20111011

I don’t know why I didn’t mention it yesterday – There was an incident while I was away. Part of the structural wall came down! It is the wall that supports Bowling Green Terrace, facing Tennis Court Lawn one level down. I even deleted the picture I took somehow. I will go back and take a picture tomorrow… It is another painful cost to the garden. At least there was no one hurt and the garden is almost closed to public. (It will close for winter at the end of October.)

なぜか昨日書かなかったこと・・・壁が壊れました。テニスコート　ローンの横、ボウリング　グリーン　テラスを支えている壁です。しかも撮った写真もなぜか消去してしまったようだ。また明日写真撮ります。怪我がなくて良かったですが、また痛い出費で皆さんくらあいお顔・・・

Today I forced (by politely asking) one of my mentors to walk around the garden so that I can ask about some things that were on my mind. I wanted to ask about Wild Flower Meadow we have and annual maintenance of the area. Being so low maintenance, it does not have anyone allocated to the area regularly. We use yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor) to keep the grass under control. It is a common problem in wild flower meadow that the grass grows too vigorously and takes over the wild flowers. Yellow rattle is used to be regarded as one of the worst weed in farmland because it is semi-parasitic and partly feeds on grass roots and reducing the crop massively. It is now widely used to keep grass under control. Here in this garden we cut the whole area down in the autumn (sept – oct) after all annual flowers and the rattle had shed seeds. All the cuttings are removed to keep the nutrients in the soil low, which also helps to keep grass growth rate low.

今日はワイルド　フラワー　メドウエリアのメンテナンスについて教えていただきました。面倒なのでもし知りたい方いたら個人的におっしゃってください。基本的にメンテナンスが要らなくて、環境にも良く（昆虫たちに優しい）ガーデナーには嬉しいエリアです。いろいろと目立つ花がきれいに植えられているエリアとのコントラストもなかなかいいですね。

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