The Joys of Spring

Today felt like an apology for Monday and Tuesday. The clouds and the chill disappeared, to be replaced by sunshine and the first fingers of warmth. Tracey got the best treat, as she opened up and found the allotment full of blue tits and a vole, sitting grooming by the fruit cage, did a brilliant double take and jumped into the hedge. Chris - your hard work, adding cover to the base of the dead-hedge, is already appreciated by at least one resident!

We were also delighted to see that the rhubarb is showing. The Timperley early is doing just what it said on the tin, and already showing leaves, whilst the other 2 are also conforming - mid season now showing buds about to burst, whilst the late season variety is just showing a few points of pink in the ground.

Carrie set to on the herb bed, and quickly made a massive difference. She pointed out that the mint stalks would be great for fire-lighting if we let them dry a bit more, so we baled them and put them in the polytunnel, which now smells amazing. We are looking forward to some fragrant fires!

Pete went on to process more of the branches from the willow we pollarded. The space he's now cleared is destined to be used for an exciting new area which will house a key-hole bed. These are popular in Africa, as they compost in situ and help keep moisture in the soil. If you fancy making one, have a look at this great "how to" resource. We are also going to add some "tip taps" to the site to help with hand-washing. All these ideas come from a great charity called Send A Cow which helps farmers in many African countries.

Whilst all this was going on, we had visitors. A group of folk from Gedling came along to see how we run Windmill. They will be taking their ideas back to use on their own community gardens in that area, and Tracey will be helping them to get the work planned and carried out. This is all due to the Notts Nosh project working with Gedling Homes to get the ball rolling. It should be fun, and we hope we can update you on how it's going soon.

A Valentine from Nature - Spring on Thursday!

Wow! Just when we'd got used to 3 extra layers and cold fingers, the weather turns overnight! Spring suddenly showed itself today (though we hear it might nip off for a bit of a rest again at the end of next week). The great thing about having a bit of warmth is that you can suddenly get loads done because the ground is soft and your fingers sometimes even do the things you want them to!

Our aims for the session were - mulch raspberries and fruit trees, use cleared grasses to thicken up the dead-hedge along the perimeter, plant some seeds, prick out sweet pea seedlings and finally get to grips with one of the compost bins that was the "victim of a misunderstanding". 

Mulching the rasps was actually a pretty quick job, as Jade, Tracey and Chris all set to. It now looks much neater, and with any luck, the mulch will keep back the easy weeds, so we can just concentrate on the deep rooted ones.

Jade gets stuck in.

Next on the list was a little treat for the local wildlife. When we started here, we created "dead hedges" around the perimeterwhich are formed from cleared branches and twigs. These create instant cover for wildlife and allowed us to plant various climbers and brambles to run through them. Obviously, over time the finer twigs break off, so there are fewer nooks and crannies for beasties to shelter in, but this is easily fixed when you have to clear any dead vegetation, so that's what we did. The dead grass thickened up the hedge a treat. 

Chris moves cleared grasses into the dead hedge.

Whilst Chris got on with that job, Jade mulched around our fruit trees. It's a great way to help the trees out by reducing the grass competition, but keeping up the moisture under the tree. You need to make it like a donut though. Mulch touching the bark means the tree will either rot at the base of the trunk, or start to make roots into it which then die as the weather gets warmer, so you need to leave a gap in the middle.

Jade creates the perfect donut mulch

Whilst all this was going on, Jo mastered the art of pricking out sweet peas. She did sterling work, potting up the seedlings with great care, and only 1 broken root (because it had invaded the seed tray and tied itself in a knot). Hopefully we are now assured of lots of lovely towers of scented blooms in Summer.

Jo proves she's a quick learner!

The final job, which well went beyond the call of duty, was bravely tackled by Chris with a little help from Tracey. A while back, we had a group of helpers who didn't realise that we had a "spare" compost bin waiting to have the un-composted contents of the other heaps turned into it. They just saw a bin, and started to fill it, which wouldn't have mattered too much, but whilst it was waiting for its role, we had stored our plastic off-cuts and tarpaulins in it. The intrepid duo managed to unpick the resulting mess, even retrieving the plastic and using it to create some soil-warming covers on the beds we will be planting up first. They discovered the remaining debris was infested with bind-weed roots, so they removed the bin and turned the heap out before covering it with black plastic to heat up. Hopefully that now puts the composting system back on track.

Chris tames the compost monster...

We should also thank the DISO crew who turned up just before the snow yesterday and put in 40 new raspberry canes for us. They must have worked like the wind to get it done before the weather turned. We hope they will be able to come and help us with quite a few other projects this year, so it bodes well for us keeping on top of a lot of those niggly jobs that often get sacrificed to keep the rest working. 

Winter on Wednesday

What a week! We went from Winter on Wednesday to warm Spring on Thursday - we hope the wildlife isn't as confused as we are!

We decided to go ahead with the Wednesday session, but moved it to the Groundwork because there was a fun little job to do there, and, more importantly, an inside space with heating so we could thaw out! When you look at the photos, we hope you'll realise that we weren't being too namby pamby even so...

Pete and Carrie are hardy souls, so they joined Tracey despite the weather, but sensibly wearing LOTS off layers. We were aiming to revamp the planters outside the Groundwork office. These are designed to show that an ornamental display can provide colour, wildlife interest and food for humans. Each one has a clematis and a lavender to attract bees and butterflies, and they also provide some spinach and red chard to eat for those who know where to look.

Pete and Carrie make a start on tidying up the first planter

We added primulas for colour and more wildlife interest, as well as tulips and forgetmenots which will provide a nice surprise later on.

Almost finished the second planter!

I have to say, this was the first time we've ever planted something and not been able to work out how good the planting looked because it was so covered in snow by the time we had finished! Well done all!

Just in case you don't believe us about the snow...