Community Garden News  

It was great to start the month with a visit from the Martinborough Down to Earth Garden Group. Many of the visitors had not been to the garden previously, so it was good to welcome them and share our trials, tribulations and successes. The visit was made a little spectacular as we ripped up what was left of our much celebrated kumara patch during the visit… we had discovered that a despicable rat had burrowed into the patch and gnawed away at a number of our prize kumara’s !!!! Oh! The patience that is required to garden! 

The positive upshot of this  was that one of the visiting gardeners offered to set some rat traps, and I am pleased to report that we have caught the not-so-little blighter. Many,  many thanks. We would also like to thank the Group for their very generous donation to the MCG…it will be put to good use.

Jerusalem artichokes have been spectacular and plentiful and should be available through the Larder for the next few weeks. They do, however have a mind of their own and tend to colonise quite large areas inline with the prevailing winds. We will let them meander for another year but will move our pumpkin patch which has  been rather invaded by the artichokes. 

We have begun building the patch using horse pooh and grass clippings and will continue to build it through the winter months by using the patch as a composting pile, with the occasional dose of horse pooh and clippings , as they are available. This combo has worked well for us in the past. Some seed weed would be excellent….any offers???

Other projects on the horizon for the garden include a complete rethink of our netted area which has had a few iterations but suffers from waterlogging in the winter months (unfortunately we positioned it before we were aware of the winter pooling).Lesson learnt…don’t rush into building or erecting things in a garden before you have had a darned good look at its disposition over a 12 month period!

As ever we welcome new gardeners and visitors.10-12 Wednesdays at 51 Oxford Street.