Weather: Mainly sunny, with very slight rain at the end of the day and becoming overcast again.
Team: Formal
We are behind on schedule with the bedding on the Top Terrace because
the bad weather has made the soil too wet, when you step on it water literally squeezes out of it. The beds were in mounds from the last bedding scheme, so we had to roughly even it out with large rakes, although deceptive to the eye, all the beds are different sizes and for some of them we had to shift soil around to have them at least look balanced (Photo 1). There was dispute between at first between individual staff members whether or not the soil should be hoed first then raked out, or just raked out. It wasn't obvious to me which was the best method The trainees were caught a little bit in between.
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Photo 1: All the beds evened out. |
Then we rotovated it with a Honda GC160 (I will talk more about this in a later post, when I get to trial it myself), then we raked it out as evenly as possible again, and tamped it
down by doing what is know as the Wisley shuffle, shuffling our feet slowly around the whole of the bed (Photo 2 & 3). The soil has to be rotovated because although it is bagshot sand, over time it can create an iron pan close to what is like a layer of cement, which can cause the bed to Then we fine
raked it again.
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Photo 2: Andy doing the Wisley shuffle |
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Photo 3: Alyson doing the Wisley shuffle. |
When this was done the beds were gridded out to the pattern of the new design which will appear geometric. This is done with metal rods and string (Photo 4).
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Photo 4: Lining out the bed for planting. |
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Photo 5: |
As part of the display various heights of silver birch logs
Betula pendula were placed into the middle by digging for a sculptural effect. These were cut and set into the ground as secure as possible (Photo 5). Plants were grouped in blocks and placed out (Photo 6). The plants that are used are a light green
Primula 'Arctic Limelight' (although there was one flowering that was yellow, so we await to see just what colour is they're going to be, heathers
Erica x
darleyensis 'White Spring Surprise' &
Calluna vulgaris with
Euonymous 'Emerald Gaiety' in the middle.
Tulipa 'Spring Green' will be planted out amongst this later in a grid like pattern.
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Photo 6: Team leader James Poulton & Andy placing the plants out. |
Then we planted the plants in, the primulas we had to make sure that they were not done so, so deeply and that their leaves stayed above the surface or they had an inclination to rot (Photo 7).
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Photo 7: Plants planted in. |
This day again showed me how labour intensive bedding can be, although I am not interested in bedding myself, as I feel it is not such a sustainable practice - planting year in year out in the same soil that easily gets diseased over time because of such a process, and ripping out plants constantly whether they still look good or not, though to be fair the team here does try and recycle some of the plants for other areas. It was nonetheless intriguing to see how it all worked.