November 2020

The changing colours and temperatures show clearly in this new batch of photographs for October and early November. There was a sudden crop of fungi in the walled garden! and several small creatures are taking advantage of the quiet to come out and rush about.

Ruth uncovered a frog when weeding, our fearless robin flew out of the shed the other day when I went in, field mice zoom about and there is a little vole that scampers along the paths. (Maybe it's more than one.... so far it has moved too quickly to catch on camera.) Peter arrived to check  the hive, which is full of honey for the bees during winter, and he reported that we have happy bees. 

Harvesting continued with Sarah cooking up corn on the cob (well, the pieces the birds had left us) with parsley and butter - volunteering has several benefits! whilst Caroline planted cyclamen plants, donated by a Garden friend, under the hawthorn hedge. For weeks now everyone has been busy lifting and splitting large clumps, clearing overgrown bits, and the Holding Bay is filling up with rootlings and splits growing on for sale next year. One morning everyone was doing the Gardener's Bend at the same time - I think this is Helen but it could have been any of us.

At the start of November, when the schools had gone back, the gardeners had a RunAwayDay to explore Prinknash. It was pouring down back in Stroud but the weather there was bright and the visit pleased everyone. Then back to it.

There is still plenty to do, final weeding and mulching, and soon we'll start planting out bulbs.... watch out for more examples of the Gardener's Bend.

Susan valiantly offered to collect seeds for sale this year and could be found sitting outside the shed in the sunshine, stripping stems after they had dried off (there was an awful lot of white lavender this year...). She wrote this poem for us:

Seed Harvest
Stacked trays hold the drying bounty
Fingers run down stalks to detach dead heads
Multiple actions to empty seeds from pods
Squeezing, popping, scratching
And sieving to separate seeds from chaff
Transformed bounty emerges to store in marked envelopes
A snip at 50p, a wonder
For next year's growth

Marion H