Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog September 2023
/
Regular readers of our Blog will know there’s never a dull moment in the Museum Walled Garden, and I can’t resist starting with this wonderful, fun-filled photo of Nicola and Rosie at morning tea break!
Supporter and gardener Jane Kilpatrick had spotted a gadget to ease our knees when weeding…a One-Leg stool! The other two legs needed to balance are your own…
Absolutely brilliant once you get the hang of it!
Jane’s also kindly donated a sundial, an excellent link to the Museum gallery displays on the theme of Time. Here’s Geoff, setting the dial to BST (we shall leave it permanently on summertime).
Next…hedgehogs news!
Annie Parfitt, founder of the local Help a Hedgehog Hospital, came to see us after visitors had reported spotting hedgehogs in the garden during daytime.
Annie had realised the potential of the Garden as safe haven for the creatures in the very early days of the walled garden project. Hedgehogs are happy here! She rehomes some of the hedgehogs each year to ensure the food supply remains plentiful and that the population does not become too in-bred.
The first photograph below is from 2017 when our first adult Hedgehog arrived. This year, new parents arrived in May and in September we found two Hoglets, a brother and sister.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Garden, some unwelcome creatures have arrived…Box Moth Caterpillar.
Nicola has spent the last couple of years carefully feeding the Box, to keep it robust and healthy. Unlike many gardens we have successfully avoided Box Blight… only to find these green critters munching through her prized plants.
Gardener reinforcements stepped in to try to find and remove the caterpillars, with Nicola leading the way… We are currently at the end of the ‘season’ and hope that vigilance and removal will ‘hold’ the situation for the time being. However like gardeners across the nation we now have to consider our options for dealing with the problem which fit with our organic principles. We are also looking at alternatives for replacing or supplementing the box should that be necessary. Hopefully we will have a well researched plan of campaign in place for next year.
But, we’ve had other little jobs to do, like cutting the meadow…and weeding…..
