10th October 2014

Weather: Mainly sunny, hot even later in the afternoon, a brief shower in the morning

Team: Formal

The whole team worked together today. First some of us went to do leaf blowing to clear the paths that are getting lined by leaves on a daily basis. Then we all cleared the bedding away from the top terrace and prepared in for planting for the next design.

The current bedding consists of white cosmos, dark red leaved cannas with bright red flowers like a lipstick and a lower bedding ground of white petunias, dark purple solenostemon & bright red new guinea impatiens. The bedding has been non-altogether too successful, based on a famous painting, it is meant to depict a white horse rising from a froth of white & rich reds in the background.

Unfortunately either the nursery who supplied the plants were not good, or maybe things came too late or things like the cosmos were not staked early enough, it could have been a number of factors that led to it being a bit patchy and the cosmos to start looking tatty well before it's time. The beds are also mounded up in the middle, to help add extra height to the cosmos and cannas, but Colin Crosbie the curator also pointed out to it being a factor why it didn't work. But the beds were designed by students and it was good that they were given a chance to design and implement their own bedding.
We first took out all the stakes from the bed - there was an interlocking green fence like one and some bamboo canes holding up individual plants. Then we went about taking all the plants out.

Good gridded plastic boards to use whilst standing on a immaculate lawn, as not to compact it too much.

Mud everywhere almost defeated the use of boards but thankfully it was easily cleaned up with a leaf blower

We then raked the beds. There was a bit of dispute between a couple of strong individuals whether or not to hoe the bed first then to rake it. The person who thought they should just rake without hoeing believed so because they felt that hoeing was unnecessary and would just bring more weeds seeds to the surface, and that the soil was getting rotovated anyway. The person who felt it was good to hoe first felt it was necessary because it was to look good for the weekend. It was not clear cut who's logic was better. After hoeing, raking/ just raking, green compost was shovelled on top.

The beds cleared.