I was walking to the station via Lovers Walk on Thursday and I went past this beautiful Wisteria; the scent was amazing too.
Garden Bloggers' Muse Day: Autumn haiku
5 weeks ago
Friday, 29 April 2011
Wisteria
I was walking to the station via Lovers Walk on Thursday and I went past this beautiful Wisteria; the scent was amazing too.Monday, 11 April 2011
April 2011
First April Sowers have arrived. Good for the ground we need it desperately.
Plant Sale matters go on. We have nearly finished the sowing programme for the the Sale on May 15th. The last things to be sown are beans and sweetcorn and a few courgettes, and these should be going in this week. All the plantlets are looking healthy so far and haven't succumbed to any dreadful diseases or to much slug damage. We have had a few casualties due to poor germination, which is a pity but not the end of the world,; we always have a few varieties that seem reluctant to grow in any one year but it isn't consistent so it is probably due to poor quality seed as everything else seems OK.
It seems to be a never ending and backbreaking job moving all the plants around so that we can make room for the next lot. This has to be done regularly so that we can harden things off properly before they go out onto the beds outside. some things are a bit too far advanced and will be overgrown by the plant sale and we may need to pot these on, or even prune them back! Watering is also a never ending job and Terry, as usual, has been the backbone on which we rely.
It seems to be a never ending and backbreaking job moving all the plants around so that we can make room for the next lot. This has to be done regularly so that we can harden things off properly before they go out onto the beds outside. some things are a bit too far advanced and will be overgrown by the plant sale and we may need to pot these on, or even prune them back! Watering is also a never ending job and Terry, as usual, has been the backbone on which we rely.
Friday, 11 February 2011
Seeds Seeds and More Seeds
Well I am so busy preparing for this year's plant sale I don't know which way to turn. Our allotment site is having a major face lift too. I'll publish photos as soon as I can take some i.e when I have a bit of spare time in daylight hours.
One of our most active members applied for a grant to create raised beds for disabled or elderly people and for school children and to enable major clearing of the perimeter and reestablishment of a secure boundary fence. We have been subject to numerous break ins (the latest this week) and vandalism due to lack of a secure fence. The council has only been able to afford chestnut palings and kids seem to find this sort of fencing irresistible. Usually only some old tools get taken but occasionally crops disappear too. This is much rarer and has usually been associated with builders renovating houses overlooking the site eyeing up the crops whilst they have their tea break.
As for the plant sale to be held in May; I've been preparing lists for the helpers who will be sowing the seeds and potting on. This requires a great deal of organisation so that we can keep track of what has been sown and when. and eventually how many plants we have to sell. The proceeds of this sale will go towards the funds enabling us to maintain the amenities we enjoy on our allotment site. We now have a wonderful eco loo (mentioned in a previous blog) accessible to wheelchairs, or at least will be after some essential alterations have been made. We have a nice new tea room with tea coffee and biscuits provided, where we can take shelter when the weather turns bad as well as other communal areas where we can congregate when the weather is good to have our bar-b-ques etc. There are also mowers and wheelbarrows which need to be maintained as well as electricity and water on site.
All of this costs quite a lot more than individual rental for the plots; we therefore need to find a way to raise money every year to keep these facilities going for the enjoyment of all plot holders. Hence the plant sale. which was originally conceived to allow the Society to have an annual show. Showing of flowers, fruit and vegetables lost popularity as most people didn't want to enter their crops into a competition so the money raised now is more usefully used to benefit the site and the people on it.
The organization of the sale requires a whole team of people to grow the crops, organize the setting up of the stalls, selling the plants on the day, making cakes and selling teas and coffees to the visitors and finally clearing up afterwards.
However all this is yet to come but it all has to start somewhere and that is my job.
The sale is very popular with local people who queue up on Sunday morning before the sale starts waiting to get in. There is what can only be described as a stampede as the gates open.
Here are a few photographs from last year showing a little of what was grown for the plant sale 2010
One of our most active members applied for a grant to create raised beds for disabled or elderly people and for school children and to enable major clearing of the perimeter and reestablishment of a secure boundary fence. We have been subject to numerous break ins (the latest this week) and vandalism due to lack of a secure fence. The council has only been able to afford chestnut palings and kids seem to find this sort of fencing irresistible. Usually only some old tools get taken but occasionally crops disappear too. This is much rarer and has usually been associated with builders renovating houses overlooking the site eyeing up the crops whilst they have their tea break.
As for the plant sale to be held in May; I've been preparing lists for the helpers who will be sowing the seeds and potting on. This requires a great deal of organisation so that we can keep track of what has been sown and when. and eventually how many plants we have to sell. The proceeds of this sale will go towards the funds enabling us to maintain the amenities we enjoy on our allotment site. We now have a wonderful eco loo (mentioned in a previous blog) accessible to wheelchairs, or at least will be after some essential alterations have been made. We have a nice new tea room with tea coffee and biscuits provided, where we can take shelter when the weather turns bad as well as other communal areas where we can congregate when the weather is good to have our bar-b-ques etc. There are also mowers and wheelbarrows which need to be maintained as well as electricity and water on site.
All of this costs quite a lot more than individual rental for the plots; we therefore need to find a way to raise money every year to keep these facilities going for the enjoyment of all plot holders. Hence the plant sale. which was originally conceived to allow the Society to have an annual show. Showing of flowers, fruit and vegetables lost popularity as most people didn't want to enter their crops into a competition so the money raised now is more usefully used to benefit the site and the people on it.
The organization of the sale requires a whole team of people to grow the crops, organize the setting up of the stalls, selling the plants on the day, making cakes and selling teas and coffees to the visitors and finally clearing up afterwards.
However all this is yet to come but it all has to start somewhere and that is my job.
The sale is very popular with local people who queue up on Sunday morning before the sale starts waiting to get in. There is what can only be described as a stampede as the gates open.
Here are a few photographs from last year showing a little of what was grown for the plant sale 2010
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| Herbs, lettuce and brassicas in the open beds prior to plant sale |
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| Basil and tender herbs in cool greenhouse |
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| Climbers and marigolds in poly tunnel |
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| Cold frame with tender plants hardening off |
Thursday, 26 August 2010
Greenfingers making magical gardens for children's hospices
The Allotments are having a tea party on Sunday September 5th for 2pm to 6pm to raise funds for Greenfingers Charity http://www.greenfingerscharity.org.uk/home who design and make gardens for children's hospices. This is a small charity who have made about 29 gardens to date and aim to make 2 to 3 per year. The designs are all wheelchair friendly and are made according to the needs of the particular site. We decided to raise funds for this particular charity as we are gardeners and have an interest in trying to serve the community. We are trying to raise funds ourselves for constructing an area of raised beds for children and the elderly or disabled and are not finding it particularly easy.
We are hoping for a fine day for this as it is an outdoor event; however our tea area is undercover so all should be well. We will be having stalls selling our fresh produce, cakes and jams, bric-a-brac, raffle and even aromatherapy massage. If the weather forecast is poor for that Sunday we are going to erect pavilions to keep the visitors dry. We hope to have childrens' activities too and some musical entertainment at the end of the afternoon. This will also be a rare opportunity to visit the whole site and also the allotment that won best in the Borough of Barnet this year!
Hope lots of people will come and make this a really successful event. If you read this please pass it on to everyone you think may be interested. Many thanks.
Hope lots of people will come and make this a really successful event. If you read this please pass it on to everyone you think may be interested. Many thanks.
Thursday, 22 July 2010
Kathy Brown's Garden visit
Valerie Brown organised yet another wonderful garden visit; this time to Kathy Brown's garden in Stevington http://kathybrownsgarden.homestead.com/ about an hour and half away from our base in Finchley, North London. We left London just after 10 am and journeyed north into Bedfordshire. Our first stop at about 11:30 was a marvelous garden centre Frost's whose proximity to Kathy Brown's and the fact that it has an excellent restaurant made it an ideal place to have a quick bite to eat and make any purchases we wanted before moving on to the main attraction. The first two pictures in the slide show are taken in Frost's on the restaurant terrace and the last two were taken in the village of Stevington.
Kathy Brown greeted us at the bottom of her road as it is too narrow for coaches to pass. She directed us along the short distance to her house past the historical church which can be accessed through her garden. We assembled on the main lawn at the very grand "back entrance" to the manor house so that KB could give us a short talk about the house's history and the story behind the layout and design of the garden, before taking us on the guided tour.
Her concept has been inspired by paintings and painters and many of the "rooms" have been named after great artists amongst whom are Kandinsky, Monet and Rothko. She talked about her books and her recipes and explained about her large collection of clematis (which is NOT a National collection).
In the slide show; I have placed pictures of the main herbaceous border, the Kandinsky room, the vistas from the house showing the duck fountain made from reclaimed materials including a stone spiral staircase and millstone. Other features are her quirky planting containers, for which she is famous, the wild meadow complete with mad hatter's tea party and other objects and constructions you stumble upon on the journey that is Kathy Brown's garden.
Sadly the box has been affected by box blight but this is only a minor blemish on the overall effect. The herbaceous border is very well stocked with plants but was probably not at its best. The Kandinsky garden, a disused fish pond, was extremely colourful. But colour was not restricted to this area; the house was covered with clematis of many types. They have made dry borders with grasses and Verbena bonariensis (a personal favorite) bee and butterfly heaven. This is a garden filled with interest and with something to suit everyone.
After the tour we were treated to one of KB's famous teas on the lawn with lavender and lemon drizzle, honey fudge and lavender and apricot cakes. We were then left to roam the garden freely to see the things we had not seen or take more pictures and notes.
Even though we have had precious little rainfall this summer and everything is parched the gardens were still magnificent due, no doubt, to judicious watering by Kathy Brown and her husband who maintain the large garden without help from additional gardeners. She and her husband have created a magical garden with many different moods, ancient and modern in this marvelous location in what appears to be a perfect little village. It is definitely worth a visit.
We were blessed with wonderful weather, neither too hot nor too cold - a perfect English summer day.
Kathy Brown greeted us at the bottom of her road as it is too narrow for coaches to pass. She directed us along the short distance to her house past the historical church which can be accessed through her garden. We assembled on the main lawn at the very grand "back entrance" to the manor house so that KB could give us a short talk about the house's history and the story behind the layout and design of the garden, before taking us on the guided tour.
Her concept has been inspired by paintings and painters and many of the "rooms" have been named after great artists amongst whom are Kandinsky, Monet and Rothko. She talked about her books and her recipes and explained about her large collection of clematis (which is NOT a National collection).
In the slide show; I have placed pictures of the main herbaceous border, the Kandinsky room, the vistas from the house showing the duck fountain made from reclaimed materials including a stone spiral staircase and millstone. Other features are her quirky planting containers, for which she is famous, the wild meadow complete with mad hatter's tea party and other objects and constructions you stumble upon on the journey that is Kathy Brown's garden.
Sadly the box has been affected by box blight but this is only a minor blemish on the overall effect. The herbaceous border is very well stocked with plants but was probably not at its best. The Kandinsky garden, a disused fish pond, was extremely colourful. But colour was not restricted to this area; the house was covered with clematis of many types. They have made dry borders with grasses and Verbena bonariensis (a personal favorite) bee and butterfly heaven. This is a garden filled with interest and with something to suit everyone.
After the tour we were treated to one of KB's famous teas on the lawn with lavender and lemon drizzle, honey fudge and lavender and apricot cakes. We were then left to roam the garden freely to see the things we had not seen or take more pictures and notes.
Even though we have had precious little rainfall this summer and everything is parched the gardens were still magnificent due, no doubt, to judicious watering by Kathy Brown and her husband who maintain the large garden without help from additional gardeners. She and her husband have created a magical garden with many different moods, ancient and modern in this marvelous location in what appears to be a perfect little village. It is definitely worth a visit.
We were blessed with wonderful weather, neither too hot nor too cold - a perfect English summer day.
Friday, 30 October 2009
Saving of our Allotment Sites
Recently Fortis Green Allotment site has been under threat of being sold from under them by their landlord Thames Water, who were presumably looking for a developer to purchase the site. Fortis Green had a petition which was available to sign to to support their bid to save their site from being yet another housing development.
It appears they have had a stay of execution for a while and they are looking into means whereby they could purchase the site from Thames Water, who may be giving them first refusal. Clearly the amount of money required to purchase land in London is very high. They are looking to raise funds by various means and have asked for suggestions. They have formed a not-for-profit, limited company with charitable objectives, (see: http://www.savefortisgreenallotments.com/news.htm) and formed 'FRIENDS OF FORTIS GREEN ALLOTMENTS' to raise funds. Clearly they are looking at the obvious means e.g. Big Lottery Fund’s Local Food programme.
It is important that we all support their efforts to save their allotment site. Too many have disappeared recently as a result of Councils and land owners regarding these areas as an easy way of boosting their coffers. Of course selling the family jewels can only be done once, the asset is then gone for ever.
It appears that Thames Water may be having second thoughts and may now have a different Idea of what they want to do. However, the possibility still exists that the land could be sold to the highest bidder; the threat is still there.
I for one support the efforts of the plot holders at Fortis Green to attempt to save their site from development and I sincerely hope they succeed.
It appears they have had a stay of execution for a while and they are looking into means whereby they could purchase the site from Thames Water, who may be giving them first refusal. Clearly the amount of money required to purchase land in London is very high. They are looking to raise funds by various means and have asked for suggestions. They have formed a not-for-profit, limited company with charitable objectives, (see: http://www.savefortisgreenallotments.com/news.htm) and formed 'FRIENDS OF FORTIS GREEN ALLOTMENTS' to raise funds. Clearly they are looking at the obvious means e.g. Big Lottery Fund’s Local Food programme.
It is important that we all support their efforts to save their allotment site. Too many have disappeared recently as a result of Councils and land owners regarding these areas as an easy way of boosting their coffers. Of course selling the family jewels can only be done once, the asset is then gone for ever.
It appears that Thames Water may be having second thoughts and may now have a different Idea of what they want to do. However, the possibility still exists that the land could be sold to the highest bidder; the threat is still there.
I for one support the efforts of the plot holders at Fortis Green to attempt to save their site from development and I sincerely hope they succeed.
Monday, 26 October 2009
FHS Visit to Westonbirt Arboretum
This Saturday the FHS organised a trip to Westonbirt Arboretum. It was quite an early start; we all met at 08:00 at College Farm near the junction of the North Circular and Finchley Road. The weather started to turn nasty whilst we were waiting for the coach to come and pick us up. The coach was an hour late and we didn't leave Finchley until after 09:00. Not a good start! It is about 90 miles from Finchley to Tetbury which is the nearest town to Westonbirt, which is approximately a mile and a half away.
The coach sent to pick us up was only a 25 seater there were 25 of us so we filled it completely and the seats were not designed for the more ample figure!
It rained solidly for the whole journey; it started to clear up slightly as we arrived at Westonbirt at noon. As soon as we arrived we went to the Information Centre to book a place on the free guided tour at 14:00. In the Information Centre there was an interesting exhibition of textiles, jewellery and hand crafted wooden furniture and puzzles. After having a quick look around the exhibition, June and I decided to go to the shops and have some lunch before starting to walk round as it was already past mid-day. There are two shops at Westonbirt, a general gift shop and a plant shop, we managed to spend some money in both of them, but were limited to only very small items as the size of the bus was somewhat restrictive as to what we could buy as there was no room for plants of any size.
Shopping and eating first turned out to be the best of plans as the weather was quite grim and it started to rain heavily again as we were going to have a bite to eat. Of course everyone and their brother also decided to have lunch then too. However, as soon as we finished eating the sun came out, just in time for the start of our walk.
We all gathered in front of the Information Centre to wait for the guide to arrive. The guide was an expert on the history of the site and the family who had started it, she claimed she was not a tree expert. She took us on a particular route round the Acer collection; Westonbirt is well known for its Acer collection and the autumn colour. I took the opportunity to take my new camera bought for me by my husband for my last birthday. Here is a selection of the pictures I took. Just to give a flavour of the wonderful colours and the rare tree specimens that we saw.
I did lag behind a bit so I didn't really get the full benefit of the tour; but what I did hear was very interesting. There are wonderful vistas as well as groves and specimen trees to see. It all looks remarkably natural, but of course most trees have actually been planted. There is a continuing replanting programme and new trees are protected from wildlife by protective fencing, detracting to some extent from the appearance, but obviously necessary for the preservation of the specimen.
After the guided tour I took myself off to see a bit more of this vast collection, I took a stroll round the native trees; I came across a herd of cows that were roaming freely in this area. and I came across this pretty cottage in the grounds. I just had time to have a piece of delicious lemon cake and a cup of coffee before it was time to meet back at the coach at 16:30, and the rain started again just in time for the trip home.
We were extremely fortunate with the timing of the window in the weather; it could have been a very different day otherwise.
It would be lovely to go again in spring. Maybe we can get Valerie to organise another trip but with a larger coach next time.
The coach sent to pick us up was only a 25 seater there were 25 of us so we filled it completely and the seats were not designed for the more ample figure!
It rained solidly for the whole journey; it started to clear up slightly as we arrived at Westonbirt at noon. As soon as we arrived we went to the Information Centre to book a place on the free guided tour at 14:00. In the Information Centre there was an interesting exhibition of textiles, jewellery and hand crafted wooden furniture and puzzles. After having a quick look around the exhibition, June and I decided to go to the shops and have some lunch before starting to walk round as it was already past mid-day. There are two shops at Westonbirt, a general gift shop and a plant shop, we managed to spend some money in both of them, but were limited to only very small items as the size of the bus was somewhat restrictive as to what we could buy as there was no room for plants of any size.
Shopping and eating first turned out to be the best of plans as the weather was quite grim and it started to rain heavily again as we were going to have a bite to eat. Of course everyone and their brother also decided to have lunch then too. However, as soon as we finished eating the sun came out, just in time for the start of our walk.
We all gathered in front of the Information Centre to wait for the guide to arrive. The guide was an expert on the history of the site and the family who had started it, she claimed she was not a tree expert. She took us on a particular route round the Acer collection; Westonbirt is well known for its Acer collection and the autumn colour. I took the opportunity to take my new camera bought for me by my husband for my last birthday. Here is a selection of the pictures I took. Just to give a flavour of the wonderful colours and the rare tree specimens that we saw.
I did lag behind a bit so I didn't really get the full benefit of the tour; but what I did hear was very interesting. There are wonderful vistas as well as groves and specimen trees to see. It all looks remarkably natural, but of course most trees have actually been planted. There is a continuing replanting programme and new trees are protected from wildlife by protective fencing, detracting to some extent from the appearance, but obviously necessary for the preservation of the specimen.
After the guided tour I took myself off to see a bit more of this vast collection, I took a stroll round the native trees; I came across a herd of cows that were roaming freely in this area. and I came across this pretty cottage in the grounds. I just had time to have a piece of delicious lemon cake and a cup of coffee before it was time to meet back at the coach at 16:30, and the rain started again just in time for the trip home.
We were extremely fortunate with the timing of the window in the weather; it could have been a very different day otherwise.
It would be lovely to go again in spring. Maybe we can get Valerie to organise another trip but with a larger coach next time.
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