December 2020

 So 2020 is almost done, and Christmas is almost here.  Even though this has been a tough year that we will probably never forget, our students should be proud of themselves by continuing in the gardens and learning new skills under such circumstances.  Still so much to do in the garden and an ideal time to keep working on the weeds and tidying the flower beds.  The autumn leaves have kept us very busy for the past few months.  We have collected these off the lawns continuously and piled them all together in our leaf cage on the allotment -  This will make a good leaf mulch when its rotted down - perfect to add to the flowerbeds in Spring.

            

The students have been busy making crafts for the Christmas Market. We used items from around the gardens.  The wreaths turned out beautifully with a bundle of willow sourced from an old friend of Maria's.  Can't wait to see our own willow trees grow in the cottage garden, so we can continue our skills in willow crafts. 

The wreaths were a sell out at the Christmas Market. 

We used foliage from around the hotel grounds, including Taxus, Conifer, Ivy, Spotted Laurel and loads more. 

One wreath was bought by Caroline Ansell MP who came to our market - How exciting that Caroline is taking the wreath up to the House of Commons to put on her office door!  

The Finished wreaths look so beautiful.

Another one of our Christmas items for sale was our robin Christmas decorations.  We sawed branches on the saw horse and used the bowsaw to cut wood cookie disks.  We had a tool talk and safety talk first and then the students were good to go.  Sometimes, we worked together on the sawing to help each other. 

Here's the end result.  So cute and reminds us of the many robins in the hotel gardens.  Everyday, when gardening we are visited by our resident robins.  

Pelargoniums galore!! Our students learnt how to prepare these plants for winter - We stripped leaves and reduced the height so that they will continue to give a display of healthy flowers next year.

We then moved all the Pelargoniums to Maria's car so that they could overwinter in Maria's greenhouse at home - this  protects them from frost.

This leads me nicely onto some greenhouse news for the Chalk Farm garden project.  We have plans for making a polytunnel and a separate greenhouse that we want to start on in the new year. With the help of a funding grant of £500 we are well on our way to making this happen.  

Great news also, that  Southern Water & Clancy engineering are going to help supply water pipe and pallets for us to make our polytunnel.  We intend to use the water pipe for the roof hoops - pallets for the walls and horticultural plastic for the cover. 

Keep off the lawn!!

The weather has been very wet and the hotel main lawn has seen some traffic after the Christmas Market.  Here, the students learnt that the lawn needed aerating by forking holes into the ground - This adds vital air back into the lawn, to help with drainage and to stop the ground from being compacted -  This in turn leads to a better and healthy lawn when it starts growing again in spring.  Fingers crossed!

 We have seen so much ground elder now around the gardens -  The students are beginning to recognise this pesky weed with it's long tap root. They are slightly easier to remove at the moment as the soil is very damp.

 

More clearing on the allotment  

Making progress. 

And finally, a beautiful rainbow shining over us at Chalk Farm Hotel.  A perfect picture for a successful end of the week and month.

Merry Christmas everyone 

from

Chalk Farm Hotel LDC