Come and see our lovely gardens and meet some of the volunteers. It’s not a planting day as such but more of a ‘fixing the fixtures’ afternoon. [Weather permitting]

We have a range of activities suitable for all energy levels including a bit of heavy lifting (moving our rather migratory tables to a dedicated spot and securing them) and some much lighter lifting (bringing of tea, taking of photographs), with some middle of the range energy levels needed for fence-mending. Or you can just come and chat (and please bring any spare secateurs and mallets).

Jo

Pic credit: Broken fence / Picnic table

We shall not actually be doing any planting on this planting day (Saturday 26 January 2019  2-4pm), but there is serious work to be done, some of which needs some serious muscle: 

• Moving the tables further up the gardens and securing them in place to deter vandalism.  The tables tend to migrate towards the lower end of the garden, where they are out of sight and where they and the surrounding trees, walls etc are often vandalised.  We need several strong helpers to bring each of them back into the light and to anchor them securely
• Building temporary willow barriers to protect the bulbs that we planted last time.  Last year’s barriers were too flimsy.  We have a new design to try out, but it will take some patience and dexterity.

In addition, there are the perennial tasks:

• Restoring the rope and post barriers around the shrub beds, and
• Trimming and ‘weaving’ the beech hedge.  The hedge needs a regular haircut to stop it getting too tall, and the sideways growing branches need to be bent back into the main hedge and secured by ‘weaving’ them together with other branches.  This thickens the hedge and makes it less affected by the loss of individual plants.

Please come to help, or just to support.

Bring scissors and secateurs (for the willow barriers), secateurs or a longer trimmer (for the beech hedge), and/or a mallet (to reposition the posts of the rope and post barriers), biscuits and muffins (for support).

Mark Barnes
for the Friends