Courtyard-Day 3
Tuesday was our third day working in the courtyard. We began the class by looking at the different bulbs and seeds we would be planting in the flower beds. We were shown allium bulbs, tulip bulbs and hyacinthus bulbs. I was in the group that would be planting the tulips. We each took a trowel and a fork, along with putting our gardening gloves on, before going out to the courtyard.
When we got out to the courtyard we realized that we still had to dead head some plants and uproot many others. We began by cutting the stems and leaves of the plants in our flower bed with a scissors before digging down deep into the soil to get the roots and the bulbs planted this time last year. Cutting the stems and leafs off were easy but the hard bit was uprooting the plants. We had to dig really deep down into the soil all around the root for ages until we finally got it out. They were so difficult to remove because the were massive Chinese bulbs that could flower up to 100 flowers a year. We put the waste in a big black sack but kept some bulbs for replanting.
By the time all this was done, we had no time to plant the the tulips. This means we will have to plant them next week. I found this week of horticulture very enjoyable as uprooting the bulbs was very funny. There was mud flying everywhere as everyone put their best effort in to get the roots out. The other groups had no uprooting to do so began actually planting their bulbs. These will hopefully bloom in the spring.
Courtyard-Day 4
On Wednesday a few people were asked by Mr. Stanley to volunteer to weed the rest of the courtyard. I volunteered and spent the whole morning, from 9am until 12:15pm, weeding the whole perimeter of the courtyard. Me, Zoe, Leah, Niamh, Sean, Conor and Rory all took part. We used trowels, forks, rakes, hoes and cultivators. It took a very long time as a lot of weeds were still left after the summer brake. By the end of the day though the courtyard was weed free and fully prepared for the year of planting ahead.
