A Refocus On Pruning The Climbers

With best intentions the team started to prune the climbing plants in the front quad earlier than previous years, hoping to get a head start, as well as taking advantage of the warm temperatures felt this autumn, see blog entry 31st October 'One Month Earlier Than Last Year'. However, since that blog entry at the end of October, no further pruning of the climbers has taken place, as the team have had to focus their attention on leaf clearing instead. This autumn the leaves seem to have taken a very long time to fall, but steady enough to need clearing constantly from the college grounds. Now that the leafing is finished, well almost, time can now be made for the pruning of the climbers on the top terrace, in fact, four days have been spent this week, enough time to complete the task started so long ago. 

Great British Garden Revival

The BBC have confirmed that the 10 part series 'Great British Garden Revival' will start on Monday 9th December at 7:00pm on BBC 2. The episode that will feature the quad lawn of Worcester College will be broadcast on Wednesday 8th January 2014.(See blog entry 30th August, 'Great Garden Revival')

8 January AT 7:00PM
LAWNS – SARAH RAVEN
In her revival, Sarah Raven investigates why the British are so proud of their lawns. She visits Worcester College Oxford, to catch a glimpse of lawn perfection and talks to author Tom Fort about the lawn's history and why it has fallen from favour. She visits the winner of Britain’s best lawn competition and discovers a radical new approach to growing lawns, with the world's first 'floral lawn' - composed solely of flowering and foliage plants, without a blade of grass in sight! With the help of a family of four, she also road-tests three types of lawn: a wild flower meadow, traditional grass and fake grass - with surprising results. The grandeur of Polesden Lacey - with its vast expanse of lawn - is the central location for Sarah’s revival, as she shows us how to keep our lawns in tip top condition; how to inject a splash of colour into grass by naturalising bulbs; and how to deal with those irritating bald patches in the lawn, which are the blight of every gardener.

580 Bottles, Sold Out

Sold Out, 580 bottles of the Worcester College Apple & Pear Juice 2013. Thank you to all the staff, students, fellows, family and friends that have brought the juice this year, and for your continued support of this venture that has been steadily growing since it began in 2009.

Billy Goat Leaf Vacuum

Once a week Callum takes the giant Billy Goat vacuum cleaner to the netball court to suck up the leaves. Unfortunately the task had to be abandoned today as the swirling, westerly wind was blowing the leafs in all directions, making it impossible to vacuum them up. Mother Nature seemed to be having so much fun, waiting for Callum to clear a section of the court and, as he turned the Billy Goat around to clear the next, she blew leaves back all over it!

Two Days In The Ditch

The leaf clearing opporation has moved into the ditch that surrounds the sports field, the overflow for the lake. Usually done on a freezing cold day in January, the team spent the last two days, unusally warm for December, using leaf blowers, leaf grabs, rakes and pitch forks getting the leaves out of the ditch.

On the canal side, the leaves, once out of the ditch are blown up against the hedge, the Nelson Street side are blown up against the boundary wall and at the top end of the sportsfield they are removed to the gigantic leaf piles.

Hot & Spicy, With A Slice Of Orange

The 10 feet high, Norwegian Spruce Christmas tree has arrived and been put up in the Pump Quad using the new tree support built by Ady, see blog entry 18th November 'A Permanent Support For The Christmas Tree'.

Decorated this year by the gardeners, the decorations consist of yellow chilli peppers (grown by the gardeners), red chilli peppers (from India via Tesco), and dried slices of orange, (courtesy of the college chefs).

The unusual decorations have received a large number of positive comments from both students and staff, a new tradition in natural decorations has begun, lots more chilli peppers to be grown for next year.

Salix alba ssp. vitellina 'Yelverton'

On Tuesday, an area of overgrown shrubs and self seeded Sycamore tree saplings, at the far end of The Broadwalk, was cleared ready for it to be replanted yesterday.  

The new planting, four willow trees of the same variety, Salix alba ssp. vitellina 'Yelverton'. This variety, according to the label, has "A rich bronze-red coloured stem, height after 10 years up to 6 meters. Produces yellow or yellow-green catkins in spring". The result, a clear, open view across the lake providing both winter and spring interest.

Tree Hugging. (L-R) Kieron, Ady and Graham