The weather on Friday was wonderful, people came in Summer dresses. Lots of enthusiasm for watering, making pretend camp fires, teddy bear picnics, reading books. And we had lots of children from Queen Emma’s come to visit us too. We found some frogspawn, tadpoles and a couple of newts in a bucket to show everyone.
Last Sunday’s tadpoles - we looked up the pale brown ones and think they are baby newts. The black ones are different ages and frogs, we think.
The frogspawn is mainly hatched now and the tadpoles are swimming all over the pond so they are tricky to see and pick up now. We hope we will get some more spawn and the volunteers can carefully lift some for children to see. Please don’t go into the pond area yourself or it will get a bit over-trampled and the wildlife will probably leave the garden for calmer places!
Two large male newts from the pond. We think they are smooth newts. They have the best feet - with spotty socks. On Friday afternoon, we found two females who had no crest, fewer spots and much daintier feet (I forgot to take a photo).
Hail... a small army of barrowers!
What an extraordinary afternoon. Two of us got verily hailed on cycling to the garden, assuming no-one else was silly enough to join us.
But we ended up with six willing volunteers and two tea drinkers and got masses done.
At one point we had to take cover as another hailstorm deposited a layer of icy pearls all over the garden - and they also bounced into the club hut where we were scoffing cake and keeping warm with hot drinks.
But later on it was sunny and very beautiful.
A swoosh of sterile mulch now just waiting to be sown with perennial seed mix. Lots of barrowing and raking. We will mulch the weeded beds too.
The new and old raised beds got a top mulch of soil conditioner too.
We planted a kiwi berry in the central bed. Eventually, it will give us a heavy crop of grape-sized kiwi-fruit tasting fruits, which don’t need peeling. We will need to make a climbing structure for it.
Beds for hungry veg will get a mulch too - here, the over-wintering garlic is growing well, before we put runner beans in later on.
We had a good Gardeners Group meeting at lunchtime today, although we had to take cover to the club hut - the wind was very strong, cold and noisy. Notes to follow on the Gardening page.
First spotted on Saturday - and a large frog to go with it. They seem to like to lay it in the shallow parts of the pond.
The largest area of frogspawn. Lots of it.
We are enjoying these small daffodils. I think we need to plant more bulbs next year. They fill in a gap after snowdrops and before tulips. We have hyacinths coming into flower too.
We are doing lots of cutting back and weeding at the moment - to give new growth, such as this rhubarb and fennel more space.
This early rhubarb is doing well - but we shouldn’t crop it too hard - it is still a baby plant - rescued from a nearby garden about to be bulldozed.
Justin’s garlic is doing well in the runner bean bed. I can spot some thistles too!
We had our first Little Nightingales meet-up of the year this afternoon. And spotted the first newt and (we think) damselfly nymph of the year. Very excited. Good chocolate brownies too - thanks Bronwen!
We think the ducks liked sitting on the hot rock - and then they spent the afternoon splashing around and swimming.
We had two very productive afternoons in the hot February sun (we don’t type that often).
Purple for Polio crocuses fully out in the sun - around the green area - thanks to local Rotary clubs and cubs for the planting. You can see we planted them in slits in the turf.
The start of a new climbing French bean wigwam. We hope they won’t all be at the top of this VERY TALL structure. Thanks to the willow weavers and hazel crafters.
The start of some new sweet pea wigwams - thanks to the diggers and constructors. They should have better soil and will be nearer the water supply compared with our previous bed. They will remind us of all the people who love, and loved, growing sweet peas - especially two special grandfathers… The tree stakes were re-purposed from a local public art project - thanks Paul! We hope they will give a waft of fragrance near the garden gate and our scented garden and that people will cut them often to take home with them.
New raised beds. At the end of the day the crocuses close up… we put signs up to remind people not to walk on the grass edges to the green.
We had a very productive Sunday and Monday - in the sun. Lots of people on Sunday - lots of vegan raspberry cake.
Small signs and the potato planters, repainted with exterior blackboard paint - thanks Immy!
Living willow around the pond - patches finished, membrane pegged down, cuttings planted. Thanks to everyone who has worked on these over several weeks.
Three new raised beds, near Rosie the horse.
The new ‘sticks’ are cuttings of pretty basketry willow, from a nearby allotment. We hope they will grow into the existing fence around the pond and eventually make a living deciduous hedge around it. They will have some bark mulches soon.
We have started an informal survey of wildlife in and around the pond. Let us know if you spot anything. Just two waterboatmen on Sunday. But we found a small frog in the area where we are making the new raised beds - and put it back there after a bit of ‘show and tell’… we like frogs.
Lots of weeding between bulbs going on at the moment - thanks Louise!
Two of the ducks on Sunday afternoon.
On Sunday morning there were two of each gender on the pond. Two drakes and one female on Monday afternoon.
On Wednesday, we spotted our first Purple for Polio crocus in the grass around the bowling green. We planted around 4,000 bulbs with Rotary and local cubs in 2016.
One (or more) of our volunteers painted this lovely card - with our ombre shed, growing veg and, of course some happy worms.
We hope you have a very good Xmas break. If the weather is kind, we will meet for a very informal tea in the garden on New Year’s Day - no gardening required (maybe, even, allowed). Around 2.30 pm for about an hour. Just to see the new year in with friends. All welcome. Bring any spare cake, chocolates and fruit.
Last garden session for 2018 - Season's greetings!
After this afternoon, we are going to take a break until Sunday 6 January. The garden will be open every day but we won’t meet as a group on Sundays and Mondays.
Seasons greetings and wishing all our supporters - and just people who enjoy the garden - a very happy, healthy, peaceful new year.