The ups and downs of community gardening

Ok I'm sat down enjoying a cup of tea and a digestive biscuit desperately trying to think of the words to describe my feelings about the events of the morning.
First off we had a meeting at the Gatherums tiding up the beds and planting out some seedlings and enjoyed the splash of colour at the herb garden created by the early sowing of the Grow Wild seed kit
that we got from the RHS.

The pollinators were loving the variety of flowers that had appeared in the last two weeks and we were rightly proud of our efforts to help improve bio-diversity in our town.




Ok all well and good and spirits were high until we reached the Charles St garden and discovered to our horror that the contractor
had been instructed to obliterate the wild flower bed that we had sown and planted in December 2012. Sadly we weren't there in time to try and help save some of the wide variety of pollinator friendly plants that were in there.

They left behind the cans & bottles for the volunteers to collect

Bizarrely the only plant they left is a cultivated shrub which I doubt is much use to the pollinators, but on the plus side it looks nice and isn't prickly

A species under threat gets evicted..because things must be tidied up 

From what I can gather from a brief conversation with Cllr Sarah Dodds, ELDC had a walk round and decided to weed the area because of complaints from residents.

We didn't have any sign up to suggest this was being left wild for environmental reasons so no-one thought to ask before clearing it up,

I'm going to put a sign up now to explain what has happened, to all the passers by that I know have enjoyed the bed over the last couple of years.

Apparently ELDC are going to turf it over.

Spreading the good stuff!

We gave the raised beds at the community gardens of the Gatherums and Charles St a fresh layer of compost today ready to feed a fresh crop of vegetables.

This annual "top up" was made extra special by the use of our own Louth made community compost!

We put over 80kg of mature, but un-sieved 6 month old compost on the beds. It looks full of goodness and will add structure and moisture retention to the existing beds...if I was a vegetable, I would be very happy to be sat in it :)

If you're in the area pop in and have a look!

Thank you

I went on a Community Garden trail today and wanted to say thank you for all the different designs and ideas. I really enjoyed pottering in The Gatherums and re experiencing the great casual conversations as people pass.
I heard a little boy saying to another" Don't tread on the flowers." How good is that?
Charles Street:  Where is the water supply? There are so many plants and seeds growing there and the wild flowers have labels. Then to Spout Yard where water is plentiful and seeds are growing in the little "no dig" bed.
Loved it thank you

Going's on in the gardens

Cabbages in the Gatherums

View from the top of the Charles St garden

Wildflowers in the bottom bed at Charles St

The herb bed at the Gatherums being weeded

 Wilderness at Charles St..not being weeded!

Spout yard planter

This is the newly refurbished planter at Spout Yard park, we've recycled compost bags to

form the two little beds on either side of the runner bean tub. The bags are suspended between the frame of the planter with thumb tacks, this mean less compost  and a lighter planter, just hope no one sticks a fork into them! We've planted spring onion, chioggia beetroot, small turnips and corn salad.

After a long cold winter we're gearing up to transform the growing spaces around Louth into fine displays of vegetables and fruit. If you have any spare seedlings that you'd like to plant out into one of spaces then please get in touch.

Thanks

James 

Google Earth image of the gardens currently located around Louth

If you go down to the garden today....you're sure of a big surprise!

Say hello to the latest contribution to the garden from the Kevi's students!

Tap it, unwrap it!

Giant Iced Doughnut!