This cold snap is a good chance to dig out those favourite woolly hats and gloves and get some soil cultivation done in the garden. The frost is a great help in breaking up the soil particles in some of the wetter areas of the garden which we are busy developing for next year. My team has been working on the large whale border area this week which has been beautiful all summer with an annual flower display. We have used some of our machinery to speed things up such as the mechanical reciprocator - giant scissors, to cut down the display in this area. Our willing volunteers helped us rake off all the plant material ready for composting and the birds feasted on all the grubs and worms which were uncovered. Next, the horticultural trainees had a master-class with Mark Herron our Woodland and Development Team Leader, to learn how to use these invaluable machines! Our spading machine caused much interest with our visitors; instead of many gardeners digging for Britain, our machine does it for us!
To get a finer tilth, ready for the thousands of tulips which we will be planting for our spectacular spring display, we then used our hand rotavator. This is a fairly wayward machine with a definite mind of its own, but I battled and won much to the amusement of some of our male visitors – girl power! But we still have to finish the beds off; some of the wetter areas will need to be finished by hand as the machines get stuck and do more damage than good. After the overnight rain we will wait for some more frost or drier conditions. We will then rake the beds over ready for the mass planting, any help gratefully received! We have already planted 2,000 scented white narcissus on the path leading up the roundel on the main borders, what a busy week, still kept the frostbite at bay!
Read More...