Tresco Abbey Gardens

 Tresco is truly the perfect place to wrap up my program.  The island is not the easiest place to get to but after a train ride, plane ride, and a ferry ride I arrived on this enchanting island.  Working at the gardens has been amazing.  The garden is so gorgeous; the plant range is so incredible.  Right now all of the proteas, leucospermum, lampranthus, and puyas are out.  It is incredible that this climate allows the garden to grow plants outside that you wouldn't typically see outside apart from in a conservatory or in their native habitats.  I have been learning lots of exotic plants like the Araucaria heterophylla Norfolk Island Pine from the Norfolk islands and the Silver Tree Leucodendron agenteum.  Some of the Meterosiderus were coming into flower before I left and there was quite the buzzing from all the bees swarming the trees.  While at Tresco I mainly worked in the garden doing lots of bed maintenance.  I also had the opportunity to work with the propagation man and the vegetable garden man.  Both days were amazing I learned some of the germination techniques for more exotic seed as well as a walk around the garden explaining about some of the plants.  While in the vegetable garden I did some grisellinia hedge cutting, cleaning of a polytunnel, daily caring of the chicken, and planting lettuce.  I really enjoyed island life but I don't think I could do it long term I might go a little island crazy.  They are quite a few activities to keep you busy on the island though.  I was able to watch my first cricket match I had someone to explain to me what was happening but I still struggled to follow it.  Every week there are gig races usually you could see them from the island.  At the community center a few nights a week they had table tennis so I went to that trying to improve my table tennis skills.  Of course there was always the beach most days after work I would go sit on the beach if the weather was nice.  The beaches were soft white sand making it feel like paradise unfortunately the sea didn't match that is was a bit chilly to go swimming but I did dip  my feet in the water.  I had such a nice stay at Tresco and really hope I can go back there some day the garden is incredible and island life is so relaxing. 

London Week

 What a week in London!  I started the week at the house of the US Ambassador to England.  The house is known as Winfield House and is located on the outer circle of Regents Park.  It is a lovely estate located in the bustling city of London.  I got a tour of the well maintained garden which nicely transitions between the formal rooms next to the house and the informal beds that line the estate boundaries.  They are introducing more meadow into the garden which adds to the country house feeling of the garden.  After leaving work that day I walked home through the park checking out the Queen Mary's Garden in the park as well as the elaborate bedding of the boardwalk.  The head gardener at Winfield house set up a week full of visits allowing me to see several of the largest and most famous private gardens in London.  On Tuesday we went for a tour of The Queen's gardens at Buckingham Palace.  The head gardener of the palace gave us a tour of the grounds.  It was truly amazing being in the palace gardens and being so close to the palace itself.  To the right you will see a picture of the palace with a flag flying this flag symbolized that the queen was in residence that day how cool!  No pictures of the garden though sorry for security reasons.  After the tour I was off just down the road to the garden museum some place I was before but this time I got a tour from the gardener trainee who works there and then got the opportunity to give them a hand with some gardening.  The trainee I was working with helped out a British landscape designer named Nigel Dunnett at the Chelsea Flower Show and he designed a new garden which was installed just outside Buckingham Palace we went to check it out.  Nigel Dunnett was there and this was the occasion that he was officially presenting the garden to the queen.  So not only did I get to meet Mr. Dunnett I also got to see the Queen of England!!!!!    

Wednesday was another visit this was to the Royal College of Physicians garden located near Regents Park.  This is a garden that highlights plants that are used for medicinal uses.  I got a tour of the garden which included a really good synopsis of the plants and their uses.  I spent some time helping them with plant labels and then did a bit of weeding.  After finishing work I decided to take stroll in the London Zoo.  Being a big fan of the animals I had a wonderful time; I really enjoyed the penguin exhibit. 

  Thursday I was off to Lambeth Palace the London home of the Arch Bishop of Canterbury.  It is amazing that these people can have such nice private green spaces in such a sprawling city.  This garden had several lovely features a pond, terrace, and chapel garden.  I spent most of the day attacking a pampas grass which was quite the task.  I was really impressed with the composting practices on this site with limited space they had an amazing compost system.  The garden was looking superb the chapel was looking exceptionally good with irises, lavender, and calamintha. 

I ended the week back at Winfield house with a recap of the week and another critical overview of the property.  It was an amazing week to look at the private gardens of London and analyze them.  I couldn't have asked for a better week I got to work at some amazing gardens and saw her majesty the Queen!

Malham

 What a day Malham was.  Malham is a small community in North Yorkshire with some lovely scenery surrounding it.  All in all we did a circle trip starting from the town and returning at the end of the day.  We stated out by walking to Malham Cove which is an amazing formation formed by glacial movements.  This is also one of the locations from the Harry Potter Film the Deathly Hallows pretty cool huh.  We walked up the steps that climbed the rocks to the top where the limestone rocks are.  While on the trip it was cool to see some of the natural flora that is suppose to inhabit the area; heart tongued fern, Geum, and orchids.  After the cove we walked on to a tarn which is a mountain formed by glaciers.  We ate a quick lunch by the tarn and then we were off again.  Next was the Gordale Scar which created a gorge and waterfall after the glacier went through.  There was a steep rocky descent to the scar and once we got there we realized the only way to get down to the gorge was to climb down a rock face with handle holds and foot perches.  Climbing up the rock face would be difficult but going down made it that much harder.  It was amazing fun to climb down but I'm not going to lie, a bit scary as well.  There is a picture below of a man in a blue shirt climbing down which is what I did.  Once you reached the bottom you were in the gorge and you followed the stream that runs from it back to town.  It was an amazing day full of excitement and some gorgeous scenery.  I truly enjoyed the day out.