Thursday 9th Dec 2010
A frustrating day because of the still-frozen ground. The first task of cutting back anemones and hellebore leaves was abandoned after an hour and a half because we couldn't feel our feet any longer. We tried planting ramsons in the forest garden but couldn't get the trowels more than a centimetre into the ground, if that. Later on the ground began to warm up and we finished off the cutting back, and then after lunch we headed up to Outdoor Med to pull out frost-hit osteospermums and pelargoniums. The pelargoniums had the most amazing scent when pulled - geranium oil, funnily enough - and it cut through the chilly air to give a most welcome faint hint of sunnier climes.
Friday 10th Dec
No frost! Visible relief on everyone's faces. Started off mulching the plane stairs before heading up to the compound to do some potting up of new bare-root plants. We collected far too much compost so deposited it on the forest garden and managed to plant a few ramsons while we were at it. Finished them after lunch and then headed off on a tour of the areas I'll be working on - a great range of plants so plenty of names to learn...
Monday 13 December 2010
Saturday 4 December 2010
What I'm doing at Eden
I am very pleased to report that I've just started part-time work at the Eden Project in Cornwall: two days a week on Thursdays and Fridays. I'll try to keep a record of what I do on each day to jog my memory for future CVs.
2/12/2010
First day and straight into mulching, which was very welcome given how cold it was (didn't get above freezing all day). Mulched Banrock and Adult Play.
3/12/2010
Started off with Julie cutting back frosted perennials that had died back in the spiral garden (an educational/sensory garden for kids, used by Eden's education department for teaching purposes). Hard frost last night so everything looking rather white. Ground totally frozen. Cutting back anjelica, mallows, ox-eye daisies, buddleias, but leaving teasels for the birds. Then down to the parallel steps to help Jamie with pleaching of London planes - cutting back new top growth. Wobbly ladders but good fun once I'd found my feet/balance.
2/12/2010
First day and straight into mulching, which was very welcome given how cold it was (didn't get above freezing all day). Mulched Banrock and Adult Play.
3/12/2010
Started off with Julie cutting back frosted perennials that had died back in the spiral garden (an educational/sensory garden for kids, used by Eden's education department for teaching purposes). Hard frost last night so everything looking rather white. Ground totally frozen. Cutting back anjelica, mallows, ox-eye daisies, buddleias, but leaving teasels for the birds. Then down to the parallel steps to help Jamie with pleaching of London planes - cutting back new top growth. Wobbly ladders but good fun once I'd found my feet/balance.
Wednesday 14 July 2010
Eden nurseries continued
Been a bit slack on this front, so here goes:
Thursday 8th July:
Today I was posted up to the main site to help another Emma, who is head of temporary displays (anything that isn't permanent, funnily enough, both plant and non-plant), to clear her workshop. We were joined by Gill and Tiana - Gill formerly worked on the veg gardens (she gave us a talk back in November) and Tiana is a volunteer, originally from California. We spent the morning clearing out the workshop and getting everything shipshape (sorting plastic potatoes from plastic lemons and halloween props from christmas ones) and then after lunch we went for a wander up to an area of the outdoor biome that has been planted up with species from Chile and then on to the meadow areas to pick wildflowers for the Big Lunch press launch on Friday. Emma is clearly a forager and has an encyclopedic knowledge of wildflowers and other plants, fungi and all sorts. It was a fascinating and very fun afternoon - we stood at the top of the hill looking out to the sea and all thought we were pretty blooming lucky... Had a quick chat at lunch with Kevin - he was asking if I would be WWOOFing but I don't have time - maybe next year...
Friday 9th July
I got started weeding part of Steve's polytunnel this morning - a long and laborious task as it hasn't been done for ages, then Roger came over and asked if I would clear the Venlo greenhouse of some of the old plants, so I spent the rest of the morning and the afternoon organising pots and plants and composting the majority, though I did keep some (ok, about 20 plants) basil back to use for pesto etc. It all looked much better once I'd finished, though I felt a little guilty chucking all the plants on the compost - better than in the bin, I suppose. The horseflies were really going for me today - they seem to be concentrated around the compost heap, which was pretty unpleasant...
Monday 12 July
Planting goji berries - all 70 of 'em
Tuesday 13 July
Main site - cut flower beds with Emma, Gill and Tiana, Paolo Nutini's tourbus
Weds 14 July
Potting up plants from winter hanging baskets - hellebores, ivy, cyclamen, carex
Thurs 15 July
Hort Day at Golant Youth Hostel. Presentations on sustainable use of water, fertiliser, compost and suchlike; walk around field, cake aplenty; Kev says to start with his team on Monday as no sign of Paddy who's organising my rota!
Fri 16 July
Deliveries to main site with Steve - replacement plants for street, watering in afternoon - last day! Sayonara horseflies
Mon 19 July - Fri 23 July
Working with outdoor crops team. Weeding and harvesting in global gardens, weeding and harvesting in Cornish Crops, weeding and planting in Crops That Feed The World - sloping potatoes :) Trimming back Tagetes, feeding tomatoes with viscous black liquid, stocktaking herb garden under canopy, cutting down Allium giganteum, harvesting blackcurrants in the rain, pulling out Fiddlehead, biggest beetroot competition with Corin, plaiting shallots, planting up white border with Rosie (snapdragons and violas), watering in nemaslug, planting out chillis and aubergines under canopy with Kevin, shallot plaiting competition.
Mon 26 July - Fri 30 July
Mon-Wed in med biome with Rose and Shirley, feeding citrus trees, weeding beds, staking tomatoes, watering upstairs (covering cork pigs) and also orchard area (stinging nettles ouch). Tuesday afternoon with Emma and Jill, painting labels for display and popping out to play with Kevin's dogs, Thursday morning with Darren's team, cutting down Gunnera round the back of the Core and then weeding in spiral garden, thursday afternoon with Emma, Jill and Tiana, weeding cut flower garden and planting out various things. Friday all day with Darren's team, working in 'Japan' to clear Coltsfoot and other weeds, then a walk round the various areas with Jamie and Julie, off to Kevin's smallholding in the evening for a nosey.
Mon 2 Aug - Fri 6 Aug
Heligan! Mon-Wed with Carly in Flower Garden, weeding perennial beds and deadheading cosmos, cutting flowers for drying (Statice, Nigella, Gypsophila), potting up Erigeron. Thurs in productive garden with Carol, planting out rows of cabbages (Savoy 'Winter King' and 'Ormskirk', before collaring to ward off cabbage root fly. Knees knackered. Friday day off to finish freelancing.
Mon 9 Aug - Fri 13 Aug
Mon-Tue with Nicola in productive garden, thinning grapes in vinery while rain pelted down (see Heligan blog post http://www.lostgardensofheligan.blogspot.com/), digging up Antirrhinums to be replaced with Sweet Williams and Wallflowers, hoeing between rows of chard and beet seedlings (and the revelation that visitors have taken photos of Ren's arse). Collaring more cabbages. Weds with Carly in flower garden, collecting more flowers for drying and potting up rare heritage violas (accidentally squishing a wasp, thinking it was a horsefly). Back with Nicola on Thurs and Fri to take down old peas and the brash and pea sticks that supported them before Clive takes down the wires. Odd bits of weeding for Carly. Carly gave me a beautiful posy on my last day. Looking forward to going back in November!
Thursday 8th July:
Today I was posted up to the main site to help another Emma, who is head of temporary displays (anything that isn't permanent, funnily enough, both plant and non-plant), to clear her workshop. We were joined by Gill and Tiana - Gill formerly worked on the veg gardens (she gave us a talk back in November) and Tiana is a volunteer, originally from California. We spent the morning clearing out the workshop and getting everything shipshape (sorting plastic potatoes from plastic lemons and halloween props from christmas ones) and then after lunch we went for a wander up to an area of the outdoor biome that has been planted up with species from Chile and then on to the meadow areas to pick wildflowers for the Big Lunch press launch on Friday. Emma is clearly a forager and has an encyclopedic knowledge of wildflowers and other plants, fungi and all sorts. It was a fascinating and very fun afternoon - we stood at the top of the hill looking out to the sea and all thought we were pretty blooming lucky... Had a quick chat at lunch with Kevin - he was asking if I would be WWOOFing but I don't have time - maybe next year...
Friday 9th July
I got started weeding part of Steve's polytunnel this morning - a long and laborious task as it hasn't been done for ages, then Roger came over and asked if I would clear the Venlo greenhouse of some of the old plants, so I spent the rest of the morning and the afternoon organising pots and plants and composting the majority, though I did keep some (ok, about 20 plants) basil back to use for pesto etc. It all looked much better once I'd finished, though I felt a little guilty chucking all the plants on the compost - better than in the bin, I suppose. The horseflies were really going for me today - they seem to be concentrated around the compost heap, which was pretty unpleasant...
Monday 12 July
Planting goji berries - all 70 of 'em
Tuesday 13 July
Main site - cut flower beds with Emma, Gill and Tiana, Paolo Nutini's tourbus
Weds 14 July
Potting up plants from winter hanging baskets - hellebores, ivy, cyclamen, carex
Thurs 15 July
Hort Day at Golant Youth Hostel. Presentations on sustainable use of water, fertiliser, compost and suchlike; walk around field, cake aplenty; Kev says to start with his team on Monday as no sign of Paddy who's organising my rota!
Fri 16 July
Deliveries to main site with Steve - replacement plants for street, watering in afternoon - last day! Sayonara horseflies
Mon 19 July - Fri 23 July
Working with outdoor crops team. Weeding and harvesting in global gardens, weeding and harvesting in Cornish Crops, weeding and planting in Crops That Feed The World - sloping potatoes :) Trimming back Tagetes, feeding tomatoes with viscous black liquid, stocktaking herb garden under canopy, cutting down Allium giganteum, harvesting blackcurrants in the rain, pulling out Fiddlehead, biggest beetroot competition with Corin, plaiting shallots, planting up white border with Rosie (snapdragons and violas), watering in nemaslug, planting out chillis and aubergines under canopy with Kevin, shallot plaiting competition.
Mon 26 July - Fri 30 July
Mon-Wed in med biome with Rose and Shirley, feeding citrus trees, weeding beds, staking tomatoes, watering upstairs (covering cork pigs) and also orchard area (stinging nettles ouch). Tuesday afternoon with Emma and Jill, painting labels for display and popping out to play with Kevin's dogs, Thursday morning with Darren's team, cutting down Gunnera round the back of the Core and then weeding in spiral garden, thursday afternoon with Emma, Jill and Tiana, weeding cut flower garden and planting out various things. Friday all day with Darren's team, working in 'Japan' to clear Coltsfoot and other weeds, then a walk round the various areas with Jamie and Julie, off to Kevin's smallholding in the evening for a nosey.
Mon 2 Aug - Fri 6 Aug
Heligan! Mon-Wed with Carly in Flower Garden, weeding perennial beds and deadheading cosmos, cutting flowers for drying (Statice, Nigella, Gypsophila), potting up Erigeron. Thurs in productive garden with Carol, planting out rows of cabbages (Savoy 'Winter King' and 'Ormskirk', before collaring to ward off cabbage root fly. Knees knackered. Friday day off to finish freelancing.
Mon 9 Aug - Fri 13 Aug
Mon-Tue with Nicola in productive garden, thinning grapes in vinery while rain pelted down (see Heligan blog post http://www.lostgardensofheligan.blogspot.com/), digging up Antirrhinums to be replaced with Sweet Williams and Wallflowers, hoeing between rows of chard and beet seedlings (and the revelation that visitors have taken photos of Ren's arse). Collaring more cabbages. Weds with Carly in flower garden, collecting more flowers for drying and potting up rare heritage violas (accidentally squishing a wasp, thinking it was a horsefly). Back with Nicola on Thurs and Fri to take down old peas and the brash and pea sticks that supported them before Clive takes down the wires. Odd bits of weeding for Carly. Carly gave me a beautiful posy on my last day. Looking forward to going back in November!
Wednesday 7 July 2010
Pot on
Tuesday 6 July
This morning was more bamboo trimming and chatting with Steve. He had to head off early so I was tasked with doing the watering again. It's quite enjoyable, even though it takes ages, because a lot of the plants I'm watering are herbs and so the air is perfumed while you're watering - even nicer when the sun's out! Apparently I'm up at the main site on Thursday, helping out a lass called Emma (who showed us round the temperate biome back in January), so am to report up there for 10am.
Wednesday 7 July
With the bamboo trimming complete, Maureen asked me to sow various seeds that should have been done a few days ago. Michael showed me how to fill sweet pea trainers with compost (they are bottomless) but it took me more than a few goes to get the compost to stay put rather than dropping out of the bottom. Fresh, moist compost made it much easier, and into these I sowed chickpea seeds (far too many, as it turned out), and then went on to sow Lens (lentils), three types of squash, some Indigo and some beans. Once I finished I went to help Michael, and was tasked with potting on Salvia cuttings (got quite speedy at that) and then Steve brought over some Angelica plugs that needed potting on. I wasn't sure whether I had to remove the plant from the plug so I had a look at some other pots in the greenhouse and they all seemed to still be in the plug, so I left them as they were and potted them up. A huge long moth flew out of one of the pots (possibly an Orange Footman?), giving me a bit of a fright...
After lunch Michael asked me to pot up some Impatiens (which are apparently destined for the Core building, for the photosynthesis machine display!). First we cut large squares of fleece, then filled the pots halfway with hydroponic clay beads before popping the plants out of their pots, wrapping the fleece round their roots and then filling around the root ball with more beads and then giving them a good watering.
Afterwards I went up to the tropical greenhouse with Maureen and Michael to look at the air pots they were trialling. Maureen and Tim are growing balsa seedlings in normal 9cm pots and in these pots that allow the roots to grow down (rather than spiralling) and then be air-pruned (dehydrated), which then prompts the plant to send out secondary and tertiary roots, creating a better root ball. The air pot plants were smaller, but had better root formation.
Before heading home Maureen asked me to sort out the basil plants in the Venlo greenhouse so that volunteers can take them home tomorrow (apparently I am welcome to take some too :), so I battled with some indignant bees and moved everything around. Fingers crossed I'll be able to take a few of them home - there was sweet basil, purple basil, lemon basil and a curious curly-leaved one.
This morning was more bamboo trimming and chatting with Steve. He had to head off early so I was tasked with doing the watering again. It's quite enjoyable, even though it takes ages, because a lot of the plants I'm watering are herbs and so the air is perfumed while you're watering - even nicer when the sun's out! Apparently I'm up at the main site on Thursday, helping out a lass called Emma (who showed us round the temperate biome back in January), so am to report up there for 10am.
Wednesday 7 July
With the bamboo trimming complete, Maureen asked me to sow various seeds that should have been done a few days ago. Michael showed me how to fill sweet pea trainers with compost (they are bottomless) but it took me more than a few goes to get the compost to stay put rather than dropping out of the bottom. Fresh, moist compost made it much easier, and into these I sowed chickpea seeds (far too many, as it turned out), and then went on to sow Lens (lentils), three types of squash, some Indigo and some beans. Once I finished I went to help Michael, and was tasked with potting on Salvia cuttings (got quite speedy at that) and then Steve brought over some Angelica plugs that needed potting on. I wasn't sure whether I had to remove the plant from the plug so I had a look at some other pots in the greenhouse and they all seemed to still be in the plug, so I left them as they were and potted them up. A huge long moth flew out of one of the pots (possibly an Orange Footman?), giving me a bit of a fright...
After lunch Michael asked me to pot up some Impatiens (which are apparently destined for the Core building, for the photosynthesis machine display!). First we cut large squares of fleece, then filled the pots halfway with hydroponic clay beads before popping the plants out of their pots, wrapping the fleece round their roots and then filling around the root ball with more beads and then giving them a good watering.
Afterwards I went up to the tropical greenhouse with Maureen and Michael to look at the air pots they were trialling. Maureen and Tim are growing balsa seedlings in normal 9cm pots and in these pots that allow the roots to grow down (rather than spiralling) and then be air-pruned (dehydrated), which then prompts the plant to send out secondary and tertiary roots, creating a better root ball. The air pot plants were smaller, but had better root formation.
Before heading home Maureen asked me to sort out the basil plants in the Venlo greenhouse so that volunteers can take them home tomorrow (apparently I am welcome to take some too :), so I battled with some indignant bees and moved everything around. Fingers crossed I'll be able to take a few of them home - there was sweet basil, purple basil, lemon basil and a curious curly-leaved one.
Monday 5 July 2010
Placement 2 begins: Eden nurseries
Friday 2 July 2010
After a bit of worry over not being able to contact Mark, who was helping me organise my placement, we finally spoke and he told me I would be starting at the Eden nurseries at Watering Lane rather than on the main site today, and so yesterday I met him at Eden and we drove over to meet Roger and the crew for a quick tour and a cuppa. Roger said to start at 8am today, and on arrival I was assigned to Tim, who runs the greenhouse that supplies plants to the humid tropical biome. He got me repotting various plants, including peace lilies and amorphophallus tubers, and then in the afternoon I trimmed the old pitchers from the various pitcher plants - some of which contained some rather grisly deceased insects. On clearing out some dead plants I lifted a pot and several red cockroaches scuttled out and back under cover - lovely.
Tim has grown some lotus (nelumbo) from seed and the first flower opened today - after only two years compared to the normal three, so he was really pleased. The flower regulates the temperature inside it, meaning it is slightly warmer when you stick your nose in. The flowers also close when the temperature cools or the sun goes in, although it didn't ever feel too cool in the greenhouse, which is incredibly humid. A good start to my placement; I really enjoyed myself today.
Monday 5 July
On arrival I was assigned to Steve, who got me pruning the dead bits off bamboos (phyllostachys) before he repotted them (which involved jumping on the pots to loosen them). After break I was assigned to watering his greenhouses and polytunnels, plus some lavenders that stay outside. He has to do this most days, especially in hot weather, as the plants can be wilting by the time he's finished if it's really hot and sunny. Some of the greenhouses have drip feed irrigation but otherwise it's all done manually with a long hose and a 'lance'. It took me the rest of the day to finish it, stopping almost exactly at home time, but it's actually quite an enjoyable job and I can see why Steve likes listening to his mp3 player as he works!
There are actually only four permanent full-time staff members - Roger, Tim, Steve and Maureen; the rest are part-time, volunteers or part of the Roots staff, a salad bag charity that employs disabled people, which is run out of one of the glasshouses. They're a cheery bunch, everyone having a good chat in the mess room at lunchtime.
After a bit of worry over not being able to contact Mark, who was helping me organise my placement, we finally spoke and he told me I would be starting at the Eden nurseries at Watering Lane rather than on the main site today, and so yesterday I met him at Eden and we drove over to meet Roger and the crew for a quick tour and a cuppa. Roger said to start at 8am today, and on arrival I was assigned to Tim, who runs the greenhouse that supplies plants to the humid tropical biome. He got me repotting various plants, including peace lilies and amorphophallus tubers, and then in the afternoon I trimmed the old pitchers from the various pitcher plants - some of which contained some rather grisly deceased insects. On clearing out some dead plants I lifted a pot and several red cockroaches scuttled out and back under cover - lovely.
Tim has grown some lotus (nelumbo) from seed and the first flower opened today - after only two years compared to the normal three, so he was really pleased. The flower regulates the temperature inside it, meaning it is slightly warmer when you stick your nose in. The flowers also close when the temperature cools or the sun goes in, although it didn't ever feel too cool in the greenhouse, which is incredibly humid. A good start to my placement; I really enjoyed myself today.
Monday 5 July
On arrival I was assigned to Steve, who got me pruning the dead bits off bamboos (phyllostachys) before he repotted them (which involved jumping on the pots to loosen them). After break I was assigned to watering his greenhouses and polytunnels, plus some lavenders that stay outside. He has to do this most days, especially in hot weather, as the plants can be wilting by the time he's finished if it's really hot and sunny. Some of the greenhouses have drip feed irrigation but otherwise it's all done manually with a long hose and a 'lance'. It took me the rest of the day to finish it, stopping almost exactly at home time, but it's actually quite an enjoyable job and I can see why Steve likes listening to his mp3 player as he works!
There are actually only four permanent full-time staff members - Roger, Tim, Steve and Maureen; the rest are part-time, volunteers or part of the Roots staff, a salad bag charity that employs disabled people, which is run out of one of the glasshouses. They're a cheery bunch, everyone having a good chat in the mess room at lunchtime.
Sunday 27 June 2010
Last visit for a while
22/6/10
With hindsight it probably wasn't the best idea to spend the day before moving house weeding vast areas of gardens, but I had promised cake and thought I'd best deliver on that promise. Today's first task was to sort out the jungle behind the trefoil beds - after negotiating an overgrown bee-laden Phlomis - and de-weed the paths and beds. Afterwards we tidied up the beds around the stables and then did a bit of cosmetic work around the beds in front of the house. It was searingly hot in the sun so it was a relief when we went into the woods to weed the last remaining bit of Michael's Wood.
And hence to the cake! I was sorry to not have enough time to stay and take some final pictures before heading home to pack, but am looking forward to going back in September and hopefully working in the walled garden and nurseries.
7 hours - claimed all travel to date.
With hindsight it probably wasn't the best idea to spend the day before moving house weeding vast areas of gardens, but I had promised cake and thought I'd best deliver on that promise. Today's first task was to sort out the jungle behind the trefoil beds - after negotiating an overgrown bee-laden Phlomis - and de-weed the paths and beds. Afterwards we tidied up the beds around the stables and then did a bit of cosmetic work around the beds in front of the house. It was searingly hot in the sun so it was a relief when we went into the woods to weed the last remaining bit of Michael's Wood.
And hence to the cake! I was sorry to not have enough time to stay and take some final pictures before heading home to pack, but am looking forward to going back in September and hopefully working in the walled garden and nurseries.
7 hours - claimed all travel to date.
Tuesday 15 June 2010
Penultimate day in the garden in the woods...
Well, until after the summer, that is. As I'm going away to Cornwall for the summer, to do placements at the Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan, I am finishing at Knightshayes next week. Hopefully in the autumn I'll be doing some work in the walled gardens and in the nursery, which I'll sort out when we're back at college in September.
After a two-week break because of revision and exams, I was pleased to be back in the gardens and to see how much they'd changed in the space of three weeks. It seems like everything is racing to catch up with its growth after the prolonged winter, and so today all the plants were taking over, especially on the terraces and in the alpine beds. The former were full of greenery, with the roses I trained looking a bit hidden behind swathes of Lychnis. I weeded out a fair bit of Oxalis from around the lovely apricot peony (past its best, sadly) and then had a wander along the terraces to see if the other peonies were still out (yes to double pink and a white one) before morning break.
We were a diminished team today - just Claire and I as volunteers. I met the new head gardener, Ed, who is a talker. He barely paused for breath during break but has lots of ideas so should be a good influence on the garden, if he doesn't get overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done. After break we went to work on Lady Amory's Patch, an apt name for a large unloved bed that hasn't seen any maintenance for a year or so. It was full of weeds and leaves that had been blown in there, and was overrun with geums and columbines and a few sadly deceased specimen plants that must have succumbed to drought or cold or both. We spent the rest of the day there and managed to make a fair difference just by clearing the leaves, but afterwards it was possible to see some really lovely plants, such as a tiny round-leaved Salix (possibly x boydii?) and a large red-stemmed Salix fargesii, not to mention some spectacular purple orchids (possibly Dactylorhiza purpurella) just about to come into flower.
Ben asked me to get some seedheads of Erythronium revolutum 'Knightshayes Pink' so Kaye gave me the nod and I headed up to the woods after we finished to surreptitiously pluck a few seedheads. A slow amble back down through the gardens (there is a beautiful red Paeonia suffruticosa out and still flowering, a gorgeous dark burgundy) was a lovely end to a rather enjoyable day.
7 hours
After a two-week break because of revision and exams, I was pleased to be back in the gardens and to see how much they'd changed in the space of three weeks. It seems like everything is racing to catch up with its growth after the prolonged winter, and so today all the plants were taking over, especially on the terraces and in the alpine beds. The former were full of greenery, with the roses I trained looking a bit hidden behind swathes of Lychnis. I weeded out a fair bit of Oxalis from around the lovely apricot peony (past its best, sadly) and then had a wander along the terraces to see if the other peonies were still out (yes to double pink and a white one) before morning break.
We were a diminished team today - just Claire and I as volunteers. I met the new head gardener, Ed, who is a talker. He barely paused for breath during break but has lots of ideas so should be a good influence on the garden, if he doesn't get overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done. After break we went to work on Lady Amory's Patch, an apt name for a large unloved bed that hasn't seen any maintenance for a year or so. It was full of weeds and leaves that had been blown in there, and was overrun with geums and columbines and a few sadly deceased specimen plants that must have succumbed to drought or cold or both. We spent the rest of the day there and managed to make a fair difference just by clearing the leaves, but afterwards it was possible to see some really lovely plants, such as a tiny round-leaved Salix (possibly x boydii?) and a large red-stemmed Salix fargesii, not to mention some spectacular purple orchids (possibly Dactylorhiza purpurella) just about to come into flower.
Ben asked me to get some seedheads of Erythronium revolutum 'Knightshayes Pink' so Kaye gave me the nod and I headed up to the woods after we finished to surreptitiously pluck a few seedheads. A slow amble back down through the gardens (there is a beautiful red Paeonia suffruticosa out and still flowering, a gorgeous dark burgundy) was a lovely end to a rather enjoyable day.
7 hours
Tuesday 25 May 2010
The first real heat of the year
Amazing that just a few weeks ago we still had frosts overnight and only last week I was still wearing a warmish jacket. Today was in the high 20s and felt like it in the sunshine.
An early start today - in for 8am as I said I'd pick Kaye up from Tiverton Parkway this morning. After a quick cup of tea I began with tying in the new growth on the climbing rose that I made hazel hurdles for a few months back - it is covered in leaves and flower buds are starting to appear too. It is behind a beautiful tree peony with huge raspberry ripple flowers, which made access difficult, but I managed to tie in the new growth and make it all look a bit neater. Another hurdled rose was much further ahead and proved very difficult to tie in, plus there was little to tie it to against the wall, meaning it was a bit off-kilter.
At break we all sat out in the yard and chatted to Emma about what she'd been doing at Trentham and to Jude about her week at Stackpole in Wales last week, then went up to Hollies wood (again!) to finish off what we'd been doing last week. We were weeding around lots of green Cornus (sericea?) behind the rhodoendrons and hydrangeas, and were faced with plenty of creeping buttercup, elm seedlings, brambles and the odd stinging nettle. My gloves weren't up to much so I got stung a few times and plenty of scratches. I've reacted to something and my arms are covered in tiny bumps.
When the sun got too much we moved to a shady bed and got rid of sycamore seedlings (those things are prolific seeders) and daisies, before clearing a birch and a large beech of the epicormic shoots (aka suckers, watershoots) at the base of the trunk and then weeding around a tiny Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) and finding a replacement bamboo stick for the one I broke pulling the plastic guard out of the soil.
While I was searching for bamboo I was stopped by a couple wanting to know the identity of a small shrub with black and green leaves. I was pleased when I was able to tell them what it was - a Pittosporum - and they seemed chuffed to find out.
After lunch it was back up to the same spot to carry on weeding my pine, quite a task in the fearsome sunshine, and then I set about removing low-hanging branches on a couple of lime trees to enable visitors to see under them. In doing so I revealed a huge number of rather overgrown Rubus, some of which had grown up into the tree canopy, which made getting them out rather difficult. Plus I had crap gloves on and so the whole thing was painful and difficult. Once we'd cut them back to about 4ft they were much more manageable, but I am pretty sure I won't ever be planting them in any garden of mine, as they are more than a little vigorous...
Kaye said during the journey home that she'd let me know if any jobs came up at Overbeck's in the next year, as they'd have my name on them. Which is rather exciting...
8 hours
An early start today - in for 8am as I said I'd pick Kaye up from Tiverton Parkway this morning. After a quick cup of tea I began with tying in the new growth on the climbing rose that I made hazel hurdles for a few months back - it is covered in leaves and flower buds are starting to appear too. It is behind a beautiful tree peony with huge raspberry ripple flowers, which made access difficult, but I managed to tie in the new growth and make it all look a bit neater. Another hurdled rose was much further ahead and proved very difficult to tie in, plus there was little to tie it to against the wall, meaning it was a bit off-kilter.
At break we all sat out in the yard and chatted to Emma about what she'd been doing at Trentham and to Jude about her week at Stackpole in Wales last week, then went up to Hollies wood (again!) to finish off what we'd been doing last week. We were weeding around lots of green Cornus (sericea?) behind the rhodoendrons and hydrangeas, and were faced with plenty of creeping buttercup, elm seedlings, brambles and the odd stinging nettle. My gloves weren't up to much so I got stung a few times and plenty of scratches. I've reacted to something and my arms are covered in tiny bumps.
When the sun got too much we moved to a shady bed and got rid of sycamore seedlings (those things are prolific seeders) and daisies, before clearing a birch and a large beech of the epicormic shoots (aka suckers, watershoots) at the base of the trunk and then weeding around a tiny Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) and finding a replacement bamboo stick for the one I broke pulling the plastic guard out of the soil.
While I was searching for bamboo I was stopped by a couple wanting to know the identity of a small shrub with black and green leaves. I was pleased when I was able to tell them what it was - a Pittosporum - and they seemed chuffed to find out.
After lunch it was back up to the same spot to carry on weeding my pine, quite a task in the fearsome sunshine, and then I set about removing low-hanging branches on a couple of lime trees to enable visitors to see under them. In doing so I revealed a huge number of rather overgrown Rubus, some of which had grown up into the tree canopy, which made getting them out rather difficult. Plus I had crap gloves on and so the whole thing was painful and difficult. Once we'd cut them back to about 4ft they were much more manageable, but I am pretty sure I won't ever be planting them in any garden of mine, as they are more than a little vigorous...
Kaye said during the journey home that she'd let me know if any jobs came up at Overbeck's in the next year, as they'd have my name on them. Which is rather exciting...
8 hours
Friday 21 May 2010
Spring in full swing
Things look a little different now to a few months ago. The trefoil beds are starting to come into flower, the terraces are bursting with green and the woods are full of azaleas, rhododendrons and trees finally in leaf.
The new ornamental gardener has started this week, and hasn't yet run screaming from the grounds, vowing never to return. Which is good. She's called Emma and is from Derbyshire, and is a thoroughly nice lass – it felt like she'd been there for ages even though she only started on Monday. We had a chat about how we both ended up where we are now - turns out she's worked at Hardwick Hall up near Sheff; I said I'd jump at the chance to work at Wentworth Castle and she agreed. Her background is training at Trentham and it was really interesting to hear how the gardens there have been completely restored/redone in just the past ten years.
Today's tasks involved continuing the clear-out of the rhododendron beds near the magnolias in Hollies wood. Apparently lots of R. ponticum has been cleared and the intention is to clear the remaining rhodos at the front to create more space to plant more interesting stuff - there are already a few choice acers in there at the back, but they're hidden at the moment. There was a dead Sorbus with a nasty lean, so Dave set about taking down some branches; unfortunately Richard got a bit keen pulling them down and managed to make one fall on Phil's head, giving him a nasty gash. He seemed unfazed but an accident report was filled in all the same.
We finished a bit earlier than usual so I went for a walk around the grounds with my camera - still only one or two peonies out but hopefully next week will have a few more in flower, especially with the heat forecast. Emma said it's supposed to be hot from now until September. Fingers crossed!
The new ornamental gardener has started this week, and hasn't yet run screaming from the grounds, vowing never to return. Which is good. She's called Emma and is from Derbyshire, and is a thoroughly nice lass – it felt like she'd been there for ages even though she only started on Monday. We had a chat about how we both ended up where we are now - turns out she's worked at Hardwick Hall up near Sheff; I said I'd jump at the chance to work at Wentworth Castle and she agreed. Her background is training at Trentham and it was really interesting to hear how the gardens there have been completely restored/redone in just the past ten years.
Today's tasks involved continuing the clear-out of the rhododendron beds near the magnolias in Hollies wood. Apparently lots of R. ponticum has been cleared and the intention is to clear the remaining rhodos at the front to create more space to plant more interesting stuff - there are already a few choice acers in there at the back, but they're hidden at the moment. There was a dead Sorbus with a nasty lean, so Dave set about taking down some branches; unfortunately Richard got a bit keen pulling them down and managed to make one fall on Phil's head, giving him a nasty gash. He seemed unfazed but an accident report was filled in all the same.
We finished a bit earlier than usual so I went for a walk around the grounds with my camera - still only one or two peonies out but hopefully next week will have a few more in flower, especially with the heat forecast. Emma said it's supposed to be hot from now until September. Fingers crossed!
Monday 17 May 2010
Update after a few weeks off
4/5/2010
There were loads of us today so we were divvied up into different areas and I was put in the conservatory and tasked with doing a bit of mulching to keep water in the soil. There was a particularly vicious plant that caught my leg every time I tried to get past it, so I was relieved when the mulch ran out. Afterwards Lucy and I filled up the phormium planters at each end of the lawn with more mulch, and then in the afternoon we headed back to the sloping areas we'd been working on a fortnight ago to keep on weeding. The beds are full of Acer seedlings so Andrew and I are planning to pot a few up and see how they turn out. Unfortunately the beds are also full of Phytophthera and so most of the conifers were struggling or dead. A climbing hydrangea was doing well, scrambling along the bed rather than climbing, so we cleared it of dead leaves and ivy. My fear of ticks hasn't gone away - apparently the trees down there are full of them so I debated wearing some sort of protective armour or tucking EVERYTHING in where possible.
11/5/2010
Today reminded me of what a great invention insect repellent is. The midges were out in force in the woods during the afternoon, making the work almost unbearable. We were working in the top woods, near the magnolias we mulched earlier this year, but this time we were de-weeding around Rhododendrons. Creeping buttercup was the main target, but there was plenty of hairy bittercress, plantain, wild strawberries and sticky stuff (my name, I know it goes under plenty of other names depending on the region) too.
Earlier in the day I'd started off in the conservatory, weeding and sorting out a corner with a particularly rampant vine. We weren't sure what the vine was but it has red tubular flowers with yellow tips, and the leaves and stems smell of vinegar when broken (as happened often - it's not a tough plant). They were crowding out a strelitzia that was also being slowly overtaken by self-seeded Geranium maderense, so we pulled them out and cut back the dead strelitzia leaves; hopefully it'll recover now it has some air and light. There was evidence of vine weevil grubs everywhere - echiums came up with little effort and revealed half-chewed roots and bases; most were growing new roots however so we put them back where we'd found them.
There were loads of us today so we were divvied up into different areas and I was put in the conservatory and tasked with doing a bit of mulching to keep water in the soil. There was a particularly vicious plant that caught my leg every time I tried to get past it, so I was relieved when the mulch ran out. Afterwards Lucy and I filled up the phormium planters at each end of the lawn with more mulch, and then in the afternoon we headed back to the sloping areas we'd been working on a fortnight ago to keep on weeding. The beds are full of Acer seedlings so Andrew and I are planning to pot a few up and see how they turn out. Unfortunately the beds are also full of Phytophthera and so most of the conifers were struggling or dead. A climbing hydrangea was doing well, scrambling along the bed rather than climbing, so we cleared it of dead leaves and ivy. My fear of ticks hasn't gone away - apparently the trees down there are full of them so I debated wearing some sort of protective armour or tucking EVERYTHING in where possible.
11/5/2010
Today reminded me of what a great invention insect repellent is. The midges were out in force in the woods during the afternoon, making the work almost unbearable. We were working in the top woods, near the magnolias we mulched earlier this year, but this time we were de-weeding around Rhododendrons. Creeping buttercup was the main target, but there was plenty of hairy bittercress, plantain, wild strawberries and sticky stuff (my name, I know it goes under plenty of other names depending on the region) too.
Earlier in the day I'd started off in the conservatory, weeding and sorting out a corner with a particularly rampant vine. We weren't sure what the vine was but it has red tubular flowers with yellow tips, and the leaves and stems smell of vinegar when broken (as happened often - it's not a tough plant). They were crowding out a strelitzia that was also being slowly overtaken by self-seeded Geranium maderense, so we pulled them out and cut back the dead strelitzia leaves; hopefully it'll recover now it has some air and light. There was evidence of vine weevil grubs everywhere - echiums came up with little effort and revealed half-chewed roots and bases; most were growing new roots however so we put them back where we'd found them.
Wednesday 21 April 2010
Knightshayes comes alive*
*(With apologies to Peter Frampton)
20/4/10 - 7 hours
I'm back at Knightshayes after a fortnight's break over the Easter holidays, and what a difference those two weeks have made. Before I went away the weather was atrocious and very little was out in the gardens, although some plants were hinting at things to come. But today the Church Path was a cacophony of colour, with azaleas, rhododendrons, scillas, wood anemones and many others all vying for visitors' attention. And there were plenty of visitors too, with plenty of questions being fired at us. 
I must have an approachable face because several visitors grabbed me to ask questions - the most popular one being how many people work in the gardens - a difficult one to answer at the moment, although apparently they have found a replacement for Paul (who left last Friday) and a new head gardener too. Change is afoot...
It was a beautiful scene in the gardens today, the sun shining down through the trees. I walked down to the shed with Claire, the newest volunteer,
meeting Dave on the way down, who told us to grab trowels and hand forks and head for Church Path for some weeding. We met Jude and Lucy and headed off to find our patch, which was off to the right of the lawn at the end of Church Path.
The bed was in a sorry state, riddled with Phytophthora and hence many of the plants (mostly conifers) looked rather poorly, if not outright dead. A group of Mahonia fortunei had only two survivors as the others had been infected and died.
Kaye thought it would probably best to propagate those conifers still showing signs of life and to then strip the bed clear of plants (except several Acers that seemed unaffected), mulch it and then replant with the propagated plants. The bed is also pretty dry because of the large trees nearby (and of course the recent run of sunny weather), making conditions less than ideal.
We weeded among the few plants that had survived, leaving in some lovely dark-leaved violets and a few other low-growing plants. It was hot and thirsty work as the trees' leaves haven't yet opened out, and so there was no sunbreak.
On the way up to lunch I took lots of photos of everything that's coming out, all of which are here. Here are some of my favourites:
20/4/10 - 7 hours
I'm back at Knightshayes after a fortnight's break over the Easter holidays, and what a difference those two weeks have made. Before I went away the weather was atrocious and very little was out in the gardens, although some plants were hinting at things to come. But today the Church Path was a cacophony of colour, with azaleas, rhododendrons, scillas, wood anemones and many others all vying for visitors' attention. And there were plenty of visitors too, with plenty of questions being fired at us. I must have an approachable face because several visitors grabbed me to ask questions - the most popular one being how many people work in the gardens - a difficult one to answer at the moment, although apparently they have found a replacement for Paul (who left last Friday) and a new head gardener too. Change is afoot...It was a beautiful scene in the gardens today, the sun shining down through the trees. I walked down to the shed with Claire, the newest volunteer,
meeting Dave on the way down, who told us to grab trowels and hand forks and head for Church Path for some weeding. We met Jude and Lucy and headed off to find our patch, which was off to the right of the lawn at the end of Church Path. The bed was in a sorry state, riddled with Phytophthora and hence many of the plants (mostly conifers) looked rather poorly, if not outright dead. A group of Mahonia fortunei had only two survivors as the others had been infected and died.
Kaye thought it would probably best to propagate those conifers still showing signs of life and to then strip the bed clear of plants (except several Acers that seemed unaffected), mulch it and then replant with the propagated plants. The bed is also pretty dry because of the large trees nearby (and of course the recent run of sunny weather), making conditions less than ideal.We weeded among the few plants that had survived, leaving in some lovely dark-leaved violets and a few other low-growing plants. It was hot and thirsty work as the trees' leaves haven't yet opened out, and so there was no sunbreak.
On the way up to lunch I took lots of photos of everything that's coming out, all of which are here. Here are some of my favourites:
Thursday 8 April 2010
London horticultural findings
Over the Easter weekend I went up to London to catch up with old friends and have a bit of time away from everything. On Sunday I met up with a bunch of folks at Kew Gardens, one of my favourite places in London. Being Easter Sunday, it was overrun with three-wheeler buggies and London's yummiest mummies, but we managed to escape all that by wandering around the bits furthest away from the main entrance, including some bits I'd not been to before.
I can still remember my first trip to Kew, aged 6 or so, although all I recall is the giant pagoda and me thinking it was really big (it still is). This time, however, things have changed a bit, although I am still a big kid and couldn't wait to have a go on the Rhizotron treetop walkway. As soon as I got up there, however, I'm afraid I went round pretty fast, as the walkway has an unnerving habit of moving in strong winds, of which there were no shortage today. Clinging on to the barriers, I peered over the side a few times but after a minor freakout I decided it was time to wander back down. I felt pretty proud of myself, especially as a few folks obviously got halfway up and then froze with fear. It was well worth the view, though I should think it's even better when the surrounding trees are in leaf.
We were disappointed by the waterlily lake (no waterlilies, obv the wrong time of year) and so headed over the lake via the Sackler bridge. I was quizzed on various horticultural things and managed to give some convincing (yet likely bobbins) answers, but was stumped (pardon the awful pun) when Daniel and Justin asked what level of classification a tree is in. They seemed to be under the impression that trees were a higher order, whereas I was trying to explain that a single genus could have trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants in it - trees are not an order in themselves. I wasn't very convinced by my answer, and nor were they.
After a spot of lunch (cake) we went round the glasshouses (brilliant) and the alpine house (brilliant) before a final trip to the waterlily house (again, no waterlilies) and the evolution house (not impressed). The alpine house was particularly great, with many things in full flower and beautifully displayed in pots and among rocks. In the Princess of Wales glasshouse the orchid displays were at maximum impact, and Charlie was amazed by the enormous catfish in the ponds.
On Monday I decided to have a wander round the Barbican, simply because it's one of my favourite places in London, on the off-chance that the conservatory was open. My luck was in, and after an aborted attempt to see the zebra finches playing guitar at the Curve Gallery (queue massive and static) I went up to the top floor and into this little bit of eden among the skyscrapers.
The conservatory is maintained by just two or three staff, but it's a big area with lots of tropical and sub-tropical plants crammed in according to their country of origin. They'd obviously just been watering, and as the sun was out it was hot and steamy. I have to assume that very few people know about this little oasis, as even on a bank holiday Monday it was almost empty - all the better to linger and enjoy the plants. On the upper level there is a dry room for cacti and succulents and orchids, again stuffed with as many plants as there is space for. I had to negotiate giant money trees, hanging baskets of Sedum morganianum and orchids in full flower to see everything on display, but it's well worth a visit. Sadly the photo on the left (taken with my rubbish phone camera) doesn't do it even anything approaching the justice it deserves!
Back outside the Barbican, I had a wander round the highwalks looking out over the gardens. It's all still fairly wintry, with little going on in residents' window boxes - those unfamiliar with the estate would have no idea that it's like the hanging gardens of Babylon in July. I then headed down to my old stamping ground around St Paul's, before passing by the Inner Temple gardens to see if they were open. Sadly they weren't, but I still managed a look through the gate before having a quick scoot around the Middle Temple and the lovely garden square there.
I can still remember my first trip to Kew, aged 6 or so, although all I recall is the giant pagoda and me thinking it was really big (it still is). This time, however, things have changed a bit, although I am still a big kid and couldn't wait to have a go on the Rhizotron treetop walkway. As soon as I got up there, however, I'm afraid I went round pretty fast, as the walkway has an unnerving habit of moving in strong winds, of which there were no shortage today. Clinging on to the barriers, I peered over the side a few times but after a minor freakout I decided it was time to wander back down. I felt pretty proud of myself, especially as a few folks obviously got halfway up and then froze with fear. It was well worth the view, though I should think it's even better when the surrounding trees are in leaf.
We were disappointed by the waterlily lake (no waterlilies, obv the wrong time of year) and so headed over the lake via the Sackler bridge. I was quizzed on various horticultural things and managed to give some convincing (yet likely bobbins) answers, but was stumped (pardon the awful pun) when Daniel and Justin asked what level of classification a tree is in. They seemed to be under the impression that trees were a higher order, whereas I was trying to explain that a single genus could have trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants in it - trees are not an order in themselves. I wasn't very convinced by my answer, and nor were they.
After a spot of lunch (cake) we went round the glasshouses (brilliant) and the alpine house (brilliant) before a final trip to the waterlily house (again, no waterlilies) and the evolution house (not impressed). The alpine house was particularly great, with many things in full flower and beautifully displayed in pots and among rocks. In the Princess of Wales glasshouse the orchid displays were at maximum impact, and Charlie was amazed by the enormous catfish in the ponds.
On Monday I decided to have a wander round the Barbican, simply because it's one of my favourite places in London, on the off-chance that the conservatory was open. My luck was in, and after an aborted attempt to see the zebra finches playing guitar at the Curve Gallery (queue massive and static) I went up to the top floor and into this little bit of eden among the skyscrapers.
The conservatory is maintained by just two or three staff, but it's a big area with lots of tropical and sub-tropical plants crammed in according to their country of origin. They'd obviously just been watering, and as the sun was out it was hot and steamy. I have to assume that very few people know about this little oasis, as even on a bank holiday Monday it was almost empty - all the better to linger and enjoy the plants. On the upper level there is a dry room for cacti and succulents and orchids, again stuffed with as many plants as there is space for. I had to negotiate giant money trees, hanging baskets of Sedum morganianum and orchids in full flower to see everything on display, but it's well worth a visit. Sadly the photo on the left (taken with my rubbish phone camera) doesn't do it even anything approaching the justice it deserves!Back outside the Barbican, I had a wander round the highwalks looking out over the gardens. It's all still fairly wintry, with little going on in residents' window boxes - those unfamiliar with the estate would have no idea that it's like the hanging gardens of Babylon in July. I then headed down to my old stamping ground around St Paul's, before passing by the Inner Temple gardens to see if they were open. Sadly they weren't, but I still managed a look through the gate before having a quick scoot around the Middle Temple and the lovely garden square there.
Things are awakening
30/3/10 (I didn't go up on 23/3)
Thick grey cloud hung over the Exe Valley as I drove up this morning, with the forecast promising yet more of the almost incessant rain we've been having this week. The cloud followed me all the way to Tiverton, and shortly after we all walked up to the magnolias to begin mulching, the heavens properly opened and dumped their load. We worked in it for a while but eventually had to retire to the Cedar House as the ground was so waterlogged we were doing more harm than good. We were covering the magnolias' bases with a different sort of mulch that was more like soil than anything else, and it was heavy going, especially with the added rainwater. We were all glad when breaktime came.
The magnolias (all Magnolia campbellii and cultivars) are all in bloom and looking incredible. Two have particularly dark pink flowers, which contrasted beautifully with the looming dark rainclouds behind. More rain followed, we took shelter again, and then when it cleared we moved over to mulch the aforementioned Hamamelis 'Pallida' and a smaller magnolia nearby, M. loebneri 'Leonard Messell', which is just about to flower. It's a shame I won't be there next week, as I'll probably miss quite a lot of the spring flowers.
That said, the snake's head fritillaries (Fritillaria meleagris) are beginning to flower on the slopes that have been so wonderfully full of Narcissus cyclamineus to date (they're still going strong). I've been holding on for the fritillaries and was finally rewarded for my wait today. Hopefully they will still be flowering in a fortnight's time when I'm back. The special Knightshayes dogtooth violets (Erythronium revolutum 'Knightshayes Pink' are also beginning to flower in the woodland, though they'll probably be in full swing next week too.
It really feels like spring is coming now, although it's still not quite here. I'm longing for the beech trees to come into leaf, as that's my favourite sight in springtime - lots of fresh, bright green leaves. Here's hoping the arboretum at Bicton has a few.
6.5 hours (had to leave early to finish landscape project)
Thick grey cloud hung over the Exe Valley as I drove up this morning, with the forecast promising yet more of the almost incessant rain we've been having this week. The cloud followed me all the way to Tiverton, and shortly after we all walked up to the magnolias to begin mulching, the heavens properly opened and dumped their load. We worked in it for a while but eventually had to retire to the Cedar House as the ground was so waterlogged we were doing more harm than good. We were covering the magnolias' bases with a different sort of mulch that was more like soil than anything else, and it was heavy going, especially with the added rainwater. We were all glad when breaktime came.
The magnolias (all Magnolia campbellii and cultivars) are all in bloom and looking incredible. Two have particularly dark pink flowers, which contrasted beautifully with the looming dark rainclouds behind. More rain followed, we took shelter again, and then when it cleared we moved over to mulch the aforementioned Hamamelis 'Pallida' and a smaller magnolia nearby, M. loebneri 'Leonard Messell', which is just about to flower. It's a shame I won't be there next week, as I'll probably miss quite a lot of the spring flowers.
That said, the snake's head fritillaries (Fritillaria meleagris) are beginning to flower on the slopes that have been so wonderfully full of Narcissus cyclamineus to date (they're still going strong). I've been holding on for the fritillaries and was finally rewarded for my wait today. Hopefully they will still be flowering in a fortnight's time when I'm back. The special Knightshayes dogtooth violets (Erythronium revolutum 'Knightshayes Pink' are also beginning to flower in the woodland, though they'll probably be in full swing next week too.
It really feels like spring is coming now, although it's still not quite here. I'm longing for the beech trees to come into leaf, as that's my favourite sight in springtime - lots of fresh, bright green leaves. Here's hoping the arboretum at Bicton has a few.
6.5 hours (had to leave early to finish landscape project)
Thursday 18 March 2010
Two weeks in one
My college assignments have been relentless and so I'm afraid last week's post fell by the wayside. I'll attempt to remember what we did but it's probably been replaced with sheep prices or suchlike.
Tuesday 9/3/10
With the sun shining down, we started with sorting out a few tired-looking phormiums - chopping down old/dead leaves and clearing out other leaves that had become wedged in and underneath them. No small task, with considerable risk of losing an eye to a particularly vicious leaf spike. My secateurs were hopelessly blunt, as were the loppers, so I had to borrow someone else's to try to chop out the dead leaves. Old, rotten phormium leaves do not want to be cut. It's easy to see why the leaves were used for ropemaking... By this point the sun was shining down, with very little wind, and we all stripped off down to jeans and t-shirts - the first time this year!
Once renewed, the plants looked much better, and we continued with clearing leaves from nearby astelias and from the beds behind the phormiums. We uncovered large numbers of bulbs, including naturalised erythroniums, which Knightshayes is famous for. The bulbs' leaves were all pale from being hidden under leaf mould, but they should get going properly now. After lunch we tackled what we thought was the last lot of hydrangea pruning, but others appeared like triffids on the way back to the shed.
I gave Kay a lift down to the train station on the way home, and we had a very interesting chat. Her partner is the new head gardener at Overbeck's down in Salcombe, and they've both worked for the trust for 10 or so years. Both are career changers, however, which gives me great hope for the future, as they've held pretty senior roles. Kay was very complimentary about me, saying I could have gone for Paul's job (ha! ha! ha!) but that a lot of NT gardeners get in on the basis of enthusiasm rather than formal qualifications or masses of experience, which is encouraging. Hopefully my placement at Knightshayes will count for something in the future.
7.5 hours
16/3/10
Things are starting to get moving. The house and gardens reopened at the weekend, and so now is the time to sort everything out before it gets too busy. Our first task today was to clear out the area next to the gardeners' mess, which has become a general dumping area for everything that doesn't have a home anywhere else. It was prompted by a request from the nursery department to return all the air pots that had been acquired over the last year or so. In with the air pots were piles of plastic plant pots, the old statue covers, lots of random buckets of gravel and compost, plenty of bubble wrap and myriad other things besides. The plastic pots were all set to go to landfill, so I rescued them for my dad and for college (and anyone else who'd take them - there are hundreds), along with a load of bubblewrap (good for frostproofing?). The old statue covers revealed a few overwintering hornets, so we were lucky we didn't get stung.
Once the shed was cleared I was tasked with arranging hydrangea plants into transportable groups, making sure that they all stayed grouped by cultivar, as apparently it is nigh on impossible to tell them apart until they flower, at which point the difference can be embarrasingly obvious. I'm not much of a fan of the old-fashioned hydrangeas, but I'm partial to the odd white lacecap.
With an hour or so until lunch, we headed up to St John's to do some leafblowing, although I was tasked with finishing off the pruning of the aforementioned sly hydrangeas. Just downwind of the beautiful 'Pallida' witchhazel, it was a nice spot, although the bloody hydrangeas had got so overgrown that I was rapidly assimilated and got slapped in the face by last year's flowers on several occasions. I do wonder if I caused a couple of heart attacks in nearby visitors when I emerged from the undergrowth for lunch, hair everywhere and brandishing a pruning saw.
In the afternoon Kay and I decided to get on with righting a Cupressus sempervirens that had grown too big for its stake and which was growing along the ground (presumably from the weight of snow). I quickly discovered that the topsoil in that area is very shallow, and you hit stones very quickly. Thankfully Dave, Patrick and Richard were on hand to help bash the stake in with the help of a very large stump thumper (or whatever they're called), and hopefully the cupressus will be a bit happier now.
Patrick had his interview for the seasonal gardener position in the kitchen garden, so we're keeping our fingers crossed. However the other shortlisted applicants were two people who'd been made redundant from the BBC's Berryfields garden, so he's up against some strong competition. I think he's got a good chance though, as Lorraine, the area supervisor, thinks he's great.
I've been borrowing books from the garden office - they have a nice selection of pretty specialist books on a range of hortic subjects, so last week I borrowed some on shrubs, and this week some herbaceous border books, all to research my design for the Commodore's Garden in Dartmouth.
7 hours
Tuesday 9/3/10
With the sun shining down, we started with sorting out a few tired-looking phormiums - chopping down old/dead leaves and clearing out other leaves that had become wedged in and underneath them. No small task, with considerable risk of losing an eye to a particularly vicious leaf spike. My secateurs were hopelessly blunt, as were the loppers, so I had to borrow someone else's to try to chop out the dead leaves. Old, rotten phormium leaves do not want to be cut. It's easy to see why the leaves were used for ropemaking... By this point the sun was shining down, with very little wind, and we all stripped off down to jeans and t-shirts - the first time this year!
Once renewed, the plants looked much better, and we continued with clearing leaves from nearby astelias and from the beds behind the phormiums. We uncovered large numbers of bulbs, including naturalised erythroniums, which Knightshayes is famous for. The bulbs' leaves were all pale from being hidden under leaf mould, but they should get going properly now. After lunch we tackled what we thought was the last lot of hydrangea pruning, but others appeared like triffids on the way back to the shed.
I gave Kay a lift down to the train station on the way home, and we had a very interesting chat. Her partner is the new head gardener at Overbeck's down in Salcombe, and they've both worked for the trust for 10 or so years. Both are career changers, however, which gives me great hope for the future, as they've held pretty senior roles. Kay was very complimentary about me, saying I could have gone for Paul's job (ha! ha! ha!) but that a lot of NT gardeners get in on the basis of enthusiasm rather than formal qualifications or masses of experience, which is encouraging. Hopefully my placement at Knightshayes will count for something in the future.
7.5 hours
16/3/10
Things are starting to get moving. The house and gardens reopened at the weekend, and so now is the time to sort everything out before it gets too busy. Our first task today was to clear out the area next to the gardeners' mess, which has become a general dumping area for everything that doesn't have a home anywhere else. It was prompted by a request from the nursery department to return all the air pots that had been acquired over the last year or so. In with the air pots were piles of plastic plant pots, the old statue covers, lots of random buckets of gravel and compost, plenty of bubble wrap and myriad other things besides. The plastic pots were all set to go to landfill, so I rescued them for my dad and for college (and anyone else who'd take them - there are hundreds), along with a load of bubblewrap (good for frostproofing?). The old statue covers revealed a few overwintering hornets, so we were lucky we didn't get stung.
Once the shed was cleared I was tasked with arranging hydrangea plants into transportable groups, making sure that they all stayed grouped by cultivar, as apparently it is nigh on impossible to tell them apart until they flower, at which point the difference can be embarrasingly obvious. I'm not much of a fan of the old-fashioned hydrangeas, but I'm partial to the odd white lacecap.
With an hour or so until lunch, we headed up to St John's to do some leafblowing, although I was tasked with finishing off the pruning of the aforementioned sly hydrangeas. Just downwind of the beautiful 'Pallida' witchhazel, it was a nice spot, although the bloody hydrangeas had got so overgrown that I was rapidly assimilated and got slapped in the face by last year's flowers on several occasions. I do wonder if I caused a couple of heart attacks in nearby visitors when I emerged from the undergrowth for lunch, hair everywhere and brandishing a pruning saw.
In the afternoon Kay and I decided to get on with righting a Cupressus sempervirens that had grown too big for its stake and which was growing along the ground (presumably from the weight of snow). I quickly discovered that the topsoil in that area is very shallow, and you hit stones very quickly. Thankfully Dave, Patrick and Richard were on hand to help bash the stake in with the help of a very large stump thumper (or whatever they're called), and hopefully the cupressus will be a bit happier now.
Patrick had his interview for the seasonal gardener position in the kitchen garden, so we're keeping our fingers crossed. However the other shortlisted applicants were two people who'd been made redundant from the BBC's Berryfields garden, so he's up against some strong competition. I think he's got a good chance though, as Lorraine, the area supervisor, thinks he's great.
I've been borrowing books from the garden office - they have a nice selection of pretty specialist books on a range of hortic subjects, so last week I borrowed some on shrubs, and this week some herbaceous border books, all to research my design for the Commodore's Garden in Dartmouth.
7 hours
Tuesday 2 March 2010
National Trust strategy and fighter jets
Today was Knightshayes' pre-season meeting, but before that got under way we managed a fair bit of rose pruning (yes, again) - this time the rose in question was alive, which is better (or not, depending on your view of roses). I still don't have the knack of pruning and should probably read up on it, as I've either gone mad and reduced the poor plant down to a shadow of its former self, or it looks like I've not been near it. I get the whole reducing it by a third thing, that's fine, but it's the bits to reduce (outward facing buds? Old branches? Dead bits?) that are confusing. I have come to the conclusion that it's a dark art known to and practised by the chosen few, of which I am not one.
The purpose of the pre-season meeting is to apprise everyone of how the previous year went, and what plans the various managers have for the coming year. First we heard from John Longworth-Krafft, assistant director of operations for the south-west region, on how the Trust is aiming for a more local approach, both externally and internally - leadership and delegation (ie giving staff more direct responsibility) were the buzzwords there. There was also a fair bit of emphasis on taking risks and not being as rigid an organisation as has been the case in the past. Then we heard from various Knightshayes supervisors and staff members on their particular department. 2009 was a record year for Knightshayes in several ways, with more than 112,000 visitors, and budgets met and exceeded.
After lunch Lucy and I headed back into the woods to do some cutting back and clearing while the blokes went about putting manure down. On the way we were treated to a low-flying buzzard with what looked like a fish from the pond in its talons. We chopped back the remaining epimediums and cleared old leaves from around the aforementioned rose, though the job was made much harder by what looked like variegated nettle runners, which wove through everything and made gathering the leaves doubly difficult. This was soundtracked by the whoosh of fighter jets heading over the hills; on their return journey they seemed little higher than the treetops, which was rather unnerving, especially for the resident birds.
The spring plants are really going for it now - swathes of snowdrops and crocuses are round every corner, and the hellebores are in full swing too. A white azalea was covered in flowers, and the winter aconites are peeping out of the manure too. The camellias continue to brighten up various corners with flowers in various shades of white and red, and the sound of birdsong is everywhere during the morning, with one bird doing a passable impression of a car alarm...
7.5 hours
The purpose of the pre-season meeting is to apprise everyone of how the previous year went, and what plans the various managers have for the coming year. First we heard from John Longworth-Krafft, assistant director of operations for the south-west region, on how the Trust is aiming for a more local approach, both externally and internally - leadership and delegation (ie giving staff more direct responsibility) were the buzzwords there. There was also a fair bit of emphasis on taking risks and not being as rigid an organisation as has been the case in the past. Then we heard from various Knightshayes supervisors and staff members on their particular department. 2009 was a record year for Knightshayes in several ways, with more than 112,000 visitors, and budgets met and exceeded.
After lunch Lucy and I headed back into the woods to do some cutting back and clearing while the blokes went about putting manure down. On the way we were treated to a low-flying buzzard with what looked like a fish from the pond in its talons. We chopped back the remaining epimediums and cleared old leaves from around the aforementioned rose, though the job was made much harder by what looked like variegated nettle runners, which wove through everything and made gathering the leaves doubly difficult. This was soundtracked by the whoosh of fighter jets heading over the hills; on their return journey they seemed little higher than the treetops, which was rather unnerving, especially for the resident birds.
The spring plants are really going for it now - swathes of snowdrops and crocuses are round every corner, and the hellebores are in full swing too. A white azalea was covered in flowers, and the winter aconites are peeping out of the manure too. The camellias continue to brighten up various corners with flowers in various shades of white and red, and the sound of birdsong is everywhere during the morning, with one bird doing a passable impression of a car alarm...
7.5 hours
Tuesday 23 February 2010
Here a prune, there a prune
The Sarcococca and I stared at each other. I brandished my secateurs; it puffed itself up just a little more. Dave said this was not a time for "ladies' pruning" and that we were to go in deep. So I did. But it's hard to know where to prune for fear of leaving large holes in the shrub, especially after the heavy snow that has forced a lot of the growth downwards. Still, I managed to cut it back a fair bit and it looked pretty even.
With the sleet turning to snow we were all glad of a restorative cuppa, and afterwards went into the glade to cut back hydrangeas. Some had succumbed to the frost at their tips, but all had lots of new buds appearing. I should have worn thicker gloves, as my fingers were frozen stiff by the time lunch came - something to remember next week.
Throughout the site there are signs of life among the plants, which is extremely cheering. The snowdrops look beautiful and the crocuses are about to flower - one tree on the lawn is surrounded by a circle of them and it looks lovely. Other bulbs are working their way up - still only one daffodil out so far but the rest are almost there, and what look like grape hyacinths too. Many deciduous trees have buds at their tips, some of which are just about to break out, and many of the camellias have begun to flower. But the star of the show today is a glorious Witch Hazel, Hamamelis mollis 'Pallida', which is covered in yellow flowers that you can smell long before you see them. On a gloomy day like today the flowers seem to glow; the whole effect being quite jaw-dropping as you round the corner and see the tree.
Lunch was a jolly affair in the walled garden mess room - Lorraine had met some financial target and so Paul had bought lots of cakes. It's much warmer and brighter in there than it is in our shed, so it was a struggle to leave and put our soggy coats back on. Unfortunately the afternoon's task was to dig up the brambles in the bed to the right of the terraces, and down to the woods beside the ha-ha. The rain didn't abate, and by the end of it we were rather soggy and fed up, although we did manage to get a lot of brambles up. There was quite a lot of fungi around, including a whitish bracket fungus on a fallen log and an orangey brown mushroom in among the leaf litter. I meant to bring some home with me but I left my sample down in the woods.
7.5 hours
With the sleet turning to snow we were all glad of a restorative cuppa, and afterwards went into the glade to cut back hydrangeas. Some had succumbed to the frost at their tips, but all had lots of new buds appearing. I should have worn thicker gloves, as my fingers were frozen stiff by the time lunch came - something to remember next week.
Throughout the site there are signs of life among the plants, which is extremely cheering. The snowdrops look beautiful and the crocuses are about to flower - one tree on the lawn is surrounded by a circle of them and it looks lovely. Other bulbs are working their way up - still only one daffodil out so far but the rest are almost there, and what look like grape hyacinths too. Many deciduous trees have buds at their tips, some of which are just about to break out, and many of the camellias have begun to flower. But the star of the show today is a glorious Witch Hazel, Hamamelis mollis 'Pallida', which is covered in yellow flowers that you can smell long before you see them. On a gloomy day like today the flowers seem to glow; the whole effect being quite jaw-dropping as you round the corner and see the tree.
Lunch was a jolly affair in the walled garden mess room - Lorraine had met some financial target and so Paul had bought lots of cakes. It's much warmer and brighter in there than it is in our shed, so it was a struggle to leave and put our soggy coats back on. Unfortunately the afternoon's task was to dig up the brambles in the bed to the right of the terraces, and down to the woods beside the ha-ha. The rain didn't abate, and by the end of it we were rather soggy and fed up, although we did manage to get a lot of brambles up. There was quite a lot of fungi around, including a whitish bracket fungus on a fallen log and an orangey brown mushroom in among the leaf litter. I meant to bring some home with me but I left my sample down in the woods.
7.5 hours
Friday 19 February 2010
Rose: 0; Me: 1 (just)
Well, the deceased climbing rose certainly put up a good fight, no doubt about it. My hands, neck and face are now covered in scratches and I'm rather glad I had my tetanus booster last year.
It had pretty much done what was required of it, ie climbed up and surrounded the nearest tree, a large Scots Pine. It had got pretty far up, in fact. But then it had evidently become infected with a fungus, a bracket type that could be seen growing at its base. There was still the odd green branch here and there, but the rose was to all intents and purposes deader than a very dead thing. However this meant that the branches snapped all too easily, making the job rather difficult. As many were interwoven, it was very difficult to extract branches without whipping oneself in the face (not a good idea given how thorny it was) or pulling down the entire ball of twigs. Ivy and a nearby Escallonia that had both grown through the rose's branches added to the difficulties, and so the whole job took considerably longer than expected. I was tasked with cutting back the Escallonia while I was there, but in the end I didn't have time.
I was interested to see Paul's job has been advertised on Horticulture Week, and I was somewhat disappointed at the (seemingly) low salary - £19-19.5k - for the knowledge and experience required. This is what the industry is notorious for, but it comes at the same time as Tim Smit criticises the National Trust, RHS et al for paying their gardeners too little. Smit is right, although he's got a bit of a cheek as Eden's basic horticulture salaries aren't anything to write home about either, but it's a debate that needs to happen. The problem seems to stem from the fact that people feel the gardening they see done in NT or RHS gardens is the same as they do at home, and so doesn't require any specialist knowledge. Well, obviously it does. Punters wouldn't be very impressed if they asked a gardener what he or she was planting and received "I dunno, I'm just sticking it in the ground" as a response. Large gardens such as Knightshayes need seasonal planning, maintenance and development, and this requires specialist knowledge. Industry head honchos whine about not getting any new blood into horticulture, but who's going to go for a job that pays barely more than minimum wage, even when you've got five years' experience and a degree under your belt? Not to mention the perception of horticulture in schools - it's the remedial option. If I'd said I wanted to go into horticulture when I was at school, I'd have been sneered at by my careers officer. It just isn't considered a viable option for anyone with half a brain, and this is something the industry and schools have to work together to change. I also hope that the Eden Project and its ilk inspire schoolchildren to consider horticulture, whether inadvertently or directly.
Speaking of Eden, I was very pleased to receive a phone call from Mark Paterson, our practical week contact, confirming my work placement there and at the nurseries this summer. Now I just have to sort out a fortnight at Heligan and that's my summer sorted. I am dead chuffed!
5 hours
It had pretty much done what was required of it, ie climbed up and surrounded the nearest tree, a large Scots Pine. It had got pretty far up, in fact. But then it had evidently become infected with a fungus, a bracket type that could be seen growing at its base. There was still the odd green branch here and there, but the rose was to all intents and purposes deader than a very dead thing. However this meant that the branches snapped all too easily, making the job rather difficult. As many were interwoven, it was very difficult to extract branches without whipping oneself in the face (not a good idea given how thorny it was) or pulling down the entire ball of twigs. Ivy and a nearby Escallonia that had both grown through the rose's branches added to the difficulties, and so the whole job took considerably longer than expected. I was tasked with cutting back the Escallonia while I was there, but in the end I didn't have time.
I was interested to see Paul's job has been advertised on Horticulture Week, and I was somewhat disappointed at the (seemingly) low salary - £19-19.5k - for the knowledge and experience required. This is what the industry is notorious for, but it comes at the same time as Tim Smit criticises the National Trust, RHS et al for paying their gardeners too little. Smit is right, although he's got a bit of a cheek as Eden's basic horticulture salaries aren't anything to write home about either, but it's a debate that needs to happen. The problem seems to stem from the fact that people feel the gardening they see done in NT or RHS gardens is the same as they do at home, and so doesn't require any specialist knowledge. Well, obviously it does. Punters wouldn't be very impressed if they asked a gardener what he or she was planting and received "I dunno, I'm just sticking it in the ground" as a response. Large gardens such as Knightshayes need seasonal planning, maintenance and development, and this requires specialist knowledge. Industry head honchos whine about not getting any new blood into horticulture, but who's going to go for a job that pays barely more than minimum wage, even when you've got five years' experience and a degree under your belt? Not to mention the perception of horticulture in schools - it's the remedial option. If I'd said I wanted to go into horticulture when I was at school, I'd have been sneered at by my careers officer. It just isn't considered a viable option for anyone with half a brain, and this is something the industry and schools have to work together to change. I also hope that the Eden Project and its ilk inspire schoolchildren to consider horticulture, whether inadvertently or directly.
Speaking of Eden, I was very pleased to receive a phone call from Mark Paterson, our practical week contact, confirming my work placement there and at the nurseries this summer. Now I just have to sort out a fortnight at Heligan and that's my summer sorted. I am dead chuffed!
5 hours
Tuesday 9 February 2010
Sunny days are here again (praise be)
After a parky start which featured me pressing snooze repeatedly, I zoomed up the A396 like a bat out of hell (well, as much as is possible in an aged Peugeot 106, so more like a bat out of Bournemouth), enjoying the sunshine lighting up the Exe valley. This is the first time in months that it's been decent weather for my Tuesday foray to Bolham, and what a difference it makes.
Today's first task was to finish off my hazel hurdle rose training efforts, so I wandered down to the hazels in the copse to find some nice long and straight branches to chop down. I am suffering from chilblains at the moment and so my attempts to saw were punctuated with swearing, which hopefully nobody heard. Finally I had my three choice branches and dragged them back through to the terraces. I was pretty pleased with my hazel hurdles, and once I'd won the battle with the last one (they put up a damn good fight against being bent into the ground) and tied in the last rose stem, the effect was rather pleasing.
Once I'd (re-)covered my tracks with manure, I was tasked with digging over the rosebeds where Lucy and Christina had been pruning the day before. This is fairly back-breaking stuff, even with the short forks we were using, and I was glad when the call to tea came. No respite after break, however, and so we carried on clearing up the prunings and pulling out bastard bindweed and rose suckers, digging over where we'd been and disentangling ourselves from rosebushes as we went.
Lunch was a shorter affair today; because it was colder everyone was a bit quicker to get up and at 'em outside again to warm up, which we did pretty quickly with our next job: clearing woodland beds of leaf litter and helping the bulbs show through better. We tamed roses that had got ideas above their station, and cursed badgers for chewing shrubs. There was a fair bit of apologising to bulbs for treading on them, too. I have to say I was thoroughly fed up at having to leave everyone to go to work.
The snowdrops are well and truly out now, and are a beautiful sight in their clumps and swathes throughout the gardens. They are being joined by crocuses now, and the odd daffodil here and there (though these last are being somewhat reticent). The birds are everywhere, fighting for territory and singing as if their lives depended on it. Good to see a lot of Goldfinches and Long-tailed Tits in the gardens today.
Kay has found a task for me for next Tuesday: chopping down a climbing rose that went off to meet its maker many years ago and which is just hanging around the base of a lovely Scots Pine.
5 hours
Today's first task was to finish off my hazel hurdle rose training efforts, so I wandered down to the hazels in the copse to find some nice long and straight branches to chop down. I am suffering from chilblains at the moment and so my attempts to saw were punctuated with swearing, which hopefully nobody heard. Finally I had my three choice branches and dragged them back through to the terraces. I was pretty pleased with my hazel hurdles, and once I'd won the battle with the last one (they put up a damn good fight against being bent into the ground) and tied in the last rose stem, the effect was rather pleasing.
Once I'd (re-)covered my tracks with manure, I was tasked with digging over the rosebeds where Lucy and Christina had been pruning the day before. This is fairly back-breaking stuff, even with the short forks we were using, and I was glad when the call to tea came. No respite after break, however, and so we carried on clearing up the prunings and pulling out bastard bindweed and rose suckers, digging over where we'd been and disentangling ourselves from rosebushes as we went.
Lunch was a shorter affair today; because it was colder everyone was a bit quicker to get up and at 'em outside again to warm up, which we did pretty quickly with our next job: clearing woodland beds of leaf litter and helping the bulbs show through better. We tamed roses that had got ideas above their station, and cursed badgers for chewing shrubs. There was a fair bit of apologising to bulbs for treading on them, too. I have to say I was thoroughly fed up at having to leave everyone to go to work.The snowdrops are well and truly out now, and are a beautiful sight in their clumps and swathes throughout the gardens. They are being joined by crocuses now, and the odd daffodil here and there (though these last are being somewhat reticent). The birds are everywhere, fighting for territory and singing as if their lives depended on it. Good to see a lot of Goldfinches and Long-tailed Tits in the gardens today.
Kay has found a task for me for next Tuesday: chopping down a climbing rose that went off to meet its maker many years ago and which is just hanging around the base of a lovely Scots Pine.
5 hours
Tuesday 2 February 2010
Back to Knightshayes again, hurrah!
What with assignments, Christmas and several severe weather 'events' (snow), I've not been volunteering at Knightshayes since early December. So it was with not a little excitement that I got out of bed this morning and drove up the Exe valley to Bolham.
The house has a habit of looming out at you when you're least expecting it, and the mist and rain this morning added to the general spooky feel. I recall Paul saying that if we wanted to know how the weather would be, we need only look to the hills in the west; today the hills weren't visible. Nuff said.
As I stomped down to the gardeners' shed I bumped into Kay, who showed us how plant records are kept. Upon checking whether I had my own secateurs (I did), I was taken to help prune the roses in the terrace beds. The roses haven't been pruned for several years, and had thrown out suckers here there and everywhere (including into the terrace above). So once I'd pruned a climbing rose (Rosa racemosa if memory serves) back into a more manageable state, I went off to find some bamboo canes to train them, only to be frogmarched back by Paul, this time armed with a saw, to cut down some hazel branches instead. So off we went, selecting long, straight branches that were not too thick and not too thin, suitable for bending and using as hoops to train the roses. I then made an artistic attempt at hazel hoops, which seemed to go down well with everyone, and tied the rose branches to the hoops. It did look rather nice, even if I do say so myself.
By this point the rain was horizontal so we elected to take an early lunch. It transpires that Paul is leaving to work for Clinton Devon Estates (who own Bicton Arena), which sounds like an interesting mission, and considerably more independent. However the intended new head gardener for Knightshayes was offered another job by another National Trust place and so unless they find someone by the end of April, they will find themselves without a head gardener or an area supervisor for the ornamental gardens. Paul's breadth and depth of knowledge is astounding, so his replacement will have rather large boots to fill.
After lunch, and somewhat cold after sitting in damp clothes for an hour, we headed back out to the roses. Alison and I were charged with pruning a couple of shrub roses, and proceeded a little over-zealously, some might say. Kay managed to hide her horror fairly well, but I think next time I will reign in my maniacal chopping and perhaps go for a light trim instead.
5 hours
The house has a habit of looming out at you when you're least expecting it, and the mist and rain this morning added to the general spooky feel. I recall Paul saying that if we wanted to know how the weather would be, we need only look to the hills in the west; today the hills weren't visible. Nuff said.
As I stomped down to the gardeners' shed I bumped into Kay, who showed us how plant records are kept. Upon checking whether I had my own secateurs (I did), I was taken to help prune the roses in the terrace beds. The roses haven't been pruned for several years, and had thrown out suckers here there and everywhere (including into the terrace above). So once I'd pruned a climbing rose (Rosa racemosa if memory serves) back into a more manageable state, I went off to find some bamboo canes to train them, only to be frogmarched back by Paul, this time armed with a saw, to cut down some hazel branches instead. So off we went, selecting long, straight branches that were not too thick and not too thin, suitable for bending and using as hoops to train the roses. I then made an artistic attempt at hazel hoops, which seemed to go down well with everyone, and tied the rose branches to the hoops. It did look rather nice, even if I do say so myself.
By this point the rain was horizontal so we elected to take an early lunch. It transpires that Paul is leaving to work for Clinton Devon Estates (who own Bicton Arena), which sounds like an interesting mission, and considerably more independent. However the intended new head gardener for Knightshayes was offered another job by another National Trust place and so unless they find someone by the end of April, they will find themselves without a head gardener or an area supervisor for the ornamental gardens. Paul's breadth and depth of knowledge is astounding, so his replacement will have rather large boots to fill.
After lunch, and somewhat cold after sitting in damp clothes for an hour, we headed back out to the roses. Alison and I were charged with pruning a couple of shrub roses, and proceeded a little over-zealously, some might say. Kay managed to hide her horror fairly well, but I think next time I will reign in my maniacal chopping and perhaps go for a light trim instead.
5 hours
Saturday 30 January 2010
Practical week #2, aka working harder than I ever have before
Our second practical week of our first year got off to a shaky start with few students able to afford the trip down to Eden, hence our numbers were considerably down on last time. A little gentle persuasion on Ben seemed to do the trick and everything was finally confirmed; a relief as I for one would have gone down to Cornwall anyway (for entirely different reasons).
The Monday saw us heading down to Dartmouth to visit the Britannia Naval College, where we have been tasked with redesigning the long borders in the Commodore's Garden. The college enjoys an enviable location halfway down the steep hill into Dartmouth, with lovely views down the estuary to the sea, and hence a mild, sheltered climate. It's a huge site, with trees and plenty of grass (we didn't envy those who had to mow the 45º slopes). After tea and biscuits we headed down to the garden to measure up and meet the Commodore's wife, who seemed perfectly happy to let us have a fairly free rein. There seems to be a desire to create a royal theme, as the Queen and Phil had their first meeting on the croquet lawn round the corner. I received an elbow in the ribs for impersonating the Queen while looking at photographs of the meeting in the Commodore's residence - quite forgot myself (not).
Anyway, the border has plenty of potential, and we were told we could take everything out if we wanted. There is a lovely gnarly wisteria at one end, and some lovely ornamental quinces, but apart from that it all looks somewhat unloved. Mention was made of planting a load of cannabis, but that's perhaps unadvisable if we want to be invited back in the future...
After a quick pub lunch we all went our separate ways and those of us going to Cornwall headed off in the minibus. Ben's driving hasn't got any better since November. As there were only six of us (including Ben) we had the large barn to ourselves at what Nick has nicknamed 'Cold Comfort Farm', and so settled in for the night with a nice thai green curry and a few ales.
Thankfully the staff at Heligan operate to a slightly more relaxed timetable than at Eden, but we still managed to be late. We met Cindy and Mike at the gate and headed over to the gardeners' mess room down past the lovely walled kitchen garden. Here we divided into groups, with Nick and I joining the walled garden team for a little light digging and the others heading down to the jungle to chop down bamboo. Nicola showed us the seaweed that needed digging in (the snow means much of it didn't get broken down and incorporated), and we marked out four-foot-wide lanes of earth to get started on. After a brief demo, Nicola left Nick and I to it and we worked our way along, scraping seaweed into the gaps we'd dug and then covering it with more earth. I started off with a bit of a hillock but soon got the hang of it, and managed to stay ahead of Nick. We were joined by Clive, who is apparently the fastest digger in the west, and who had pretty much caught us up by breaktime. We were ashamed, though he waved away our bleatings about not being as fit, by saying that he'd been doing it for 17 years and had got pretty speedy in that time (no shit, Sherlock).
After a splendid lunch of delish pasty and a yummy cream tea, we met up with Nicola and began work on a bed by the wall, where there had formerly been a peach tree that died. They didn't want to put another peach in in case it succumbed to the same problem, so we were tasked with measuring up the space for new bamboo poles and wiring them in. Much confusion ensued as the measuring tape was missing the first foot or so, and so we kept getting the calculations wrong. Once we'd worked it out we set about securing the bamboo sticks to the wires with more wire, with a bit of guidance (read derision) from Nicola - I got it eventually but I have to admit to being a bit disgruntled with Nick for his lack of attention to detail - I imagine Nicola had to redo a fair bit of it. What can I say, I think if a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well. Does that make me a jobsworth? Or just an irritating perfectionist?
But anyway. We got the redcurrants planted (after a bit of a conflab about which way round they should go) and so hopefully it was a fairly decent job. We'll see whether we get asked back again next year...
After a quick diversion to Morrisons, we went back to the barn and drank our way through a fair amount of the European wine lake. With interesting results the next day.
Wednesday saw us up at larkfart with stinking hangovers to meet the Green Team at Eden. Shadows of our former selves, we waited outside the stores to hear whether our fate would indeed be mulching. And so it was. At which point Amy legged it to the tropical biome (she had the right idea) and the rest of us piled into the buggies to head off to the outdoor biome. There followed several hours of chain-gang manoeuvring via bucket of several tonnes of bark mulch, which was actually rather good fun - one might say it was a case of 'blitz spirit' or triumph in the face of a shitload of organic matter, but whatever, it sure kicked my hangover to the kerb. And made me into Popeye in the process - what muscles! Sort of...
Break rolled around pretty quickly, much to everyone's relief, and cups of tea were consumed with gusto. Afterwards we were given the option of prarie burning, dry-stone walling or chopping back cornus, and so I opted for the latter, given that I thought it involved no lifting of anything heavy, in fact not much exertion at all. I was wrong; it's on the steepest slopes at Eden. Anyway, we spent an enjoyable few hours coppicing the willow, which had got a bit out of hand, and chatting about all sorts. I was working with Kevin Austin, who's the outdoor supervisor, and hopefully I'll be able to do a bit of WWOOFing on his smallholding in the summer.
That afternoon we piled into the minibus and I ineffectually gave directions to Watering Lane Nursery, which is Eden's plant nursery. There we met Roger Wasley, the nursery manager, a genuinely top bloke who's been there pretty much since the start. Before our tour we did a spot of weeding for them in one of the greenhouses, and then Roger took us round the various greenhouses (some of which are huge to accommodate the first tall plants that went into Eden), and we met Maureen, who works in the soils lab and creates new soils for the biomes. Both were really interesting, and I'm not ashamed to say I asked Roger if they would take on students as volunteers in the summer - he said that would be absolutely fine, so that's another contact to try!
Thursday was, naturally, another early start, though much milder and hence a bit more bearable. The first bit of the morning featured yet more mulching of the banks, but it was great to see how it all progressed, which certainly helped with the motivation. Steve (Cornish Crops supervisor) took pity on me in the chain gang and so I went up to join Julie and Rosie in filling the buckets with bark mulch. So we chatted and stabbed forks into piles of bark, chatted and stabbed, while Kevin went back and forth filling up the trucks with mulch. Just as my hands were beginning to blister it was breaktime, so off we went for a restorative cuppa or three.
After break I joined Helen and Julie for a spot of light pyromania in the form of prairie burning. To the left of the tropical biome is a slope planted up with prairie plants such as Echinacea, Solidago, Rudbeckia and so on, and they and the ground need to be scorched each year to mimic the natural conditions in which they grow, and also to get rid of pests and diseases and return nutrients to the soil. After a quick demo of the flame throwers I got on with burning my patch (3 minutes per square metre) and trying to avoid bruléeing all the robins that seemed hell-bent on finding worms nearby. I also rescued a lone ladybird that almost got torched, and felt much relieved that I didn't burn through the gas pipe in the process.
Mark Paterson joined us for lunch and I had a good chat with him about volunteering - he's going to put in a good word for me at Heligan, and advised who I should speak with at Eden. Fingers crossed I should be able to sort out six or so weeks' work experience over the summer, if I can find lodgings. Kevin and I have exchanged emails about WWOOFing too, so that's this summer pretty much sorted. Phew.
After lunch we had one last walk around the Med biome and then around most of the outdoor biome, before heading to the shop to peruse the myriad things on sale, and then it was time to head back to Devon.
I didn't think anything could top the last practical week, but I think I enjoyed this one even more. Working at Heligan was wonderful, and it was great to go back to Eden and get involved again (in his email about WWOOFing, Kevin said "it seems like you're part of the team" and I reckon we feel the same way). I can't describe how gutted I felt on realising I'd have to go back to Poundland next week; something akin to being kicked in the stomach. Yet another indication that whatever area of horticulture I end up in, I've definitely made the right decision in doing this course.
Roll on practical week in April!
The Monday saw us heading down to Dartmouth to visit the Britannia Naval College, where we have been tasked with redesigning the long borders in the Commodore's Garden. The college enjoys an enviable location halfway down the steep hill into Dartmouth, with lovely views down the estuary to the sea, and hence a mild, sheltered climate. It's a huge site, with trees and plenty of grass (we didn't envy those who had to mow the 45º slopes). After tea and biscuits we headed down to the garden to measure up and meet the Commodore's wife, who seemed perfectly happy to let us have a fairly free rein. There seems to be a desire to create a royal theme, as the Queen and Phil had their first meeting on the croquet lawn round the corner. I received an elbow in the ribs for impersonating the Queen while looking at photographs of the meeting in the Commodore's residence - quite forgot myself (not).
Anyway, the border has plenty of potential, and we were told we could take everything out if we wanted. There is a lovely gnarly wisteria at one end, and some lovely ornamental quinces, but apart from that it all looks somewhat unloved. Mention was made of planting a load of cannabis, but that's perhaps unadvisable if we want to be invited back in the future...
After a quick pub lunch we all went our separate ways and those of us going to Cornwall headed off in the minibus. Ben's driving hasn't got any better since November. As there were only six of us (including Ben) we had the large barn to ourselves at what Nick has nicknamed 'Cold Comfort Farm', and so settled in for the night with a nice thai green curry and a few ales.
Thankfully the staff at Heligan operate to a slightly more relaxed timetable than at Eden, but we still managed to be late. We met Cindy and Mike at the gate and headed over to the gardeners' mess room down past the lovely walled kitchen garden. Here we divided into groups, with Nick and I joining the walled garden team for a little light digging and the others heading down to the jungle to chop down bamboo. Nicola showed us the seaweed that needed digging in (the snow means much of it didn't get broken down and incorporated), and we marked out four-foot-wide lanes of earth to get started on. After a brief demo, Nicola left Nick and I to it and we worked our way along, scraping seaweed into the gaps we'd dug and then covering it with more earth. I started off with a bit of a hillock but soon got the hang of it, and managed to stay ahead of Nick. We were joined by Clive, who is apparently the fastest digger in the west, and who had pretty much caught us up by breaktime. We were ashamed, though he waved away our bleatings about not being as fit, by saying that he'd been doing it for 17 years and had got pretty speedy in that time (no shit, Sherlock).
After a splendid lunch of delish pasty and a yummy cream tea, we met up with Nicola and began work on a bed by the wall, where there had formerly been a peach tree that died. They didn't want to put another peach in in case it succumbed to the same problem, so we were tasked with measuring up the space for new bamboo poles and wiring them in. Much confusion ensued as the measuring tape was missing the first foot or so, and so we kept getting the calculations wrong. Once we'd worked it out we set about securing the bamboo sticks to the wires with more wire, with a bit of guidance (read derision) from Nicola - I got it eventually but I have to admit to being a bit disgruntled with Nick for his lack of attention to detail - I imagine Nicola had to redo a fair bit of it. What can I say, I think if a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well. Does that make me a jobsworth? Or just an irritating perfectionist?
But anyway. We got the redcurrants planted (after a bit of a conflab about which way round they should go) and so hopefully it was a fairly decent job. We'll see whether we get asked back again next year...
After a quick diversion to Morrisons, we went back to the barn and drank our way through a fair amount of the European wine lake. With interesting results the next day.
Wednesday saw us up at larkfart with stinking hangovers to meet the Green Team at Eden. Shadows of our former selves, we waited outside the stores to hear whether our fate would indeed be mulching. And so it was. At which point Amy legged it to the tropical biome (she had the right idea) and the rest of us piled into the buggies to head off to the outdoor biome. There followed several hours of chain-gang manoeuvring via bucket of several tonnes of bark mulch, which was actually rather good fun - one might say it was a case of 'blitz spirit' or triumph in the face of a shitload of organic matter, but whatever, it sure kicked my hangover to the kerb. And made me into Popeye in the process - what muscles! Sort of...
Break rolled around pretty quickly, much to everyone's relief, and cups of tea were consumed with gusto. Afterwards we were given the option of prarie burning, dry-stone walling or chopping back cornus, and so I opted for the latter, given that I thought it involved no lifting of anything heavy, in fact not much exertion at all. I was wrong; it's on the steepest slopes at Eden. Anyway, we spent an enjoyable few hours coppicing the willow, which had got a bit out of hand, and chatting about all sorts. I was working with Kevin Austin, who's the outdoor supervisor, and hopefully I'll be able to do a bit of WWOOFing on his smallholding in the summer.
That afternoon we piled into the minibus and I ineffectually gave directions to Watering Lane Nursery, which is Eden's plant nursery. There we met Roger Wasley, the nursery manager, a genuinely top bloke who's been there pretty much since the start. Before our tour we did a spot of weeding for them in one of the greenhouses, and then Roger took us round the various greenhouses (some of which are huge to accommodate the first tall plants that went into Eden), and we met Maureen, who works in the soils lab and creates new soils for the biomes. Both were really interesting, and I'm not ashamed to say I asked Roger if they would take on students as volunteers in the summer - he said that would be absolutely fine, so that's another contact to try!
Thursday was, naturally, another early start, though much milder and hence a bit more bearable. The first bit of the morning featured yet more mulching of the banks, but it was great to see how it all progressed, which certainly helped with the motivation. Steve (Cornish Crops supervisor) took pity on me in the chain gang and so I went up to join Julie and Rosie in filling the buckets with bark mulch. So we chatted and stabbed forks into piles of bark, chatted and stabbed, while Kevin went back and forth filling up the trucks with mulch. Just as my hands were beginning to blister it was breaktime, so off we went for a restorative cuppa or three.
After break I joined Helen and Julie for a spot of light pyromania in the form of prairie burning. To the left of the tropical biome is a slope planted up with prairie plants such as Echinacea, Solidago, Rudbeckia and so on, and they and the ground need to be scorched each year to mimic the natural conditions in which they grow, and also to get rid of pests and diseases and return nutrients to the soil. After a quick demo of the flame throwers I got on with burning my patch (3 minutes per square metre) and trying to avoid bruléeing all the robins that seemed hell-bent on finding worms nearby. I also rescued a lone ladybird that almost got torched, and felt much relieved that I didn't burn through the gas pipe in the process.
Mark Paterson joined us for lunch and I had a good chat with him about volunteering - he's going to put in a good word for me at Heligan, and advised who I should speak with at Eden. Fingers crossed I should be able to sort out six or so weeks' work experience over the summer, if I can find lodgings. Kevin and I have exchanged emails about WWOOFing too, so that's this summer pretty much sorted. Phew.
After lunch we had one last walk around the Med biome and then around most of the outdoor biome, before heading to the shop to peruse the myriad things on sale, and then it was time to head back to Devon.
I didn't think anything could top the last practical week, but I think I enjoyed this one even more. Working at Heligan was wonderful, and it was great to go back to Eden and get involved again (in his email about WWOOFing, Kevin said "it seems like you're part of the team" and I reckon we feel the same way). I can't describe how gutted I felt on realising I'd have to go back to Poundland next week; something akin to being kicked in the stomach. Yet another indication that whatever area of horticulture I end up in, I've definitely made the right decision in doing this course.
Roll on practical week in April!
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