Gardening

Now that we are moving into winter and the sunlight hours have sadly reduced now is the time to carry out the following tasks: Reduce watering of house plants Prune apples and pears for better cropping next year, only open forms not those trained against the wall (see our last blog for details) Prevent ponds and outside taps from freezing...

The gardens team have been very busy over the last two months, yew hedge trimming on a giant scale, fabulous views though. There is still time for that summer prune of apples and pears right up until the first two weeks of October, this is occasionally beneficial as you only do the job once. Summer prune apples and pears grown only as cordons,...

Now is the time to dead head roses to promote repeat flowering for the rest of the summer. Once the flower fades to a seed pod or hip it releases chemicals that inhibit further flower formation.... On repeat flowering roses the recommended (by the RHS) manner of dead heading roses is to cut them at the peduncle or knuckle just below the flower...

  The gardens team have been busy in Overbury planting up the kitchen garden. Now that the soil temperature has risen above 7 degrees centigrade seeds will germinate in the soil, so we have sown lettuce, carrots, radish etc.... Tomatoes, aubergines and peppers have been planted out in the polytunnel, with the first tomatoes of 2014...

This month the Overbury Gardens Department has been concentrating upon turf care for the coming year.         This has involved using a Sissis splitter to help receive compaction caused by the high rainfall since October last year.   Once a moss killing agent was applied this was followed up with scarifying which is...

Apple tree pruning has been taking place here in the Overbury gardens, as has seed sowing with the local nursery school.       Education is vital to inspire continued interest and development in horticulture, both as a hobby and a career. It was great to have Overbury Grasshoppers in the gardens with us and watching the childrens...

George and Ted got stuck into our Yew hedges last week; it takes us about a month each year to trim the whole lot, culminating in us hiring a raised platform to do the tops at the end of September each year! We used to sell the clippings for incorporation into medicines for chemotherapy, however, these drugs can now be made synthetically and...

Sadly, one of the amazing old oak trees in the park split right down the middle last week and has lost a limb. We are hoping that the remaining upright section will be viable and can safely be left in situ once we have tidied away the fallen branches.

Martyn and George spent a hot day this week making barley straw 'sausages' to sink into The Break Pool and Robins Mill Pond. This is a traditional method of managing pond weed and algae; the theory being that as soon as the straw is placed into the water it starts to rot and produces mild hydrogen peroxide (all quite natural we assure you) and...