Team: Formal
I worked with Billy again, we went back to the area where we dug up the Hypericum beanii on the 23rd September and dug the ground there over again, there was still the odd fat substantial bindweed root to be found.
Then we lifted the crown of a large Magnolia grandiflora on the conifer lawn as gently and unnoticeable as possible. It felt strange initially to mainly just be cutting away from the bottom to take back from the grass path and the gravel bed it was encroaching on, and not to be pruning the whole tree to make sure it was balanced, but it did seem to look alright in the end. As part of this we found that some of the branches had layered itself. We cut these off from the mother plants and got 6 new mature plants out of it.
 |
| 6 new substantial plants of Magnolia grandiflora |
 |
| A Magnolia grandiflora standing on it's own roots that it had generated. It is part of their habit to self-layer. |
After lunch there was a fascinating session on contributions to bedding designs for the Walled Garden. Unfortunately I didn't have time to contribute to this one, but it was really interesting to see what people came up with, why and how they presented it. It gave me an insight & understanding to the dialogue & approach that goes on here for that. People who had designs, took it in turns to stand up and talk about what they had come up with.
 |
| James Poulton - the team leader of Formal presenting his bedding idea based on the British uniform worn in the Battle of Waterloo which will be coming up to its 200th year since it took place in 1815. |
The designs ranged from a garden just for children to learn and explore, bedding based on the rays of the sun and children can stand in a particular spot and see what time it is by seeing which strip of bedding their shadow cast onto, to fitting in with the wider theme of the garden next year of Alice in Wonderland. Below was my favourite proposal by some of the office staff members based at Weatherhill - a white pollinator friendly garden.
 |
| Plan carefully painted using gouache. |