22nd June 2016 Mowing the Meadow

Finally, we cut the grass! And we discovered a garden underneath our natural meadow. While the mowing was an adults only job, the following day we had another visit from the Autism Specialist School, who brought the willing helpers that we needed. We had a super productive day, one team were raking up all of the cut grass, another team cut the thistles and long grass by the fence and around the raised beds.

The wheelbarrow team were back in force and filled up the 3rd raised bed, which this year is going to be another "Edible" bed, as we will need to collect up plants for a Smell bed next year. We had 2 Pumpkin plants waiting, so they went straight in to get growing.

The children who enjoy the more creative tasks did some stamping and sponge painting to finish off their decorated pots

 And lastly in the sensory garden, the bird table had a makeover, with a quick coat of paint.

The sensory beds

As I promised last week, this is what all of the wheelbarrow-ing last week was about.The lads who helped me filling up the raised beds were full of enthusiasm, even this week, It was great to see them working together to get the barrows loaded. Pushing heavy wheelbarrows is a great activity for getting proprioceptive feedback.

This first bed, which we filled last week is the "Tasting" bed, It is all about things which you can eat. So at the moment, we have planted herbs, strawberries, raspberries, broad beans, wild strawberries and a courgette plant.

This is the bed we filled this week, the "Seeing" bed. To start off with we have planted Day Lilies, Crocosmia Lucifer, Columbines and Aliums. These are all quite tall, eye catching plants, and in the future we would like to add other contrasting, colourful plants.

The next beds will be the Smelling and the Touching beds. If you have any plants that you would like to donate to the garden, or allotment, please get in touch, as there will be a home for everything somewhere.

Many Hands Make Light Work

8th June 2016

We had a visit today from the Autism Specialist School group, which means, many eager hands looking for jobs to do. Just what we need in the garden! There are plenty of projects to do.These are hanging baskets which are being filled with different nesting materials; mosses, twigs, animal fur and dried grass. We hope that the birds will visit these to gather materials for their nests.

This is a simple feeder for butterflies or birds, who need a drink in this hot weather

And these pots were painted by the students, to make a colourful addition to our planting displays. Painting is a popular activity with this group, our cable reel table is also getting a makeover!

A group of the students were also very busy with the wheelbarrows this week, helping us to fill up the raised beds with manure, so that we will be able to planting them, but more about that next week. 

Meanwhile on the allotment......

Our first strawberries are ready,

The potatoes are growing really quickly, these needed to be earthed up, to have the soil pulled up around the stems, to that the developing potatoes under the ground don't turn green from the sunlight.

 The raspberries are developing nicely....

And the gooseberries are coming on well too.

Along with the blackberries that are growing along the hedge it looks like there will be plenty of fruit coming from the allotment this year.

Who's hiding by the Bug Hotel?

 25th May 2016

Look who was hiding in the garden today!!

A nice big toad, who was in a box of broken crocks, he was a bit shy.

It was very close to the pond and the area is very overgrown with long grass so he may well have other friends living nearby.

The broken crocks (pieces of terracotta pots) go into the bug hotel to provide lots of different habitats for bugs and insects, which are good for the garden, and interesting to look at.

These sunflowers were started off indoors by K. Now they have grown tall, they need to go out into a larger pot. K enjoyed getting the pot ready and settling the sunflowers into their new pot.




She was also very happy to see the toad, as she loves wildlife, and after I was brave enough to pick it up for her to hold, I was rewarded with these:

A little sprig of buttercups. It's a touching thing to be given a gift by K, even if I did have to touch a toad!

The grass in the sensory garden is growing  and growing, and the raised beds are getting lost. The turf in the beds has been dug and turned upside-down, which should mean the grass dies off and composts.

Now all the beds need is a good thick layer of compost or manure and they will be ready to plant up.

Things are growing!

Wednesday 18th May

Dryer weather today, so we were back on the allotment, and look.... !

< The peas that J planted a few weeks ago are up, and looking really healthy

The potatoes that went in a couple of weeks ago are sprouting through as well. >

 And the current bushes that were planted in our first week this year, with S's help have got fruit growing on them. It's starting to look like we will have a bit of a crop this year.

A  large amount of energy this week was put in by S and his support workers, into digging this hole. (It's bigger than it looks) We are going to be having an ornamental cherry tree, which is being rehomed, and needed a special new place to live. While it might not fruit, it will attract helpful pollinating insects to the allotment, who we will need to help the rest of our fruiting plants along. It will add some shade to the top end of the allotment, which is a lovely place to sit and eat lunch, and admire the view.

You don't have to be 'working' in the garden to enjoy the benefits, even just being outside with views of nature can help to reduce your stress levels, and relieve mental tiredness. Perfect!

Summer in Wales

Wednesday 5th May

 Welcome to summer time - Welsh style! At least we don't have to do much watering this week, the plants are loving it, especially the grass, which is growing in abundance around the sensory garden. This is a Columbine flower, which is headed for the "Sight" bed. It's also known as Granny's Bonnets.

 As the weather was against us, we did a bit of indoor gardening, potting up some seedlings, presumed to be beetroot (must do better with the labelling next year!) And also sowed some flower seeds which were donated, Poppies and Sweet Peas. Some of the youngsters in the centre were very curious as to what we were doing and kept a keen watch on the planting.

 The pallet house in the Sensory garden is coming along, with the addition of some pots and pans for a bit of outdoor drumming.

When the rain eventually stopped, I caught this Mother and Baby, who live next door to the Sensory Garden, having a quick feed. I wonder if sheep can swim? !

Construction team at work

Today has been a really productive day on the allotment. The sun was shining on us as we worked which always helps, despite there being a frost this morning. It might be just as well we don't have lots of delicate seedlings trying to grow yet! S joined us on the allotment today, and was keen to get stuck in to sorting out the shed.He had a plan to get some work top and shelves in to store our tools, and some cupboards, and he worked he socks off, using recycled pallets, and some cupboards and worktop that had been donated. The shed also had a few repairs as it has seen better days.

The next veg bed had been prepared for the potatoes...

which were well and truly chitted (started sprouting).

S also worked with his support worker to make a wooden raised planter, which looks great, and will probably go next to the seating area with strawberry plants in, I'll post a picture when it's planted up!

And finally.... I wanted to share this link to an article about why gardening is good for you.  http://www.countryliving.co.uk/news/news/a607/why-gardening-therapy-is-being-prescribed-by-doctors/