What a load of rubbish

A couple of minor disasters in the garden, the first was only to be expected. Unlike the very abstemious gardeners, some people found it necessary to sling their cans and cartons into the garden after there Christmas revels, even though there are a bank of bins right next door to the spot.

I need to get out with a pair of gloves to complete the clean up, but the worst is in the bins where it belongs.

I think this strengthens the case for a little bit of fencing or something to stop people doing this, it only need for the space to look uncared for again and we'll be back to square one. Hopefully Mick can guide us to the best solution.

Problem number 2 is the wall next to the garden, it was only mended in the summer, and it appears to be falling apart again. If you remember, the last time it was repaired, the workmen decided to use the garden as their site for mixing cement, so whatever happens, we don't want that again. On the other hand, broken walls are not only dangerous, but they also add to the general feeling of grottiness that we're trying to avoid.

I might just send this off to Ascham Homes in the hope they sort it out properly this time.

and more highlights

For those with more advance technical skills than me, you will doubtless notice that I 'm reduced to only adding a single photo with each post. If you saw the disaster when i tried multiple photos, you'd know why.
Anyway, good to see Paul and Angie, luckily with no worms in sight.

Lovely to see Mick and Margaret at the 'do', and even lovelier to see their very snazzy co-ordinating jumpers. Santa seems to have made an early stop at Number 34.

I'm ashamed to say that this is the only shot I got of Ivan, we were very sorry not to see Carol on the night, especially as she and Ivan have done such wonderful work in preparing the site.

Nicholas and Christopher both managed to join us, but had the sense not to get trapped on camera.

Highlights of the Christmas Gathering

A very Happy New Year to everyone from Joan, our President. It was lovely to see Joan and Joanna at the Christmas gathering, even though Joan was at pains to make it clear to everyone that she WON'T be doing any digging.

I don't know if this means that she's leaving it all to Joanna, we'll have to wait and see.

Anyway, she was in fine form and is expecting to enjoy the bulbs once they come up in the spring.

It's in the post.

Deadline for the Lottery Grants is 12.00 noon on Wednesday 13th December, so our application was in the post today to ensure it reached Newcastle on time, ( or should that read on Tyne ?)
Thanks to Tony for a brilliant job in putting together our aims and outcomes and all that technical stuff that had me scratching my head.
Thanks to Ivan for filling in his bit as our senior sponsor, and thanks to Michael for riding shotgun to the post office and doing the photocopying. There were more than 30 pages of questions, so it was rather a daunting task, but we got there in the end.
I'm sure there will be enormous competition for this, but at least we've tried. The results don't come out until May, so we've got quite a wait. Hopefully the garden will be looking lovely by then, so we'll enjoy it what ever the results.

Filling in the form

I went to the Community Council Meeting last night at the Asian Centre, although I have to confess I didn't stay to the end. I introduced myself to Naz, our ward councillor, and he promised to mention our garden as a project that needs supporting. He returned his completed page of the form to me in the post today, with a very nice letter. Tony wasn't as quick as Barry, and I managed to catch him as he was just about to leave home and pressed the forms into his hands. he will make a start on filling the rest of it in. Michael and I will go down to the Nationwide tomorrow to ask if they can stamp the page about our finances. They may make us wait for an appointment, as they did with opening the account.
Anyone with any more ideas about what else we want to do in the garden should let Tony know.
Time is getting short !

Good News !

Angie and Paul have joined the ranks of garden workers, Angie says she's terrified of worms, but luckily we were able to assure her that there aren't any in this garden. Well, none that will dare to show their faces and frighten her away. Paul is agreeing to play shotgun while Angie plants. She's putting some more of the daffs along the drive side by the garage.
The other good news is that we have a sponsor for our Lottery Bid ! www1.walthamforest.gov.uk/moderngov/mgUserInfo.asp?UDI=483&J=1
If this link works then this should take you to the man in question, our local ward councillor, Naz Sarkar. He called me today and had a chat about our project, he's signing the lottery form and sending it back to us.
I've made a start on the rest of the form, and I'm hoping that Tony will give me a hand to help complete it. I'm sure Mick will be a lot of help with the sheet where we have to show costs and things. I have sort of warned him !
It would be really nice to have a proper professional board like they have in the churchyard to say what the garden is, and what is in it. How can we get a quote for one of those ?

Done it !

This weekend has seem a flurry of activity in the garden, and I think the bulk of the bulbs have been planted. Malcolm has put clumps of grape hyacinths and Green Spaces daffs around the shrubs at the front, there's a big clump of red and cream tulips in the corner between Miranda's and the garage wall, and small clumps of daffs and narcissus along the back wall. Malcolm also put a big central circle of daffs and narcissus, which should look really good. Miranda has also been doing some planting, so I hope she can use the comments section on this to tell us where.
Next task will be to fill in the 32 page grant form which has to reach the Lottery by 13th December. I've sent another e-mail to out local councillor, Naz Sarkar, to ask him to be our sponsor. I'm hoping that Tony and Mick can get together to help fill in the practical bits about what we want the money for. I will be knocking on doors, asking for help, shortly.

New member

Here is Emrie, our youngest volunteer ! He and his grandfather, Sam, have been helping in the garden. He likes football and digging. On the subject of digging, Ivan has done a wonderful job, and most of the garden is looking in excellent shape. Michael and i have been to the dump with roots and rubble, but there's still some we need to take. I'm doing a lot of talking about bulbs, but not much is happening. Do we have a plan ?

We need to get planting !

We have taken delivery of the 100 bulbs from WF Green spaces, so we really need to get going with the planting ! There's a few other assorted bulbs to go in as well, so hopefully there will be some sort of plan for this.
It's getting dark earlier now, so I will try to get out and do some in the week, but it would be good if we could all get out and do some. I know Ivan has done most of the digging, I've had Joel and Nathan out a bit, but they are rather approximate diggers. Any chance of any other volunteers ?

We're official !

Very good news today ! Our registration has been accepted by the Breathing Spaces section of the BBC website.http://www.bbc.co.uk/apps/ifl/breathingspaces/places/showrecord?11689
and if that link works I'm putting myself up for the Nobel Prize for Science.
Everybody seems to have been busy with family things this weekend, but if the rain holds off we should get on with a bit more digging this week. Terry, the man from Waltham Forest Green Spaces has e-mailed to say the bulbs are on their way, so everyone had better get their trowels out. Anyone with additional trowels please make them available for our additional volunteers. I'm sure Emrie and his Grandfather will be out to help !

A bit more history

Well, here it is, the plot in question. Not much to look at yet, but that's the point really. The only reason for anyone to refer to it, is because it's that spot by the bins where that poor young man was stabbed to death. Those of us living here at the time used to avoid it, but hidden in the picture is another clue. Every year on the anniversary of the event, members of the family come and put flowers on the lamppost. I always felt ashamed that this was a spot where people threw their chip papers and drink cans. A family deserves more dignity than that. We talked about looking after it, but never got round to it. But the flowers kept appearing. So this year we finally got round to doing something about it.

Tulip Watchers

This time last year, the Church Hill Road Gardeners came together to join Monty Don is planting our Spring Green Tulips.This is a rather nice reminder of Carol and Ivan's winning effort. Unfortunately the tulips came out while they were away on holiday, so they didn't really get their full recognition. I have just printed out the application form from the Big Lottery site, all 32 pages ! It's a bit daunting, we're a very tiny project for a 32 page form and I will certainly need help to fill it in. In our favour we have the fact that we have not only identified our piece of land, but we already have permission to work on it. Volunteers are urgently needed to help dig over the garden so that we can plant the bulbs. Ivan has made an excellent start and Nathan has done a bit, but we need to get on with it a bit...

Regristration

Oops! Last post written so quickly I forgot to look at the screen or check it ! Sorry about that.
Just got back to find we have been duly registered at the BBC Breathing Places and have a user name and password. That allows us to post events and things, but I haven't worked out how yet.
Have not yet been over to look at the garden, it's been raining so hard I expect it looks much the same. We still need to organise our bulb planting day, Miranda is going to sort that out I think.
I will be e-mailing the draft constitution this week, but now I'm off to the gym to work off some of the food and drink I've consumed this weekend.

It's suddenly got vert busy ar 36

Life has suddenly got very busy and very crowded for us. Joel has returned from his travels and we're off to a party in Bristol, so won't be helping out this weekend.
Joan has agreed to be our President, I'll try to e-mail everyone the draft constitution when I get back.

Registration

Won't be doing much today, as I'm off to see a baby, an activity I find even more exciting than gardening ! But in the spare moments between waking up and the shower, I've managed to fill in the registration form for the BBC Breathing Places. They wanted to know what our website was, and it seemed to indicate we had to have one, so I gave them the blog address and we'll have to cross our fingers that it will do. I had a quick look at the people who have already registered, they all seem to be big organisations and have posh websites. I do hope they are going to allow ordinary people like us to join in.
Now I have to wait for Louise at the BBC to get back to me and tell me if we are allowed to register.
I was thinking that it might be nice to ask Joan at No32 to be our President as our senior resident. She knows about the garden, I was telling her about it the other Saturday. What do people think ? If we're going to have a written constitution, we might as well have an honorary president.

It's getting serious !

So many things have been happening over the last few days, I've decided to use my very elementary blogging skills to record them and share them with the people who are about to become the Church Hill Road Garden Committee !

This has all come about through a few new developments. Whilst enjoying a delicious barbecue round at Mick and Margaret's the other Saturday, everyone was talking about 'Autumn Watch', which got me thinking...

Then chatting to the ever industrious Ivan and Carol over at the garden, Carol suggested we might qualify for one of the Breathing Places grants.

The next Saturday we pick up the scent at the Apple Day at the Vestry House Museum, where Michael notices they have the leaflets.

Miranda offers some encouragement, and promises she will soon be out in the garden, so off I go.

So far we acquired a Treasurers' Trust Account with Nationwide ( that's another story), where we have our deposit of £80, Mick is going to get the paint for the wall with his contribution.

We also have a letter heading, designed by Nathan, I can let you have a look at that, I hope !

And as if by magic, it worked !

I have a draft constitution for you all to look at and agree, we need this to qualify for a grant. I sort of rewrote one based on one used for a Croquet Club, it looks a bit formal but it does the job.

The next post will be about the work that's been going on in the garden itself. I'm finding it all quite exciting, I hope I'm not boring everyone else to death.