Spring tidying

The plants are finally raising their first leaves above the soil, and the weeds seem to be arriving even faster! I’ve begun rearranging and weeding large areas of the Cook’s Garden ready to mulch over with compost and sow seed in parts. I must say it’s so satisfying to see the lovely bright green foliage contrast with the dark crumbly compost! The restaurant borders were looking quite tired so I began rearranging beds there too. Over the winter a few Hebes and Penstemon died leaving large gaps that I have filled with Thalictrum aquilegifolium (Meadow Rue), Calamagrostis brachytricha ‘Karl Foerster’ (Korean feather reed grass), Iris sibirica, Persicaria bistorta (Bistort), Leucanthemum superbum ‘Snowdrift’ (Shasta daisy) and Cerastium biebersteinii (Boreal chickweed). I’m quite proud of this planting and I’m really looking forward to seeing it all fill out before I leave.

I also want to make some minor changes to parts of the Compost Display Garden in the next week or two, mainly involving the compost bin area, which I will make more attractive by sowing some wildflower seed in between woodchip paths, leading to each bin. The green manure display is germinating fast!.. And all of my newly sown vegetables are well on their way to being planted out.

I’ve been juggling my diploma work with gardening and assessments this week, but have made a huge amount of progress. This Friday, our assessor from Warwickshire College will be visiting to assess us on our plant identification again. This time we’ll be looking at herbaceous perennials, mainly Geraniums and Primulas. We’ll also be assessed on sowing in drills and planting in Claire’s Shrub Borders.

Diploma Days

With the growing season starting, we’ve found ourselves with plenty of jobs to be assessed on for our diplomas. This week we’ve begun sowing our first seeds of the year and Andy our head gardener was kind enough to teach us his tried and tested method. I was surprised how little I knew. Seed sowing is one of those things that you assume is simple yet few of us do it right. You have to consider the amount of consolidation, depth of seed (and in some cases even angle of seed!) and last but not least a vermiculite covering to act as a mulch. Later we were filmed tying in raspberries in the soft fruit garden, which again wasn’t as simple as it sounds. After reducing a number of canes depending on crowding and how far out they are growing, you sew each individual cane around the central wire.

Last Wednesday we attended a one-day first aid course at City College Coventry, partly for our diploma unit on health and safety, but also to gain useful knowledge for day to day gardening safely. I don’t think a day passes without small cuts and splinters, so I now feel much more confident that I could deal with bigger injuries if they ever occurred.

Friday is going to be a big day for us. Our assessor from Warwickshire College will be spending an entire day with us assessing us on different tasks such as preparing soil and applying organic mulch, watering an area of plants in containers, caring for a planted area, sowing seeds indoors in containers, and collecting and preparing plant material for transport.