Every blog I write seems to have some kind of reference to the current weather situation.  ‘Weather’ is a topic of conversation much loved by the British public –in fact, it tends to dominate - but for people in the horticultural industry, it plays a huge role in our working lives. Fortunately the coldest winter in 30 years – incredible – now seems to have passed us by as, until this week, Somerset has been enjoying plenty of sunshine and blue skies.

This improvement in the weather means the garden is starting to come alive again with small clusters of foliage appearing on stems and flowers such as daffodils emerging.

March is a good time to sow a variety of seeds. Unfortunately, Hestercombe is currently lacking meaningful greenhouse space - but on the bright side, myself and Alex - the other student gardener - got to spend a couple of days at the National Trust property Barrington Court, which grows a lot of plants from seed as well as having a substantial walled fruit and vegetable garden.

I had previously done quite a lot of seed-sowing in propagation lectures whilst at Hadlow College, and going to Barrington gave me a good chance refresh my memory. We got to sow a variety of vegetables and perennials into seed and cell trays; these were then placed into a heated propagator to assist with germination and root development.

Alongside the seed sowing, there was also an opportunity to use the root-cutting method of propagation for some Crambe maritima (Sea Kale) which is a relative of the cabbage; during the afternoon of the second day, we used a rotavator to break up some compacted ground, created a finer tilth with a rake and then sowed some parsnip seeds in drills.

Pete, one of the gardeners who has been at Barrington for 34 years, told us about how he is experimenting with the No Dig method of gardening in certain parts of the kitchen garden which he runs. I was unaware of this process, but it involves a lot less digging and therefore backache - which I imagine a lot of people may be interested in! The link below explains it in simple terms:
http://www.nvsuk.org.uk/growing_show_vegetables_1/no-dig-gardening.php

Many thanks to the friendly team of gardeners at Barrington Court who took some time out to demonstrate this selection of useful skills. And finally: good luck to the 7 people who visited Hestercombe this week for interviews to become the new student gardeners in September!

Barrington Court