"What is That?"

Over the last few weeks a very large number of visitors have walked through the gardens and two plants have caused them to stop and ask us "What Is That?".
The dark succulent, pictured above, has caused quite a stir and has prompted the most questions. The answer is Aeonium arborium 'Schwarzkopf', a dark succulent forming rosettes of almost black, glossy leaves, needing full sun to show off its best colour.

The other plant causing people to stop is Crocosmia 'Lucifer', pictured above. Vibrant red, funnel shaped flowers on long arching stems that rise from mid green peated leaves, a must for any hot sunny border.

Ready To Be Judged

We have entered the college gardens into this years Oxford In Bloom competition in the category, Best Display By A University Or College. The judges will visit the gardens on Monday 18th or Tuesday 19th, next week, awarding marks across a number of categories:
- General impression, colour and impact.
- Cleanliness, tidiness, absence of pest and weeds.
- Quality, choice, height and colour of plant.
- Arrangement and design.
The team has worked very hard this week preparing the gardens for judging, weeding, edging, mowing, hedge trimming, path raking and dead heading. On leaving tonight the team leave exhausted and satisfied with their efforts, now we wait for the judges (weather warning for this weekend, heavy rain and winds!).

The pictures I have added to this entry show the college ready for inspection, the video may bring the college to life for you.

Weed Identification and Clearance

The nursery/veg plot has been neglected for a while and a large collection of very tall weeds have overtaken the area. Not deterred by this, the gardeners took it, as not only a challenge, but an opportunity to teach our new apprentice, Callum, a spot of weed identification.

By the end of the session, potatoes, onions, parsnips, carrots, beans, courgettes and squash had all been found and the weeds removed from around them.

The weed identication was also successful, Fat-hen, Speedwell, Groundsel and Shepherd's Purse all learnt, will leave the Cleavers, Willowherbs, Nipplewort, Bindweed and Ground Elder for tomorrow's session.

How Do You Do That?

Two questions the team are often asked are:
How do you mow the banks?
How do you get the stripes on the quad lawn?
Well this video should give you the answer to these questions.
Watch the Flymo on ropes being moved from side to side on the banks and Joss using his mower, Dennis, mowing the quad with its heavy rear roller creating the stripes.

So Many Compliments

For the last two days hundreds of people have been visiting Worcester College as part of the University of Oxford undergraduate open days. These open days allow future students and their parents to come and see the colleges, visit departments, meet tutors and other students. As they walked around the grounds a number of them took the time to stop and talk to members of the gardening team and compliment us on how wonderful the gardens are looking at the moment. Thank you for all your kind words, they are very much appreciated.

The Worcester College Commemoration Ball 2011

The marquees and ropes have all been taken down, rubbish piled into the skips and the glass champagne, beer and wine bottles recycled, all that is left to show that the college held a ball on Friday night are a few hundred chairs and hired items waiting to be collected.

To see the setting up of the ball and what happened that night click on the following link to see 2.44 minutes of amazing time lapse photography:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUl0wBtINw8&NR=1

Enjoy, you may even see a gardener walking past the camera, it took a picture every 30 seconds!

"It Looks Amazing, Thank You"

The day of the Worcester College Commemoration Ball has arrived and the end of a busy week for the gardening team.
Yesterday the herbaceous border was weeded and dead headed, the lawn that runs along the front, mowed and edged and the paths raked.

Today, in the front quad, the banks and the lawn were mown, the last job for the team, to rope off these area to help prevent damage. The herbaceous border, banks, quad lawn, tropical display and Provost's Rose Garden were all roped off in the hope that on Monday morning the team returns to how we left it!

A number of students have stopped the gardeners during this week and said "It looks amazing, thank you", we hope the 1400 people that attend tonight's ball enjoy the celebrations and their surroundings, the gardens do truly look amazing.

The next time the team go through this all again, 2014. The Commemoration Ball is held at Worcester College every three years and along with Magdalen and New College they continue this proud Oxford University tradition.