Update from Alan

A few days ago someone ask what I would do over the summer when gardening was finished!! I do hope that’s not a general misapprehension. The Fall Fair opens in fewer than nine weeks and, as of now, we’re not quite finished ‘spring’ planting.
Moeen completed planting dahlias as ground cover in the wedding garden’s north shrub bed and similarly planted the slightly smaller south shrub bed. Now we are waiting for wood chips to be dumped so the two areas can be mulched. Space has been left for the shrubs and they can be planted from pots as a when they become available. The remaining pots and flats of dahlias, including several named varieties of which we only have half a dozen or fewer, will get tucked into empty spots in the nursery garden to grow on and provide tuber for next year.
Further to last weeks update report on the Colorado Potato Beetles - which morphed into yesterday’s Guardian column - I came upon a second predator with a beetle larva in its jaws. Perillus bioculatus is a quite large, distinctively marked, bug which has an equally large and distinctive nymph. On our web site there is a picture of a nymph with a larva in its jaws and, when Dick gets back next week, there will also be a shot of an adult similarly engaged.
The beetle cull is still a daily activity but the numbers are only about a tenth of what they were in late June. For a few days there were no adults at all but now their numbers are rising. The return of adults might mean that some of the larvae did manage to reach maturity and drop into the ground to pupate, if so, the adults now on the plants are the forerunners of a second wave of egg layers and the whole cycle will repeat.
As word of PTG gets around, we can expect the occasional visit from VIPs, or at least Ps, so it would behoove us to have the place looking at least passably presentable - neatness is not one of my more noticeable traits I’m afraid. This morning Moeen and Joe got a start in the nursery garden and a lot of tidying, weeding and cutting of long grass got done. This afternoon’s rain might have helped a bit to loosen weed roots in the flower beds, so, it will be really helpful if we can get a decent turnout on Sunday and during the week to get the grounds looking a bit more cared for.
Only three people showed up in the gardens last week, which is rather discouraging. Now that we are mostly through the ‘must do’ work, perhaps a new appeal to last year’s cohort is in order. The 2006 class set the standard for what can be achieved but so far this year only Jeff has been back to the gardens. Most universities draw their vitality from past students and, although this isn’t ‘higher learning’, PTG can only survive if at least some of it’s past students help further the cause over the long term. I know you all did your bit but, if you can find the time, the exercise will do you good and I’m sure your flower beds need more cow poop by now.
No column writing this week so Sunday through Sunday I’m available a.m. and p.m. Just let me know that you are coming.