Bees

July 16, 2015 ~ lynnsrose

Flowers in the garden have been attracting pollinators, not only in the prairie garden:

Shed storage box seats

July 3, 2015July 3, 2015 ~ adamharper1990

On Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th June, Bruce and Adam finished making the box seats which are now inside the shed ready to store things in and for sitting on!

The photo below shows what they look like. The box seats are made from 80% reclaimed wood, which we were given by a local building site in Petersfield in 2014 and would have otherwise been thrown away in a skip.

Stall at South Downs Green Fair

May 10, 2015 ~ lynnsrose

We took £77 and talked to lots of people at this afternoon’s Green Fair. Thanks to all involved.

Young & Old

May 10, 2015May 10, 2015 ~ lynnsrose

On 28 April, we had a visit from a local brownie group

they’ll be coming regularly as part of their ‘gardener’ badge.

We also have older members too:

helen sowing sweetcorn — Helen sowing sweetcorn

Willow workshop, Sunday 19 April

April 20, 2015 ~ lynnsrose

On Sunday, a dozen of us came to a willow workshop led by Hilary of Hangers Garden Group. She brought hazel boughs, home grown willow, and commercially grown willow wands from Somerset for us to use.

At this time of year, the wands are very pliable, and can be made more so by working them between your thumbs. The basic building block is a hoop made by curving a wand back on itself and then winding the end round and round. This can then be used to stabilise hazel rods, and the whole strengthened by weaving more wands between the rods

Trying out what we've been told — Trying out what we’ve been told

adding more willow wands to give strength

Briony makes a willow ball by combining hoops

Sue & Lynn weaving a bean support near the gate

By the end of the afternoon we had a number of willow structures for future use

Bike stands

April 20, 2015 ~ lynnsrose

We’ve now taken delivery of some new bike stands, courtesy of S Downs National Park. They are designed as planters, with the weight of the soil holding the bikes steady

One of our new bike racks, courtesy of SDNP. They don't need to be cemented in: instead you plant things in the middle — One of our new bike racks, courtesy of SDNP. They don’t need to be cemented in: instead you plant things in the middle

They were tried out on Sunday at the willow workshop for the first time

Spring blossom

April 20, 2015 ~ lynnsrose

Merryweather Damson in blossom in the orchard

Purple sprouting broccoli producing flower heads ready for harvest

Red currant blossom - not showy but hit of redcurrants to come... — Red currant blossom – not showy but hit of redcurrants to come…

Big Dig 2015

March 25, 2015 ~ lynnsrose

On Saturday 21 March, we took part in Big Dig 2015. On a cold grey day we had a steady stream of visitors and made a start on some key garden projects with their help.

putting well rotted horse manure round the gooseberries to feed them and suppress weeds

and adding rotted horse manure as a mulch

Turing over an extra strip of turf to make room for growth

Sue shows a girl how to plant seed potatoes

Old and new gardeners gathering at the start of the Big Dig

Snowy garden

January 31, 2015January 31, 2015 ~ lynnsrose ~ Leave a comment

Some images from early Saturday:

Pansies flowering in the boot by the gate

Sunrise over the garden from the AEAA carpark

Wassailing the orchard 17 January

January 17, 2015January 17, 2015 ~ lynnsrose ~ 1 Comment

Today is the old date of twelfth night, the traditional date for wassailing orchards and tending to the trees. Following on from our event last year, we invited the Petersfield Community Choir to come and sing to the trees in our orchard area.