Summer fruit scrumping

I’ve just come in from the gardens for lunch and have picked a punnet of mixed summer berries from Claire’s fruit circle, which I’ll turn into a delicious pie this evening, if they can survive the afternoon without being eaten! Today is our team day and we’ve been harvesting all the soft fruits for the restaurant to make yummy deserts with. I’ve discovered this month that “scrumping as you go” is a fantastic incentive when doing laborious tasks such as weeding, and have had to actively restrain myself from grazing the alpine strawberries in the Cook’s Garden beds when I’ve been in there.

I’m really enjoying giving mini-makeovers to some of the gardens at the moment, regrouping plants and weeding. Last week I wood chipped the paths in the Compost Display Garden, and this week I’ve been planting up parts of the restaurant borders with Lychnis, Achiliea, Penstemon, and Heuchera. Although I think I let my girliness get the better of me as all of those have pink flowers. I’ve also planted out the alpine bed with Primula auricula, which Matt had going spare in the Vegetable Kingdom glasshouse, so I’ll be interested to see how they survive over winter.

We’ve recently begun choosing our modules for the diploma in Work-Based Horticulture, and there have already been a few modules which have caught my eye and am really looking forward to learning. We’ll be getting the chance to study plant nomenclature, terminology and identification, so I’m hoping my botanical work will come in very handy with this. We’ll also be learning about propagation methods, and also the identification and control of different pests and diseases, which should be very useful to me in the future.