The gardens in Autumn, and a year at St Hugh’s

We have had a busy autumn in the garden department and it’s hard to believe I have been at St Hugh’s for almost a year. Since my last blog we have welcomed Mike Hawkins into the garden team. Mike has already proven to be an excellent addition and has started to undertake his NVQ level 2 in horticulture.

John has been working tirelessly in his battle to free the herbaceous border of ground elder. This is a battle that’s ongoing but he has made a significant dent in reducing this well established and invasive weed. We have replanted the herbaceous border with over a thousand pounds’ worth of plants brought from Orchard Dene Nurseries, we have chosen specimens that will tolerate the sunny, south-facing position and free draining soil and under planted with Allium bulbs and camasses to add spring interest.

We have also recently finished the much-needed refurbishment of 80 Woodstock road’s front garden, planting shade loving ferns and fox gloves and the addition of winter flowering shrubs.

Over the winter period we will also start to regenerate the herb bed. This is extremely popular with the chefs and students alike, so we would like to keep the existing theme but cut back and replace large and over grown shrubs. Mike has also suggested using seasonal vegetable plants as bedding and hopefully this will stop the chefs from eyeing up Dom’s veg patch and tomatoes!

The garden department has also recently undertaken a peers’ review; the gardens were visited by the header gardeners of Worcester and Green Templeton colleges and we have since been to visit their gardens as well. They were very complementary of the overall standard and upkeep of the gardens and the bond we have within the team. It was great to hear their advice and to bounce ideas off them for improving areas of the college gardens.

The College lawns were also visited by the dreaded cockchafer grub, the pupal stage of the may fly or doodle bug. This insect was almost extinct a decade or so ago due to the use of pesticides, but has since made a recovery. The real damage is made by the hungry wildlife digging up the turf whilst looking for these rather ugly critters.

Now that the College trees have finally shed the last of their leaves and are now all picked up and composted (queue cheer from the garden department!) we can get on with our project work upon our return from the Christmas break.

My absolute plant of the month must be the college’s snowberry Symphoricarpos. Common snowberry is a popular ornamental shrub in gardens, grown for its decorative white fruit, which wildlife love. It is also a useful landscaping plant due to its extreme versatility–tolerating sun, shade, heat, cold, drought, and inundation. But be warned, the berries are poisonous to humans.

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful Christmas and happy New Year.