Lifting And Splitting Galanthus 'Magnet'

The snowdrops in the herbaceous border have given a lovely display this year but, as their flowers have gone over, now is the time to lift and split them, 'in the green'. Graham and Ali spent a few hours this morning working on the large clumps of Galanthus 'Magnet', lifting, splitting and replanting the new, smaller clumps further along the border. Next year the display should be bigger and even better, but let's not wish away the year too quickly, the team will just have to wait.

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The Completion Of 'Project Chicken'

The chickens have settled in well in a corner of the Provost's garden, but the team still had some more work to do to complete the project started on the 20th February, see blog entry 'Preparing For The Chickens'. Joss and Kieron went in to the garden first this week to put in the new iron edging, and to work out the new shape that would work best for the corner.

Ady, Graham and Callum joined them the next day to clear out a few more old shrubs at the back of the chicken area and, once cleared, a few more trailer loads of wood chippings were spread over the extension..

With the work at the back of the chickens completed yesterday, Joss returned, this time with Callum, to prepare the ground in front of the new iron edging for the sowing of grass seed. Top soil was spread over the area, levelled and, by the end of the day, the seed had been sown and the area roped off until the grass has grown.

Improving The Light Levels

With some of the young plants now occupying the old, unheated peach house, the natural light levels which play a crucial role in plant growth, need to be improved. (The photograph above does make the peach house look well ventilated, this is not due to missing panes of glass but new panes that have been installed and not yet been painted with 'Coolglass'.)

The roof, covered in dirt, mess and other horrible, unidentified crusted material, needed to be power washed off. After an hour, Ali had managed to remove the grime and, with a sparkling clean roof, the plants should grow well until they are moved to their next home in the cold frames.

The First Of Many Seedlings

With space being made in the greenhouse yesterday, there is now space for the seedlings to be pricked out into their individual pots. The Geraniums were pricked out a few weeks ago but today was the first, of what will be a number of days, that Ali will spend in the greenhouse over the next few weeks pricking out a few hundred seedlings.

On The Move

The greenhouse is now full, not an inch of space left, which is causing a problem as some of the seeds have now germinated and need pricking out. To create space the cuttings taken last September must be moved into the old, unheated peach house for the start of  'hardening off', the toughening up of plants to acclimatise them to the cooler outside temperatures.

The cuttings, repotted in January, are moved to larger pots, the last time before they are planted out into the garden in June

The plants are then taken to the peach house and laid out on the staging until it is full. When the heated greenhouse becomes full again, as the seeds are pricked out, these plants will be moved out of the peach house into the cold frames and replaced by more of the plants that have been repotted today. By the end of May the greenhouse, peach house and cold frames will be full to bursting.

Mowing Through The Orchard

Last year the weather produced a number of record breaking extremes, March being the third warmest since 1910 which had followed the coldest two weeks in February for 26 years. This year the extremes have continued with the freezing temperatures in March making it the UK's joint second coldest since records began, only March 1962 was colder.
Today the sun came out and the weather did actually feel like spring had finally begun. Simon brought the mower out for the first cut of the path through the orchard, the daffodils starting to flower, birds building their nests and butterflies seen, has the winter finally gone?, hope so.

Three Days On The Platform

Returning from the Easter break, the team have spent the last three days working on the platform of the Sainsbury building. Repointed back in September 2012, see blog entries 'Sainsbury Building Platform' 6th September and 'Platform Repointed' 18th September, new planting holes were also created and it is because of these new holes that the team have returned to the platform for the last three days.

Kieron, Callum, Joss and Graham spent Tuesday digging out the holes of all the hardcore. Not an easy task, the hardcore had to be placed in bags, dustbins and trugs and carried up the steps away from the platform and down more steps to the nearest place the trailer could be parked.

The guys, joined by Ady and Simon, had, by lunch on Wednesday, carried three to four tonnes of hardcore from the platform. Holes emptied, the next step was to fill them all with soil for planting. 

Three to four tonnes of hardcore out meant three to four tonnes of soil carried in. The soil, a combination of leaf mould, sharp sand, horticultural grit and top dressing, manually mixed using shovels.

Joined by Ali, the whole team were now working together on the platform. Loading up the trugs and dustbins with the soil they had to carry them up and down the steps to the platform.

Pouring tonnes of soil into the holes and mixing tonnes of soil, by Thursday most of the holes were ready to be planted.

As the last few holes were being filled, Callum, Graham and Ali began planting. Kniphofia, Molinia (Ornamental Grass), Sedum, Lavender 'Munstead' and 'Hidcote' (kindly donated by Mr Beardmore), Geraniums and Phlomis. Further plants will be added over the coming weeks to add to the new display.

A very labour intensive three days spent working on the platform but hugely rewarding, a beautifully restored area overlooking the lake.