For me, the best thing about Emma is the
inter-year socialising - it makes it a lovely
community to be a part of
Blog
24 June 2025
‘I bet you are loving this weather?’ is a question that I am often asked as a Head Gardener. The truthful answer to that is ‘no’! Yes, I do enjoy the sunshine and the warmer temperatures. Yes, I do enjoy many people using the gardens as they are intended.
What I do not enjoy is the stress of keeping all plants alive and the long term effects that this will have on many of the mature trees and shrubs. It is often said that you do not truly see the damage caused by drought seasons until a couple of years after the event. The trees often go into a flight or fight mode for survival. This takes up huge amounts of the tree’s natural resources. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that no long-term damage has been done.
Overall, it has been a very successful garden season this year so far. The early spring dryness and sunshine lined us up nicely for a good floral display. We have been adding extra plants to fill the gaps in the borders. This has kept the beds looking very full. The downside of introducing new plants in the spring is that you must keep them alive. This has become an operational headache as the dry weather continued.
June is a busy month for the Garden Department. It is a time to sharpen the gardens for many garden parties, tours and graduations. The visitors to the gardens are increasing in number and we want to show them off at their best. We must navigate our time wisely through the quiet exam periods, then quickly catch up after exams on all the outstanding jobs we couldn’t complete for many weeks.
It takes a lot of work to keep the window boxes looking good, and the Community Garden producing fruit and vegetables, and the herbaceous borders looking full and colourful – and all this while battling the drought. That has meant many weekends working on top of our usual schedules.
If you see any of our gardeners looking hot and bothered and almost running with watering cans trying to keep up, then just give them a smile or a little thank you. It will lift their spirits in the 30-degree heat. By the end of the day the team is often exhausted – a bit like our plants.
It has also been a good time to reflect on the Community Garden. It really has been a success. It is quite full of many herbs, flowers and vegetables, and the students have enjoyed coming along and using the herbs (normally for cocktails!).
We have had a good number regularly using the gardens. We hope to build on that in ethe new academic year as some will go to their next adventure. It will be time to create new adventures with the next cohort of Freshers. If you have enjoyed the Community Garden this year, then share your love and encourage others to do the same.
Best wishes.
Brendon Sims, Head Gardener
