Church Hill Road Garden

Job's Worth

2009-04-13T17:56:00.002+01:00

I was hoping to report on our sign, but The Man from Ascham Homes was less than helpful, and has responded to my polite request to move his sign by saying he won't and has now added another sign to our wall. I have been keeping our councillor informed about this, but Miranda has agreed to attend the next Community Council Meeting with me, so I'll bring it up again. Did anyone else notice that the picture of our garden was featured in a Labour Party newsletter? We are hoping to renew the edging to the paths this year, Mick has some good ideas we can discuss at the Garden Party which I will shortly be organising, as we did not have one at Christmas this year.

The Spring has sprung...

2009-04-13T17:44:00.002+01:00

I was reminded by an e-mail from Ivan that I haven't been keeping the blog up to date, so here we go again.
Spring has really arrived in the garden, the daffodils have made a lovely show and even the little ones round the centre bed did not let us down, which was a bit of a relief as Ivan and Carol had reported that they hadn't had much success with these.
We did suffer some very low key vandalism on Mothers' Day, luckily Miranda was around to point out to the boy and girl who helped themselves to a free bunch of flowers that they had picked enough. Michael later reported a second urchin who helped himself about half an hour later. Let's hope we made two mums happy.

Team Work

2008-06-30T11:31:00.002+01:00

A brilliant scheme to water the garden, involving Barry and Miranda's hose, and a piece of string. Some excellent team work and a good idea from Mick means we can now give the garden a good soaking when it needs it.

2008-06-30T11:18:00.002+01:00

Late posting, this is May when the arch went up. I don't seem to have the same relationship with this camera, and lost the pictures briefly. Mick was an absolute star and cemented the arch in to prevent it going walkabout, and it's such a lovely thing you could well imagine someone wanting it. Lots of discussions about which roses to grow on it, but it appears we've missed the growing season this year, and will have to get our roses in November.

It's a real success, but without Mick I don't think we could have managed. Well done him !

Well done Barry and Miranda

2008-04-20T17:33:00.002+01:00

The new fence along the boundary with number 41 really finishes the garden off and gets rid of the last images of it being uncared for.
Note how beautifully Tony and Malcolm's azalea is flowering, rather better than the one in their own garden even!
I have put in some more flowers in the middle bed, and I planted a Penelope rose from our garden in there too, as a little statement piece.
We have lots of little seedlings growing out the back, so as long as we get a bit of sun, we should be able to maintain some colour out there.
The tall daffs need to come out as they obscure the back border, we can replant them in September.

Bursting into Spring

2008-04-20T17:23:00.002+01:00

Good news from Tony !
He has spoken to Yvonne, the person doing the Better Neighbourhood thing for our area and she is going to get us a plaque for the garden. It can go over the sign at the back that isn't very lovely and doesn't do much for the garden.
I'm going to start work on removing the front shrubs now they have flowered.
Anyone with a few minutes to spare can help by doing a bit of weeding in the back border.
If you only have five minutes, you could try to get a couple of big weeds out of the paths.
We need to dig over the strip by the fence and add some manure, too.

2008-01-29T15:31:00.000Z

The path is starting to take shape, and as the bulbs are also starting to come through, let's hope this will encourage people over to the garden to tidy up a bit. We've put down 2 bags of bark and there's a third waiting to go down. We're leaving the side along the driveway where Tony planted the daffodils, as that is where the rose arch will be going, but that will be a big job and require a bit of help from Mick to ensure we get it in securely.

Phew ! What a relief !

2008-01-18T09:41:00.001Z

Only a relief to me and Michael, because we were the only one who knew about it !
Ages ago we ordered a number of carefully chosen drought resistant plants for the garden. They arrived in dribs and drabs, Margaret's choice of small daffodils being some of them.
Then....nothing.
We were still several plants short, but the company indicated that plants would be sent in accordance with their growing season, so i wasn't too bothered. Then I started to send e-mails to ask and nothing came back.
Finally, I printed out the e-mails and sent a covering letter, and to our enormous relief a parcel has been delivered. Good old Michael, Plant Doctor in Chief has transplanted them into little pots and troughs and will tenderly protect them until there's little fear of frosts. So here's a picture of our clematis waiting to be planted next to the climbing roses so that they can go up the trellis.

AGM 2007

2008-01-16T09:44:00.000Z

On 17th December we held our AGM at number 36 and had 16 members present at the meeting.

Great thanks to Ita and Janet who have both contributed plants to the garden and worked there, even though they don't live in Church hill Road.
Also huge thanks to Tony for getting and even planting 200 daffodil bulbs along the driveway for us.
We discussed the meeting with Mr and Mrs Ali and agreed to try to erect a rose arch to be covered by David Austen roses along the side of the garden.
We also discussed the possibility of a sign to identify the garden, and Miranda agreed to approach a mosaic artist she knows to discuss what this might cost.

Mr and Mrs Ali pay the garden a visit

2007-12-02T14:50:00.000Z

On Saturday, Mr and Mrs Ali, Shakir Ali's parents came to see how we have been progressing with the garden.
Shakir Ali is the young man who was murdered in front of the garden in July 2001.
Mr and Mrs Ali were very grateful to all the people who have helped in the garden, they like the idea of an arch of roses to commemorate Shakir.
Mr Ali has expressed an interest in helping out in the garden and has left his contact numbers, he lives nearby.
I am also examining ways of contacting local artists to see if there is someone who might be able to make us a sign to say that this is a community garden. We could put in a further bid to the community council if necessary, as they did not spend all their grant last year.

Margaret solves the water problem

2007-10-25T17:10:00.000+01:00

Margaret and Mick discovered that their hose will stretch across the road, so Margaret was able to water all the planting in really well, and we only seem to have lost one plant.
Since this gloriously sunny picture, autumn has started to set in, and so we are facing the last few opportunities to work on the garden before it's just too cold.
There's just one last bag of manure to be dug in, and although I've taken the hoe to the border and the middle bed, we've still got weeds coming through.
I clear up the leaves as ofen as I can, but that is going to be an on going job if we want to keep the garden looking cared for.

Miranda and Janet sort out the centre bed

2007-09-22T17:20:00.001+01:00

Great news as the centre bed really starts to look like a garden. Miranda and Janet chose some perennials that are still giving a bit of a show at this time of year and started to plant it up. We have had to water the plants in, but Mick has a tap in the front garden and Margaret suggested we use that.
Mick managed to go one better and get the hose across the road on Sunday morning, so that should help a lot.
Lots of people commenting on the garden and so far nobody has touched the plants.
Things are certainly looking up.

Campsis Grandiflora

2007-09-10T15:04:00.000+01:00

Well done Carol, what a good call ! She suggested the Trumpet Vine or Campsis Grandiflora as a spectacular climber to fill our middle trellis. We managed to track one down and have done a slash and crystal job on the holly, so let's hope it works. It was too hard to dig it out and now the rugby season has started Nathan hasn't much time at weekends. Luckily our sample was in bud, so we could see straight way how stunning it's going to look against the wall.
We've now got all the perennials in the back bed so there's just some alliums to go in and we can just leave that for a bit. More and more people are stopping to notice now it's starting to look like a garden.

Taking Shape

2007-09-04T16:18:00.000+01:00

At last we are starting to look like a proper garden. The back border is clear except for the holly, that can stay until there's been a decision on what to plant in the centre to climb up the big trellis. Both of the white climbing roses are in, they were half price in Homebase so Michael snapped them up. We were given a euphorbia by Ita from the St Mary's Garden, and we've put in some perennials that were chosen for being drought resistant.
I've made some attempt to mark out the central bed, I think it looks OK, and that means that the path is starting to emerge where the bed meets the back border. I've got some edging for this, not very beautiful but we can grow plants right up to it to disguise it. I spoke to the lady in No35 when she was mowing her lawn and she has promised to try to grow a mallow from cuttings.

Planting at last !

2007-08-28T17:19:00.000+01:00

The really exciting picture ! Michael found that Homebase were selling off half price climbing roses, so we got this one, and with a bit of help from Ivan planted it on the trellis closest to Miranda's. It looked so good, we decided to go for a symmetrical bed at the back and bought a second one for the other side just before they sold out. Michael's acanthus plants seem to be coming along well, so they will soon be joining the roses along the back wall.
Still looking for good ideas for the middle trellis.

Front corner clear !

2007-08-28T17:10:00.001+01:00

I only seem to be able to do one picture at a time at the moment, so here's the one of the front corner, all nice and clear. This may not look much, but it actually took ages to get it out.
One other plus is that the brambles that used to predominate in this corner don't seem to be there for the moment, but let's not speak too soon.

Bad news for Angie, but good news for the garden, lots of worms around when we were digging.

Back from holidays

2007-08-28T17:03:00.001+01:00

Good old Nathan ! All those hours in the gym weren't wasted when you can help with digging up those enormous stumps of shrubs that are just too heavy for most of us.
Grabbing a window of opportunity between work, rugby and the gym, he successfully managed to winkle out the two big stumps at the back and the small rather spiky one in the front corner.
This was inspired by some stalwart work from Ivan and Carol who have been back on the weeding patrol again, so the back wall and what will be the centre bed are now looking very respectable.

Big Day as the trellis goes up !

2007-06-18T18:29:00.000+01:00

The two Michaels did the hard work while Penny and Miranda offered advice and electricity to ensure that the last part of our phase one was completed in time for the next meeting of the Community Council -just.

The trellis will be useful for climbers to help cover the back wall, and in joint agreement we decided to put up one large block in the centre and two smaller trellis panels on either side.
It's amazing that the wall has kept so free of graffiti given how much goes on generally in the borough, but i think people are now aware that the garden is being cared for, and no loner use it as a large bin, in the way they used to. Tons of weeds are coming through again, but at last the brambles seem to be giving up the fight against the Roundup, so hopefully we'll soon see the last of them.

The Wall

2007-05-08T10:33:00.000+01:00

Mick is an absolute hero ! In what seemed like a matter of minutes he was up the ladder and filling the cracks and hey presto ! A beautiful new wall that is not only a lovely colour, but a brilliant background to the plants. One of the smelly bags of manure has been distributed around the garden, we still need to dig the second one in. The remaining two can wait in our front garden until we have plants to put in. Mick is getting the trellis, as the wall looks like an invitation to taggers and graffiti artists, so we'll need to get that up as soon as.

TV camera due today to have a look at our work so far.

Oops! Forgot the daffs !

2007-04-30T20:13:00.000+01:00

Sorry about that, forgot to add the photo of the daffodils, the grape hyacinths were good with them, and matched the car as well. Since then Ivan has returned to the digging, and other exciting events have also taken place. They will be reported in the next posting. Over the weekend Angie, Miranda and Penny did a bit of muck spreading, as the soil is very poor and dry and we need to get some goodness into it. So far a bag of farmyard manure has been dug in, we have 3 more to go and plenty of digging still to do. Pleased to report that Angie wasn't attacked by any worms.

A little bit of springtime

2007-04-30T19:26:00.000+01:00

The bulbs were lovely, especially the tulips at the back. Lots of people noticed, and happily there was a lot less litter once the flowers started to bloom.
The daffodils were a lovely mixture, and Malcolm's hasty planting scheme was a great success.
Ita came over from St Mary's, the community garden where she does voluntary work. She sketched us a lovely little plan and made suggestions for planting. Some of the plants we can buy at St Mary's, it's a lovely scheme where adults with learning difficulties or who are HIV positive go to garden. It would be really nice to link up with them.

Time to get started

2007-03-14T13:44:00.000Z

Hurrah for the Community Council ! Hopefully most Church hill Gardeners will have got an e-mail saying that we have a grant for £750 from the Community Council to beautify our garden. I went to the community meeting at South Grove Primary School on Monday 26th February where the projects were voted upon.
Each resident was given 3 red stickers with their papers and asked to vote for the projects which were pinned up on the walls. Luckily I'm not a shy person, so when I realised that nobody knew us or knew about us, I just went up to anyone who looked friendly and said,
" Please vote for us, we're just a group of ordinary people in Church Hill Road....."
and basically I bored a few people into putting their stickers on our project. When they started adding up, I noticed that a man on my table hadn't bothered to vote at all, so I asked him to at least vote for us and the guy he was talking to agreed, so he did. It turned out the man's mate was the deputy leader of the council, so he probably did it to impress him rather than me.
Anyway, that one vote may have made all the difference, because we came third, and they had agreed to fund the first 3 projects.
So I've sent off the Bank details to Theresa at the council, and hopefully the money will soon be paid in.
Meanwhile...
Ita Keown, who works at St Mary's Community Garden in Hackney came over on Tuesday to measure up and suggest what we can do and how we can start. Ivan and Michael also came over and I wrote up her suggestions and posted them to everyone I have an e-mail address for.
I'll have a bash at getting them on the blog once I've spoken to Nathan about the best way of illustrating them.

A bit of excitement !

2007-02-02T16:22:00.000Z

There's something in the garden and it's not just an empty Ribena carton ! The bulbs seem to be coming through, so there's a chance we might see a real difference in the near future.

Still waiting for the back wall to be painted, hopefully if the warm weather is approaching, that won't be long now.

Other good news is that I've been speaking with Theresa O'Brien about the Community Council's bids for funding, which need to be to her by 9th February. I think that will be possible, I'll get something together and e-mail it to everyone I have an address for to see what you think. Whatever happens we're going to do the garden, it would just be nice to make it really something. We really need to have something to stop people slinging stuff there, it's amazing they find it necessary with the bins next door, but there you go.

Any further ideas very welcome.

What a load of rubbish

2006-12-30T11:21:00.000Z

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

2006-12-29T14:05:00.000Z

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.

2006-12-29T13:53:00.000Z

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

2006-12-29T13:46:00.000Z

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.

2006-12-11T16:16:00.000Z

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

2006-11-28T19:43:00.000Z

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 !

2006-11-26T14:01:00.000Z

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 !

2006-11-20T10:04:00.000Z

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

2006-11-15T10:31:00.000Z

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 !

2006-11-11T17:33:00.000Z

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 !

2006-10-30T18:01:00.000Z

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

2006-10-24T16:07:00.000+01:00

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

2006-10-23T18:03:00.000+01:00

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

2006-10-23T10:02:00.000+01:00

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

2006-10-20T10:58:00.000+01:00

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

2006-10-19T09:08:00.000+01:00

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 !

2006-10-18T13:41:00.000+01:00

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.