Meet Apprentice Helen
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 Helen...
I'm 24 and from Bradford. My hobbies are painting, gardening and travelling.
I'm thrilled to have been chosen to be a Seeds of Change Apprentice and looking forward to learning about growing food, and enjoying their great flavours straight from the garden.
Helen's Blog
Posted: 7:05PM 14 July 2011
Thyme out
Garden Organic is holding a three-day conference this weekend, so the gardens must be spick and span. I worked all last week in the Compost Display Garden putting in new woodchip paths and tidying the beds. It’s amazing how putting in a new path can make the borders look more lush. I tidied up the restaurant borders by removing thyme where it had seeded itself in every small gap, and replaced it with Cerastium biebersteinii, which is in full bloom at the moment with beautiful white flowers and silvery foliage.
We’ve got two weeks left to complete our diplomas so I’ve been working like a mad woman answering test papers. I’m becoming slightly daunted by the next plant identification as it involves learning 65 species. Put it this way, I’m crossing all my fingers and toes that I pass it.
On a brighter note, it rained properly over the weekend. I can almost hear a sigh of relief from the gardens. They’re looking so beautiful at the moment, I just don’t want to leave. And because I’ve had such a wonderful experience here I’ve decided to volunteer as a gardener for a month, finishing planting out and keeping up to my three gardens which I love.
Posted: 5:21PM 26 April 2011
Spring tidying
The plants are finally raising their first leaves above the soil, and the weeds seem to be arriving even faster! I’ve begun rearranging and weeding large areas of the Cook’s Garden ready to mulch over with compost and sow seed in parts. I must say it’s so satisfying to see the lovely bright green foliage contrast with the dark crumbly compost! The restaurant borders were looking quite tired so I began rearranging beds there too. Over the winter a few Hebes and Penstemon died leaving large gaps that I have filled with Thalictrum aquilegifolium (Meadow Rue), Calamagrostis brachytricha ‘Karl Foerster’ (Korean feather reed grass), Iris sibirica, Persicaria bistorta (Bistort), Leucanthemum superbum ‘Snowdrift’ (Shasta daisy) and Cerastium biebersteinii (Boreal chickweed). I’m quite proud of this planting and I’m really looking forward to seeing it all fill out before I leave.
I also want to make some minor changes to parts of the Compost Display Garden in the next week or two, mainly involving the compost bin area, which I will make more attractive by sowing some wildflower seed in between woodchip paths, leading to each bin. The green manure display is germinating fast!.. And all of my newly sown vegetables are well on their way to being planted out.
I’ve been juggling my diploma work with gardening and assessments this week, but have made a huge amount of progress. This Friday, our assessor from Warwickshire College will be visiting to assess us on our plant identification again. This time we’ll be looking at herbaceous perennials, mainly Geraniums and Primulas. We’ll also be assessed on sowing in drills and planting in Claire’s Shrub Borders.
Coming soon. . .