Wednesday 19 December 2012

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

 

Another year has come to an end for the gardening team of Worcester College, a two week break to recharge our batteries ready for 2013.
2012 was another busy year for the team. Apart from the regular garden maintenance, the year saw an ornamental grass border created in the Canal Building; the nursery reclaimed with grass paths and four new beds; hoggin paths laid in the new student vegetable garden; the orchard extended; two newly sown lawns; a new border created by the lake in the Provost's garden and a shingle garden at Worcester Cottage.
A French drain was built in January and snow cleared in February. In March an old chicken house was removed and the wonderfully mown circles on the Quad lawn were seen for the first time, followed by the wettest April on record! May saw the majestical display of wisteria and the birds fledging all around the college grounds. June was the month of the Encaenia with the visit of Aung San Suu Kyi, and July saw the team and volunteers opening the garden for charity raising £1200. By the end of August it was confirmed that it had been the wettest summer for 100 years! September saw the start of the new potting shed being built, the small yield of apples and pears for juicing were picked in October, and the autumn leaf fall had finished by the end of November. December, well the year was almost at an end, the first frosts and light snow fall had already been seen along with more rain, finishing as the year had begun, WET.
On behalf of the team, may I wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you for your continuing support, for all your kind comments through the blog and when you come and visit us in the gardens. Hope to hear from you and meet many more of you next year, best regards The Worcester College Gardeners.

7 comments:

  1. I really enjoy your posts. You seem to be keeping up traditional standards but using modern innovations to be efficient.
    I think many years ago one of my former Askham Bryan students worked at your college.
    You might be interested in my own Parks Dept past!
    http://www.nodiggardener.co.uk/2012/12/digging-in-manure-on-christmas-eve.html

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    1. Happy New Year. If your former student worked here in the last 30 years, Ady, who has been gardening at Worcester for that long, may remember him/her.
      Thank you for your blog link, am loving the photos and enjoying reading it from the beginning, love what you have done at Boundary Cottage. Regards Ali

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  2. Happy New Year, everyone! Enjoy your time off, and all the best in 2013. Here's to you, Allen Jones










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  3. ps-Fun seeing the Alabama bag pics. : )

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    1. Thank you for the Christmas card and good luck for the 7th January, Go Bama!

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  4. I don't think many of your followers will know what a french drain is.
    Don't forget any educational role you might have working at a college!

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    1. Hi Roger. The construction of the 'French Drain' mentioned in this years summary post was detailed in blog entries 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th January 2012 with photos and explanation of the construction process and why we had to build it. Hopefully our readers remember it, although it was a year ago. New followers, i hope, will come across it when they read through the archive. Regards Ali

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