Pollinator Patch
The FLAG pollinator patch started last year has been surprisingly floriferous. Photos in July showed it as its best . It’s now a bit bedraggled as you would expect, but close inspection shows lots of late germinating seedlings ready for next spring and loads of fallen seed. Overall, it’s exceeded my expectations so far. Thanks again to all who contributed labour, seeds and plants.
The overhanging aged elder bough was brought down in the wind a few weeks ago, and has been cleared up. It turns out to have been rotten up the middle. Fortuitously, this will let in more light next year. The northern end of the patch has been extended right up to the lilac tree, to be seeded after Christmas.
Various people have volunteered small areas to turn into Pollinator Patches which have been cleared ready for next year, including one at the end of the BBQ area, next to the frog ponds. We have quite a good supply of seed collected from allotments and the existing Polly Patch, but if you have any different sorts you would like to add, please leave them in the Clubhouse and email Nigel (GaleNigel@gmail.com) so he can pick them up.
There are a couple of further candidate Polly Patches, but please email Nigel if you have further ideas.
BBQ Area
Old boys who enjoy destructive enhancement dismantled, cut up and recycle the ancient metalwork on the BBQ site, spurred on by the magnificent new fence, and have since cleared up the mixed debris. Brian keeps the grass well cut and tidy.
Enhancement Ideas - some of which have been started already – include patching the leaky frog pond; making a beetle bank from excavated turfs; ‘valuing’ the wood pile / green debris pile for its nature friendliness (Just love that ‘reason’ for leaving things as they are); clearing along by the fence for seeding of Hollyhocks and anything else that will survive extreme heat and drought; making a path to use up discovered stones, bricks and concrete lumps. Maybe a bench for tired bodies, in due course.
There are hopes of planting a Clematis, a Fig and a Plum (for training better than that facing the end of Thornton Street). And we are still open to ideas. Someone – thank you whoever you are – has recently added a shrub that is probably a strawberry tree.
Does anyone have a spare Clematis, Fig or Plum fit for training? It would be a great feeling if we can recycle a spare rather than buying in.
Compost Heaps and Wood Pile
The communal compost heaps we have built at the town and garage ends of the site are filling up fast. The first usable bay of compost from the garage end has now been sieved and spread on various plots. So do continue to fill the bays as signposted at either location. We plan to turn the full bays soon.
Please ensure any prunings or unwanted wood (rotting pallets, etc but not creosoted or treated wood as this cannot be burnt safely) are placed in the bay at the right-hand end of those at the garage end of the site ready for the next site bonfire. Wood will not compost down quickly enough. When sieving the material from the first bay a lot of twigs, brambles and roots were found to be mixed in with the compost.
Nigel Gale
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