Head Gardener's Diary - November
I can now confirm that the University is removing several trees
which Rupert Taylor has confirmed as potentially dangerous,
a few more are having branches removed and several others are
to be inspected for disease. The felling work will take place
from the 3rd to the 7th of December and due to the scale of
the work and variety of locations, the Harris Garden will be
closed to everybody except the tree company for this week. We
will have notices up and the gates will be chained shut.
The students are coming out this week to have a go with the
leaf – blower and clear the bulk of the remaining leaves
which will tidy the Garden. I have already done the entrance
area, road and pond areas. Last year this practical was cancelled
as the leaves were still green and on the trees in mid-November,
so there was nothing for them to blow! This year the majority
have dropped off a good 2-3 weeks earlier.
We are still removing the last bits of summer bedding and
cutting down the herbaceous as it dies back, with help from
the Friends. Most of the summer beds are now empty – we
have lifted the Dahlias we are going to save, also the Fuchsias
and some Cannas. The tulips have been planted in the formal
garden so that is also complete. If anybody has walked through
the Jungle area along the Pepper Lane side of the Garden, they
may have noticed we have started to clear this too, but a lot
of the plants we expected to have been killed by the frosts
earlier this month (it reached -5C here) have not been touched
eg. Helichrysum, which was one of the first stock plants we
lifted and put in the glasshouse. Even some of the Iresines
still look untouched and they are usually the first to die down.
Other work includes cutting the roses back to tidy for winter
and to prevent them rocking around if we get any strong winds.
If they move then it can cause a hole around the base of the
stem and if rain and frost follow then this can get into the
hole and damage the rose. The students will prune them harder
in the spring. We have also pruned half of the climbing roses
and will continue with these this week
Finally (Trumpet Fanfare!!!) the new label engraver has arrived
and is sitting next to me as I type. It’s linked up to
this computer, where the information to go on the label is typed
in, hit the PRINT button and it does the rest. It will give
me something to do on the cold, wet winter days. We have to
fasten them to label holders but you can’t expect miracles
from a machine, can you?
| Julia Wesley |
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(picture
by John Hyams) |
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