Spraying Roses

Following the recent warm weather the whitefly on the roses in the front quad have multiplied expeditiously. Ali spent the morning all dressed up in full PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), a chemical suit, nitrile gloves, wellington boots, goggles and face shield, spraying the roses with a knapsack sprayer containing the contact and systemic insecticide, Provado Ultimate Bug Killer Concentrate 2. Once all the roses in quad had been sprayed, she moved into the Provost's rose garden spraying all the roses in there too, although showing little sign of whitefly, this was a preventative spraying before the pests get a stronghold on these roses.

Lawn Maintenance Update

Nuffield Lawn

Six weeks ago the team worked together on the Nuffield Lawn, scarifying, top dressing and over seeding, see blog entry 24th March 'Lawn Maintenance On The Nuffield Lawn'.  The area has been cordoned off since this work was undertaken, but today the ropes were removed and the new areas of grass cut.

Orchard

Just four weeks ago, Joss worked on three other areas of lawn that were also in need of repair, see blog entry 8th April 'Coverings Of Horticultural Fleece'. Top soil was added, grass seed sown and a protective covering of fleece pinned over the top. After remaining in place for three weeks, the fleece was removed last week and the new grass cut.

Nuffield Lawn

Front Lawn

'Oxford Characters' In 'Oxford Today'

'Oxford Today' is a twice yearly magazine produced for the University's alumni body and within the April 2014 edition an article, featuring an interview with Simon, can be found. To read this arcticle click on this link Oxford Today, then once you are on their web page click on the 'Read the Trinity 2014 issue with our online reader', found on the right hand side of the page, and when it has loaded, scroll over the pages until you reach pages 54-55 then click and read!

Cow Parsley Removal

The month of May will always find the team working beneath the fruit trees digging out the cow parsley that, if left unchecked, would slowly spread throughout the orchard. This tall, rapidly growing plant flourishes in the shade created by the fruit trees and, although it does produce a lovely display of delicate, lace like flowers, it has to be kept to just one area of the orchard and not throughout its entirety.

Sweet Pea 'Juliet', 'Anniversary' and 'Apple Blossom'

The daffodil and tulips in the cut flower bed have all been picked and have filled many vases over the last few months. Now that the bulbs have no more flowers to give they have been dug up and put in storage to dry out. Today they were replaced by a frame for the sweet peas that have been growing in the greenhouse since they were sown back in mid March.

Simon and Ali came up with a new design and , hopefully, improved frame over last year's, see blog entry 12th June 'Sweet Pea 'Albutt Blue', 'Blue Danube' And 'Mars'. Needing more space for other cut flowers, the size of the frame has been reduced.

This year's Sweet Pea varieties are 'Juliet', 'Anniversary' and 'Apple Blossom', all carefully chosen for their links to the college. 'Juliet', for the Provost of the college, and Shakespeare scholar, Jonathan Bate,  'Anniversary', due to 2014 being the college Tercentenary year and 'Apple Blossom' for the college's very productive orchard. For those of you asking 'O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?', this sweet pea will, hopefully, make an appearance next year, maybe even with 'Juliet'! (For the desciption of this year's varieties see blog entry 17th March 'Sweet Peas And A Mouse Or Two!')

A New Pattern On The Quad Lawn

Straight lines, diagonal lines, circles, all have been seen on the quadrangle lawn over the last four years, now it's curves, sound waves, ripple effect and, some have even said, the wifi symbol!

The most important tools to start this new design, as always, is a long piece of string and a tape measure. The length of one end was measured and divided by four to find the quarter mark. A stake was then placed in a corner of the quad lawn and a piece of string, measuring the length of the quarter, tied to it with a sharp object at the end. Carefully moving the string across the lawn, the grass was lightly scored to mark out where the first curved edge would start and, once marked out, Joss guided the mower across the grass creating the new design.  

Pruning The Plum Trees

Kieron pruned the plum trees today, the largest being Prunus domestica 'Opal'. The trees were not pruned over the winter with the other fruit trees in the orchard as plums are prone to a fungal disease called Silver Leaf. This disease produces its most infectious spores in the autumn/winter and, if pruned during that time, will leave the open wounds from the pruning cuts exposed to these spores. Having waited for the trees to finish flowering, and the risk to Silver Leaf reduced, it was given its annual prune, removing any dead branches and, as plum trees are heavy croppers, reducing the length of larger branches to prevent any breakages when full of fruit in the summer.