Weathering the Storms

It is that time of year where the gardens are truly asleep in most areas, but we are not. We have been very busy carrying out projects which take up most of our time during the Winter months. We have battled through the bad weather to keep on top of the Middle Terrace works installing metal edging to the lawns. When this is finished we will then reinstate the lawn edge with turf that was removed before work commenced. This will be done over a couple of weeks so the soil has time to settle and will give an instant finish to the edge and reduce the risk of the edge sinking lower than the metal edge itself. We will then soil and seed any areas behind this turf line and level off the lawns where needed. The final task, and possibly the most satisfying, is laying a strong membrane onto the newly prepared and resized pathways which will then be finished in a thick layer of gravel giving the project its cherry on top. This will, for future years, reduce dramatically the weed ingress on these paths. As we are an organic garden this is vital to future proof areas such as these. We have completed over 120m of edging with the final two panels to be completed early in the new year. I hope that the finished product will be both functional and visually appealing.

Whilst keeping projects such as this going, we have been busy planting a further 100 Christmas trees in our tree nursery. We will be looking at shaping and thinning some of the tree out to reduce the number of bare sided ones in the future. We have also been planting up more of the beech hedge on West Drive which has died. We pruned and removed dead wood material that was creating shade in the intended planting line on the field side but left the canopy shape. This has been very effective in planting new beech but not taking the existing hedge shape away, it also protects the newly planted beech from winds, so it works in more than one way.

It’s been a challenge for the last few months with weather and learning some new skills along the way but looking forward to 2020 and the freshness to come. Here hoping that 2020 is a year filled with happiness, colour and good health for all (and the garden too). There is always lots happening here, and I hope to have lots more to fill you in on in the new year. Have a safe and enjoyable festive holiday and the team here will be back with more excitement in January.