In the rear of the garden, there’s ivy (Hedera helix) clinging to the fence, between us and the Gateway site. Ivy is adaptable and also grows on the ground, forming dense clumps.…

The Garden is closed, and when it will open again is not in our power to say. I’d guess a few months yet, when most people have been vaccinated and the lockdown…

Covid has influenced so much this year. There was to have been mince pies and mulled wine for volunteers on Sunday, but the event was cancelled because of the new stricter rules.…

Plants are dependent on day length. It determines the emergence and growth of flowers and leaves. To be expected when you think about it, as plants get their energy for growth, that…

‘Margaret, are you grieving Over Goldengrove unleaving? Leaves, like the things of man, you With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?’ These are the first lines of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ 1880…

The first compost bin I made, over 30 years ago, hadn’t been thought out. It was square with wooden posts and plastic sheet for sides. When nothing much was happening, I added…

Scattered about the garden are sycamore helicopters. Picked up by the wind, they twirl away from the parent tree. Though many lie at the foot, rather uselessly, as if they were to…

There’s clumps of honey fungus (Armillaria mellea) at the rear of the garden, around various wooden posts. The mushrooms are a warm honey-brown colour, bunches of them tightly packed. It’s the time…

The rising numbers of coronavirus has necessitated a second lockdown for a month, starting yesterday. The community garden is not closing, though we will monitor the situation. The garden is, in effect,…

Herbaceous plants are dying back as temperatures fall and the daylight hours lessen. All part of the yearly cycle, their roots remaining alive to put forth new shoots in spring. A season…