Tuesday 29 September 2020
We started the day off with a lovely bit of constant drizzle. Not enough to rain off the day and study from home, but definitely enough to soak you through on your 40-minute cycle in.
We started the day catching up on Learner Journals and updating our time logs. Then we worked for a few hours on stripping out more bedding and soil cultivating, only this time on some raised containers. This was good news for our backs and shoulders.
The rain actually worked in our favour, as by the time we got out there, it had stopped drizzling but the soil was soft enough that the plants came out very easily. I started by removing the edging plants, which were tougher to get out, and then I worked towards the centre. The sub dots were scent marigolds and they came out of the soil really easily. Lastly, we used a border fork to remove the dots: cannas. These were tricker to remove but eventually came out after some teasing. When removing plants from a display, it is important to tap off any excess soil, as this prevents too much soil from being lifted and helps to keep the green waste bags light. We set the cannas aside for one of our colleagues who runs a plant recycling and reusing scheme.
We then used the same border fork to simple dig the containers, lifting and turning the soil methodically across all the containers. After getting the soil level and removing the roots left behind by the plants (and in particular the cannas), we created an edge and swept up.
Then it was back to the study bunker to work on our plant idents and complete some learner journals. Just as we were about to leave, the sun came out for our cycle home. Perfect; still in our wet clothes from the morning!
Lili Barras-Hargan 