Gardening Work during July, August and September 2025

There was plenty of weeding to keep volunteers busy, grass to mow, plants to cut back, seedlings to be planted and in July and August filling the water butt in the plant sale area.  Our gardening coordinator provides lovely flower arrangements for The Storey, herbs for the café and keeps the plant sale area supplied with clearly labelled plants from the gardens.  

This year the slugs hid from the heat and there were plenty of beans.  The plum trees yielded good crops, a change from 2024 when we had none. Here are some of our activities, many with associated photographs.

July

• Summer pruning of apple and pear trees.

August

• Pruning and training of the espalier apple trees.  Canes are being used to start the process of training side branches.  These were repositioned and expanded in number and some branches are now being trained along the wire fixed to the wall, the ultimate goal. 
• Harvesting black and red currants.
• Picking plums from the high branches of the Victoria and Denniston's Superb trees. Most of these were taken to the Printroom Café and the rest shared between volunteers and visitors.  Hessel pears were harvested and distributed similarly.
• In 2023 there were no apples on the Lady's Finger of Lancaster and the tree exhibited signs of stress. With minimal pruning, regular weeding, mulching and feeding, the tree is recovering well. In 2024 there were a few small apples and this year we had some larger apples (see photograph showing the different sizes).
• The wild flowers in the meadow areas had died back in August and the long grass was strimmed and mown by the Council Grounds Maintenance Team.  Volunteers helped rake up the long grass.
• Digging out three large clumps of carex pendula (a sedge) by the North wall in the Copper Beech Garden leaving one clump for flower arranging.  These sedges grow aggressively and are invasive.  Clay and rubble were removed from the holes, topsoil and compost inserted and shrubs planted.

September

• Weeding and mulching around the espalier apple trees and undertaking the same activity around the other fruit trees, starting with the smaller trees such as the Czar Plum. 

Below is a photo gallery of some of the work.  Click on an image to enlarge.

Some of the plants in bloom and interesting wildlife sightings are reported on the Nature blog.  Chick here for the post for July 2025 and here for the post covering August and September 2025.