Category Archive

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 is relaxed. There’s no way round closure, it is just a pity as we do enjoy having visitors. The days are cold and short, though slowly lengthening. By …

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. It exemplifies the way the year has gone. The garden has been going since 2016, and in normal years, we’ve organised music and art events, instruction in growing, …

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 is for making new cells, from sunlight. As well as energy, the sugar produced is combined with nitrates to make protein, vital components of cells. These short winter …

‘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 poem, ‘Spring and Fall’. Margaret, a young girl, is sad because the leaves are falling from the trees. The title uses the US word ‘Fall’ instead of ‘Autumn’ …

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 lots of water. The result was an awfully smelly mix, like liquid sewage. So, having failed, I read up on composting to get it right the next time …

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 grow, they would be so overshadowed, they’d fail to make maturity. In truth, none will in our garden as we’ll sweep them up, and pull up any seedlings …

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 for mushrooms, damp autumn with still a little warmth in the air. But not everyone loves armillaria. When I worked in the parks in Haringey, back in the …

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, a small park, so visitors are allowed. There’s hand cleanser at the door, and we will take phone numbers, both of which we have been doing since re-opening …

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 we are planning for. We have been planting daffodil bulbs in various planters: along Woodgrange, McGrath Road, and in the new traffic free zone on Odessa and Field …

Many of the sycamore leaves falling from the large sycamore by the fence have tar spot. These are dark brown spots, very evident on the yellow leaf, looking as if they have been sprayed on. Tar spot is a fungal disease, and the spots are the fruiting body, meaning they contain the spores. The spores are windborne and have a …