COMMUNITY GARDEN

Orchard and allotment section.

In April the Community Garden volunteers constructed the garden shed. It came as flat pack with instruction. Despite the instructions and a few missing parts, the shed is now erected, watertight and secure.

We have created a makeshift rainwater collection system . When it rains properly, we should be able to see how well it works.

Twelve min=allotment raised beds were also installed and are gradually being adopted. They are intended for edible annual produce. We are fully eco-friendly. No pesticides, fungicide herbicides or any  artificial chemical control of the land. There are three large compost heaps where we source our compost.

Harvests of tomatoes peppers and leeks look good and we are planning the autumn plantings.

The surrounding orchard has been surprisingly and delightfully productive. We(and the birds) had lovely sweet cherries, followed by an abundant crop of apricots. Who knew we had inherited an apricot tree! Some of the plums had pink plum moth  so we will put up pheromone traps next year. Despite the losses we had a reasonable crop.

The drought has been difficult in the orchard, causing the mulberry to drop its fruit early and the quince to have a very meagre crop.

The apple tree is very small but did produce  a creditable harvest of very tasty apples.

Wild flower meadow,

Sadly, due to mis-communication, the wild flower meadow was mown in June, so nowild flowers this year. Try again next season.

Herb garden.

The plot was well prepared for this dry weather. Volunteers removed weeds, laid cardboard to suppress regrowth and heavily mulched with wood chip. Rosemary, thyme, sage. chives , basil and bay were planted, and all, apart from the bay tree have survived and are growing well. The basil , as an annual is likely to die back soon, but we will plant again next year.

Soft fruit garden

Here we had major setbacks. The lack of water caused all the plants to suffer. The raspberries fruited early, probably from stress and the fruit was small and hard. The blackcurrants’ are looking weak and the rhubarb is still tiny..

We need to rethink this area as it is likely that long dry summers will become the norm.

The future

Our volunteer numbers fluctuate. We would like to encourage more people to join us and enjoy the harvests.

A gardening club for the students of NCA is planned, with several raised beds allocated in the allotment section.

Our attempts at creating a dead hedge to encourage wildlife were put on hold as the ground was too hard to dig holes for the supports. It will be a winter project.

B&Q have offered some labouring help and some materials. A proper rain water collection may now be possible

Later this month we will hold an apple pressing event, so look out for the date

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