What a great turnout we had on Wednesday for a fantastic day of achievement - we're creating a garden that will be a joy to be in this summer!
Our new cabin now has its guttering in place. In fact the cabin has a number of new additions; new shelving in the cabin, a clock and a barometer on the wall and water being pumped from the water butts to our new zinc tank. The leaked guttering on the Thinking Shed got fixed and we made a strawberry container bed from an old pallet. A hard grafting day from all which is truly appreciated.
We had a number of bodies on hand to supervise the moving of the barn end to its new site at the far end of the pond. They also moved the larger of the two metal benches to a shady spot, overlooking the water. This now means we can crack on with creating a base for our brick bbq - fantastic news.
The big plant out! After weeks of nurturing our seedlings and potting them on, it was time to get them into their beds. We first cleared the area to the left of our Harry Potter door, cutting down the daffodils and taking out loads of weeds. After a healthy working through of compost, the soil was ready to welcome its new arrivals. The team consulted a plant book in our new library and took a selection of plants from the " hardening off" area outside the greenhouses. They selected cornflowers, zinnia and cosmos as their choices. The bed now has a totally new look about it and visitors will have an immediate treat when the big door swings open! We also went seed shopping and selected poppies which she sprinkled about the new bed; it will be exciting to see this mass of colour in a few weeks!
The Madge Green and Transform flower beds had a good weeding, putting in some new plants too, and these two beds look brilliant - a real testament to the volunteers who care for this area each week, their hard work is appreciated, especially as the sun was beating down all day! Another big thank you.
Our resident vegetable experts concentrated their efforts towards our vegetable strips, weeding and planting out. The articulated lorry tyres have now been filled with soil and sand and hopefully we'll have a bumper crop of carrots to enjoy. A wonderland has been created along the bed that runs parallel to the footpath. This project includes a row of cornflowers, with lupins and sunflowers.
The greenhouse production line continued apace as the volunteers were pricking out our seedlings into larger pots ready for hardening off and growing on. We now have lots of plants that we can look to bed out in the next couple of weeks - the acre will be a riot of colour!
Compost has been added to the cutting bed and dug through and now it's ready for planting with the flowers that have been growing from seed. We hope to edge the beds with old tiles to give them an old style, distinctive look in keeping with a cottage garden. It will look fab!
An area has been cleared towards the back of the new cabin so that we can extend the path that runs from the Harry Potter door to the horticulture area. Hopefully we can get the path completed now due to their hard work. They’ve also cleared the new bbq area so we're rocking on that project too!
In the early evening the acre was full of young voices as we welcomed the Rainbow and Girl Guides for their weekly visit. Our pond expert who has Kindly dedicated his time to the project was soon donning his waders as he got them involved in planting out our pond. I know that they are all thoroughly enjoying themselves. An important part of what space2grow is all about is passing on a love of nature and demonstrating how we can make positive changes to help our environment.
But the day was by no means over! After a day of such hard work, with just a few slices of excellent lemon drizzle cake to sustain them, it was time for a bbq! Soon the volunteers were tucking into burgers and sausages, with some healthy salad, and were able to relax in the wonderful surroundings that they are creating. Just fantastic and a big thank you for making the day so enjoyable and getting so much done.
Today it was the Thursday Gardening Club's turn to put their own stamp on the acre. They set about weeding the two remaining circular beds and creating a significant space for another plant out. Always keen to get more people involved on the acre we have decided that a group of Scouts and Beavers will be calling one of these beds their own. We’ll be running an early evening session in early June with our new recruits, taking them through the process of seeding to planting out.