Dennis' Revenge

Joss' mower, Dennis, is to be semi retired soon and replaced by a new Allett cylinder mower. I was walking across the Nuffield Lawn earlier today when I came across Dennis and it looked like he had mown over Joss, all that was left was his gloves sticking out from beneath the large roller.
It looked like Dennis had has his revenge until Joss appeared from the otherside of the lawn.

Inspired By Chelsea

Kieron and Simon spent yesterday at the world famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Inspired by Golds and Silver Guilts Simon spent the day creating floral masterpieces.

He used plants with different texture, colour, shape, height and form to create four pots all inspired by his visit to Chelsea.

The Fun Starts

This is when the fun starts. After months of growing on the cuttings taken last September, nurturing the young plants raised from seed and protecting our stock plants, it's time to play. Starting with the containers in the Provost Yard, Ali, Joe and Simon have spent the last two days playing with colours, texture and form, hopefully creating floral masterpieces for this years summer display.

A Special Mix

The bedding out continues at pace and for the second day our potting compost needs to be mixed on a large scale. Yesterday Ali and Joe mixed a truck load, but today its Graham's turn to stand in the truck a stir! The recipe: A third of a truck of home made leaf mould, a third of bagged multipurpose compost and a scattering of Growmore. The last third not used as the truck would be too heavy to move, now to fill more pots ready for planting.

A Fox, A Monjack and Three Fox Cubs

No photos for this amazing encounter, but the memories will always be there. Whilst walking through the Provost's Garden something caught Ady and Graham's attention, a fox, three fox cubs and the Monkjack deer. Graham went to get Ali, then the three of them spent the next ten minutes watching them. Two cubs were playing together and the monkjack deer, which seems to be part of the family, licked the third cub whilst it lay on the ground, its mother sitting right beside it!

Ouch!

Hoping the risk of frost has now passed, Simon, Ali and Joe started to plant out this years summer floral display. They dug out the tired winter plants, the violas taken to the compost heap and the architectural plants planted out in the Fellow's Garden.
A slight mishap occurred whilst in the Fellow's Garden, Simon, not wearing his gloves, caught a finger on a sharp object in the soil and the blood started to flow. A quick trip to the college nurse and a nearby doctor's surgery, he returned with his finger bandaged and then tried to put a glove on.

Taking The Wrapping Off

It's the last week in May so it must be time to unwrap our hardy banana, Musa basjoo. Unlike previous years, it has not started to burst out of its fleece wrapping, so did it survive our very cold winter?

Ady and Ali carefully unwrapped it and found signs of life, although one of the stems had died.

Once a stem flowers, see blog entry 15th September 2010 'Banana Flower', it dies but there are two new stems to replace it.