Garden News - April 2025

We’ve had a perfect month at the garden with lots of welcome sunshine and cool temperatures to keep the plants from putting on too much growth too soon. Our salads in the poly-tunnel are superb and it’s been a joy to share out big bags of tasty leaves at the end of a shift. The volunteers have been busy sowing seeds to keep the food coming, and we’re planning to grow loads of flowers for the pollinators (and us).

Ann is nursing lots of tomato varieties in her sun-room, and her famous sweet-peas will be coming up when the frosts have finished.

This winter we trialled using the scythed hay from the orchard as a mulch on the beds, and it’s worked really well, keeping the soil damp and full of life until we’re ready to plant. This can be a bit of a slug hotel too, but so far we haven’t had a problem, and Kate has heard it’s a no slug year, so it must be true!

The fruit-trees are coming into full bloom and have been beautifully mulched by our groups to keep the grass down. Time will tell if our attempts to save the rabbit-damaged tree bark will work, but they are now all fenced and it seems to be keeping the bunnies at bay.

Paul Jolley caught a bit of footage of the barn owl on the wildlife camera in the tree-bog so we will put a platform up asap for it to use (and to keep the loo clean) They do a lot of poo!

We’ve had a lot of new volunteer enquiries as well as some lovely connections with community groups, so it’s looking like the Hub is going to be busy this year.

Water Harvesting

Lisa has done a great job researching and buying the solar watering unit for poly 1. It was successfully installed last year and we’re now putting the finishing touches with the lines and sprays into the beds. This will make a massive difference going forward as we can program the system to water at set times, and it’s using the rain-water harvest from our massive tank.

Hub news

Some of the outreach team from RHS Wisley came to see the garden last week and we’re hoping to collaborate with them on a new exciting project (watch this space).

Surrey Choices and Surrey Hills Society have been meeting with Helen to talk about bringing groups up to the garden to help with the Hub and to do gardening.

Scott Brownrigg Architects came up and took measurements for the new camp kitchen they’re designing for the Hub. We’re hoping to install a living roof and use mostly up-cycled materials. The architects would love to come and help build it too, so hopefully we’ll get that underway in the next few months.

John Draper from the Spoon Carving group has installed his beautiful sign onto the Hub and we’ll be installing the pottery artwork from Anamica’s group once the walls are completed. It’s starting to look pretty …

SCC have donated very generous funding as part of the Pitstop project, and this has enabled us to buy the stone to complete the plinths around the bottom of the wattle and daub sections. Many thanks to Blair Parrott and Mike Rowlands for making this happen.

Jane’s Family Gardening groups on the 1st Saturdays of the month provide a lovely space and opportunity for families to come and garden together.  With special thanks to the Jolley Family for their support and engagement during the past few months.

Jane is also co-facilitating some Women’s circles at the Hub to provide a friendly atmosphere for women to come together to connect, reflect, and support one another. (see events above).

Schools

We said farewell to the students from GHS and RGS who’ve been doing their community volunteering at Rosamund over the winter. Thanks to them and Tom Shimell, their teacher, for all the hard work. Hopefully, we will see them again next year.

The compost area is coming along slowly, with 3 bays completed so far, and Tony has made a lovely picket fence along the front.

Lastly, the Forest Garden area is starting to shape up (see update below) with a new woven edging, and we’re starting to plant perennial edibles around the trees that will hopefully provide new plants to share and grow.