Resurfacing 150 Meters Of Path

The resurfacing of the path that runs along the side of the sports field to the leaf peat, located in the far corner of the college grounds, began last week, see blog entry 13th March 'Resurfacing Of The Leaf Pit Path'. Today's section, the 150 meter sports field section, started with the delivery of 20 tonnes of hoggin and a dumper truck. Before Simon and Kieron could start moving the hoggin to the path, the old surface had to be broken up using the New Holland tractor with the grab attachment.

Once the grab had been replaced with the bucket attachment, the hoggin could be loaded into the dumper truck and tipped into piles along the path, starting from the furthest point near the sports pavilion, working backwards along the path so as not to drive over any of the newly laid hoggin. Each pile of hoggin was raked to form a slight camber.

Callum joined them in the afternoon to compact the path using the wacker plate. Another 10 tonnes of hoggin is due tomorrow to finish the last 50 meter stretch from the netball courts, past the chipper to the canal building exit gate.

Canada Goose Proof Fence

The Canada geese have begun wandering into the Provost's garden, emerging from the lake through the marginal planting onto the lush grass. To try and restrict their movement Ali and Callum spent the morning building a temporary fence to try and stop them, it will be removed in January when the marginals need strimming down, see blog entry 9th January 2014 'A Busy Day Working By The Weir'. 

A dozen wooden posts were hammered into place, two holes drilled into each post fifteen centimetres below each other, galvanised wire was then fed through the holes along the full length of the marginal planting. "But they will fly over the fence" I hear you saying, these geese are lazy and, as proved with last year's fence, if they can't walk from the lake to the grass, they wont fly over it, it's too much bother!

Sweet Peas And A Mouse Or Two!

The sweet peas that will be planted out in the cut flower bed in May were sown today. This year's varieties are from 'Thompson & Morgan':

• Sweet Pea 'Anniversary', sweet scented, pink blooms with darker pink margins.
• Sweet Pea 'Juliet', citrus scented, creamy bloom with a hint of apricot.
• Sweet Pea 'Apple Blossom', sweet scented, ruffled, blush pink petals.

Following last weeks discovery of mouse droppings, disturbed flower pots and eaten seeds, a humane mouse trap was put in the mist unit capturing two mice over the weekend which were released far away from the greenhouse. The trap has now been refilled with tempting goodies to entice any of their friends, glass placed over the pots to protect the seed, as well as helping their germination and, hopefully, they were the last of the mice that will visit the mist unit. 

Azara microphylla

The scent of Azara microphylla, Box Leaf Azara, is filling a corner of the college gardens. If you have visited the gardens in the last week and wondered why you have a sudden craving for chocolate, vanilla ice cream, custard or even a vanilla latte this shrub is the reason why. This large evergreen shrub has clusters of small, yellow, highly fragrant flowers that waft the aroma of vanilla stimulating these cravings.

Hand Weeding The Broadwalk Borders

Ali and Crystal spent the morning carefully hand weeding the Broadwalk borders. The weed, Veronica hederifolia, Ivy-leaved speedwell, had spread throughout the borders nestling amongst the hellebore, snowdrops, aconites, iris, cyclamen and primrose even disguising itself as an aconite or hellebore seedling. Unable to use a hoe each weed had to be hand picked, a slow and painstaking process.

Resurfacing The Leaf Pit Path

Ten tonnes of hoggin arrived today to begin the project to put a new surface on the path that runs from the leaf pit at the top of the sports field to the sports pavilion, approx 250 meters.

The length of the path is split into sections, the first part to be resurfaced is from the leaf pit to the gated exit to the Canal Building. The old surface is broken up using the grab attachment fixed to the New Holland tractor, once completed the grab is replaced with the bucket loader attachment.

Using the bucket loader the hoggin is then loaded into the trailer and transported to the path where it is tipped ready for levelling.

Using a landscape rake the hoggin is raked to form a slight camber, a raised center which sheds water to each side. Once all ten tonnes have been levelled the hoggin is compacted using a wacker plate. The first part is complete, the next, and longest part of the path is scheduled to be done next Tuesday with the delivery of twenty tonnes of hoggin and a small dumper truck.   

Planting Four Young Fruit Trees

This morning Simon, Kieron and Ali spent a few hours planting four young, bare rooted, fruit trees in the orchard. The two year old trees are:

• Apple 'James Grieve'. Eater/cooker. Red flush stripes over pale green, crisp and juicy, excellent flavour and reliable cropper.
• Apple 'Egremont Russet'. Eater. Golden in colour with pale brown russet, nutty, sweet and aromatic.
• Plum 'Victoria'. Eater/cooker. Pale red fruit with golden yellow flesh.
• Pear 'Gieser Wildeman'. Cooker. Small russet brown fruits turning red when cooked.

For each tree a circle was marked out in the desired location and the turf removed. A hole was then dug out in the centre of the circle, the bottom broken up with a fork and a small amount of leaf mould added to the hole.

The tree was then placed into the hole, the soil back filled around it, heeled in and leaf mould added to the top of the soil as a weed suppressing mulch. A tree stake was then placed next to the tree, hammered into place and, using a plastic tree tie, fixed to the stake to prevent wind rock whilst its roots spread into the hole over the next few years. Lastly, the tree was given a good watering in.