RHS Level 2 Practical: Month 4
Festive lurgy and revision
Flu has been absolutely rampant this year, and I stupidly didn't get my jab. A particularly nasty strain hit my tutor before it got me, so I ended up missing a couple of RHS L2 lessons.
I've escaped the flu for the past ten years and forgot both how absolutely disgusting it makes you feel, and the cabin fever! From the 16th to 21st December I laid around the house like a clammy sofa goblin. My husband had the jab and was over it in a day, which was lucky, because I am a diva when ill and require a lot of hot drinks. On the first day of feeling vaguely human, I wandered outside and sat on the patio furniture, wrapped in a load of blankets, just to get out.
1/10, do not recommend. Avoid the flu, people.
On the bright side, when you're a gardener, everyone buys you gardening-related gifts! I was extremely chuffed with a Christmas haul of garden-themed ornaments, a soil testing kit, seed-collecting sets, and a rather super flowerpot mug with a cute little spade teaspoon.
In the short time December offered outside of illness and the Christmas break, some gardening activity took place.
Trees and hedges
The class managed to do tree and hedge planting, which is one of the most satisfying winter jobs. I love putting in the plants that form the core structure of the garden - you know your efforts will be rewarded for years to come, and they provide so much for wildlife.
Practice involved planting a bunch of young trees inside the college polytunnel on a very wet day, alongside short hedges of mostly dogwood.
These trees and hedging plants get dug up and used for this lesson repeatedly, so they're slightly sad specimens, but they're good enough to practice on. I thank them for their sacrifice.
I'm planning to plant a bare-root crab apple and a small dogwood hedge in my own garden in the coming weeks, so I'll make a detailed blog with pictures soon in case it helps anyone else. [Update: bare-root tree planting blog post now published]
September cuttings still alive
The Peperomia caperata I propagated from leaf cuttings in September have taken! I've moved them on to little pots on my bedroom windowsill. I'm also planning to buy a heatmat for better propagation.
Mock exam coming up
The first day back will involve a mock practical exam. Being watched intently while you do something has a way of turning your fingers into thumbs, no matter how well you know the task, so a mock is really useful to help us get used to that.
Since getting better, like my classmates, I've been doing a bit of revision. That's included some practical stuff I can do at home - double-digging especially, as I've had lots of opportunity to do that while improving my compacted garden.
I've also been getting on top of what the RHS calls "qualification-wide outcomes". These are four areas of study which are included in the non-practical, online exam at the end of the course. Learning about these relies fairly heavily on self-study, and it's taken me a while to find helpful sources beyond the unofficial theory textbook by Barnaby Millard. I've listed them in a separate post to help you.
Good things are coming
- to start picking up more paid gardening work as the days lengthen
- to continue transforming my new-build garden into a little wildlife haven
- to get our sad, plastic-polluted allotment into some sort of shape
- and, of course, to pass the course!
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