It all started with an idea…
Back in February our newest volunteer, Agne, emailed to confirm that she had bought the two hay bales the group had talked about over lunch at the last permablitz garden work party.
Agne had mentioned that she’d read an article about growing pumpkin out of hay bales and wanted to give it a try in a bare patch of the forest garden plot.
She emailed me saying that when she could next get over to the garden in March she would begin putting down layers of newspapers against the weeds, then manure, then up to a foot of hay, 5 cm of compost and finish it with a layer of straw or woodchip.
This might sound familiar to any volunteers that helped us get the plot started with a “lasagne mulch” back in June 2018…
And so the experiment began
The next thing I knew, I had a new email from Agne with the picture on the right to show me the new mulch bed at the bottom of the forest garden plot.
You can see Agne’s pumpkin, courgette and chard seedlings sitting proudly as they were beginning to take root in the new patch too.
Every good story has a set back!
Who would’ve thought we’d have bad frosts in early May? Well, looking back, it may have been the hottest May on record but you will recall it started with some really harsh frosts.
If at first you don’t succeed…
A mindful exercise
Keeping active, working with nature
Uncovering a hidden larder
And so…
If you would like to be involved in our community garden at Westbury Arts Centre, please sign-up to our mailing list to be kept informed about our latest news and upcoming events.
Our garden work parties (“permablitzes”) will soon be back in the Events Diary for our volunteers to return to working together on garden tasks for a few hours before we sit down and have a social lunch.
We’re just in the process of finalising the social distancing rules with the Centre, so look out for news of us making these events a regular (limited capacity) thing over the summer. If you want to be on the first invitee list, or have any suggestions for when and how we do our future volunteer events like this, then please email [email protected]
The lockdown has meant that we’re a bit behind with jobs like weeding, making compost and building up our soil in the forest garden, so if you would like to pop by in your own time, as Agne has been doing, please knock on the front door to introduce yourself to the Care-Taker Manager, Frances, or you can arrange a time by emailing: [email protected]
Look forward to seeing you in the garden again soon!
