I’ve just arrived back from our Community Allotments Project here in the heart of Chelmsford, Essex. What a transformation! Over the last month the regular volunteers have really made a huge impact on the site and together with Charlie and I, are all feeling really positive about what we have achieved – and a little daunted by the work still ahead!
Over the past couple of weeks Charlie and Tommy have built new compost bins at the back our site, using recycled broken pallets. Rose and Tommy have dug over one of the vegetable plots and we now have onions, garlic and broad beans in to grow over the winter and as an experiment we’ve also put in a packet of Mustard seed – just to see what happens!
Everyone has been involved in preparing the sites for the new Heritage Vegetable Garden and the Climate Change Garden, and these ares are now cleared and covered over with weed matting, ready for the structure to be created in the coming weeks. Charlie is drawing up a shopping list of plants, which will include some fruit trees for the Climate Change Garden and an old English variety of Pear, which will be the centre point of the Heritage Garden.
The poly tunnel has been cleared and cleaned and the whole site is now looking much tidier. Tommy did a great job on sorting out the shed this morning, and has made new tool racks so we can at last get the tools up off the floor and readily accessible for use. Trudy has washed and sorted all the plant pots and trays and the broken ones have been discarded, with the good ones safely stored for the next growing season. Meanwhile Brendan has been busy erecting our two new greenhouses and preparing the beds inside them.
Tony popped along this morning and we were pleased to see him after a break from being at the allotments. Together with Trudy he made a good job of weeding and tidying the herb garden. The next job over in that corner will be to thin out the strawberries and get the fruit beds ready for next season.
Over in the wildlife area, the patch on the pond liner is doing it’s job and the water level is slowly rising. As you may recall, the pond was vandalised a couple of months ago and we had to try and effect a repair. Charlie’s efforts with the rubber patch and sealant seem to have done the trick. We now have to clear some of the oak leaves from the water.
Although as you can see, we have all been really busy, there are still plenty more jobs to do. We will be holding our first Saturday volunteering session on 6th December from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Anyone can come along and join us – just wear some old clothes and some sturdy shoes. Our aim for that day is to get the infrastructure for the Climate Change garden in place – so we’ll need to put up the trellis screen in front of the compost bins, plant the fruit trees and create our two new beds, bordered by boulders and stones – so it’s going to be a day of bending, lifting and carrying, but it will be good fun too. I hope as many people as possible can come and share the work – and the satisfaction – with us. If you’d like any more information about this, or our Wednesday volunteering sessions, email richard@wildernessfoundation.org.uk
I’ve put together a gallery of photos taken today, so that you can see how the site is being transformed. Thanks as always to all our volunteers for their hard work.
More news next month.
