Lednice park through the eyes of the main gardener - Novinky.cz

Lednice park through the eyes of the main gardener - Novinky.cz

Lednicky Park through the eyes of the head gardener

To ensure that there is still something to admire in the garden and park, which are part of the Lednice-Valtice area of ​​the UNESCO World Heritage List, and that the damage caused by humans , animals and natural elements were as little visible as possible, the twenty-year-old head gardener Oto Bernad with twenty of his subordinates.

During a tour of his extensive workplace, which he does not leave even during vacation, we talked not only about plants, but also about human ruthlessness, beaver appetite or the reasons that led the electromechanic from Prague to become a gardener.

We met at your house, which is the only inhabited building in the park apart from the castle. What was it originally used for?

The building from the second half of the 19th century was referred to as the House of Architects on old projects and Liechtenstein plans. Basically, it was a construction office where maps were redrawn and stored. Unfortunately, most of them were burned by people who, after the departure of the German population, began to repopulate the borderlands.

I have an office downstairs where I do paperwork, and a two-room apartment upstairs. There is a garden at the back and outside the window I grow succulents, which have interested me since I was young. Perhaps the visitors, as they walk by, say to themselves, "There must be a gardener living here."

What is the difference between taking care of your own garden and that of the castle?

Huge. If you don't feel like it at home, you cut the bush another time, while at work you are constantly haunted by the question: Why isn't it done yet? The park is 175 hectares and the regular garden is almost nine hectares, and everything requires daily care.

We are still fighting against time and catching up with nature. For example, if it rains, we can't do anything with the soil for two days, but as soon as the tulips bloom, we have to start pulling them out. Visitors are not interested in the reasons why something does not work. At the same time, those who do not have a garden or only maintain a perfect English lawn criticize the most.

Lednicky Park through the eyes of the head gardener - News. cz

And are you up to it?

I would be happy if we could employ at least ten more people, because no tractor or mower can replace skilled manual work. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Liechtensteiners had six times more employees than us during the season, so they could afford, for example, more perfect and richer ornaments from annuals.

The former owners of the chateau also had saplings brought in from different parts of the world.

They were interested in whether exotic types of trees could be grown here as well. For example, from the east of the USA, gardeners brought them thirty thousand seedlings, which they planted and watched to see if they would take hold. The black walnut or double row yew succeeded. The latter is characterized by respiratory roots that look like stumps and help take in oxygen from the air. In the Florida swamps where this tree is at home, they can be up to a meter tall.

Was the park a hobby for the Liechtensteiners?

Yes. For example, Prince Alois II. he is said to have taken notes and painted pictures while visiting Italy or England and Scotland. He wanted to have the elements he liked in Lednice. We try to preserve as much as possible the form that was last documented in 1938, but the task of the gardener is also to adapt the planting of the park to the expected climatic conditions and to choose plants that will survive for future generations. We focus on domestic species such as baby oak, milk maple, summer oak or European linden, especially those that reproduce by themselves in the park.

Regarding the climate, it is obvious that you mainly struggle with drought. Is that so?

The worst were the years 2015 to 2017, which mainly affected the hundred and fifty-year-old trees growing by the pond. However, pines that are only a few decades old have also suffered, as they have withered tops and will probably also die gradually. Trees weakened by drought become easy prey for bark beetles. Above all, in the wilder part of the park, you will find oaks up to two hundred and fifty years old, which were marked by a long-term drought.

Meadows where they grow were regularly flooded until the Dyje regulation in the 70s of the last century, but then the ground water dropped, to which the roots of such old trees can no longer reach. It is similar to transferring a person to another environment at the end of their life. They gradually wither and die, and we plant new trees in their place. At the same time, we collect their remains in several places, because a dead tree can serve as a shelter for insects and birds.

How did you deal with the beavers that have been giving you work since 2005?

Ninety percent of the time we have managed to catch their activity and we know where they usually cause damage, so we can fence the trees or paint them with a protective coating , previously also by wolf droppings.

They like willows, hornbeams and baby trees the most, but it happens that — apparently under stress — they take a bite of an ash tree, for example. Or it is harmful on the islands, where we are not allowed for part of the year due to the protection of waterfowl, such as geese, herons, quacks or cormorants. In short, it is an eternal struggle, because we are in an area where we cannot intervene against the beaver.

What can you do with the crassness shown, as we have seen, for example, in the engraving of the initials into the trunks of the mighty sycamores near the Minaret?

I don't see how anyone can be satisfied with damaging such a beautiful trunk. Many people in the area also do not respect the ban on cycling. As soon as we point this out to them, they usually rudely, even aggressively send us to hell. A colleague was almost physically attacked by a cyclist. At the same time, the ban is not without reason. In addition to protecting other visitors, it contributes to the maintenance of roads, which are damaged by cycling, especially after rain.

It is similar to circumventing the ban on entering the lawn in the garden near the castle. People violate it when taking photos or spread a blanket directly on the ground floor and have a picnic. A lot depends on upbringing. Someone respects that it is a space for everyone, another thinks that the world belongs to him. And it is far from just the younger generation. An elderly lady regularly comes here to steal flowers, and when we catch her, she doesn't react at all. It's not so much about the fifty-crown damage, but about the fact that the gap in the flower bed doesn't look good.

What led you from electromechanics to horticulture?

I always wanted to do something with animals or plants, but my parents said I should choose a field with perspective. After a while, however, it stopped fulfilling me, so I got a job in the company that takes care of Prague's Letenská sady, I graduated from a high school of horticulture and later at the Mendel University in Brno, which has a horticulture faculty in Lednice.

But I still use my original profession. If it is not a complex fault, I can repair all machines, faults in the boiler room that heats the greenhouse, or on the irrigation equipment in the Moorish Waterworks.

How were you received twenty years ago in the south of Moravia?

I came here wanting to learn from more experienced people. Even if you study the field, the reality is usually a little different, because each garden has its own specifics. You will learn at school that evergreen trees are best pruned in early spring so that they cannot be threatened by frost, but in Lednice yews were always pruned in autumn. It turned out that the winters here are not so cruel, and the strong spring sun can harm the plants. I am glad that I have a group of gardeners around me, some of whom have been working in Lednice for thirty or forty years, and when needed, even those who are retired come to help us.

Firmy.cz may be useful for you:
yknivoNumanzeSaNyknalC
Tags: