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
Tuesday 25 May 2010
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.
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