Tag: community

Plealey Garden Party – a look back to summer

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 26, 2018

It often feels good to look back to a summer’s day especially when we are in the grips of an exceptionally long and cold winter. We had been asked by the organisers of the Plealey Garden Party to set up a stall to sell some of our plants. So we prepared our seedlings and young plants from cuttings and nurtured them until the event, when we priced them up, spruced them up and boxed them up for the journey to the other end of our hamlet.

The day of the garden party dawned bright and sunny and warmed up as the day moved on, perfect weather for it! This is the highlight of the hamlet’s year when all fifty households get together with friends, relatives and visitors from nearby villages for an afternoon. The afternoon also raises money for local charities. It is usually held in Well Lane but builders working along it prevented this from happening in 2017. Luckily a resident volunteered her garden for this one.

We loaded up one of our neighbours'(Chris and June) Landrover with trays of plants and Chris delivered them for us as we took a leisurely wander down the road following the trail of bunting. The vehicle certainly made life so much easier for us.

We put our folding table together and laid the plants out as we planned how to display them to look enticing or at least at their best. We were situated in the beautiful dappled shade of old apple and pear trees which was to prove a boon as the day warmed up.

In a short while we were all set and stood back to admire our handiwork. We were pleased with our efforts and hoped the sun would bring out the visitors/punters.

This is the view we had from our seats behind our plants, and the welcoming view for the visitors.

The stallholders waited patiently for the tea party to be declared officially open and the people arrived, mostly young families and couples. The local ukelele band burst into life and entertained us all afternoon, and luckily they thought to bring along a gazebo to protect themselves from the sunshine or the rain just in case.

The weather brought in a good crowd who stayed for a long time and enjoyed the refreshments in the hot weather. The tables were beautifully decorated with small posies from the garden.

A popular visitor to our hamlet’s event was this horse and cart which we often see passing by our front garden. What a delightful and peaceful mode of transport to explore the narrow country lanes around Plealey.

It turned out to be a very successful afternoon with lots of visitors who spent plenty of money that was then sent to the chosen charities. Next year the party will be back in its usual location of Well Lane so we hope the success continues.

Tags community, community spirit, garden parties, garden party, Plealey, village community, village life

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A Vintage Tea Party – Bowbrook Allotment Community

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 10, 2017
1 Comment on A Vintage Tea Party – Bowbrook Allotment Community

The second post about nostalgia is all about a day back in the summer.

We decided to try something new for our 2016 summer celebrations at our allotment site, Bowbrook Allotment Community – a vintage tea party. Jude and Liz worked hard planning and preparing for the event, ensuring we had plenty to eat and drink, the children had activities and making sure everyone knew what was going on.

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So our members donated lots of fancy home-made cakes especially little buns and fairy cakes which looked so colourful and of course tasty when our tea ladies, the Tea Bags, set them out ready for all to enjoy.

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We always cut flowers from around the site’s communal gardens to use to create table centre decorations and they always add so much to any event.

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We asked members to come dressed in vintage clothes and they rose to the challenge, which added greatly to the atmosphere. Even the Tea Bags dressed in vintage styled pinafores.

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We bought traditional lawn games for the children to enjoy. Many of these games were new to them but they were all enjoyed. It was good to hear so much children’s laughter as they skipped away, wooden blocks tumbled down as they played Tenga and quoits were thrown over targets.

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Once we launched into the tea party lots of our allotment community gardeners came along with friends and family, enjoying the chance to get together, catch up and chat in an informal atmosphere. A great time was had by all! Music from the 40’s added to the atmosphere with Glen Miller being a favourite.

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We had a few other surprises in store too, an old grey Massey Fergusson tractor, an oil engine, and my collection of vintage garden tools.

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The Vintage Tea Party proved to be a very popular event and we have had lots of requests to make it an annual event at our allotments, Bowbrook Allotment Community. For more information about our allotment community visit our website, http://www.bowbrookallotments.co. uk .

Tags allotments, Bowbrook Allotment Community, Bowbrook Allotments, cakes, communal gardens, community, community gardening, community spirit, Massey Fergusson, old tractor, tea party, vintage, vintage tea party

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Ponthafren – an amazing community garden.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 30, 2016
2 Comments on Ponthafren – an amazing community garden.

We love visiting community gardens whenever we can find one to explore. We like to see what they are trying to do and particularly how gardening is involved in their client activities. We were delighted to find one open under the auspices of the National Garden Scheme not far away just over the Welsh border into Powys. As we approached over a river bridge and first spotted the building we were taken aback by its sheer size. It looked an impressive building with its gardens sloping down to the river bank.

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We received a warm welcome from the volunteers who ran the centre and enjoyed a tasty cup of tea and extravagant looking cup cake each as we chatted and learned more about the work of the group. We were amazed at what we heard and were full of admiration.

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We couldn’t wait to wander around the garden and see what the volunteer leaders and their clients were up to on this steeply sloping wooded riverside site.

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Bunting and flags always add to the feeling of being warmly welcome in any garden and here they fluttered in profusion.

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Mosaics were popular ways of decorating features here from table tops to sundials. The clients created these in their art and craft sessions.

There were clues at every turn that wildlife was welcome to share the garden with the clients, volunteers and visitors.

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There was such a sense of humour prevailing throughout the community garden and many craft items created by the clients illustrated this.

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As with any garden whatever its primary function fine examples of plants are good to see.

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Productive gardening was all part of the work here with the produce grown and nurtured by the clients being sold to help raise funds for the community garden. Wormeries sat in one corner working away producing compost and liquid feed for the veg.

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We found some fine examples of craftwork in metal and fabrics among the plants on the slopes.

We finished our tour by taking wooden steps and gravel paths down to the riverside where we ended beneath colourful cheerful bunting just as we had started. We were so glad to have discovered this special place run by such special people and they also told us of another community not too far away which may be a place for a future visit.

Tags communal gardens, community, community gardening, community spirit, fruit and veg growing, gardening for wildlife, outdoor sculpture, productive gardening

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Some Little Churches of Herefordshire – Part 2

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 22, 2016
2 Comments on Some Little Churches of Herefordshire – Part 2

Following on from studying St Michael’s at Brimfield we drove along narrow lanes towards another small village called Yarpole. The direction sign at a junction directed us along an even narrower lane to Yarpole itself and on the opposite side of the road we spotted a brown Tourist Sign directing us to Yarpole Belfry. Thus we were expecting to find a belfry but no church. Separate belfries are a feature of several Herefordshire’s churches.

But when we drove into the village following signs for the Belfry we found both the belfry and an accompanying church only a few metres apart. We certainly were not expecting to find such an exciting place! The church here in Yarpole was a true community affair. We were in for many delightful and heart-warming surprises.

As we closed the car doors alongside the churchyard we got our first view of St Leonard’s over a low wall. We could only see the bell tower at that time but the big blue sign made us think there must be a church to be found there somewhere as well.

The next sign was more confusing as it welcomed us to Yarpole Village Shop and Post Office which were both to be found inside the church. We then realised this was a special place, the centre of village life around which the community revolved.

Signs outside the main porch provided further clues to the character of this community church.

On the path that wound its way towards the church porch we took a diversion to get a close look at the belfry which was separate from the main church building. Once inside it took a while for our eyes to get used to the dark before we could appreciate the ancient woodworking skills of its builders.

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We were surprised by a little sign explaining what made the churchyard special and different from most others. The graveyard is managed by volunteers to optimise the wildlife potential. Areas of grass are left uncut for wildlife, and lichen is left to grow on gravestones and stonework. Rough areas are left for nest sites, hibernating sites and groundcover for insects and invertebrates. The area is full of wild flowers to attract bees and butterflies. Another sign nearby announced a Spring Concert

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On either side of the porch carved stone faces welcomed us in, and inside the porch modern colourful stained glass windows added warmth to that welcome.

We found the door open and the sounds of voices came to meet us. This was a lively community centre with a cafe, village shop and Post Office. From the roof hung beautiful photographic hangings. The stone pillars were built from two types of stone giving it a striped effect.

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In the gallery where the cafe opened each morning a chess group was silently enjoying their games.

Exploring the interior we found the usual furniture and features of any village church and the worship side of the church’s functions sat so comfortably alongside the community functions.This is what village churches should be like, keeping themselves open and used beyond occasional Sunday services and serving the community as they were originally meant to do. Other features however were exactly what we would expect to find in any church.

We liked the idea of the pebble pool. Each pebble dropped in the water represented a prayer.

We then had a wander around the out side of the church looking for interesting little details.

So the first two churches we had discovered on our initial exploration of the villages of Herefordshire in search of little churches serving small communities were totally different. St Michael’s at Brimfield was quite traditional and typical in the way it was used and in how the interior looked and felt. But St Leonard’s at Yarpole was a totally different kettle of fish – it was a community centre and felt full of life. It had a relaxed atmosphere with a warmth missing from so many of the churches in England.

On our first day we found one more little church in this area and we will share this with you in Part 3.

Tags church architecture, churches, community, community gardening, Herefordshire, stained glass, village community, village shop, villages

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Spring Bulbs at Bowbrook Allotment Society.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 2, 2016
3 Comments on Spring Bulbs at Bowbrook Allotment Society.

We spent a day on our plot at our allotments, Bowbrook Allotment Society, on the first day of March. It was cold and the wind strong and added extra coldness. But the sight of cheerful bulbs growing close to our plot helped cheer us up.

I hope you enjoy the photos I took with my smartphone. They are growing in the meadows under the trees in one of our orchards.

Tags Bowbrook Allotment Community, communal gardens, community, community gardening, spring blossom, spring bulbs, spring flowers

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More Awards for Bowbrook Allotment Community

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date February 12, 2016
5 Comments on More Awards for Bowbrook Allotment Community

There is nothing better on cold dull days of winter than looking back.

When the RHS gave us our first award we jokingly started calling ourselves an “Award Winning Allotments” and then as we get more and more we now call ourselves the “Multi-Award Winning Allotments”. Well last year in the autumn we were invited to another award ceremony jointly held by the RHS and Britain in bloom.

We enjoy these ceremonies as it affords us the opportunity to meet gardeners from other community gardens and see what they are getting up to. This year the ceremony was held in a hotel with well-laid out gardens too so we enjoyed a wander before our lunch.

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Our allotment gardens, Bowbrook Allotment Community, affectionately know as BAC, fall under the RHS Its your Neighbourhood Scheme for community gardens that improve their local areas. We are measured against a set of criteria which consider horticultural excellence, environmental enhancement, wildlife friendliness and community involvement. Assessors from the RHS make visits and spend several hours on site marking us against set guidelines. The awards are awarded at 5 levels starting with beginning at Level 1 moving up to Level 5 Outstanding. They can also give out discretionary awards to individuals and community gardeners.

We were pleased to receive a Level 5 Outstanding Certificate in 2015 for the 5th year running. We were totally surprised when we were called up at the end of the award ceremony to be be awarded an RHS National Award of Distinction, one of only two awarded. We were given this as we had achieved a mark of 100% in every category. Can’t be bad! It truly reflects our great community spirit!

I thought it would be interesting to add photos of the banners displayed in the hall as they give clues to the spirit of this award scheme.

Tags awards, Bowbrook Allotment Community, communal gardens, community, community gardening, community spirit

autumn autumn colours community gardening garden furniture garden seating gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials light light quality ornamental trees and shrubs shrubs trees

Furzey Gardens – a wonderful gardening community – Part Two

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 13, 2015
3 Comments on Furzey Gardens – a wonderful gardening community – Part Two

Back at Furzey Gardens we continued to wander along its magical paths seeking out secret places and reveling in its beautiful plants. Beyond each corner more beauty was revealed and the depth of its calmness and peace increased. Furzey Gardens takes hold of its visitors and admirers. Throughout the garden volunteers and clients work together, laugh together and learn together. The trust here is set up to help adults with learning difficulties gain new skills, social and horticultural and develop a sense of self esteem and confidence. This results in everyone at Furzey having great pride in what they are doing and a deep level of satisfaction.

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A graceful stand of Birches with the white umbels of Cow Parsley scattered at their feet felt as full of calm and contentment as any place could possibly feel.

The rust colours of autumn trees matched the seeds of Primula close by.

The colours, tints and shades of Autumn can make ordinary places look special but it can also make special places look exceptionally beautiful. Just as we discovered here at Furzey.

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Homes for everything can be found at Furzey. As well as homes for fairies we found homes for hay bales and homes for birds.

The hedges along the edge of the gardens were full of fruit ready for the invasion of winter migrating thrushes and our resident Blackbirds and Thrushes.

Enjoy our wanderings back to the cafe where we refreshed ourselves before journeying back to out hotel.

Among shrubs and trees we discovered a building which hid a secret place for sky viewing.

I thought I would drop in a couple of pics of herbaceous flowers to show that there was a lot more to Furzey than shrubs and trees.

I promised to share with you more of those Fairy and Insect Doors secreted around Furzey.

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Our tour of the gardens at Furzey finished as we explored the 16th Century Forest Cottage, beautifully renovated and re-furnished in simple elegance. It sat in a garden of equal character and an accurate portrayal of its period.

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Tags communal gardens, community, community spirit, Furzey Gardens, garden furniture, Hampshire, ornamental shrubs, ornamental trees, shrubs, trees and shrubs

autumn autumn colours community gardening garden buildings garden design garden furniture garden photography garden ponds garden pools garden seating gardening gardens gardens open to the public light light quality memorials ornamental trees and shrubs trees

Furzey Gardens – a wonderful gardening community – Part One

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 11, 2015
1 Comment on Furzey Gardens – a wonderful gardening community – Part One

Jude, The Undergardener, and I always love visiting community gardens to see what is going on. As we are Chairman and Secretary of a community garden, Bowbrook Allotment Community, we always appreciate everything our fellow community gardeners are achieving.

When in Hampshire we discovered that we were close to Furzey Gardens, run as a charitable trust and a very special community garden indeed, described as “A haven of peace and tranquility in the heart of the New Forest.”

We discovered this 10 acre garden created within woodland around a 16th Century forest cottage. It is a partnership between Furzey Gardens and the Minstead Training Trust. To find out more check out their respective websites, http://www.furzey-gardens.org and http://www.minsteadtt.org .

We arrived at their car park where our progress into the car park was hindered by wandering pigs belonging to local commoners taking advantage of their “rights of pannage”. The signage looked promising. We soon came across a photograph of some of the garden’s volunteers and a shed where produce was sold.

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And once inside we discovered a lovely cafe and gallery run by some of the trust’s volunteers. This was to set the scene for the whole visit.

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The views from the table at which we enjoyed our coffee and cakes were certainly very encouraging. We set off with high expectations!

We noticed within the outside seating area this huge table carved by a local wood sculptor from the trunk of a tree. It was hard to see how this was possible. But possible it was! In the picnic area we found another!

We found more beautiful hand made furniture throughout the gardens.

We soon discovered that this was a garden sporting some beautiful specimen trees and shrubs which in early autumn were performing a colourful show. The volunteers maintained the gardens and individual specimens to a very high standard. Above all a sense of peace pervaded every space and the volunteers we saw working looked full of contentment and displayed a great pride in their work.

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We loved this sign which faced us as we followed our pathway through the garden.

“We love children but we also love plants!

Many of the plants at Furzey are old, rare and fragile.

So please don’t climb our trees or trample on the flowers.

Feel free to hop and skip along the paths

And follow the secret places map.”

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We moved on and the low autumn sunshine lit up the foliage all around like a massive stained glass window.

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We enjoyed having so much choice when it came to sitting resting and taking in the beauty of Furzey. Many benches were memorials of volunteers, clients and visitors who simply enjoyed the special nature of this place.

After a break for tea and yet more cake we set off through the shrubs and trees to find the lake, a lake whose surface was cluttered with water lily leaves and its moist margins decorated by big-leaved plants and umbel seed heads.

Throughout the walkways there were secret places for children to discover, “Fairy Houses” hidden low down and camouflaged.

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We shall find more of these little magic places in part two of our visit to Furzey, but I shall finish this first part by sharing with you one of the many thatched rustic garden buildings scattered throughout the gardens. The use of coloured glass leaves added magical light effects.

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Tags communal gardens, community, community gardening, community spirit, Furzey Gardens, garden sculpture, garden seating, Hampshire

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Celebrating Autumn at the Allotment

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 11, 2015
2 Comments on Celebrating Autumn at the Allotment

As many of you will already know we celebrate every season at our allotments, Bowbrook Allotment Community, so recently it was the turn of Autumn which we linked with Halloween. We want to make children aware of the seasons, how each is different, how they are part of a cycle and we want to emphasize seasonality. This is easy on an allotment site where we harvest fresh fruit and veg all year round . It is also the time of year when we cut our wildflower meadows. This is a job done by families or small groups and once they are cut it takes a while to get used to their short hair cuts. We are sowing the semi-parasitic wildflower, Yellow Rattle, in some of our meadows. This useful little plant is an attractive yellow flowered native plant which parasitises on the roots of the tougher species of grasses which means there is less competition for our wild flowers.

At our Autumn Celebration we invited members to take part in a competition to decorate their sheds following the theme of Halloween. Our judge enjoyed the experience even though it was a long job.

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One couple and their daughter decorated their plot and spread the ghosts across into the nearby tree. It looked great!

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Our tea committee were in attendance providing hot drinks and cakes. They even decorated their tea shop. One of the committee, Tracy, made toffee apples using apples from our community orchards. These proved most popular. Once it got dark we lit the barbeque and we all cooked our food on it We also lit our fire pits so we had the inviting aromas of wood smoke and BBQ cooking.

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This year we decided to invite everyone, children and adults to dress up in appropriate gear. Jude and I joined in as a witch and Dracula which upset some of the youngest children who didn’t like us looking like that. The first picture below shows us in our costumes.

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We held a competition for carved pumpkin lanterns and both children and adults took part. Liz, a committee member, organised fun games for the youngsters, which as always were very popular and played with the sound of laughter.

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When Darkness fell we lit the lamps, lit the candles in the pumpkin lanterns and took off for a walk around the site with the lit pumpkin lanterns to show the way. The children loved walking in the dark with their lanterns and visiting all the spooky sheds lit up. Some adults stayed to enjoy coffees around the fire pits.

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And a great time was had by all! Lots of members during the evening asked when our next celebration was. It will be our Winter/Christmas Celebrations. That will be a future post.

Tags autumn, Bowbrook Allotment Community, celebrations, comm, communal gardens, community, community gardening, garden sheds, Halloween, sheds

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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!