Tuesday team-working day today, we are weeding and mowing the lawn around the so-called “holly walk” – an area that has no dedicated gardener to it so is managed during team days. By the way, if you were wondering: how many gardeners in Kew? (a question several visitors ask me) The figure I got was some 50 gardeners (there are employees, the school of horticulture students, apprentices and trainees), with around as many volunteers (including interns). And we did have volunteer with us today, well, and myself.

As I had not used the mower for a while, and it was only my third time anyway (first and second) I checked I remembered all about how to operate it, and took a few pictures in the process. For a full description of what pre-start checks to do on a mower, I found this video rather useful.

Oil

Filter and petrol

The first general checks are: oil, petrol (full) and air filter (clean).

Spark plug cap removed

Fuel switch

The next check is the spark plug; it is usually disconnected when the mower is not in use.

Then, it’s the turn of the fuel switch. I was told the easy rule is that all power tools’ switches are on when in line with the pipe they are connected to, and off when at right angles.

Mowing height (back)

Mowing height (front)

The mowing height is the next check: when the grass is long, you start by mowing with a high cut, then you progressively reduce it. You want a lush green sward, you do not want to cut into the thatch. There are height controls both on the front wheels (2 of them) and on the back (one only).

You are now ready to start the engine. Our equipment has international symbols:

• stop (self explanatory)
• turtle (slow)
• hare (fast)

You don’t start on a turtle, otherwise the engine might struggle. So you push the lever towards the hare. Then you pull the string, until the engine starts. If it were a two-stroke engine (like the leafblower and the bowser) you would need a choke to help with cold start. But four-strike like the mower are ok as is.

The mower is ready but has to be pushed (quite heavy, but useful for doing difficult spots). And the blades are not engaged yet, so even when pushed it does not cut.

The controls of the blades and the self-propeller are the thinner handles. Pushing down the yellow button and the handle forward engages the blades (I find that the engine struggles if it’s on slow when you engage the blades). The outermost handle is the self-propeller. The speed to which the mower goes forward is linked to the engine power, so the slower the engine, the slower the propelling.

If you are not used to a self-propelled mower, it can run away with you, especially on tight turns, so it is always best to disengage the self-propeller before turning, and only re-engage it when the mower is again in a straight line with wherever you wish to go.

I found the most difficult bits are under tree branches when you are mowing around tree circles and you have to be careful that the branches don’t rebound on you if pushed apart (best if someone is around and holds on to the biggest branches) and that, having to bend under branches, the handles are released carefully when turning, because they are on a spring!

If your mower has a roller at the back, like ours, it will leave stripes on the lawn, that you have to try and keep even and straight. Sometimes it is difficult in particular light situations to see which stripe is which, but generally you know that the light stripe is in the same direction you are going now (because the grass blades were pushed down and you see the back of them), while the dark stripe is against you (because you are looking at the shaded bottom of the blades that were pushed down)… does that make sense? I particularly enjoyed making big stripes, which is when multiple mowers go side by side… but that is advanced skills, and I only tried once! 🙂

The last thing to do with a mower, is to check and empty the collector: when it is too full it leaves an unsightly trail of grass clippings as it goes!

Et voila… the perfect lawn-mowing…

We had a tour of the Palm House today, one of the few remaining greenhouses that were built with wrought iron, a revolutionary technique of its time, thanks to which the arcs of metal could span more distance.

It dates back to the 1840s, and sits next to the later Waterlily House that is managed together with it.

Besides the palms that give it its name, the collection covers the tropical rainforest, from north to south respectively: Asia, Americas & Africa (with some allowance made for the tallest plants to sit in the highest part).

At the moment a lot of emphasis is given to food crops as part of the IncrEdibles festival running this summer. We saw:

• Theobroma cacao the cocoa tree 
• Coffea spp the coffee plant which has recently been in the Kew news because of its threatened status in the wild (caused by land use and climate change) and whose family, Rubiaceae, despite being one of the least well-known contains quite a few economically important plants), and 
• the oil palm Elaeis sp. (did you know the oil comes from seeds?)

Pseudostem

• bananas (Musa spp), with its dangling purple male flowers that serve more of an aesthetic purpose than anything else – as they do not often fertilise the female ones, at the top, which turn into bananas. 

Flowers and bananas

We manage to get fruit nonetheless, because bananas are parthenocarpic, and that is an advantage from the commercial point of view because they do not contain viable seeds, but certainly not from an evolutionary one!. Interestingly, banans are not trees as such, they are herbs, and their stems are not woody stems, but soft and formed by the leaf sheets that are closely packed together. In the picture below, you can see it is sometimes necessary to keep them together with support bands!

Pineapple

Non-edible Zingiber

• pineapples, Ananas spp, which are very much the icon of this summer’s festival 
• various Zingiber, edible and non-edible ginger

Back to the fascinating history of the Palm House, we learnt that it was originally heated through burning coal in the Campanile at Victoria gate, which heated water that then ran in pipes in a tunnel to the House and then through the iron grating in the floor that are still visible today.

At the extremities of the house there are benches that were originally used for potting on, but now are display areas, plants are kept in pots to remind us of their original purpose. Some of the palms in those area, you will notice, are also planted in crates, which – besides being very convenient for potting on – are the way in which plants were originally displayed in the Palm House.

I must say I did love the Waterlily House in particular, because it was so cosy and planted with more foodcrops: ones I love in my own garden, like chilli and shark fin melons. It was also really exciting to see the underside of the leaves of Victoria cruziana, the giant waterlily, which have ribs that trap air to help them float and are spiny to fend off the attacks of fish: amazing plants…

Today I was trained in using a watering bowser, and then set off with a map of the gardens and a list of the recently planted trees to water. We only water those small trees that need to establish, generally the ones planted in the last two years.

I simply loved the experience, for two main reasons:

1. While the plant was being watered, I could observe it, and the plants around it. In fact, it is better to give a good soak to plants every so often than a quick watering all the time. So it takes 5-15 minutes depending on rate of water, size of tree circle and previous state of the soil, to give the plant a thorough watering and you only need to move the hose around at suitable intervals
2. I got to know the geography of the gardens and which plants are in which area (which, giving my precedents for getting lost, has been extremely useful!)

The areas I covered had mainly Leguminosae and conifers in them, and I enjoyed two plants in particular. 

A Robinia pseudo-acacia ‘Aurea’, whose foliage, against the blue sky, was really stunningly beautiful. And anyway I like robinias because they remind me of wood fire in the mountains, when I was a kid, and of my favourite streets in Milan.

A Larix laricina, or tamarack, which I had never seen before, and whose cones left me gobsmacked:  as beautiful as the best deep red rosebuds. 

I do not know much about conifers, had never considered them much, but working amongst them today gave me an opportunity to have a close look and realise that what we call mountain “pini” in Italy (with short needles and Christmas-tree shape) are actually mainly in the Abies and Picea genera, while only the maritime “pini” (with long needles and round canopy) are in the genus Pinus. Will have to investigate further. 

I also had time to observe Cupressaceae Thuja and Chamaecyparis up closer, which look almost identical at first sight; I think I have come to the conclusion that the former has flat scales on a flat branch, while the latter has somewhat raised scales on a flat branch. Will have to make sure some other day, as my watering time had run out.

Back to the bowser, it is fairly easy to use.

The bowser is a big tank with a pump to draw the water out of it and into the attached hose pipe. First of all, you have to attach it as a trailer to a tractor to carry it around.

Then you have to do general checks: 

Oil

Water tank

• Is the water tank full?
• Is the petrol tank full?
• Is there enough oil in it?

Having checked everything is ok, you have to take some fuel with you in a safe storage box and then set off to your daily duties.

Fuel switch

Fuel tank and choke

One has to turn on the safety fuel switch to allow fuel into the engine, as it will be off when not in use.

The bowser pump is two-stroke, so there is a choke to use for cold starts at the beginning of the day.

RPMs lever

On/off switch

The engine is regulated by the RPMs lever, which needs to be higher up than “turtle” (the slow setting) but not quite on “hare” (the fast setting) before you turn on the engine switch and then pull on the starting rope, every time yoo arrive to your location. When you are finished with it, you turn everything off and move on to the next plant.

To stretch the hosepipe to the length you need, you unroll it from the wheel and stop when you hear the cogwheel mechanism click into place. The water is released into the hosepipe when the lever is flush with the pipe.

Hosepipe release wheel

Water on/off lever

Well, that’s the techie bit sorted, and you get the rest of the time to enjoy the plants and the gardens: I’m really looking forward to the next time I have to water again!

And, finally, this was the day I had been waiting for for nearly 2 months: I was thought how to drive a tractor!

Despite sitting in a pool of water that the waterproofs did not manage to keep out, this was really really enjoyable and I was so impressed how maneuverable it is, much more agile than a car, and no comparison with a Gator which is rather stiff.

Without a trailer, it is dead easy to drive around. With a trailer, reversing is a bit more complicated, as you have to turn the wheel the opposite way to where you want the trailer to go – will need practice on that.

Fuel filter

Fan belt

Air cleaner

To start with, I was run through some safety instructions and made aware of the 10 mph speed limit in the gardens, for the safety and comfort of visitors.

Then I got a quick look inside the bonnet (luckily we have a mechanic on site, so we have help at hand when needed, but I found the tractor manual online), before I was finally taught how to adjust the seating (if you are not sitting straight and square the engine turns off, for safety) and drive off:

• turning on the diesel engine
• turning up the revs
• using the range gear
• accelerating (speed control pedal forward) and reversing (speed control pedal backwards)

Range gear

using the brake pedal and handbreak.

Driving console

My instructor asked me to take a few rounds around the yard, doing the odd safety stop (engine off and all) before teaching me how to attach the trailer:

Trailer brake

• reversing to align to the trailer
• safely firming the trailer pin
• lifting trailer jack stand completely so it’s out of the way
• releasing brake
• attaching hydraulic pump

Hydraulic pump lever

Finally I was taught how to tip the trailer, and, the complicated stuff: how to reverse!

It was hard work, but at the end, both instructor and instructed seemed pleased. 

It was suggested I take a tractor on another rainy day when it’s not needed and practice before the gardens’ opening time, which I will be delighted to do. Some rain please…

This morning we were shown the very basics of how to cloud-prune a conifer, a Pinus nigra to be precise, in the Japanese gateway. Cloud pruning is in fact a Japanese technique of topiary that is used on garden trees and bonsai: it is so called because the branches look like clouds with their rounded clusters of foliage.

The branches of the small tree are tied to canes so that they are lowered almost at a right angle to the trunk. Then the foliage has to be taken care of.

The way it is done at the Japanese gateway on the pines, is that in spring, before they become too tough, all the “candles” and budding pinecones are snapped off by hand. At the same time, and again in the autumn, any needles too many (and in particular those that protrude downwards) are pulled away, so that, looking upwards from below a branch, the tufts of needles appear as if they are floating over the branches.

After the demonstration, we went back to the beds, where I went on clearing the ground elder under Rubus, Spiraea and Neillia shrubs and cutting back some weedy Sorbaria. Here are a couple of pictures of before and after.

Sorbaria before

Sorbaria after

Neillia before

Neillia after