Category: Shrewsbury

The wildlife pond and hide at BAC – part two

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 24, 2015
6 Comments on The wildlife pond and hide at BAC – part two

As promised we make a return visit to see the work we have been doing on the development of our pond and hide at our allotment site, Bowbrook Allotment Community. In this part we shall look at our hide, some tree surgery and our new duck tube.

So first let us return to our new hide. If you remember those pictures of us rolling the battered and rather shaky old shed you will be surprised by the photos of it finished. So how about a before and after pair of pics? We made the hide for our allotment youngsters, our Roots and Shoots group, to give them the chance to secretly and quietly watch the life of our pond. With this in mind we set to work on our renovation which took an amazingly large number of volunteer hours.

Whenever we go by the pond we can’t help but smile at the transformation! As you can see the old hide was firstly repainted outside by my young apprentice Thomas before we handed it over to two volunteer helpers Sean and his Dad Vince. They are great carpenters so brilliant volunteer helpers to have on board. They put fresh felt on the roof and fabricated a strong framework inside the shed. They made a concrete and slab base and placed the newly strengthen shed on a framework of wooden struts.

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Thomas returned to give the shed another coat of wood preserver and I added a sign I created from wooden letters. It began to look the part from the outside but even more so once the two men added a new sheet of perspex to the window and added two hatches for clear viewing on dry days. These can be seen in the photo below.

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Within a few weeks Sean and Vince with extra help from Sean’s children had put up a noticeboard, made a kneeling bench and shelf for leaning on when the children used the hatches and window. The pictures below show first the bench and secondly the view the children get from the hatch.

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This is the view our Roots and Shoots youngsters will get as they open the hide door. You will see that Jude and I have added identification charts for birds and dragonflies and damselflies and a poster displaying the life on and under the surface of a pond. We also made a little bookcase from a vegetable crate and placed in it some wildlife books for youngsters. We also mounted a whiteboard on which we are inviting the children to note their observations. The final touches are a pair of binoculars a notebook for children to jot down their nature notes.

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Last job of course was a celebratory cup of coffee perching on the children’s bench and admiring everyone’s handiwork and great efforts.

Now let us enjoy a bit of tree surgery carried out so professionally by some more of our volunteers, Pete and Mike. As mentioned in part one we have a few elderly Ash trees around the pond which for safety sake need remedial work. Earlier on we managed to pull down broken branches that had rotted but got tangled in the lower branches as they fell, but this day was a day for the chain saw attachment on our strimmer head to get in the action. One large branch hung right over the pond to the far bank and was slowly splitting so getting lower and lower. The final cut shows the weakness.

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First Mike and Pete looked and stared and studied! They needed a strategy!!

This strategy involved rope thrown up and over a much higher and stronger upper bough, with which they could keep control of the branch once it was sawn through.

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Attachment attached and they were off!

The cut bough hanging obediently could then be pulled in and dealt with on dry land. It will soon be seating for the youngsters, edging for borders and parts of insect homes and log piles and brash heaps to help attract ads shelter wildlife. We discovered an awful lot of rot within the bough so it was great relief to see it down. Trouble is there are a few more going the same way.

Finally we need to look at our duck tube! The photo below shows why we need one! A pair of Mallards patiently waiting!

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Just follow the picture sequence below and watch Mike’s adventure. Before we made the dam and changed the drainage around it to gain depth for wildlfie the pond was rarely more than 6 inches or so deep!

He is a good chap is Mike! What would we do without him? And below the duck tube in pride of place in the pond in a position where the children can watch activity from their new hide. Brilliant!

We still have further work on the pond mostly planting but we have a plan for a floating island to give wildlife somewhere to find safety and shade. Pete and Mike have a plan as you might have guessed! But of course that may be the subject of a future post visiting our super wildlife pond! One piece of info I have not mentioned are the dimensions of the area, useful I think to put things in perspective and to emphasise the size of the project. The pool is 22 yards long by 11 yards at its widest point, and the marsh area at the one end is 9 yards by 7 yards at the widest point. Around the pool and marsh between the pond and the fence, the walk around together with the planted areas vary from 3 yards to 5 yards. Quite a size!

Tags beneficial insects, Bowbrook Allotment Community, communal gardens, community, community gardening, community spirit, duck tube, garden insects, garden wildlife, insect homes, insect shelters, mallards, wetland wildlife, wildlife gardening, wildlife ponds, wildlife shelters

allotments community gardening Shrewsbury Shropshire winter gardens

Celebrating Winter – Part Two

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 25, 2014
1 Comment on Celebrating Winter – Part Two

Welcome back to part two of my Winter Celebration post. Our celebrations are a good illustration of true community spirit and show how people with a common purpose, in this case allotment gardening, can come together in friendship.

We return to our allotment community garden Winter Celebration as the light fades. The children share their Christmas excitement by playing games organised by Liz one of our committee members and ably helped out by fellow committee member Anne.

First up was a game of “Pin the red nose on Rudolf” which proved a difficult challenge!

Races followed which were accompanied with loud laughter and shrieks of delight!

But things didn’t always go according to plan!

Little Edward was amused and amazed by it all.

The BBQ was soon glowing and the fire pit beginning to show flames.

All the lanterns and candles were lit alongside the main grass pathway. They looked great! At times the air was full of smoke from the BBQ and fire pit. The willow decoration making went on under artificial lighting.

Muffins and crumpets were toasted on the glowing embers of the BBQ and spread with butter and home made jams, brought in by the committee.

Little Ella carried her own lights around with her. She glowed wherever she went. We finished the day of celebration by taking a wander around the site by candle light carrying our lanterns and torches and enjoying seeing the decorated sheds in the dark. Ella and her red lights led the way.

To finish my pair of posts about our Winter Celebration I will leave you with two photos, the first shows our tree with our lanterns down the central pathway and the second the dying embers of the fire pit as we lock up to go home.

The day after we returned to complete the tidying up. At every one of our seasonal celebrations we finish late and we are always too tired to get all the tidying up completed so back we go the following morning. Jude and I arrived to find that other committee members had already got plenty done. We had to use wheelbarrows to collect up the lanterns and jam jars which held the candles, as we had so many.

Tags Bowbrook Allotment Community, celebrations, Christmas Trees, communal gardens, community, community spirit, winter, winter garden

allotments community gardening Shrewsbury Shropshire

Three Crazy Days at the Allotments – Part 3

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 31, 2014
1 Comment on Three Crazy Days at the Allotments – Part 3

Part three of our crazy days at the allotments series of posts and we found ourselves back on site at 9:30 clearing up from our Halloween celebrations the night before and getting ready for our “Learn the Ropes” morning.

Arriving at the allotment site the morning following our Halloween celebrations, we were all exhausted but we had another activity day planned for the members. The site had a definite “morning after” look to it. Rather bedraggled and tired like us. Notice how long the shadows are in the pictures.

The rain had lashed down all night and the wind had howled around our communal huts. We had been so lucky with the weather the evening before, with not a drop of rain to spoil our fun. The area which was a hive of activity the night before looked deserted as we cleared up ready for the arrival of members who were attending our “Learn the Ropes” session and a “Walk and Talk” session around the site. We had a busy half hour but we were ready and raring to go.

We got all the machinery out for Michael to demonstrate with and got the bacon sizzling away on our gas rings just as the first members arrived. Tea and coffee were ready for serving to keep everyone warm. We even had a few minutes to treat ourselves to a quick coffee before our members arrived.

As members gathered around Michael bacon butties and hot drinks were served. Everyone was keen to see Michael demonstrate how the lawn mowers, strimmers and rotovators work and teach everyone how to use them safely and properly.

This is what being a community garden is all about. In the photos below we have three generations of one family coming along to our activities. They had been at our Halloween Day and returned to our “Learn the Ropes” session the following morning. Phil on the left has an allotment on our site and he has brought along his daughter and grand-daughter.

We had a good morning but we were glad to pack up and make our way home after our three very busy days at the allotments.

The day ended with the dismantling of the gazebos which had served us so well. When the last one was down a voice came from inside. “Help. I am still in here!” We had left Michael inside when we lowered the frame and canvas. He was in there to make sure the frame folded up properly. He had just spent the morning demonstrating our equipment to members and then we shut him up inside a gazebo! Still, it was good to end with a laugh.

Tags allotments, Bowbrook Allotment Community, Bowbrook Allotments, communal gardens, community gardening, community spirit, Halloween

allotments community gardening Shrewsbury Shropshire

Three Crazy Days at the Allotments – Part 2

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 28, 2014

Welcome back to part two of my “Three Crazy Days at the Allotments” series of posts and in this one we are celebrating Halloween. We do this every year as it is a good excuse to have a BBQ, make our sheds look weird and to get together socially before the weather changes.

This year we decided to hold competitions for preserves, the weirdest vegetables, the best carved pumpkin lanterns and also invited members to decorate their sheds so that we could find one suitable to be hailed “The Spookiest Shed”. We set the afternoon and evening going with games for the children.

Our members had been so busy beforehand and the judges had a hard time selecting winners in all the competitions. The photos below shows the table where members dropped off their entries into the preserves and weird veggies competitions.

The competitions were judged as the BBQ was warming up. In the first photo one of our members, who likes to be known as Mrs Anna, is judging the Pumpkin Lantern competition. As you can see there were some very imaginative ideas. To her left is one of our youngest allotment members Edward, who danced his way through the afternoon but found a few moments to help our judge out. He did have to stop now and again for a rest and an occasional snooze. Pumpkins appeared all over the site – one member even decorated her compost heap with lots of small pumpkins. And of course Mrs Anna was appropriately dressed as one when she carried out her judging.

The tea shop awaited its first customers, as in the background members can be seen arriving. The communal huts were decorated to welcome everyone. As well as all the children who dressed up many adults joined in. It took a long time for us to work out who the ghost was!

I went round for a quick look at the Spooky Sheds while it was still just about light, to find so many different ideas.

The winning shed was this one which was decorated around every side of the shed itself, across the bench and down the plot to where the skeleton was rising out of the ground. On another plot a hand with one finger missing was rising from a plant pot.

One plot holder managed to co-ordinate her decoration with the berries of the Firethorn climbing up her shed. In another shed we found a witch had set up home!

As with all our seasonal celebrations we found time for a BBQ. As the light continued to fade we “sparked up” our seasonal lamps. Glowing skulls!

Some members took the chance to get dressed for the occasion. Here is Liz, our youngest committee member and Wendy who is one of our founder members.

Wendy has formed our tea committee with her neighbouring plot holder Dee and we can see them here enjoying their BBQ while taking a break from their tea and coffee making duties.

As the light faded, the children were getting increasingly excited in anticipation of the usual finale to out Halloween celebrations, our walkabout with our pumpkin lanterns. We trailed around the site looking at all the decorated sheds. One plot holder had even left a big tray of sweets on the bench for the wanderers. We were joined on our walk by real bats flying about our heads.

So one day we were celebrating the success of Shrewsbury in the Britain in Bloom awards and our essential role in it and the next we were letting our hair down and celebrating Halloween. Crazy lot really! It just shows how much fun gardening can be.

In the third and final post in this series about our allotments we found ourselves back there on day 3 and back in work mode.

Tags allotments, autumn, Bowbrook Allotment Community, Bowbrook Allotments, celebrations, communal gardens, community gardening, community spirit, garden sheds, Halloween

allotments autumn community gardening gardening RHS Shrewsbury

Three Crazy Days at the Allotments – Day 1.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 26, 2014
7 Comments on Three Crazy Days at the Allotments – Day 1.

It is early autumn and we have just finished three crazy days on our allotment site, Bowbrook Allotment Community. Three very exciting days. It all began with measuring sunflowers for our annual Sunflower Competition where we determine which child and which adult has grown the tallest plant and the biggest flower. Just like last year the children showed the adults up when it came to growing giant sunflowers. For Little Henry here it was quite an effort to inspect his flowers. His plants outshone all others, children’s and adult’s alike, with the tallest plant towering to almost 3 metres and the width of his largest flower head measuring 33cm. We definitely have a gardener of the future here!

While measuring the sunflowers my mobile kept ringing and as we wished to concentrate on the the job in hand I left it ringing each time until we stopped for our afternoon tea break. It was a most unexpected phone call when I did answer it, all about the BBC trying to organise for one of their film crews to film on the allotments starting at 5:30 on Friday morning. This was because that night the RHS were holding their “Oscars”, the Britain in Bloom awards and Shrewsbury were in the running with 71 other towns and cities to be crowned Champion of Champions. They wanted to know if I could arrange for the results to be announced at the allotments, should Shrewsbury win, as we were a key part of Shrewsbury’s entry. This was all at the request of the RHS.

A call at 10:00 in the evening informed us that Shrewsbury had indeed won and our allotment community gardens had been singled out for specific praise. The idea behind the early start was that the BBC wanted to announce the results during their early morning news coverage. The news was to be broadcast every half hour throughout the morning and they they wanted to film it all live from our site. Their “weather girl” was to make the announcement and talk to plot holders.

Our first job was to get the site opened to allow the crew to set up and get some BAC members there as well including a mum and her son. This involved getting up at 4:30! We did it but I still don’t know how! The first announcement of Shrewsbury’s success went out live and was filmed in the dark. Gradually throughout the period of filming the sun came up and the birds came to life. Our allotments looked great and we felt really proud. We had been singled out as a special element in our town’s success.

In the photos below Carol was learning her lines, consulting with the director and the lights were set up in the blackness.

Two plot holders featured in an early slot still in the gloom. Mandy and son Elliot did us proud, with Mandy extolling the virtues of the town and our allotments and Elliot speaking up for the children and their “Roots and Shoots” club.

The BBC outside broadcast studio in a van slowly emerged from the darkness as dawn broke.

Life got easier as the sun came up. Alongside the arrival of the light came a sudden burst of bird song which quickly grew to a crescendo.

I listened carefully to instructions from Carol with Mark and Gary from the town council property department alongside. Constant discussions went on between Carol, the camerman and the director.

We went home for a few hours rest before returning to prepare for our Halloween celebrations the following day. (see the next post for details of how it went)

The RHS sent me their press release which went out to the media and on their website on Friday just as filming had begun. As chairman of the allotments I felt so proud as I read it. Included was a photo of one of our families on their plot. The children live here with their parents but in this photo are their grandparents who come from their home in South Africa each summer and spend time on the family plot.

“RHS judges were impressed by the high quality and importance of horticulture in what is the home-town of the “grandfather of popular gardening”, Percy Thrower, and the birth-place of Charles Darwin.

One Shrewsbury project that stood out was Bowbrook Allotment Community Site. As well as accommodating 88 organic growing plots and an impressive series of nature trails, individual gardens have been created to educate young people about native plants, conservation and edible growing.”

To read what the world’s most important horticultural society had to write about us made me feel so proud of what our community has achieved so quickly. Just over 5 years ago all we had was a field and a vision.

My next post about our busy days on the allotments will be all about our celebration of Halloween, so some of the photos will be in the dark again. Night time darkness this time though instead of early morning!

Tags allotments, BBC, Bowbrook Allotment Community, Bowbrook Allotments, Britain in Bloom, community gardening, RHS, sunflowers

Shrewsbury Shropshire steam power steam traction engines

Shropshire Steam – Part 2 – horse power and steam power on parade

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date September 28, 2014
1 Comment on Shropshire Steam – Part 2 – horse power and steam power on parade

I hinted at the end of part one that we would be looking at horse power and steam power for the second part. So this I shall endeavour to do but doubtless I shall have a diversion along the way.

After being enthralled by all those vintage tractors and their associated sundries I featured in the first Shropshire Steam post, we found a couple of seats just behind the rope that marked the display ring.

We were soon joined by this little chap who was sat on his master’s knee on the seat next to us. He eyed up our lunch and made us feel guilty eating it in front of him.

Working horses in all their show finery strolled around the ring under the scrupulous eyes of the judges.

We stayed longer than we had planned as a collection of vintage trucks in every colour and shape possible entered the ring.These in their original lives had carried all sorts of goods around the countryside. Some brought back memories but many were around before us.

And a collection of old buses came next. We were enjoying ourselves more and more and sharing memories of bus travel.

And a couple of old fire engines added a little glamour.

But I did promise some steam vehicles, so here they are in all their glory and finery. They not only looked majestic and magical, they also smelled wonderful too. Steam, hot metal, oil and coal smoke.

Sometimes the beauty is in the detail.

We enjoyed this little cameo, a set up showing road works from decades ago. Jude was specially interested as when we followed our family history research we discovered that one of her ancestors was a roadman. He may have used materials and machines just like these.

We always take a special interest and pride in seeing the old steam lorries as many of them were manufactured in Shrewsbury at the Sentinel Works. So these four photos are a good way to finish this second visit to the Shropshire Steam Rally.

Tags horse power, Sentinel Lorries, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, steam machines, steam power, Steam Rally, Steam show

allotments autumn community gardening diy garden buildings garden wildlife gardening gardens Land Art natural pest control recycling Shrewsbury wildlife

Pumpkins, a BBQ and Homes for Wildlife

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 5, 2013
5 Comments on Pumpkins, a BBQ and Homes for Wildlife

At the end of October we held our first ever family oriented working party social day at our allotments, Bowbrook Allotment Community. It was a great success even though the whole day was spent in wellies and waterproofs. The ground beneath our feet was saturated and occasional showers got us from above, but neither distracted us from our aims of the day.

We started just after one o’clock when a photographer from the local newspaper came to take some shots of families working together on our “Homes for Wildlife” projects and one of our most recent award, the RHS Britain in Bloom “National Award of Distinction” which we were awarded for our community involvement.

First task was to make some birdboxes and Wren Pouches. All the materials were collected together by one of our picnic benches and tools readied. It was heartening to see children, their parents and grandparents working together creating these nest boxes. Three generations together!

We made some hanging bug shelters too, created from broken flower pots, driftwood and bits of bark.

We wished also to make a couple of bug hotels, a small one along the fenceline and our most ambitious yet a 6 ft high creepy crawly cottage both based on recycled wooden pallets. We began with a stack of pallets and a collection of natural objects collected by allotment holders, sticks, old garden canes, stones, fir cones etc.

The “cottage” soon began to take shape as pallets were stacked and fixed together to give the basic structure.

All we have to do now is choose a name for our new insect home. We have challenged the youngsters from the allotments, our Roots and Shoots group, to choose a suitable one. So far we have a few ideas – “Minibeast Manor”, “Bugtique Hotel” and “Minibeast Metropolis”. The difficulty will be how to decide!

The smaller insect hotel was made from five pallets and again filled with objects that would provide shelter for wildlife. We finished it off with a stone pile, the perfect home for beetles.

The final jobs before our BBQ was to plant lots of acorns, sweet chestnuts and hazel nuts to grow on and plant in our hedgerows and to plant up a whole sack of daffodil bulbs alongside the paths in our meadows.

The BBQ brought us all back together and once darkness fell we lit our pumpkin lanterns. And we even found time for Jude to do some face painting.

As we enjoyed the BBQ the light disappeared and we prepared ourselves for the Twilight Walk, when we wandered around the site with lit pumpkins to light our way in search of sheds decorated as Spooky Sheds.

And as the night fell we disappeared into the gloom with our pumpkins to guide our way.

Tags allotments, bird boxes, Bowbrook Allotments, community gardening, garden wildlife, Halloween, insect homes, insects, organic gardening, outdoor sculpture, pumpkins, wildlife, wildlife shelters

allotments Britain in Bloom community gardening flower show fruit and veg garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public grow your own half-hardy perennials renovation Shrewsbury Shropshire town gardens townscapes

A town riverside walk

Although we live close to our county town of Shrewsbury we go for months between visits to the banks of the River Severn, in whose loops the town sits snuggly. In the summer the council garnish the river banks with bright coloured plants in all sorts of containers and hanging baskets.

I am not that keen on these brightly coloured bedding annuals but they seem to fit in with their setting so well here. Mother nature herself adds a little subtle planting herself with wild flowers growing close to the water and wonderful waterfalls of reflections.

Our footbridge an old Victorian suspension bridge has recently been completely refurbished and it is looking smart in its new green suit. The builders greatest challenge was to make sure that after the make-over the old bridge retained her sway. As you walk across her she sways from side to side!

This weekend is time for the famous Shrewsbury Flower Show so when we reached the open parkland spaces alongside the river we found signs of the village of tents and rows of arena seats appearing at a great rate of knots. It seemed to be growing up around us as we walked towards the little sunken garden called The Dingle.We now anticipate our day out at the show on Saturday most eagerly. We hope to go in the afternoon and stay until closing time with the magnificent firework display over the river.

And so to the Dingle herself, which is not my cup of tea at all, but it is enjoyed by thousands every year. It is all a bit garish for my taste, but I do admit that it takes a great deal of skill to create and maintain it. It certainly gives pride to the town. Come on a tour with us and see what you think.

We wandered back into the town centre to have a look at how the town council had decorated the Square as part of their “Britain in Bloom” campaign. All the allotment sites in and around the town had planted up mini-allotments small enough to fit on a pallet and these were collected up and put in the square. Local artists crafted two scarecrows from metal to give an extra dimension.

Each post marking loading bays along the High Street had been given a topknot of Ipomaea in two foliage colours. Very subtle and very effective.

Tags allotments, Britain in Bloom, community gardening, foliage, fruit and veg, fruit and vegetable growing, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, grow your own, scarecrows, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, town parks

community gardening fruit and veg gardening grow your own half-hardy perennials hardy perennials herbs meadows nurseries ornamental trees and shrubs Shrewsbury Shropshire shrubs trees

BAC evening out.

A new nursery that has opened this year on the outskirts of Shrewsbury, emailed Jude, the Undergardener recently inviting members of our allotment community to visit them one evening after closing time for a tour of the nursery.

So earlier this week 20 of us arrived in the car park of “Love Plants” and gathered together anticipating an enjoyable evening talking plants. They have a very classy sign!

Susan spotted an interesting plant before she even reached the door. There were so many treats inside. Although we primarily went for a tour behind the scenes most of us were tempted by a few specimens each. Mrs Greenbench, the Undergardener managed to fill a trolley with Hemerocalis, Achillea and Echinacea.

Tim, the Plants Manager, gave us a quick talk about how the garden centre came about. We were delighted to know that plants were supplied by our favourite nurseries, The dingle and The Derwen, both near Welshpool and part of the same company. The Dingle is a pure nursery and its partner The Derwen more of a small garden centre. With these three outlets close by we have access to plenty of quality plants.

All the perennials were laid out in alphabetical order and they were impressive specimens. Likewise the shrubs. The first area visitors find is an area featuring plants currently in flower or with good foliage colour.

There is a good selection of seeds, herbs and fruit and veg plants.

The nursery is sited within a caravan sales centre and even between the caravans meadows have been sown. Topiary specimens impressed as did the new shade area.

Before leaving I spoke to Tim about the possibility of a joint venture where Love Plants could sponsor a new garden within our communal gardens back at BAC and the three linked plant centres supplying the plants. This looks like being an exciting project. Watch this space!

Tags allotments, community gardening, fruit and vegetable growing, gardening, grown your own, meadows, nurseries, ornamental trees, Shrewsbury, shrubs

community gardening fruit and veg garden photography gardening gardens open to the public grow your own hardy perennials Hardy Plant Society herbs HPS kitchen gardens Land Art meadows National Garden Scheme NGS outdoor sculpture Shrewsbury Shropshire

Allotment Open Day 2013

Sunday July 14th was the day we opened our allotment community gardens for everyone to come and have a look at what we get up to, and to help raise money for charities under the auspices of the National Garden Scheme. We are proud to be part of this great scheme and we love seeing our lotties featured in their famous Yellow Book.

Visitors were greeted by committee members Di and Jill, who took the entry fees and gave out tickets, trail sheets, children’s quiz sheets and competition voting forms (more about that later).

The allotmenteers had been busy the week prior to our opening mowing the grass, edging and weeding the communal borders and ensuring their own plots were looking at their best. And it did look good! As chairman I felt proud of what was achieved that week.

Bunting was hung from sheds and a pair of galvanised watering cans planted up with diascias and blue fescue grasses decorated the entrance to the central grass pathway. We made sure all information signs were clear and visible.

Some members even provided extra little sitting areas alongside their plots with shade over comfy seats. Phil and Doreen created an outdoor lounge. It looked brilliant and drew many admirers and many visitors stopped off for a rest and a chat.

A popular part of our day is the tea shop which we create around our communal huts enhanced with gazebos and an assortment of tables and chairs all brought in for the day by lottie members. Sherlie, an allotmenteer and florist, added beautiful floral decorations to the centre of each table. Members bake all week prior to the event and the array of cakes is stunning and oh so tempting.

A feature of our open days is the involvement of our visitors in selecting the winners of our annual site competitions. Each year we hold a scarecrow competition and the theme this year was occupations and as always our members’ imaginations ran wild. We were treated to the sight of a scarecrow undertaker, a pilot, a school crossing lady, a farm labourer, a lumberjack, a nurse, a doctor a tractor driver

I had the rather over-ambitious idea that I could make a “Biggles the Pilot” scarecrow, which was quite a task and needed the help of gardening mate Pete to put it up on top of our central arbor. Pete is a good foot taller than me!

We persuaded one of our newer members to open her shed for all to see as it has such a beautiful interior. We call it the “Chic Shed”. It is painted all white inside with a storage bench with padded seat on top, a lovely dresser and even colouring books, pencils and crayons etc for her granddaughter.

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Another competition this year was a new one and again we asked our visitors to choose the winners. It was for land art/sculpture and it proved to be very popular with lots of pieces for our guests to consider.

Jude the Undergardener won this competition with her woven twisted willow.

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For the children on our site we held a competition where we asked them to plant up an item of footwear, and we saw colourful flowers grown in slippers, boots and wellies. In the pictures below they are shown lined up in front of the two mini-allotments grown for display in the town square later.

As well as the tea shop we had a plants sale table where Jude, aka Mrs Greenbench or The Undergardener, sold plants she had raised from seeds and cuttings, both herbaceous perennials, herbs and vegetables. We had a display from Linton, one of Shropshire’s Master Composters who answered visitors’ queries concerning their composting.

So just how successful was the day? We had lots of visitors many of whom stayed all day and obviously enjoyed their walk around, helping us choose our competition winners and indulging in the offerings of the tea shop and the plant stall. We raised £1065 to send in to the National Garden Scheme, a figure of which we are most proud.