Head Gardener's Diary - April
All of the half-hardy annuals, which the students sowed
back in March have now been pricked out into trays and are
growing on under glass. We have seedlings and cuttings,
pricked out seedlings and potted-up plants in four different
glasshouses; and pots and trays hardening off in the cold
frames outside, mostly plants over-wintered under glass
and this years Digitalis seedlings waiting to be planted.
The bedding plants will be moved outside as they get bigger,
to harden off before we start planting out towards the end
of May.
Philip John has been given some plants of medicinal interest
for the Harris Garden Project, which have been carefully
potted up and nurtured. I have been preparing areas in the
walled garden for this initial batch of plants and we have
also received seed of further plants, which we have sown
and we are now waiting to see what emerges.
We
have just planted some new Magnolias in the area where the
last Turkey oak fell over, to help keep some shade in the
future for the bluebells, which are just coming into flower.
Three of these have been donated as presentation trees and
the other two were (I have to confess!) “impulse purchases”.
When you see them you’ll understand why I couldn’t
resist them – an impressive specimen of Magnolia sargentiana
and the beautiful pale yellow Magnolia ‘Butterflies’.
The Magnolia soulangeana alba at the back of the area has
been presented with a rather attractive teak bench for Irene
Davy, by her colleagues in Real Estate and Planning Dept.
The first Open Day, for the National Garden Scheme, had
beautiful weather which always encourages more visitors;
lets hope its as good for the Friends Open Day on 13th May.
We are very busy at this time of year for as well as our
continual maintenance jobs of mowing weeding, edging and
general maintenance, we are preparing all the summer beds
for planting. This week we will direct sow all the hardy
annuals in the empty beds between the rose garden and formal
garden; all the herbs which are grown from seed in the walled
garden; and prepare the beds at the entrance for the half-hardy
annuals to be planted out next month. Once we’ve done
this it would be enormously helpful to have a nice drop
of rain! Does anybody know any effective “Rain-dances”?
