Week Seven

Although we did a wealth of different activities this week, I'm going to hone in on our work this Friday in Kew's aquatics garden.  Now that the internship is more than halfway over (where has the time gone?), I wanted to make sure that I wrote about this interesting spot just in case we don't have the chance to work in there again this summer.  Although I mentioned a bit about this in my second week's post, I think it would be worthwhile to go into a bit more detail about this section of the gardens.

All about the aquatics garden

A quick history

Water lily surrounded by duckweed (Lemna)

Although Kew has had aquatic displays in and surrounding man-made, in-ground lakes and ponds since the beginning, it wasn't until the directorship of Sir William Hooker that tanks were constructed to display hardy aquatic plants (Desmond, 148).  A somewhat small tank was installed near the northern side of the herbaceous beds in 1841, and was used for that purpose until at least 1873.  In 1879, Sir William's son and successor Sir Joseph Hooker replaced the tank with a larger brick tank that spanned 80 feet (Desmond, 211).

The improved tank was replaced in 1909 by a large central tank flanked by two rectangular tanks to the sides and four smaller ones on the corners (Desmond, 351).  According to some material that Shelley gave us earlier in the internship, the "new" aquatic garden was originally known as "White City" because it was made of bright, new concrete.  Needless to say, the appearance is quite different today.

Aquatics garden prior to weeding

White City had only cost £600 to build.  When the surrounding pavement was relaid in 2002, the improvements cost £5,000.  That's more than eight times the cost of the original construction!  This design is still in use today, although the central tank was raised up to give more depth for larger lilies in 1935 (Desmond, 353).

Much of the original plumbing is still in use, which means that its prone to leaks and breaks.  Five weeks ago, Shelley discovered that a pipe no longer filled one of the long tanks with water.  She immediately shut the tap off (because the water had to be going somewhere) and called maintenance.  The problem with fixing this system, as is true with all of Kew's irrigation, is that it is difficult finding the parts for such old plumbing.

Keeping it clean
Weeding is an important part of any garden maintenance plan.  For some reason, before I started at Kew I figured that water gardens would require less weeding than traditional beds.  Boy, was I wrong.  Duckweed (Lemna) and blanket weed need to be removed regularly to keep the desirable plants from being overcrowded and to ensure the surface of the water remains a dark, reflective surface.

Daisy demonstrates how to remove
blanketweed algae with a rake

Kew tries to prevent blanket weed algae from forming by dyeing the water blue.  The idea is that this type of algae forms below the water surface.  If the water is darkened, this reduces the amount of sunlight the plants receive, which should reduce growth.  The practice is effective in combination with regular weeding.  Algae can be removed by scooping it out of the tank with a rake or by simply harvesting it by hand.  Usually blanket weed will come up in a huge, continuous mass.  It actually resembles a blanket, which is why it's called blanket weed.

Duckweed is a whole different problem altogether.  It's brought into the tanks on the feet of aquatic birds (thus the common name "duckweed"), plant containers, and even tools.  The water dyeing trick doesn't work on Lemna because it naturally grows along the surface of the water.  That's why making the water dark doesn't slow growth.  Unlike blanket weed, duckweed doesn't stay in one big mass when you try to remove it.  Although it may look like a big, unbroken sheet from above, it's actually a collection of thousands upon thousands of itty bitty plants.  Try to scoop it out with a rake and you'll see all the pieces scatter away.  That's why we use nets to remove Lemna, but even then it's just impossible to get it all.

Bugging out
In addition to weeding, we also do pest control.  Although the water lilies were relatively healthy last time we worked in this area, they've developed a pest problem since then.  The water lily leaf beetle lays its eggs on the foliage.  When the eggs hatch, small black larvae emerge and begin chomping voraciously on the leaves.  They cut tunnels through the pads, which stress the plants out and look very unattractive.  It also doesn't help that the adults feed on the plants too.

Damage caused by water lily beetle larvae

There's not much that we can do to control the pests beyond simply spraying the eggs, larvae, and adults off of the plants with a water hose.  However, removing aquatic pests on aquatic plants with a spray of water into a tank of water isn't super effective.  Most of what we do is remove the damaged foliage so that the plants look cleaner and some of the pests are removed with the green waste.

This is nothing new
The information packet Shelley gave us for the aquatic garden contained a page from the Kew Guild Journal from 1909 to 1910.  The author was describing the new plans for the aquatic garden, and wrote about Sir Joseph Hooker's older garden.  "The old tank in the herbaceous ground, of which some of our readers will remain very muddy memories appertaining to its annual clean out, has been cleared away."  Although Daisy and I are only at Kew for a short time, it feels really special to share this murky experience with gardeners across Kew's past and into the future.

An intern's perspective
I think everyone enjoys working in the aquatic garden at this time of year.  When it's hot, humid, and sunny outside, this is a very cool activity.  Chasing after the Lemna is always a bit disappointing for me, because I really do want to get all of it out.  But that's impossible for reasons already stated.  The important thing is that the gardens look much better at the end of the day than they did at the beginning.

What else did we do this week?

We skipped edging the order beds on Monday, because the grass simply hadn't grown.  London's been in the grip of a drought since I arrived in June, and I guess the grass just couldn't handle it anymore.  This week much of the grass when from a dry green to a crunchy brown.  So there was no point in edging because nothing had grown.

Aquatics garden after weeding

Our crew spent a day and a half cutting and cleaning up the long grass along the boundary wall between the order beds and Kew Road.  This was intensely interesting, but I think I'm going to save what I was going to write about it for next week's post.  I don't want to overwhelm folks with too much information, and I'd also like a bit more time to observe how this difference affects the wildlife in our area.

Hitching my wagon to her star
Friday afternoon, Daisy was struck with a brilliant idea.  We've both been a bit distressed that we haven't been able to see much of the gardens, even though we've been working here for seven whole weeks.  It's hard to work up enough stamina for a romp through the 300+ acre property after a hard day of manual labor.

But Friday, Daisy proposed a fine solution.  Instead of walking through the gardens, she suggested that we hop on the Kew Explorer tram.  The tour guide was clear and informative, we saw loads of new things, and had a fun time!  I'd recommend the journey as a good way to start a visit to Kew.  It's only 40 minutes long, you get an idea of where everything is and of what you want to see.

Thanks for reading, and check back to read what happens next week in my internship with Kew.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel welcome to leave a comment or send me an email.

To see more photos from this week, be sure to check out the album "Week Seven" on the Plante on Plants Facebook page.  "Likes", shares and comments are appreciated. 

This week's British treat is India's homemade white chocolate and pistachio cake.  Moist, smooth, and flavorful.  That girl knows how to bake!

 

India's tasty and delicious white chocolate pistachio cake.  Oh so good!

A nice, cool way to spend a Friday!  Photo by Daisy.

Sources:

• Desmond, Ray.  (2007).  The History of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (2nd Edition).  London: Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.  177-179, 345-346.
• The Plant List website
• The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew website and staff

 

Week Four

Kew displays plants taxonomically
by family in the order beds

There's been some interest from readers over the past few weeks in learning more about the weekly edging we do in our area of Kew's hardy display section.  Although I did give a very brief explanation in the first week's post, this week I'm going to give more detail about where we're edging, how this task is done, and my thoughts on this type of work.

This is a great week to write about edging, because we really did quite a lot of it.  Nearly all day Monday was spent edging the order beds and around the water garden, and I know that Simon, an apprentice, went on the edge the secluded garden, grass garden, and around the peony beds.  It's a good thing Simon really enjoys edging!

All about edging in my section

A quick history of the order beds
Kew's order beds (or "plant family" beds) were established under William Hooker's directorship.  Before that time, the space was one of the gardens used to grow produce for the Royal Family.  However, in 1846 a new kitchen garden was planted at Frogmore, and the Royal Family agreed to allow Hooker to use the space for other pursuits.

Lamiaceae, or the mint family, takes up
multiple plots of Kew's order beds

Like many other areas at Kew, the order beds were laid out taxonomically by family.  Originally they were organized by Jussieu's natural classification system (Desmond, 152).  In 1869, the collections were reorganized by the Genera plantarum which was created by, then director, Joseph Hooker and his colleague George Bentham (Desmond, 226, 348). 

Today, the order beds may be in for another reorganization.  Kew's Jodrell laboratory and other prominent botanical and horticultural institutions have been unlocking the secrets of plant's DNA.  Their discoveries have called into question current plant classification systems (Desmond, 318-319).  It looks like genetic fingerprinting will lead the way to new a method of taxonomic organization. 

Although the order beds are a riot of color in the summer, the display is more for education than aesthetics.  Visitors can walk through the garden and compare the similarities and differences between plants within the same family.  For instance, although "Love-in-a-Mist" or Nigella damascena and Anenome both look very different in flower and foliage, they're both in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae.

Google satellite image of Kew's order
beds.  I figure that we edge
around 6 miles every week!

The order beds are arranged in 104 plots.  Although from within the garden they seem like normal, rectangular plots, they're actually parallelograms that are laid out at a slight angle.  Visitors may be able to note this unique arrangement by standing at one end of the garden and looking down the grass main pathway.  May I suggest a view from the gardener statute looking toward the Jodrell lab?  The mound of the Temple of Aeolus gives another nice view, but it would be best in the winter when the trees between the temple and the order beds are dormant. 

One feature of the order beds that visitors may appreciate but not necessarily notice are the crisp, clean borders between the beds and the grass paths.  This distinction is achieved by edging.

What is edging anyway?
Edging is the process where grass or some other plant is cut at the edge of a garden bed border or path.  There are two motivations for frequent edging.  First of all, it keeps grass from growing into garden beds and onto pathways.  For gardeners in the southeast U.S. who are constantly battling to keep their bermuda (Cynodon dactylon) or Zoysia lawns out of their gardens, you know that once one sprig of grass crosses the border the whole bed is compromised.  Second, crisp, clean edges really do look nice.

Cool tools
Kew's hardy display section generally uses two tools for edging -- edging shears and half-moon edgers.  However, a spade can be a good substitute for a half-moon depending on the type of job.  Edging shears are best for edging along a straight line with an uneven drop.  For instance, we use edging shears to cut along the borders of garden beds and where metal edging meets concrete paths.  Half-moon edgers are used to cut borders that are nearly even, such as along an inlaid brick pathway.

We use edging shears for most
of the edging in the order beds

Before coming to Kew, I was only familiar with the sort of edging we do in Knoxville.  We usually give our borders a fresh edge with a power edger once or twice a year (depending), put down a good layer of mulch, and weed out encroaching grass as necessary. 

Edging the order beds
Every Monday, the whole crew and two volunteers edge all of the order beds and around the rose pergola.  We don't edge around the beds in the northeast quadrant of this area, because they are currently being used as a vegetable garden for a chef's television program.

By my very rough approximations, I figure that every week we edge somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,200 feet.  That's nearly 2 miles!  About 8,700 feet are around the order beds (when you subtract the vegetable quadrant), and the remaining 1,500 feet are the beds around the rose pillars.  Every two or three weeks the crew also edges along the paths within the order beds, which are an additional 1,250 feet.  I didn't calculate the other areas we edge (like the border around the, the peony beds, grass garden, water garden, or secluded garden), but they do take a fair bit of time as well.

India demonstrates how we edge
the order beds every week

The normal Monday routine usually takes seven staff members and two volunteers about three hours to complete.  That's taking into account the fact that the volunteers start a bit later and finish a bit later.  So that's 21 man hours.  Phew!

Visitor reactions
Although I've only been at Kew for a short while, I have noticed some visitor's funny reactions to edging.  The most prominent memory would have to be from a school tour two weeks ago.  A large class of middle-school age students were walking through the order beds when I heard a shrill squeal behind me.  One girl was very distressed by what I was doing to the grass.  She called out to her teacher, "Look at what she's doing!  She's killing that plant!"  It's actually more like giving it a haircut.

One of the other members of our crew noticed that visitors from southeast Asia are especially intrigued by this chore.  I have to say that these visitors do stop and photograph us edging more frequently than those from anywhere else.  Another staff member recalled a time when a visitor from the U.S. stopped her and said, "Now, I know that there is a power tool that does the same thing."

An intern's perspective 
I must admit, there are times (usually right before morning tea on Monday) that I wonder why we do this chore.  I mean, the grass just grows back again, and in seven days it looks like we hadn't even done anything.  But all I need to do is look up from my shears and back to where we've already worked, and I can't help but feel some pride and accomplishment.

The gardens really do look much better afterwards, and as one of the finest botanic gardens in the world, Kew does need to look smart.  I've also got to say that spending some time edging saves lots of time with weeding.  We don't edge regularly in Knoxville, and I know what a pain it is wrestling bermuda grass out of a garden bed.

Aside from edging...

In addition to a whole lot of edging, we also worked in the secluded garden.  The whole crew and a group of four volunteers spent Tuesday weeding, deadheading, watering, edging, and generally doing a thorough job of tidying up.  Chrissy, India, Daisy and I went back to this area on Wednesday, where the team I was in scooped loads of duckweed (Lemna) out of the stream and Daisy's team worked on tidying up the bamboo garden.  We also weeded, watered, and deadheaded the birch border that is next to the grass garden and tidied up roses on the pergola.

Thursday and Friday afternoons we had a special treat.  The artists for Kew the Music did sound checks the last hour or so of work, so I got to hear Elvis Costello warm up with some nice songs and Bjorn Again cover sections of ABBA's "SOS" and "Mamma Mia".  

Thanks for reading, and check back to hear about my second month as an intern at Kew.  Four weeks down, seven weeks to go!

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel welcome to leave a comment or send me an email.

To see more photos from this week, be sure to check out the album "Week Four" on the Plante on Plants Facebook page.  "Likes", shares and comments are appreciated. 

This week's British treat of the week is treacle tart. Mmm mmm!

 

View of the order beds from the Temple of Aeolus

View of the order beds and the Temple of Aeolus from the School of Horticulture building

All photos were taken by Amanda Plante at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew unless otherwise stated in the caption.

Sources:

• Desmond, Ray.  (2007).  The History of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (2nd Edition).  London: Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.  177-179, 345-346.
• The Plant List website
• The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew website and staff