As The Crow Flies

The photos seen in this blog are rarely seen views as the crows fly. How? When the tree surgeons were removing the Beech from the Provosts garden they, very kindly, took some photos for us, so here you are, the views from above!

A Busy Week

Whilst the tree surgeons have been working hard in the Provosts garden, the gardeners have also been working hard on a number of large projects of their own. Apart from the regular weekly maintenance tasks, it is time to start the renovation of the chemical store, the painting of sheds and the cutting of the large yew hedge.

Within the old brick built chemical store, Kieran, Ady and Josh have begun to build a wooden frame. The ceiling and walls will then be boarded and painted with new storage and wash facilities added. This project will, hopefully, be finshed in the next few weeks. Watch this space.


Meanwhile, not so far
away, Simon and Graham
have spent two days
cutting the large yew
hedge that borders
the Provost drive.
Due to the height of the hedge, specialist equipment has had
to be hired to allow the safe
cutting of the top.























Also, not a stones throw away from all the guys, Ali and Lucy practice their painting skills and carefully paint Simons office and the shed next to it. The colour, Black, was chosen by the boss,

A Torch, Spanish Flag and an Exploding Fur Ball

Within the tropical bed this year, can be found a Torch, Spanish Flag and the exploding fur balls.
The torch in question is Tithonia rotundifolia 'Torch' or Mexican Sun Flower. This is a superb plant growing to about to 6 ft. It forms a large, compact plant and produces numerous bright orange dahlia-like flowers from July to October.




Mina lobata or as it it commonly known, Spanish Flag, is a quick growing annual climber with strong, reddish turning stems that can reach up to 12ft. It has up to twelve two inch tubular flowers on each flower spike starting from flame red at the tip and fading to cream.

The Fur Balls mentioned in the blog of 9th July, has continued to produce more translucent, soft, spiny balloons, but the older ones have started to explode, releasing its fluffy seeds into the air.

Last Piece Of The Jigsaw

In a dark, often leafy area of the college, known by the gardening team as Dead Squirrel Alley, named after an unfortunate rodent who fell foul there, a miraculous tranformation has occurred. It is the fourth and last part of a jigsaw that has now been completed. This area is a walk through connecting three planting areas, two of them mentioned in previous blogs, 22nd April "Finished" and 28th April "The Official Opening" and the Gloucester House Gravel Garden. Designed by Simon and Kieran and transformed with the help of Leadbitters, Dead Squirrel Alley is no more, its new name has yet to be decided!

Tomatoes

Back on the 7th may, blog entry "Bodge It And Scarper Ride Again" we told you about the planting of the tomato plants. Well, 3 months on and we have an plentiful crop, being enjoyed by the gardening team.



The four varieties planted were:

Harlequin, a sweet, juicy,
rich red, long trussed, plum shaped
tomato.has an eye catching upturned
calyx resembling a jesters hat, as can be seen in the photo.

Sub Artic Plenty, a heavy cropper,
producing small red fruit ripening
very early with plenty of flavour.

Ailsa Craig, a traditional favourite, produces early medium sized
greenback fruit with exceptional flavour.

Golden Sunrise, a medium sized, early,

smooth, well shaped, golden yellow

tomato with a sweet fruity flavour.

The team water the crop daily and feed on

Fridays with Tomorite, a high potash feed.

Lovely Weather.....For Ducks

Following a very hot June could only be a wet July, but does it have to continue in to August too! It just keeps raining and the gardeners just keep getting wet. Thunder and lightning today and it felt like a months rain fell in just 4 hours. Unable to get a photo of eight soaking wet gardeners as the camera keeps getting wet, only animals enjoying the weather is the ducks.

Hold The Front Page !

Newspaper's, once read, are consigned to the recycling bin, shredded and put on the compost heap, or in this case they are used to cover seedling's. Thinking ahead to next Spring, now is the time to sow the seed's, for the bed's and border's around the College. A seed tray is filled with Multi purpose compost and watered well, seed's are sprinkled over the top, and then covered with a light dusting of the compost using a fine sieve, a light watering with a very fine rose on the watering can just to bed the seed's in ,and then cover with paper and keep in a cool, dark place to germinate, they all should be up in a week to ten day's. As soon as the seedling's are just breaking through the compost, remove the paper and put the tray's on top of the Glasshouse staging to grow on, but keep out of direct sunlight, they should be ready to prick out in about a week.
This year we have sown.. Pansies ' Deep Orange ' and ' Blue Blotch ' ... Myosotis ' Mon Amie Blue '.. and Bellis ' White and Mixed ', or basically..Pansies, Forget-me-Nots, and Daisies.
Spring is not exactly in the air, but it's good to look forward.