A Sad day at Windmill

Windmill Commnity Gardens mean a lot to us, and we love being there, but today was a sad one because it was the funeral of Paula, a great friend of the Gardens. Last year, whilst we were waiting for the Climate Friendly Gardens project funding to come through, Paula helped Ellis and Dan to keep things ticking over at Windmill. She was always full of energy and enthusiasm, and we were delighted to welcome her back to the Gardens only a few weeks ago at our celebration event. Paula wasn't one for sadness, so we let off a few party poppers that we'd been given and said some words then cut some of the red and yellow sunflowers she'd been promised on her last visit to give to her daughter Mikayla.




In memory of Paula Dixon, our dear friend and colleague


There is a plan to put a bench in the garden in memory of Paula, so we'll let you know when it is installed.

Of course, harvesting has to continue, and the crops keep coming, so we were kept busy. We had to harvest yet more plums and damsons, to prevent the trees from loosing even more branches. These fruit should be perfectly ripe by next week, but we can still make some great jam with what we've picked today.

Ellis with a large collection of onions from one of the beds

We also got lots of french beans, spinach, callaloo, runner beans, lettuce, tomatoes and blackberries, as well as picking the main onion crop, which we hung out to dry in the polytunnel.

Lisa picks some yellow French beans

The Brandywine tomatoes are now getting massive, so we made little hammocks for some of them and shored up the rest  with string, also re-inforcing the current top support string to spread the load.


 

Ray tends to the tomato plants



Brandywine tomatoes reinforced with netting

Helen waters one of the vegetable beds

We are also aware that, fox partying aside, we might be harvesting the sweetcorn next week, which will be a lovely treat. If we get it right, it will only take 10 minutes from harvesting to eating, so it should taste amazing.