Community Garden

Community Garden

There isn’t a huge amount to report since the last update, it being wintery, cold and wet, but a few things have progressed: bulbs that were nestled under fruit bushes and in the courtyard beds are all pushing up strongly, giving us a much needed shot of encouragement that Spring will arrive, and Simon Hammett has done an excellent job of putting in some supports for summer fruiting raspberries – not an easy task given the stony and flinty subsoil!

Our next substantial job is to dig out a small pond (there was a liner left behind by the previous occupant), to encourage beneficial wildlife such as frogs, toads, and newts – toads are prolific slug eaters, and as such are hugely welcome in a vegetable garden. This will also provide a drinking place for our bees, as long as we put plenty of stones/logs in for them to land on.

The first seeds have been sown under glass – several varieties of tomato, some long thin sweet peppers, beetroots, lettuces and annual scabious. Its early days though, and we’ll be sowing regularly until May/June. We’re planning to sell little plants via the village shop, so do keep an eye out for them from March onwards..

The final bit of news is the purchase of a 5000litre water tank to capture rainwater from the roof of the shop – not only will this enable us to keep our running costs very low, but it will provide us with rainwater, which, with a pH of around 6.5, is slightly acidic, and preferred by most plants and soil organisms.

As ever, if you have any questions, or would like to volunteer in any capacity, please contact Flo on [email protected], –  Alan on : [email protected] or  [email protected]