Walled Garden Volunteers' Blog June 2024

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After all the excitement of May and the irises, for June we return to the nitty-gritty! In other words, weeding, digging, and trying to keep order!

An abundance of plants!

So, as some of our number go off on hols, the rest of us are occupied in some Very Important Tasks.

 First, there’s the hedge to keep looking ‘sharp’, not to mention the edges of borders… and the lawn needs cutting. We are lucky that Sarah’s mum has donated her battery-powered lawnmower- no more trailing leads, making the job a lot safer.

It’s no accident that the water in the dipping pond is crystal clear: Geoff’s first task every gardening visit is to check the pond (pictured below_, remove any debris on the surface and make sure the daphnia are doing their job. Only pond-skaters and water-boatmen allowed in here!

Then it’s time for Geoff to plant the dahlias again, pictured below in their summer bed:

Sarah and Helen have prepared the soil and have planted the summer veg: - runner beans, courgettes, pumpkins, squashes…. Sarah says the strict rules we have (Sarah’s!) on making our own compost are paying off, and the earth is rich and lovely!

The peas and broad beans look very good indeed, in the raised beds – we’ve passed congratulatory visitor comments on to the ‘veg team’. We’ve had to fence off the back of the volunteer shed to protect a small iris bed from being trampled.

But not everything has been plain sailing this June: The white wisteria had to be propped up after it tore from its wiring in gusty winds; and we found sawfly larvae happily eating all the Solomon’s Seal last Wednesday! (Ugh!)  (P.S. For those regular blog readers - we are keeping quiet about the Box (Shhh!) Nicola may have saved it! Read the story in our October/November blog).

 Meanwhile, the meadow, so glorious and so easy at this time of year, is full of bees and insects. And the leaning apple tree you may have noticed when you came in, is now standing up nicely again, though without this year’s crop of apples.

Ahh! Time to sit at the Pavilion terrace and soak in the views. Where else could be better?