We enjoyed a wonderful session at Windmill today, as we were joined by a group of hard working and eager volunteers from E.ON. Any community garden gets a build up of jobs that it doesn't have enough time or people to do, and team days like this make a huge difference to us, so we were delighted to host them.
The main aim of the day was to get 2 of our high raised beds replaced. These beds have done us great service over the years, but their wood has eventually succumbed to rot, and they were gradually falling to bits. The work team carefully dismantled them, then set to work rebuilding with fresh timber, under the expert eye of Alan Withington who joined us for the day.
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| Removing the old wood |
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| Preparing the edge of the bed to allow the bed to be set level |
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| Alan Withington - our expert bed-maker |
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| Replacing the wood around the soil left in place |
The rest of the team set about weeding our paths and replacing the wood-chip surface. They did a fabulously thorough job, which made a huge difference to the appearance of the place.
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| E.ON's wonder-weeders in action |
Another group sanded down and repainted the benches around our fire pit, so visitor can be reassured that they will continue to have a comfortable, non-splintery seat when they visit.
Our regular volunteers also got down to work and re-organised our plant nursery area, as well as planting out sweet peas and weeding our growing crops.
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| Regular volunteers weeding our onion bed. |
Volunteers Shanaz and Omar did us proud with a wonderful lunch of dhal, rice, pakoras and chutney, alongside a delicious pudding, which was much enjoyed by the willing workers.
Huge thanks to everyone at E.ON for all your hard work, and to Audrey who stood in for Tracey for the day, as she managed to break her leg when she was on holiday.
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| One of the newly finished high raised beds |
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| Paths weeded and re-bark chipped |
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Benches now smooth and back to a lovely blue with
an environmentally friendly wood stain |
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| The slabbed path in the background - not a weed in sight! |
