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Will-ow it Grow
Propagation can be done in a few different ways, earlier in the year I made some softwood cuttings from Salvias, today I made some hardwood cuttings from a Salix alba. The Salix had one years growth before we all took a turn in coppicing the tree, this gave us lots of material to process. Willow shoots cut ready for processing Ideally we would us a shoot that is roughly the thickness of a pencil, but we decided to us several different widths and lengths, just to assess which
Rhidian Maltby
Dec 3, 20252 min read
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Clucking Turf laying
In over one year as an apprentice, turf laying was still something that I hadn't had the chance to do, until now! This property had a 'blank space' in front of the chicken coop, which was some very patchy grass mixed in with some very patchy, compacted soil. So it was decided that we will create a nice path to the chickens flanked by two patches of freshly laid turf. Firstly we had to remove to existing grass, or what there was of it. Patches removed from work area Next we ha
Rhidian Maltby
Oct 28, 20252 min read
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Propagating Salvias
At this property we have an area where the roses grow, but unfortunately not much else, this makes the bed look empty and a bit bland....
Rhidian Maltby
Sep 17, 20253 min read
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Knepp Wilding Visit
Knepp is a place that I have wanted to visit for a long time now, I love the idea of rewilding the land and moving away from such...
Rhidian Maltby
Aug 13, 20252 min read
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Kew Gardens visit
My visit to Kew Gardens turned out to be one of the hottest days of the summer. Despite the heat, it was a really fantastic day and I had...
Rhidian Maltby
Jul 22, 20254 min read
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RHS Level 2 Year 1 Course
Introduction Completing the first year of the RHS Level 2 course in the Principles of Horticulture marked a significant step in my...
Rhidian Maltby
Jul 17, 20254 min read
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Chelsea Flower Show 2025
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is one of the biggest and most famous flower shows in the world, with tens of thousands of visitors every...
Rhidian Maltby
May 26, 20254 min read
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Plant Identification Techniques
Identifying plants will be part of my EPA, so getting to know the Genus, Species and sometimes Variety or Cultivar of the main plants,...
Rhidian Maltby
May 26, 20253 min read
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Striping the Lawn
We have recently purchased a Stihl RMA 448 RV roller mower at Abbotswood. This now enables us to stripe the lawns without using the older...
Rhidian Maltby
Apr 16, 20252 min read
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Pressure washing hard landscaping
During the wet months, slabs and paving can become covered in green algae, moss or mildew, this can look unattractive and also can be...
Rhidian Maltby
Apr 12, 20252 min read
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Installation of irrigation pipes
We have recently installed new planting at this house in Cambridge. there are two distinct areas, the new formal section on the main lawn...
Rhidian Maltby
Apr 12, 20252 min read
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Feeding the Roses
At the time of the year the roses that were pruned at the beginning of the year are starting to shoot again. We want to give these the...
Rhidian Maltby
Apr 6, 20251 min read
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Fixing climbing wires
This garden has four timber frames, one in each corner of a small patio area, they are connected with some wires, these are for the...
Rhidian Maltby
Apr 2, 20251 min read
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Soil Acidity Testing
During my day at college today we tested some soil for PH levels. Firstly we needed to ascertain why type of soil we had, for this we...
Rhidian Maltby
Mar 26, 20251 min read
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Buxus height reduction
The Buxus in this garden had not had a hard winter prune for a few years and had grown much taller than was originally planned. Start of...
Rhidian Maltby
Mar 17, 20251 min read
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New planting design
These beds were looking a bit tired and lacked structure, they had been in place for a few years and the client wanted to freshen them...
Rhidian Maltby
Feb 26, 20252 min read
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Wisteria Pruning
This was my first time pruning a Wisteria floribunda . Although it was only trained up this wall only a year or so ago, it had already...
Rhidian Maltby
Feb 19, 20252 min read
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Scarifying at Shuttleworth
Today Tom introduced us to the Stihl scarifier. We learnt that this machine is good to remove unwanted vegetation from a lawn such as...
Rhidian Maltby
Feb 5, 20251 min read
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Shuttleworth Hedge Pruning
Tom took us to this area of the college where the hedge line was in need of pruning. Hedge line behind obstacles Overgrown hedge line...
Rhidian Maltby
Feb 5, 20252 min read
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Barrow Road Orchard Planting
This garden is one that we work in on a weekly basis, as a company we have been here since it's inception two years ago. There have been...
Rhidian Maltby
Jan 20, 20252 min read
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