gardened area. I helped prep and sow new meadow spaces surrounding the World Food Garden and the Orchard to provide habitat for creatures, flowers for the pollinators, and add to the diversity of plants. The drive to provide more diversity of plants continued into the World Food Garden with vegetables from around the world, such as Achocha and Celtuce, exposing people to new food and, through them, new cultures. The team also showcased plants that functioned as edible and ornamental (edimentals!), Hostas, Gladioli, Dahlias, and more, encouraging visitors to be creative with their gardens and their food.
 
As the autumnal weather decreed, fruit ripened and we harvested an incredible bounty of fruits and vegetables. We picked apples and pressed them for fresh juice to make cider in the traditional English fashion. We created harvest displays around the garden with the many squashes, fruits, and dried flowers the team had grown that year. Every day I came away with new knowledge and my horticultural passions inflamed. Most recently, starting a three day pruning masterclass in the orchard - yay for apples!

One of my favorite spots at Wisley, that I have had the joy to work in, is the most historic part, Oakwood. A woodland garden where the horticulturists use the plants to paint a masterpiece from herbaceous ground level, through the understory shrubs and small flowering trees, to the highest peaks of the tall and historic oaks. Not only is this garden inspiringly beautiful, but it also supports a huge diversity of plants and niches for wildlife habitat.

My favourite day in Oakwood was installing a dead hedge from bamboo we had thinned. This not only created a habitat for those creatures who call Oakwood their home, but also allowed excess plant materials to remain in the areas that they had been cut from, slowing the breakdown of organic matter into the soil. All around Wisley I have found the drive to garden for the future inspiring. Gardening more sustainably, less wastefully, for biological diversity, and to foster a stronger connection to the natural world we are part of.

On my adventures outside of Wisley, I’ve seen everything from grand castles to giant vegetables, taking every weekend as an opportunity to explore my new home. I attended the RHS Malvern Autumn Show where I shadowed RHS show judges to see how the competition was carried out, saw many of the UK’s finest nurseries, and beheld the most enormous vegetable marrows I have ever seen.

The Walled Kitchen Garden Network’s annual forum took me to Devon. I was thrilled to meet with some of the most enthusiastic gardeners I’ve ever met, listen to experts report archaeological finds of forgotten gardens, and tour some amazing walled gardens at Knightshayes, Ashley Court, as well as a few other private gardens. Other weekend trips were Gravetye Manor, Great Dixter, Sheffield Park, High Beeches, Windsor Castle, Westonbirt National Arboretum, Sissinghurst Castle Garden, and Bedgebury Pinetum. Garden life is the best life!

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The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.