Team: Formal
It was my first proper whole day in the garden today. I worked with formal team member Kerry who looks after the Bowles-Lyon Rose Garden - which is the more modern rose garden where the roses are still a strong feature but planted with mixed perennials and some annuals. This area incorporates a bit of everything - from woody areas to meadows. The area is full of wildlife from badger sets in the woods near the meadows to rabbits & birds.
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| The Bowles-Lyon Rose Garden |
Every Monday the Formal team do a general tidy up of areas. The Formal team looks after the a lot of the main impact areas, for e.g the entrance of the garden, the canal area and the Wisley mixed border.
So the tasks involved were leaf blowing, edging, deadheading and weeding, all the main beds from the top of area from where the pavilion all the way down.
Using a lighter and battery powered leaf blower was a revelation to me! As well as being easier for someone my stature to handle, I could get more control when blowing more delicate areas & borders.
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| The smaller more manageable Pellenc Airion leaf blower. |
The main pest & diseases problems this garden has is black leaf spot, which in comparison to some rose gardens I have seen it is not so bad here. A lot of the roses will just keep carrying on flowering until December if Kerry keeps deadheading them. It is from now that she stops spraying them with anything. Before this she sprays them every fortnight with a fungicide Serenade or Systhane to prevent blackspot from occurring. She says that it only takes them fours of being wet and then they start to have it. The only other problems she might have here and there is sawfly.
This wildflower area at the top, behind the Pavilion will be cut and burnt this year, as Kerry wants to get rid of the current seeds that are there now and to put in another seed mix - this mix self-sowed and came back from it's own accord last year. There are also lots of tulips in these beds already and it's will be topped up with more later this year.
The beds are mulched with bracken - which is obtained from the Forestry Commission as it is one of their products. Kerry preferred pulling the weeds up by hand rather than hoeing, as the latter stirs up the soil too much and brings more weeds seeds to the surface.
Some of the many roses in this garden:
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| Rosa Carpet Scarlet 'Noa83100b' with Stipa gigantea. Red roses are often stunning in colour but have no scent. |
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| A nice single petaled Rosa Lyda Rose 'Latlyda' |
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| Many have that classic rose scent like this Rosa Munstead Wood 'Ausbernard' |