Meet Apprentice Claire
Sowing the seeds of Spring
139 views - 10months ago
Parsnip Patties
71 views - 10months ago
The Wassail Ceremony
137 views - 13months ago
Live feeds
9months ago, 9:08AM
Sad to be filming our last video today diary today :(
9months ago, 6:14PM
Been studying garden pests, diseases and disorders today. Amazing what's out there! The parasitised aphids have to be the find of the day.
9months ago, 10:34PM
Trying to resist the urge to plant out those tender vegetables too early. Maybe next week...
Hi, I'm Claire...
I'm 30 and originally from Chester-le-Street, County Durham, but have since lived in York and Oxfordshire.
My hobbies are gardening, cycling, knitting.
I applied for the Seeds of Change apprenticeship as it was an ideal opportunity to gain the knowledge and experience needed to pursue a career in organic horticulture, while working in the beautiful surroundings of Ryton Organic Gardens.
Claire's Blog
Posted: 7:07PM 14 July 2011
Final Blog
When I started as a Seeds of Change apprentice I felt really lucky to have been given this opportunity, and thankfully, a year later, I still feel the same. Despite the long hours I’ve been putting in over the last few weeks to get the diploma finished on time! We’ve completed, and passed, all our practical assessments, and we’re now putting the finishing touches to our diploma portfolios. I’m definitely going to pursue a career in horticulture and the diploma, along with the invaluable experience I’ve gained working at Garden Organic, Ryton, should be massively useful in helping me to take the next step.
The gardens are flourishing at the moment, and I think I’m going to find it really difficult to hand mine over to another gardener when I finish at the end of the month. I’m hoping to get all the vegetables planted out in the Biodynamic Garden before I go, which means trying to resist the temptation to put out tender plants, such as squashes and tomatoes, too early. We had a frost overnight a couple of weeks ago that damaged quite a few plants, including the new shoots on the grapevines in the Biodynamic Garden, and there’s still a chance that we haven’t seen the last frost of this spring.
I’ve learnt so much about gardening this year, including how much I enjoy pruning! So much so, that I may have to come back to Ryton Gardens as a volunteer when it’s time to summer prune the soft fruit bushes at the end of June. Of course, I’ll expect a punnet or two of fruit in return! I’m going to find it hard to leave the gardens and all the fantastic people I’ve worked with over the last year, but I’m also looking forward to my future career as an organic gardener.
Posted: 2:16PM 4 May 2011
Broad Beans
I’ve planted broad beans out into the Biodynamic Garden this week. These have been grown in our polytunnel from seeds I sowed a couple of months ago. The broad bean variety is ‘Express’, and, as the name suggests, it is one of the fastest varieties to mature. It also produces lots of pods on each plant. I can’t wait until the broad beans are ready to harvest, as they’re a delicious and versatile vegetable. They make a great tasting dip with fresh mint. My next jobs for taking care of them will be to stake them when they get taller and to pinch out the tips of their shoots when they start to flower as this discourages black bean aphids. The rest of the vegetable seedlings destined for the Biodynamic garden are also growing well; peas and lettuces should be ready to plant out in the next few weeks.
The Soft Fruit Garden has now transformed from the beds of bare twigs it was over winter into a forest of green. The gooseberries and currants are in full flower and I’ve even spotted a few tiny fruits starting to form. The flower buds of the raspberries will be opening soon, so I’ve hung up raspberry beetle traps this week. The raspberry beetle lays its eggs in raspberry flowers, and the hatching larvae eat the developing fruit. So hopefully the traps will catch beetles before they get a chance to reach the flowers.
I’ve also been spending a lot of time working in the shrub borders over the last month pruning out damage done by the winter frosts. It’s a pleasure to work in there with the colour and fragrance of the blooming shrubs and bulbs.
As the apprenticeship draws to a close there’s still plenty of work to do preparing the gardens for the summer.