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Notes from the gardener's barn


A regular land management blog and tips from our Senior Gardener

Our Senior Gardener, Daniel Steel, works with his team to help our Living Campus thrive, and keep it as sustainable as possible. Every month, Dan will share a few insights into what he's been working on recently. We'll share the latest posts below - so keep checking back!

 

February 2025 - February in the Garden: Signs of Spring and Historic Insights

February may still hold winter’s chill, but the garden is already stirring to life. This month, we turn our focus to the first emerging bulbs, exciting wildlife sightings, and some fascinating glimpses into our gardening history.

The Maid of February – Snowdrops in Bloom

One of the first signs of the changing season is the delicate white bloom of the snowdrop (Galanthus). These resilient flowers, often pushing through frost and snow, are rightfully known as the Maid of February. Despite their beauty, snowdrops have a long history in folklore, sometimes being viewed as an omen of death. In Victorian times, bringing them indoors was considered highly unlucky, as they were associated with graveyards and mourning. Fortunately, today we embrace them as a hopeful sign of spring’s arrival.

Snowdrops

Orchids Emerging Strong

We’ve been closely monitoring the emergence of orchids across the site, and we’re pleased to report they are thriving. Thanks to careful management techniques that cater to their specific life cycle, these plants continue to flourish. Their progress is a testament to the importance of tailored conservation efforts.

Brightening the Founders’ Pond

If you’ve taken a stroll near the Founders’ Pond recently, you may have noticed some vibrant new additions. We have introduced more flowering azaleas (soon to emerge) and winter dogwoods to the area, adding bursts of color and structure to the landscape. These plantings will help lift the space throughout the remaining winter weeks and into the early spring.

Peregrine Watch

Keep an eye on the South Tower—our resident peregrine falcon has been spotted perching there regularly. The male seems to be waiting patiently for the return of the female, a promising sign as we head into the breeding season. If you’re lucky, you might catch a glimpse of these magnificent birds in action.

February Gardening Tip: Pruning Wisteria

Now is the perfect time to prune wisteria. To encourage abundant flowering, cut back summer growth to 3-4 buds. This helps direct the plant’s energy towards producing strong, healthy blooms rather than excessive foliage.

Enjoy the gradual shift towards spring and happy gardening!

January 2025 - New Year, New Blooms: January Gardening at Royal Holloway

Happy New Year, everyone!

As we welcome 2025 at Royal Holloway University, the gardening team would like to wish you all a happy and prosperous year ahead. We hope your holidays were restful, and that you're ready to embrace the fresh opportunities this year has to offer.

Reflecting on the start of the year, it’s been a whirlwind already! We’ve had more weather warnings than actual days so far – a big start to January. From frosty mornings to gusty winds, the weather is certainly keeping us on our toes.

Despite the unpredictable skies, our gardeners are hard at work preparing for spring. This month is all about planning and timing. We're mapping out seed schedules and deciding on the vibrant displays that will brighten the campus in the months ahead. Our team is eager to bring more colour and life to the university grounds, ensuring they bloom beautifully when the warmer weather arrives.

Excitingly, it’s been a year since we introduced our experimental willow structures, designed to replicate the unique habitat of ancient trees. We’re thrilled to report that these structures are thriving and are being utilised by more and more diverse range of species. It’s encouraging to see the habitat value developing with age, and we look forward to observing even more biodiversity in the coming years.

January blog

Gardening Tip for January: Now is the perfect time to prune apple and pear trees while they are still dormant. Focus on removing any dead or overcrowded branches to encourage healthier growth and better fruit production later in the year. Take note of weather your fruit tree is spur or tip bearing, as they both have different pruning techniques.

All the best,

The Gardening Team

December 2024 - Digging In: Tales from the Garden

Hello, green thumbs and nature lovers!

It’s been a busy (and exciting!) few weeks around the estate, and we have plenty to share. From potting & propagating plants to uncovering rare fungal treasures, here’s a roundup of what’s been happening across the campus grounds and beyond. Let’s dig in!

Canna Believe It? Propagation Success with Our Volunteers!

This month, we kicked off our very first staff volunteering sessions! The estates team joined in with us to tackle the task of preparing our beloved canna lilies for overwintering in the poly tunnel. By carefully splitting and repotting we divided around 90 plants! These tropical beauties are set to make a strong comeback next year.

Meanwhile, our dedicated gardening volunteers took up the challenge of potting up some fuchsia and rose cuttings, propagated earlier in the year. A big shoutout to everyone who got their hands dirty—your efforts will help us have a beautiful display in the years to come.

Gardener's Barn December - Collage 1

Woodland Wonders: Restoration in Action

The woodland restoration project is in full swing, and it’s been a real eye-opener. The gardening team worked tirelessly to start the second phase of invasive shrub clearance. The images are an excellent demonstration of why it needs removal, as this huge area was completely dominated, with absolutely nothing growing underneath. The diversity was so poor that this area was only 2-3 mature invasive shrubs that had spread by layering, so not only one species, but one gene pool... It is essential to act now to remove the invasive shrubs as it has stopped the natural regeneration and succession of trees in the woodland, meaning the woodland will effectively be gone in the next 20-40 years, if left unchanged.

But it gets better, we have also now replanted the area with the help of Love Your Campus and Nature Conservation volunteers! Together with our garden team, we’ve replanted the area using a variety of native species, breathing new life into the forest. It’s incredible to see the transformation already taking shape—thank you to everyone who lent a hand (or a spade)!

Fungi Fame: A Rare Discovery

Now for some truly exciting news—Kew Gardens has confirmed the presence of two rare fungal species right here on campus! Say hello to the Bee’s Wax Bracket (Ganoderma pfeifferi), a near-threatened species that thrives in old-growth beech forests, and the flame shield fungi which is a very uncommon find and believed to be threatened again due to habitat loss.

This treasure was partly uncovered during our invasive species clearance in the woodland, and without these efforts, it’s likely this incredible fungus would have been lost due to habitat decline, i.e. this fungi relies on old trees, the rhododendron stops the succession of old trees, so the fungi habitat dies off. Its discovery highlights the importance of restoring and protecting natural ecosystems—it’s a win for conservation and biodiversity! It actually smells like honey/bees wax hence the name.

Gardener's Barn collage 2

Behind the Scenes at Hampton Court Palace

Another highlight of this month was an incredible visit to the majestic Hampton Court Palace arranged by our very talented Michael O’connor (performance and maintenance manager), where we had the rare opportunity to go behind the scenes and explore the glasshouses, gardens, and even the building conservation works.

The palace’s gardens are, as you’d expect, nothing short of breathtaking—but what really stood out was the behind-the-scenes look at the glasshouses, where they grow and nurture an array of exotic plants for their spectacular displays. Seeing the care, precision, and expertise that goes into maintaining these collections was truly inspiring.

Gardening Tip of the Month: Begonia Corms – Don’t Toss Them!

Here’s how to store them for future use:

1. Timing is key: Wait until the end of the flowering season but act before the first frost sets in. Even if the first frosts have wilted the foliage the corms should still be salvageable.

2. Clean them up: remove the foliage, gently remove soil and cleanly snip away any decaying parts.

3. Inspect for pests: Check for pesky white vine weevil grubs, and be sure to dispose of any you find, the garden birds will love them.

4. Dry and store: Let the corms dry out fully and store them in a cool, dry place, ready to replant in spring.

By saving your corms, you’ll not only save money next year, but will have a better flower display year on year as the corms grow bigger, plus reduce waste—a win-win for you and the planet!

Another tip for the veg garden is to get your Garlic bulbs in now, then need a period of cold to develop properly, so plant them now for healthy garlic next year.

We’re always amazed by the power of teamwork, nature, and a bit of elbow grease. Whether it’s propagating lilies, uncovering rare fungi, or restoring the woodland. Thank you for following our journey, and happy gardening!

Until next time,

The Garden Team

November 2024

Embracing Autumn's gifts

Welcome to November! As we settle into this lovely month, we’re greeted by a refreshing break from the wet weather. The mild autumn days grant us the pleasure of prolonged colour in the garden, showcasing the rich hues of fall foliage and late-blooming flowers. It’s a perfect time to enjoy the beauty of nature as it prepares for winter.

 

Composting success!

We’re thrilled to share that our composting trial has been a resounding success! By capturing a significant portion of our green waste, we’ve created nutrient-rich black compost that we’re now incorporating into our garden beds. This process not only helps reduce waste removal but also enriches our soil, promoting healthier plants. If you haven’t started composting yet, now is the perfect time to consider how you can make a difference in your garden, its easier than you think.

 

Hidden autumn colours in Grasslands

As we explore our Living Campus, we’re discovering hidden treasures in our grasslands. We’ve identified at least four different species of waxcap mushrooms thriving in our unimproved natural grassland, (even in the orchid lawns), which are excellent indicators of a healthy, mycologically rich environment. They can take 20-30 years (as a minimum) to establish, demonstrating the value of the estates biodiversity, and its sensitivity. It’s crucial to protect these habitats, especially since up to 90% of natural unimproved grasslands have been lost in the 20th century. We encourage everyone to appreciate and conserve these vital ecosystems, maybe you could consider leaving a little area in your garden?

 

Rhododendron clearance update

In our ongoing efforts to restore the health of our campus environment, the gardening team has embarked on the second phase of our rhododendron clearance. This invasive species has been spreading and encroaching on native plants, and the extent of our clearance efforts highlights the scale of this invasion. Alongside our dedicated 'Love Your Campus' volunteers, we’ve begun replanting using the Miyawaki planting technique, which promotes the growth of dense, biodiverse forests. It’s an exciting step toward restoring our natural habitats.

 

New wildlife interpretation boards

We’re excited to introduce our new wildlife interpretation boards around the site! These boards aim to provide insights into the often-overlooked aspects of our ecosystem, highlighting the variety of wildlife that calls our estate home. We hope they inspire you to look a little closer at the world around you and appreciate the small wonders that contribute to our vibrant ecosystem. Also see them on our Living Campus webpages.

As we embrace November, let’s take a moment to appreciate the beauty and biodiversity of our gardens. We look forward to sharing more updates and insights as the season unfolds.

 

Gardening Tips

As the leaves start to fall it's important to try and keep it cleared of lawns to prevent over shading, and it makes a great start to a compost pile. As the grass has still been growing, mixing in your clippings with leaf will give a great carbon nitrogen balance.

If you haven’t got any compost then getting in sustainably sourced mulch for the garden is helpful at this time. It nutrifies the soil for the following year, and can help over winter any tender species from any harsher conditions.

A personal favourite gardening job at this time of year - involving a thinking cap and cuppa (maybe a biscuit or two) - is to start planning your garden for next year. What worked this year? What would you like to try? When is the best time to seed or propagate? Get the crayons out and have some fun.

 

Happy gardening!

 Gardeners barn November photos

October 2024

Hello!

Welcome to the first of the new land management blogs that I look forward to writing each month – keeping you up to date on what Royal Holloway’s gardening team have been busy doing over the last few weeks as well as the changes, challenges and sights we’ve seen across our Living Campus.

If you keep reading, you might also find a few tips for your own gardens for this time of year.

So, what’s been happening this month…

An unprecedented amount of rain and winds hit Royal Holloway in September causing several tree failures, the damage hitting us was only a week after a reported local tornado in Aldershot! One of the main tree failures was a mature pine that fell onto the Medicine building roof, and there was minimal damage to the building. Thanks to the joint effort of the Estates team and contractors we were able to get this cleared fast, there were an enormous number of pinecones left on the roof to clear. 

The North Quads also experienced a first, as we trialled an automated robot mower for over a week, to test its quality of cut and efficacy. The results were interesting as the technology has developed considerably over the last decade. We’ll be considering whether we’d benefit from moving to this system ahead of next spring.

Toward the end of September, we also started cutting the hay off the meadows, which we have put into our composting system to break down and eventually use again on site. The compost site is actually part of a new pilot we introduced this year, and you can find out more about it on the University’s Environmental Sustainability web pages.

Gardening tip

Now we are entering autumn, its the perfect time to plant spring bulbs, a mix of daffodils and Camassia are an excellent combination that can extend the flowering time after the dafodils from May.

This is also the time to consider cutting back your roses to prevent wind rock over winter, as the seasons are changing and we have often milder winters, the timings of this pruning may vary, last year we had a third flush of flowers that lasted into early December!

 

All the best,

Dan

 Gardeners barn October Blog Photos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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