Welcome to The Heritage Hoes: Joyful Rebellion in the Garden

People think heritage gardens are serene; they picture long gravel paths, clipped hedges, immaculate borders and gardeners gliding about with secateurs in hand. Let me gently ruin that illusion.....Heritage gardens are mud on your boots, frostbitten fingers in January, sunburn in April, Wheelbarrows with flat tyres, compost that hasn’t quite rotted down and lists that outlast the daylight.

And honestly? I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Welcome to The Heritage Hoes — a joyful rebellion against boring gardens, corporate life, and the idea that beauty requires perfection.

Where It Began....

I'm Nat, I’m a gardener at the Oxburgh Estate a moated Tudor estate cared for by the National Trust.

On a misty morning, it’s breathtaking. Brick glowing against grey skies. The moat still as glass. Yew hedges standing as if they’ve always been there....in many ways, they have.

Oxburgh isn’t just a garden. It’s layers, 18th-century geometry, Victorian enthusiasm, modern restoration, volunteer stories, and the steady commitment of people protecting something bigger than themselves.

But heritage gardening isn’t about freezing a space in time, it’s about caring for it responsibly.

Every decision carries weight. Not just “Can we?” but “Should we?”
Should we replace that plant with something more resilient to climate change?
Should we adjust historic planting to support pollinators?
Should we irrigate more — or improve soil health so we don’t have to?

Because sustainability isn’t a modern add-on, it’s long-term thinking and historic gardens demand that.

I didn’t begin in horticulture. I came from an office world of emails and KPIs, but gardening had always been stitched into me. When I stepped into it full time, something shifted, this wasn’t just work...It was a return.

Enter Ryan...

Ryan is the Head Gardener at Oxburgh but has over 15 years of Horticultural experience from Grounds Maintenance to Green Keeping and beyond. He sees gardens in decades. He’ll stand before a border and imagine not just next season, but the next generation.

Where I see chaos, he sees structure.
Where I dream long-term, He bring us back to what’s practical this week, with one eye on the future.

Between us, there’s constant dialogue:

How do we honour heritage design while building biodiversity?
How do we maintain formality without stripping life from a space?
How do we restore something faithfully, but responsibly?

The Heritage Hoes isn’t just about old gardens. It’s about two gardeners figuring it out; muddy, occasionally stubborn, often laughing and trying to leave the place better than we found it.

Why Heritage Gardening Matters

Heritage gardening isn’t nostalgia, It’s stewardship. Restoring an 18th-century parterre isn’t just about planting box hedging. It’s reading history, balancing authenticity with climate reality, budget constraints, soil health, and ecological impact.

It’s asking:

• What was this space?

• What should it become?

• How do we protect it long after we’re gone?

Historic gardens are living archives, they hold stories of food systems, labour, exploration, design, ecology, they evolve, they adapt. They survive....much like people do and survival, in a changing climate, means working with the soil, not against it. Building diversity, choosing resilience, thinking in seasons, not trends.

Joyful Rebellion

So what is this “joyful rebellion”? It’s rejecting glossy perfection, it’s admitting:

• The weeds win sometimes.

• The planting plan changes mid-season.

• The weather doesn’t care.

• Sustainability takes patience.

It’s choosing practicality over pride. Mixing heritage roses with modern resilient varieties because thriving matters more than purism. Growing vegetables beside flowers because productivity and beauty belong together. Leaving seed heads for wildlife even when they look “untidy.”

It’s clipped geometry alongside buzzing borders. Structure and softness. Order and life. It’s believing that the best gardens aren’t staged — they’re alive.

What You'll Find Here...

At The Heritage Hoes, you’ll find:

• Behind-the-scenes restoration stories

• Kitchen garden plans (and occasional disasters)

• Seasonal guides rooted in reality

• Conversations about soil health and biodiversity

• Reflections on mental health and muddy hands

• The ongoing question: how do we build a life — and a garden — that lasts?

This is heritage horticulture with personality.
History with humour.
Sustainability with common sense.
Practical advice with a wink.

Pull Up A Kneeler

If you’re tired of curated perfection…Drawn to old gardens and older stories…Curious what gardeners actually do…Or quietly dreaming of building something slower, deeper, more rooted…

You’re in the right place. Pull up a kneeler, there’s work to do and joy to be found in it.

And if you’d like weekly notes from the garden — the real stuff, the muddy stuff, the thoughtful stuff — you can sign up to Hoe Notes, where I share what we’re learning, questioning, restoring and growing.

Welcome to The Heritage Hoes.