On the subject of Sissinghurst Roses;
a - We used to live in Sissinghurst village. We would go to the Nicholson's parties - long long before I even knew who they were. My mum used to prune their apple trees, the ones on the right that you drive past as you turn off from the main village road. I remember walking down to see her one day and she was hanging from one precariously with a saw in hand. As a professional horticulture teacher now, that is a good one for interviews.
b - I once trained my raspberries in the Sissinghurst method of pruning roses. Cor blimey guv, how many raspberries did I get? Lots. however, they were all quite small. I may however install a fragrant rose at our community garden and revisit the method as a teaching aid. Then when showing prospective clients round I can drop the link to Sissinghurst in - so thanks for the reminder...Luckily, all my raspberries are thornless - a decision that I made when I first got the lottie and I am so pleased I did.
This week:
I have started digging 'the mound of doom' which is a ten foot long, three feet high and four feet wide mound that the previous incumbents of the garden put in. Turns out, it was just because they were collecting garden rubbish from the locals, turning it into compost and then had nowhere to put it [they should have sieved and sold it!]. So they just dumped it on top of a load of bricks and left it. So I am in the process of removing it and levelling it to make a path through from the lawn to the growing area, plus two round borders with edibles in...Some of the soil is coming back to my allotment to replace the clay that I dug out to make the earth oven/mass rocket heater at the gardens. It's alot of hard work! I dug out about a ton on Friday - in that sun...each shovelful hits a brick though - and yesterday we went to pick it up and drop it off at the lottie. All good so far. It has started to fill in the bed that is mostly clay that we dug out. This means I can plant out more plant this week. Yippee.
I have also gone and bought a cordless lawnmower. We have a path at the lottie and my weed management method is to pull weeds out, leave them on the path and then mow it and the mowings then go onto the beds as a mulch. Usually around potatoes. We are also making a lawn at home which will be sown next spring [or this autumn depending on how much we can get done this summer], and there was one on offer so we went for it. So pleased we did! It is fab. We mowed last week, including all the comfrey and just the growth in one week gave me about 10 grass boxes worth of mulch. And all we have to do is bring the charger back when it runs out. Really love it.
Our roof still isn't done - it is a bigger job than we thought so we have got the scaffolding for three days the week after next. Luckily, the chipboard they used is a hardwearing one apparently so that's why it hasn't collapsed...and it will last uncovered for a year or so. So now we need to make plans for the replacement hut as it is never going to last another two years as it is falling apart.
And we have a beehive - under the eaves of the hut...which will have to be removed before they do the roof! So will call the bee people tomorrow.
We are off to an Open Garden today, one of my faves as it is in a rather affluent area and the gardens there are usually stunning. they have a farmers market, plant sales and one of my good friends is opening her garden today so I will chat to her about the bees [she is also a beekeeper].
Happy days.