Returning to breed?
New garden plan
Finally got around to updating the garden plan diagram - on version 25 now.
It made me realise how much we have done since the last one in September: new oak bench, new redcurrant bed, cordon and standard apple trees planted, new painted terraced raised bed, willow throne (almost done). And the usual maintenance of existing beds, plants and structures.
The meadow seeds will be ordered by Guy this week. We will try out a new perennial Pictorial meadow seed mix (Tuscan Hills) and re-sow three beds with another Pictorial Meadows annual mix. One of the beds we will convert into plants - and we have started digging that one over already.
Fingers crossed we get some reasonable gardening weather soon...
Half term in the garden
We like half term gardening... lots of families dropping by and challenging us to be less focussed on gardening and think a bit more about having fun. Today, the sun was out and it was dry so we caught up with some jobs too.
Happy new year!
I haven't put anything on the web for some time. Not that we haven't been busy, more that the weather hasn't been very photo-friendly.
Willow circle and other things
It has been a busy time in the garden since the Funpalace:
We have been focusing on making a new living willow circle structure - now almost complete, apart from the living willow. So far, we have made three hazel-pole arches with hazel poles between.
Update 19 December: we harvested willow from the allotment and planted it on 18 December. Looking forward to seeing it sprout in the Spring!
We have also planned for some fruit trees, which we will order soon and plant from December.
We have planted up two new beds by the water tower - one for clematis and a shadier one.
And the leaves are falling fast, which meant lots of moving of two-year old leaf mould to make way for the new season's harvest.
It is also a time of year for 'taking down'... including climbing beans, courgettes and rhubarb. But this makes space for mulching and moving and re-thinking.
Portrait of the garden
FUN in the garden
Wow, what a Sunday. We think we had about 500 people of all ages visiting us, having FUN.
We are still working our way through the various photos but here are a few to start us off.
Massive thanks to everyone who planned, donated, lent, led, helped, performed and rescued us. We couldn't have done this for our community without our amazing community. You rock. And we even painted rocks.
The big dig
Yesterday, we had a very successful return visit from the Community Payback team. One of the things they did was start to prepare for a living willow structure in the garden. Currently, it looks a bit like an archeological dig. The shallow trench is where they dug out barrows and barrows of clinker - so the willow will have a healthier root run. We will soon fill these in, add hazel arches, weed suppressant membrane and then wait for the willow season to start.
We are not sure what to call it - we like names - one of the Payback team thought it was a bower but then told us about what used to happen in bowers and we are not sure we want to encourage too much of that in the garden! We might need to warn the nearby Rosie Hospital of a peak in births in Springtime...
The team were really hard working and good company and we hope to have them back again soon. The day was arranged for us by Streets and Open Spaces and Ed the City Ranger joined us for some of the day too. At least one of the team also worked on our Wulfstan Way raingardens in May.
Dodging the rain
Despite the threat of rain, we have had some good gardening sessions this Sunday and Monday - even if we did have to run for cover at least once. It is quite exciting gardening with the rumble of thunder overhead - but we decided not to stay outside in lightning.
We planted some daffodil bulbs, which we had saved from Council roundabouts (thanks Grant and Tony). We have hyacinths and tulips to come...
We sowed some (late season) veg seeds, did some general tidying and planning for this Autumn and Winter and next year.