Head Gardener's Diary - November 2009
The changeable weather is causing problems in planning what to do in the Garden day by day. It is grim and windy then calm and sunny. I have been leaf-blowing in the morning and by the end of the day the weather has changed so much it has blown a whole heap more down onto the same areas. I have also spent a day going round the garden picking up fallen branches and twigs. It was very windy here one weekend but the only casualty in the garden was one of the climbing roses which had partly fallen off its support.
If you have been in the formal garden this month you will have noticed the summer bedding is still there. Apart from the damage to the trays of seedlings (see Oct 2009) we also have a third year student looking for plant material for an experiment who wanted to take a large amount of pelargonium cuttings. As we have finished with the plants he is now using them. The mild weather is also affecting other areas: we have normally cleared the Jungle by now but it all looks as good as it did through the summer; better even as it has all now had a good drink! The Dahlias have usually been frosted by now too but they are still green.
Where some of the herbaceous has died back we have been dead-heading and cutting back, particularly the Paeonies, Gertrude Jekyll border and mixed border. We have also cut back the perennial herbs, and pulled out the annual herbs, and forked over the beds.
The students are coming out to do their last practical in the Garden before the end of term, as usual raking and blowing large areas of oak leaves. Again the mild weather means these are only just starting to colour up and very few have fallen yet. We need some low overnight temperatures and frosts, which we have previously had by now. We are not going to get them yet though; I have just checked the web-page and the temperature is showing double figures - even at night! I shouldn’t complain, it will soon be Winter and I’ll be praying for the temperatures to crawl back up to double figures.
|
