Tues 24 July 2012 Bowser and first plant idents

Hot and dry

Watering hanging baskets with Bowser and Lucy, on round we spoke of plant ident, I have asked jim to prepare one before he on holiday to allow me time to learn.

Lucy is also willing to set a test and as a result we spoke of plants and names and families on our route around gardens. Lucy very informed.

However Jim has done the list of 10 plants

Mon 23 July 2012 Pedestrian Mower

Hot and sunny
 

PM Jim ran through checks for using  small John Deere pedestrian mower. 

I mowed all sites inaccessible to ride on, while Catherine on ride on


Dry garden and bee border - akward shapes for mowing in lines, next time will try mowing in circles. Resident asked me to mow their small lawn, I checked with Jim at tea break and did mow without mishap
Wildflower bank had small children cycling around, which meant slow careful progress.
Repton garden - wildlife area left untouched
Japanese garden- small froglets in longer grass, held mower hoping vibrations would disperse to safety, appeared to work
Wisley - decided to mow on diagonal, Jim had mentioned, beneficial to grass if change direction of cut
Sensory garden - realised mower without roller, so in akward, out of sight area I changed direction, looked fine

Mon 16 July Customer excellence /Balcony clearance

Wet and hot

Customer excellence in am with Alison

Jim off sick Alison set task - Cathering and I weeding, tidying balcony gardens... a mess due to lack of maintenance and water. Difficult to transport materials, I suggested we lower waste via rope and pulley!

beds are full of rocks, pebbles, catch some rainfall but limited
I am convinced  the space would be ideal for sedum planting !

Tues 10 July 2012 Edging and Bee hives

ID by Lucy Campanula sp

ID by Lucy Campanula sp

Set out line

Set out line

Edge

meadow

Border

meadow

Rose, light prune, weed and mulched

persicaria

Hive 2 busy

Lucy added no 1 super to no 2

Mon 9 July 12 Edging demo

Showers and sunshine


True to his word, after last weeks 1 to 1  Jim joins C & I at the meadow borders to run through edging borders. We are not the easiest to teach, but he perseveres,

Problem: The mower cannot follow border edge, so definition has been lost, plants have grown over the border and into lawn 
C and I spend first part of am clearing back the border, weeding in readiness for edging

Edging demo by Jim

• Setting out string and lines to create a line to follow.
• Half moon to cut edge to the line
• A Paxton hoe, Jim's own traditional tool then used to cut away the unwanted, brilliant 
• if required half moon again
• Then spade to remove excess soil
• Fork to loosen soil in bed
• Edging shears to cut grass at edge

Because grass so long, difficult to edge, so decision to ask Catherine to mow lawn

Tues 3 July 2012 Plant remaining herbaceous in rose garden One on one

Drizzle, warm, muggy

Planting herbaceous in old rose bed

With Patti, we gather all left over plants in greenhouse area - initially we took the Sanguisorba which are much recovered after watering yesterday and Penstemons, which were looking strong. Jim placed and we planted, he asked that we scrape off bark mulch, dig hole, remove excess  soil and then re lay mulch.

Jim bought us the rest of plants and left us to position

5 x Verbena which were looking very sad, after being cut back hard by Jim,but water hope to have revived.

2 x Berberis

1 x Ceratostigma willmottianum

2 x Cotoneaster 'Coral beauty'

8 x Canna

Patti watererd them in, bed was full of rubbish so I litter picked and weeded. 

PM. After lunch my One on One with Jim in coffee house.

My list included

• more guidance and demonstration on tasks- gave example of yesterday edging with C
• the identification codes of the garden plans I have scanned in
• an overview of the garden- what plans and what direction does Jim visualise
• More structured plant dentification and folow up on unidentified plants
• Overview of my bee learning in  the year
• Machinery, ride on mower training
• Also mentioned the unsettling atmosphere re A, 

Jim responded positively, asked me to give a couple of weeks to get past the next lot of judging for

• London in bloom
• Britain in bloom
• Pimlico on bloom!

Last month we had the Green Flag judging 


end of day

Mon 2 July 2012 Watering and weeding

Warm,muggy and drizzle

Sort Jim and Caroline with a friends spare tickets for Hampton Court on Wed!

With Caroline - Watered greenhouse area, plants all very, very dry, apparently watering missed on Friday and it showed. Sanguisorba and Verbena worst affected.


Also watered the large planters we planted up last Tues, all looks well, though Felicia struggling a little and the planters around office. Also watered the bigger planters in front of office entrance, noticed the holly like plant in first planter had some unsightly dead and dying,  leaves covered in a dark sooty substance ( Jim think something dropped by builders from scaffold not sooty mould as I suggested!) and the few new leaves curled as if aphid curl?

Jim ID plant as Osmanthus

Holly Osmanthus     Osmanthus heterophyllus

Holly osmanthus or false-holly is often confused with English holly because of the shape of its leaves. Osmanthus can be separated from the hollies because its leaves are arranged in an opposite, rather than an alternate, position along the stems. Small fragrant flowers in late autumn.

Just before lunch, Jim walked us up Vauxhall Bridge Road border and requested we define edges, weed and litter pick. As soon as we started it was lunch. Litter picking took an age due to piles of polystyrene packing which was scattered across lawn and through beds.

I tried to define the edge on slope, moved a geranium behind edge, used excess grass from edging, to replant in dusty/bald edges. We realised would like more direction from Jim as to the methods and style he wanted !

Tomorrow is my first one on one with Jim, will make this a request because often feel in need of direction when we work together alone