With the arrival of fresh top soil from Bourne Amenities last week, work has ensued filling the new raised beds in preparation for planting out seedlings.
The next work party will be on Saturday 6th August from 12pm til 3pm. Please come along to help finish the beds and begin planting out seedlings. We will be collecting some surplus plants from the Greenhouse Group at Alexandra Park.
If anyone has any spare plants, feel free to bring them along! We also need wheel barrows, use of a strimmer (we have no mains electricity…) and plenty of elbow grease!
We will also be having a conversation about what we’ve achieved so far and future plans.
Down at the community garden we’ve uncovered a wealth of plants with culinary and medicinal uses.
Here’s Naomi, a garden volunteer, trying out the Rosy Garlic. The bulbils are like miniature Red Onions and are wrapped in a thin papery skin that peels away. It’s not uncommon to find it growing in the wild on the south coast, in rough or cultivated ground.
Our volunteers have taken some home to put in a vase or have a try at cooking with it.
Geoff Dann (fungi and foraging expert) from Transition Town Hastings features in a short documentary by Sadie Scarlett Smith submitted for her BA in Multimedia Broadcast Journalism final project. See Geoff at 7:12 mins into the film!
Last weekend, after making use of the donated compost from Gardenscape Direct volunteers enjoyed a cup of tea with doughnuts at Southwater Community Centre. They met a delightful Shiatzu practitioner who helped carry buckets of water out and pour it over the plants too! They also cleared some of the rubbish near the storeroom and planted wild flower seeds. See the gallery below.
Several committee members recently met with the Station manager, Natalie Leister. She is looking into supplying various items including high viz jackets, ID badges for volunteers, a promotional poster for the platform we can update regularly and a bin for the north platform (to encourage people not to litter). They are also planning to refurbish the buildings on the south platform in the near future.
They are also likely to give the go ahead for a mosaic on the wall to the left of the station entrance – more on that soon!
Tea break at Southwater Centre
Sherry and Kathy dug this front patch over and planted wildflower seeds!
Fruit trees donated by Keeper’s Nursery were planted last weekend at the community garden. Newly planted and young trees require frequent watering and we’ve been able to take a supply from the Southwater Community Centre. We’re really pleased to have support from the centre, although we hope to be installing water butts and collecting run off from a gulley on the slope near the tunnel.
We are very excited to report that we have a plan for the community garden spaces next to the north platform at Warrior Square Station.
One of our members, Julia Hilton, an artist and landscape designer has developed the plan which includes a small orchard, fruit bushes, flowers, herbs and vegetables.
With the arrival of fresh top soil from Bourne Amenities last week, work has ensued filling the new raised beds in preparation for planting out seedlings.
