Well done Barry and Miranda

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

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.

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 !

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

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

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

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.