All Change

The team photo was taken yesterday, so Ady and Graham spent the day ripping out the corner border, the annuals taken to the compost heap and plants, needed for next year, taken to the greenhouse for potting up. (The photo above was taken in September when the border was at its best)

Once all the plants have been removed, the area is weeded and levelled ready for the winter bedding to be added next week.

Ali, Simon and Joe spent the morning in the Provost's Yard planting up the oak and lead planters. The main structural plants, Tree Ferns, Holly, Liquid Amber, Eucalyptus and Box balls remain in the planters all year to which other plants are added.

These additional plants may look familiar, they were used in various planters last winter and, after being removed in May/June, spent the summer in a healing in area where they grew into much larger specimens, creating a much better effect this year.

The finishing touches to the planters are the Viola, Wallflower, Polyanthus and bulbs all making for a colourful display for the coming winter and early spring months ahead.

Team Photo

It's that time of year again when the corner border needs to be ripped out, so the team get together for their annual photo. Joined by Alan Ware, the Garden Master and our new ride on mower, absences Joe, our budding apprentice, who is at college and Henry, Simon's dog, asleep in the tea shed.

By the end of the day, after a few hours of leaf raking, Kieron and Ali have put the first coat of preservative on the cold frame, whilst Ady and Simon covered the hardy banana with fleece and loft insulation for the winter.

Euphorbia schillingii

Having planted the Serpentine bed three yeears ago, the Euphorbia schillingii has now taken over, smothering some plants and collapsing. Its vigorous stems shoot up each spring and have created large, robust mounds which now need to be removed.

Joe and Ali start cutting down the Euphorbia, joined by Simon, Ady and Graham who help get all the mounds out, which put up quite a fight.

Back in the nursery area, Kieron is repairing the wooden cold frame structure which has started to rot. He cuts out the worst areas and replaces it with new wood ready for coats of preservative, which will be added over the next few days.

2 Inches

The beast of a banana, brought in from the cold yesterday, has already grown two inches overnight, should be back to 20 foot tall in no time!

Spiking

The most difficult place to spike is in the banks as, due to the slope, it has to be done manually with forks. Joe and Joss will spend the next two days spiking, creating holes in the turf, enabling oxygen and moisture to reach the grass roots.

In From The Cold

With freezing temperatures due next week, it is time to get the bananas in from the cold, the largest being about 20 foot tall.

A hole is dug around the root ball and gently dislodged from the soil around it. Three strong men, Joss, Ady and Graham, then lift the giant out of the border to the waiting trailor for transport to the greenhouse.

This banana was one of several lifted today, but none bigger than this beast.

Once outside the greenhouse the top is cut off reducing the height down to 5 feet, potted up and watered in, there it will sit until June next year.

Low Cut, Verticut and Triage

The banks have been scarified but today the flymo has been brought back out and the cutting height reduced to give them a lower cut. The guys spent all day mowing the banks removing even more thatched grass, all that remains is spiking.

Meanwhile, Joss spent the time verticutting the quad lawn, a less harsh process than scarifying. The blades pass through the grass swards cutting off horizontal shoots of stubborn long grasses rather than ripping them out, as with scarifying.

Outside the greenhouse, in the triage area, pots queue up for their Vine Weevil treatment before being allowed in for the winter, we do not want weevil in this house, see blog 11th November Vine Weevil.