I was thrilled to hear that I am the lucky first student to get a placement into Government House gardens which is next door, just 'over the wall', to the Botanic Gardens. Today my first day here and this beautiful historic garden is run by 5 dedicated gardeners headed up by Steve who has worked here for for many years. Today I have been teamed with Tara who manages the Pottager Garden, Nursery, and Orchard areas. After a fantastic tour of the whole garden we get to work in the flower beds. The flowers Tara grows here are mostly specifically requested by Government House's florist and all have excellent cut flower properties -decorative with good vase life etc... As I have a huge interest in growing flowers for cutting on my own property, to see it in action here and how it is managed is fantastic opportunity for me!
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| The large and beautiful pottager garden flower beds at Government House. |
First task is a simple one of labeling the two adjoining Chrysanthemum beds. Tara plans to cut these back and consolidate them later so will need a flower description to remind her which is which, after all the flower heads have been removed. I learn about the different flower shapes planted here of 'double' (seen below) and 'spider'.
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| These chrysanthemums are used for flower arrangements inside Government house. |
After this I join Tara lifting Ixia (Corn Lily) corms out of a bed that is riddled with Oxalis. Tara explains how there has been a real problem with the weed in this bed (as well as others surrounding) and the plan to deal with it is to actually remove a quantity of the soil and start again. The Ixia's are to be repotted and planted back out at a later date. Whilst we are digging Tara shows me the main bulb of the Oxalis weed and the smaller bulbils that detach to create new plants. We are extremely careful not to include any small Oxalis bulbils in amongst the Ixia that might potentially be potted up and planted out again! This is the main reason these will not go straight into another bed until Tara has a chance to remove all the Oxalis from the pots first. Very smart.
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| Oxalis - showing the main bulb at the bottom and the off shoot bulbils on each side. |
It then becomes my job to pot them up and a short demo from Tara outlines her preferred method. She doesn't like the soil to be compressed down around the plant and lose the aeration so a decent tap down on the bench is all the settling the potting mix needs with the Ixia in place. I get into a nice rhythm and give myself a test to see how quickly I can get them done as I am aware that to do this kind of repetitive nursery job out in the industry, one of the most important aspects to the job is speed and efficiency.
After lunch I am teamed up with Mick who manages the front entrance and areas between the large quarry pond and Japanese Pond. The task for this afternoon is some Agapanthus deadheading and weed eradication in the corner by the front entrance. The area is a narrow triangular shape boarded by two hedges and quite tricky to maneuver around in without squashing anything.
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| The far corner near the road behind the entrance hedge where the many weeds are hiding. |
The main weeds hiding here on the list for destruction include Blackberry (
Rubus fruticosus), Boneseed (
Chrysanthemoides monilifera), Tree Lucerne (
Chamaecytisus palmensis) and African Boxthorn (
Lycium ferocissmum). We systematically work well as a team, I cut and Mick paints roundup on the freshly cut wound. Later I read up about Boneseed (also known as Bitou Bush) and see it is registered as a National Weed of Interest. In Tasmania it's most heavy concentration is a small area on the east coast and the greater Hobart area although it is found in other places along the north, east and south of the state.
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| Boneseed Chrysanthemoides monilifera |
I break in my fab new Felco's on the African Boxthorn (which I thought was a pretty harsh first job for them actually!) and it is a very careful, completely gloved, somewhat a little bit daunting job for a novice like myself but I manage to get through with only one small stabbing so I am chuffed with that. Mick confirms it's demise with some more pink paint. I make sure to ask Mick all about the safe and correct use of poisons and he happily shows me Government House's chemical storage area and sign out system as well as making sure we don disposable gloves at all times.
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| African Box Thorn (Lycium ferocissmum) before...... |
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| ........and after. |
All in all it's been a fantastic day and a very productive one so I can't wait for next week.......
Excellent and very diverse day Em, you have covered propagation, weeds and potting with your activities. The woody and bulbous weeds are some of the most challenging weeds to manage. The Boneseed is one of the most common weeds apart from Blackberry on the east coast of Australia. When I was at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town South Africa a few years ago I had to pinch myself when I came to their native plant displays, as they contained areas of Boneseed and other African native plants, but it looked like a weed infestation on our east coast. I had to tell myself that I was not in Australia and that these were native plants not weeds. Still hard though :-)
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ReplyDeleteHi Em - great to have you on site! As you can see the work doesn't stop in the winter...still plenty to do!
ReplyDeleteCheers - Steve and Co.