2008 Monthly Activity Blog
November and December 2008
Our students have been keeping busy throughout these Autumn months and have been digging up, and preparing leeks and celery. We have it on good authority that a wholesome leek and potato soup can be made with Erlas leeks. Here are some pictures of the students in the walled garden and in the greenhouse.
We have also been carrying out routine maintenance on the staging in the greenhouse, and this work is particularly enjoyed by Michael.
We received 20 tons of soil improver from the Waste Recycling Group at Gowy Landfill Site in Chester, that is produced by the green garden waste collected in the green bins as part of ‘Recycle with Michael’, Wrexham. This has kept all our volunteers busy as they barrow the soil into the gardens, so it will enrich the soil for next years produce. Here are some action pictures of the ‘barrow boys’.
One of the activities that Roy has been carrying out with his students is to build and erect bird boxes and bird feeding stations.
With funding from Breathing Places, a Big Lottery Fund, we have purchased a miniature camera, and this has been assembled to view the activities of birds feeding on peanuts. Next year, we will be able to show some selected recordings of the birds on our web-site, so more people can enjoy our visiting feathered friends.
The recent cold spell of weather at the end of the year shows the surrounding wooded area in a new light. Here are some photos of our beautiful surroundings.
Our volunteers continue to prepare adjacent walls for a major restoration programme starting next April, thanks to funding from the Rural Development Plan for Wales. Here is a piece of ‘Art work’ created near the 'bluebell wood'.
September and October 2008
The harvest months of September and October have yielded lots of fresh vegetables, and we are particularly proud of the size of some of the parsnips and carrots.
We have had some disappointments, however, when, over a particularly warm weekend in early September, all our cabbages and sprouts were decimated by the cabbage white caterpillar, and had to be removed and composted. We will have to spray with soapy water at the right time next year, as we do not use insecticides at our project.
We welcomed back Neil and Roy from the Welsh College of Horticulture in early September, and 8 students are enrolled each day for computer training with Neil and for woodworking and conservation skills with Roy.
Our students are always keen to talk about some of their achievements outside of the project, and Dave and Steve are proudly displaying medals they have won in sporting events.
In late October, we had some unseasonably cold weather, and as frost was forecast, our students were kept busy bringing in 60 pumpkins, of various sizes, in the snow! The biggest pumpkin was 7 kg in weight.
Much work has been carried out on preparing the Groundwork walls for the renovation project, and here you can see the bricks being carefully removed, and cleaned.
July and August 2008
Our students have seen the results of all their hard work in these 2 summer months, and everyone has been able to sample freshly cropped potatoes, carrots, cabbage, cauliflowers, lettuce, kohl rabi, fennel, courgettes, broad, French and runner beans, peas, tomatoes and blackcurrants. You can see some pictures of the vegetables growing in the garden in August.
Summer 2008 Vegetables and A keen consumer of our lovely fresh vegetables
We also heard that the project was successful in securing funding from The European Agricultural Funding for Rural Development: Europe investing in Rural Areas (EAFRD), for the construction of a nature trail, reinstating further areas of garden walls, and creating a sensory garden; the link to the EU’s Commission Rural Development page is http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rurdev
We have also been successful in obtaining funding from Environment Wales for trialling a mushroom house in one of the bothy buildings; for erecting a weather station; for erecting substantial staging in the hardening off area, and for weather-proofing the teaching area in the adjacent kitchen garden.
There will be lots of projects for our students to participate in when the planting and growing season slows down and the autumn and winter months approach, but lets hang onto the summer warmth for as long as we can!
June 2008
The gardens continue to flourish, and we have cropped our first early potatoes, along with broad beans, peas, cabbage, turnip, lettuce, courgettes, blackcurrants and gooseberries.
The students (and staff) were treated to 2 outings this month.
On Wednesday 11th June, a party of 34 travelled to Croxteth Hall in Liverpool, to visit the Victorian Walled Garden run by Head Gardener, Don Billington, who made us feel very welcome. We visited an authentic Victorian Mushroom House, in which we were particularly interested, as we hope to establish a mushroom house in a range of ‘Bothy’ buildings, depending on funding from Environment Wales. Here are some pictures of the students on their visit. Image 1 Image 2 Image 3
The second outing was to The Welsh College of Horticulture on 19th June, when 10 students received their OCN Entry Level in ‘Introduction to Horticulture’, and 6 students received their OCN Entry Level in Computers. Janice Graham was proud to be awarded a voucher for her achievement as the ‘Student who has made the most progress’.
We were also pleased to hear that we were successful in our Bid to ‘Breathing Spaces’ from The Big Lottery Fund. The Charity received £9995 for installing bird and bat boxes, with incorporated surveillance cameras, bat detectors, bird feeders and a hide
Here you can see a picture of a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, which we hope to entice back into the gardens.
May 2008
Everyone is busy in the garden, keeping on top of the weeds, which are growing nearly as well as the cabbage, broccoli, leeks, runner beans and rhubarb which have been planted.
The irrigation in the greenhouse has finally been completed, and the tomatoes, cucumbers and plants on the staging are assured of being irrigated when the hotter weekends arrive.
The mulberry tree, which was blown over in June last year, is starting to sprout again, showing that these majestic and rare trees ‘relax in a reclined position in their old age.’ Here is a picture of this fine tree.
A small group of our students, with their friends and parents, were invited to a celebration of Digital Stories, as part of the Likely Stories Project, run by Yale College of Wrexham. We were able to watch our own digital stories, called ‘Emmas Story’, and ‘We love our Mulberry Tree’, along with some other very moving and interesting stories from other people in the community of Wrexham.
Our students have also taken part in a national survey run by The Natural History Museum. With the expert guidance from Neil, the Tutor from The Welsh College of Horticulture, we have identified a range of all species of Bluebells. We found native, hybrid and Spanish Bluebells growing around the gardens and in the woodland areas.
The beautiful foxgloves are coming out now, as we try and leave wild flowers to grow in their natural environment.
April 2008
The warmer weather has at last arrived apart from some snow and hailstones falling at the beginning of the month and you can see the amount of hail that fell on the greenhouse in 30 minutes on the 8th April.
The frogs in the pond are growing larger, and you can see one of them which was returned to its home very shortly afterwards the picture was taken.
More vegetables have been planted, including about 30 kg first early potatoes and 15kg of main crop potatoes. Strawberry plants have been planted outside, and 40 strawberry plants ‘won’ in a competition in the ‘Grow It’ magazine were potted up and put into cold frames.
The fruit trees are now planted against the south, east and north facing walls of the garden, as well as 15 blueberry bushes.
Shrubs and perennials have been planted in one of the central beds of the gardens.
Other vegetables, including cabbage, broccoli, turnips, lettuce and calebrese have also been planted.
We have also had specially cast coping stones placed on top of the northern perimeter walls, which means all the boundary walls are weather proof, and cannot be attacked by frost.
Bluebells are now carpeting the slopes of the woodland area, and a rabbit proof enclosure built just outside the walls, is almost finished.
Final touches are being made to an automatic irrigation system in the greenhouse, and various taps and other plumbing essentials are enabling the irrigation of the gardens to be completed.
March 2008
Spring is definitely arriving in the gardens.
The frogspawn that has been in the pond is now changing into little tadpoles.
The sun has been shining in the daytime, bringing the temperature in the greenhouse up to a maximum of 35 C, but down to a minimum of 4 C.
There are lots of seeds of vegetables and flowers that have been planted, and cuttings of the black mulberry put into soil, sand and into water to try and determine the optimum conditions for us to grow cuttings from the mulberry tree.
Rows of broad beans, peas, cabbage, leaf beet and turnips planted over the last couple of weeks outside, after ‘spending time’ in the cold frames, are also growing.
The new potatoes are chitting well in the bothys, but we will wait for a week or two, to ensure the harsh frosts have passed, before planting them into recently manured ground.
We have also received 22 fruit trees and 15 blueberry bushes, which we will be planting up against the south and west facing walls of the garden. These were received on Monday, bought using funding from ‘Environment Wales’. The fruit trees include figs, a nectarine, a peach, 2 cherries, 2 pears, 12 apples, 2 Victorian plums, and a crab apple tree. We also have 2 grape vines donated from a gentleman in Maghull.
There is a set of 6 composting bays being constructed from funding from the O2 Community fund, along the outside facing walls of the northern perimeter walls. We have also bought a wormery with this money, and you can see one of our students putting some suitable scraps in for the worms to feed on.