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!