Tag Archives: lavender

Gardening Journal – Entry 7

Thursday 24 September 2020

Today I woke up to the sound of rain on the roof of the boat and I half expected to recieve a message telling me to stay at home and study. (Un)luckily, there was no message and the rain had slowed to our work day started as usual.

This morning we completed some individual risk assessments to ensure that health and safety measures put in place meet our specific needs. After that, we returned to the lavender beds near the river Thames to cut the lavender back to the crown. Usually, this is not advised and only to be done in our circumstances – when the alternative is losing the plant entirely.

The rest of the day has been spent studying and working on Learner Journals, which track specific activities we have done and require researching related topics, as well as a plant profile. For example, when I produced my LJ on planting bedding, I researched colour theory in garden design and focused on a Millet plant.

Tomorrow is a ‘study from home’ day, which means getting another LJ finished and working on some website content. Happy days!

Gardening Journal – Entry 4

Friday 18 September 2020

Fridays are always busy, even though I only work until 12:30pm. This is because on Friday I go to the launderette to do our washing and catch up with any work I’ve missed during the week. 

Today we had a discussion about COVID concerns for the team in the morning and then Laurence and I went on our litter round. Since our litter round was shortened a few months ago, it usually only takes about half an hour to complete. As such, we treated ourselves to a coffee before our tea break and looked through some of our plant idents. 

After tea, I worked with my supervisor on some of the raised lavender and Trachelospermum jasminoides beds. As we didn’t have much time, we worked on the lavender exclusively and will start cutting back the T. jasminoides next week. 

When left unpruned, lavender becomes leggy and woody and eventually, very little of the stems bear flowers. Usually, lavender has a lifespan of four to five years. In order to encourage the lavender to produce some new growth and extend its life, we cut back all the diseased, damaged and dead before pruning back to any new growth at the base, keeping any remaining stems to 5-10cm. Hopefully in a few months, we will start to see some fresh, new growth and we can wait a few more years before having to replace the plants. 

After I finished at work, I spent the afternoon wrapping up some of the assignments I didn’t have time to finish on Wednesday. This included my assignment on Health and Safety legislation and the costing of planting five different species of hedge. I particularly enjoyed working on the latter, as it was fun to work on a hypothetical gardening project.