Today's the day!

Just a quick post this morning. I'm full of excitement and anxiety today.  It's the official opening of the garden. Not my garden but the one we've been creating at the care home in St. Austell as part of the Creative Spaces project.  I haven't written about it here for some time because I've been able to blog about it on our website instead.  There is a link to the web page from this blog if you look down My Blog List on the right hand side.

After many months of hard landscaping, multiple shopping trips to various local nurseries and numerous planting sessions (not to mention the tears, sleepless nights, smiles, laughter, joy and pleasure along the way) the day has finally arrived!  I can't believe I slept so well last night; even so, I awoke this morning with a list of things to check going through my head.  Everyone will arrive this afternoon and we have the Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall opening it for us. It's not been easy getting the care home staff to take ownership of this garden, despite us getting them involved at every point along the way, including input into the design, but I think this will be the day that they do. I hope everyone has a great time despite the weather forecast of heavy showers (typical!) and I look forward to seeing lots more community events taking place in the new garden. I'll be posting about the event afterwards on our website if you're interested.

Care staff planting last September, under the watchful eye of
some residents

Mistaken Identity (also known as Not-Quite-Sure-What-The-Hell-I'm-Doing!)

Saxifraga Peniculata 'Rosea'! THAT'S the name of the pink flowering plant I posted a picture of in last week's blog.  Lord knows where I got the other one from...........Note to self:  check several websites and books when trying to ID a plant which has lost it's label; don't just go for the first one you see!  So with it finally named correctly it can carry on helping to keep the weeds at bay in my border and rockery by slowly spreading itself across the ground.  Useful little plant and extremely pretty - I think I'll look out for some more varieties to plant on the rockery.

Now correctly identified, the Saxifraga adds a spash of colour to
borders and banks in my garden

Thankfully I had a quick reply from my brother and his partner Dancin' Fool (who also has an arboricultural blog - The Green Man) last week about the damage to one of my apple trees; frost damage apparently.  Although not good news, I have to admit to being slightly relieved that it wasn't caused by any animal...I get all sorts in the garden; rabbits, badgers and foxes.  Anyway, here's his suggestions for looking after the tree.  I've copied this straight from his email:

a) wrap the damaged area in hessian and leave it on as long as necessary

b) 30g of 'Tate & Lyle' per 1 litre of water per 1 square metre - this will artificially provide the tree with sugars (that it would normally obtain from photosynthesis) and encourage fibrous root development. Do this once a month for the next 4-5 months and repeat again same time next year. You could also try it on your other newly planted trees (or anything else that's struggling and requires photosynthesis) The more fibrous roots that a young tree (plant) can develop, the healthier it will be and the more able it will be to fight off any secondary 'host specific' pests & diseases that may want to take advantage of the exposed wound. 

c) If the tree isn't staked, you should stake it (windward side) and place the ties around the wound area to relieve any structural stresses. 

d) Don't prune it (except to remove damaged, diseased twigs & leaves 

e) pray

c) is already taken care of; d) is fine because I haven't pruned it so that just leaves a) and b) to carry out and then rely heavily on a lot of e).

Saturday afternoon was spent at The Lost Gardens of Heligan with a group from the dementia project - Creative Spaces. Small groups of residents and staff from the care home spent a lovely couple of hours wandering around the Northern Gardens with young people and their parents from the community.  One lad was provided with a recording microphone by a local radio station so that he could record some of his conversations with one resident.  It's going to go out on the station's gardening programme shortly.  These two chaps have formed a bond over the past 18 months and it was a delight to come across them sitting on a bench on Flora's Green, just enjoying their surroundings; not chattering but sitting quietly, arms and hands linked.

Unfortunately, due to a bout of illness over Sunday I didn't get any work done in the garden at the weekend.  However, a short walk up to the top revealed that the brambles this year have been replaced with intermittent 'rugs' of Forget-Me-Nots, gatherings of Bluebells, Red Campion and Buttercups. I even discovered one tiny Wild Violet that was struggling towards the light through a clump of nettles.  Ah yes, the nettles return each year........little do they know that the strimmer is coming in for a clean up this weekend in preparation for much use!

Does anyone else have an invasion of Hairy Bittercress? I pull it out of the borders around the lawn every year and this year it's gone mad in the rest of the garden; particularly in the area beyond the vegetable garden.  Reading up on it, in Richard Mabey's 'Food For Free', I've discovered that you can actually eat the whole plant; I thought you could just eat the leaves.  According to the book it goes well with cream cheese (sorry Jane!).  It has beautiful, delicate flowers which can be appreciated either by getting on your hands and knees with a magnifying lens or, like me, using the super macro on your camera.  The seed pods protrude from within the flower and look as though the stem has pushed through and beyond the petals.  Even the slightest brush allows them to scatter their seeds on the wind......how helpful to us gardeners!

A small army of Hairy Bittercress; strim or salad?

Take a closer look; there's beauty in weeds

Have a wonderful Easter everyone and I hope you all have a great time outdoors (illnesses and weather permitting!).

Friends + Fresh Air = Fun!

I had a really enjoyable Saturday morning up at the care home as part of the dementia project.  With the garden redevelopment well under way I thought we'd get the residents and young people growing plants to go in it once it's finished.  There was quite a group of us; staff, residents, young people from the local school and one of the relatives, whose a gardener, ran the session and had us sowing seeds, pricking out and potting on.  Obviously tea, juice and biscuits were involved, and with the sun shining and a slight breeze we spent a great few hours outside as a group of friends, laughing, chatting and helping each other. You can't help but come away from those moments feeling positive and proud.

I came home and got stuck into transplanting my own small plants, from seed trays to small pots and then moving them out into the mini greenhouse.  Was I inspired by the morning session? I guess so!  I spend a lot of time in my garden by myself.  Not that I mind, I find it's a place where I can think whilst I'm busy with my hands and gardening is very good for the soul of course. But I think the time that we spend with friends outside are some of the best times we have.  Whether it's in each others gardens or a day out together these times are often creative, inspirational and fun. I look forward to having many more of these days during this project.

So, how are my plants doing?  Well, the second lot of cauliflowers are looking better than the first; only 3 survived from the first batch. I'm not sure what killed off the first ones, so as a precaution against slugs and snails I've battened down the sides of the little greenhouse with planks of wood underneath which I've buried the 'skirt' of the greenhouse and then packed the wood in tight with soil and straw. If anything crawls over the wood it's only going to come across the plastic barrier. In addition to that, I've also sprinkled some anti-slug granules around the edge of the greenhouse - see if that works.  That's the theory at least!

An almost full 'greenhouse' housing sweetcorn, broccoli, leeks,
cauliflower,tomatoes, a couple of sad-looking brussel sprout plants
and a tray of, what I believe are Asters

I took a wander up beyond the vegetable area to look at the apple trees this weekend.  The two Sunsets are in full bloom and look amazing. At least double the flowers on them this year than last, despite the fact that I left half a dozen on last year just to taste my first home-grown apples! Not so the Plympton Pippins.  One has a few flowers on it and the other has nothing at all.  Oh dear! what's going on there?  To add to my disappointment I've found some bark damage on the one that has a few flowers on it. Not sure what that is but I've put in a plea to my friend Dancin' Fool who also runs a blog called The Green Man and her partner Mr. Dancin' (my brother!) to identify what the problem is and what may have caused it.

A Sunset apple tree in full bloom; planted last year

Not such good news for one of my Plympton Pippins
 - what's been having a go at this?

No more has been done to the fence around the raised beds.  Sadly that's going to have to wait until next pay day before I can get any more wire mesh.  Fingers crossed it won't be too long before it's finished and I can get some seeds sown into the ground, as well as getting my greenhouse plants actually into the ground. I don't want to miss the growing season another year.

I'm going to end this post with some lovely pics of flowering plants that are growing well in the garden at the moment.  Always end of a good note!

The first bluebells appear

Dainty Bleeding Hearts

Lost the label for this one but I think it's an Eridium

Forget-me-nots are in abundance this year due to full-on strimming
of The Field last year!

Pallets and plums

I've been bringing home pallets from work again. They're incredibly useful if you're trying to redevelop a garden and can be used for all sorts of projects such as raised beds (although I did buy mine in kit form), hen houses and even garden table and chairs.  Check out this great inspirational book called 'Build It.....with Pallets' if you're looking for ideas for your own garden or have some spare pallets you want to use for something other than firewood. Another great place to find ideas for projects in the garden is the Gardeners World website. I built my first compost bin using instructions from there; now it's time to build a second. The idea is to create one heap whilst having another that is ready for use.  In theory I should always have plenty of good compost ready for the garden. So, if you ever spot any pallets lying around in building sites, factory yards or garden centres it's worth asking if they're going spare.

On a serious note, I stress the importance of asking very strongly!  Some pallets belong to delivery companies who'll want them back so don't just take pallets if you see them lying around - always ask first!


Once the compost bin is done then I'll turn my attention to constructing a log store behind the shed. I've never done that before either but it can't be much harder than constructing the compost bin.  I bought logs from a local supplier this winter - good logs too, a mixture of soft and hard wood fully seasoned.  But with the winter we've had he was in short supply so I'm thinking about starting to collect wood earlier this year and storing it so that it can finish seasoning through the year ready for this winter.  Plus any additional pallets I get can be broken down and used as kindling instead of buying it in bags.  Hopefully I'll save money on heating next winter that way and if I can find a local gardener or tree surgeon whose looking to get rid of excess wood, then even better!

In the midst of all this pallet procurement, I've planted my first leek and cauliflower seeds in trays and they're growing on the windowsill in the spare bedroom at the moment.  I went to check on them the other day and the cauliflowers are just beginning to show tiny shoots above the compost.  Ok, so this probably isn't the most exciting news for people who've been growing veg for years but as it's my first attempt I'm full of anticipation to see if I can grow them successfully.  

fingers crossed! 

First things first though - the rabbit proof fence.  Not the brilliantly made Australian movie but the one that's got to secure the raised beds from rabbits and other such pests in the garden.  I need to crack on with this sooner rather than later and planting the seeds has given me the incentive I needed.  So this weekend I've put the posts in to mark the area, using the back edge of the raised beds as one boundary and leaving enough space so that once the wire is up I can still get in with a wheelbarrow.  Having measured it all out it looks like I'm going to need around 18.5m of wire mesh around the beds!  Think I'll do some research on costs on the internet this week!

I'll be putting a seed cloche/mini greenhouse  in this area too.  I bought one last year and it's been sitting in my shed ever since.  It's about time it came out of its box and was made use of!

posts marking position for wire mesh fencing

I'm going to use a thick wire mesh fence rather than chicken wire; I learnt a valuable lesson when I used wire mesh around my young apple trees to protect them against the rabbits.  I used normal sized wire mesh and something (maybe not a rabbit?) still had a go at biting through the wire, so I added a second layer which seems to have kept pests at bay so far.  This time I'll be buying thicker wire mesh.

Clearing back the hedgerow has also begun with the cutting back of an overgrown Box shrub. I'll cut it right back to just a few inches above the ground and hopefully it will come back without any problem so that I can re-shape it and maintain its growth. I won't do much more to the hedges in the garden at the moment, not with Spring just around the corner but I have future plans to add some flowering shrubs where there are large gaps in the hedge on the right side of the garden and lay the ash and hazel hedge on the left side. I've asked my neighbours if they mind me managing their boundary hedge and (funnily enough) there's no objection.

A new wine is on the go as well.  Last year I made my very first home made wine - elderberry. I don't usually blow my own trumpet but it was a lovely wine to drink - very light and fruity. I was very proud of it and it was lovely to give to family and friends as a Christmas present. I was given the recipe by a friend of mine who makes wine in gallons.  Then my 'Secret Santa' present  this Christmas was a wine book with 130 wine-making recipes which should keep me busy for years. So I decided to have a go at making plum wine; just a gallon in case it turns out to be undrinkable and more useful as a drain cleaner!  The instructions are quite different from my friend's so I'll see if the one in the book produces as good a wine.  I should have a verdict in about 3 months.

Oops! this post has been up for about 3 days before I realised that a whole paragraph had gone missing at the end.  Otherwise these final photos don't make any sense!  They're images taken of the garden redevelopment which is part of the dementia project I'm involved with at work.  I mentioned a short while ago that the contractor was starting the garden and after 3 weeks we're beginning to see the new layout take shape. It's really caught the attention of the staff and residents at the home.  With the transference of top soil from the front garden to this courtyard garden it's beginning to catch the eye of the public as they pass too.......the first time in almost 2 years that I've seen anyone look at the building!  So here are just a few images to show what's been going on so far.

First the conservatory came down to make room for a canopy

Then the overcrowding shrubs came out to open up the views

Next, the slabbed pavement was removed

In goes hardcore and top soil for new paths, lawn and borders

Phew..it's been a busy time both at work and at home. That's all folks!(for now)

Holly and Ivy

Blimey, no blog for over 3 weeks!  Where has the time gone? I mean, I know what I've been doing but are we really only a week away from Christmas?

I've spent the last couple of weekends walking in woods collecting anything on the ground that I could use for a Christmas-themed activity for people with dementia.  So I've been going out and coming back with bags of ivy, holly, berries, cones, conifer leaves.  I had to buy mistletoe from the garden centre (well everyone's entitled to a little peck at Christmas!) and ribbon, cranberries and other bits and pieces from the shop but everything else was outdoors.  The idea being that we were going to make outdoor Christmas decorations together of stars, wreaths and garlands and food garlands for the birds. .  I say "were" because I've just spent the last week off work with the flu and had to cancel the activity - great timing!

Still the walks were lovely; I wandered first through Kingswood near Pentewan where you can usually guarantee finding broken conifer branches lying on the ground close to the entrance.  It's a steep-sided wood with plenty of tracks that you can choose to go exploring off the main hard path.  You have to be observant when picking things up though; it's a popular dog-walking area and there's always a few dog owners who give everyone a bad name by not picking up the dog mess!  Then the following week I drove up to the viaduct in the Luxulyan Valley, taking the other two members of the Tywardreath Gardening Team with me, where we wandered along through the wood finding lots of fallen berries, moss-covered wood and whole 'ropes' of ivy hanging from the trees.  Luxulyan Valley is a World Heritage Site due to the industrial remains of a copper mine owned by Joseph Treffy in the 1800s.  You can follow the old leats and find hidden man-made waterfalls and mysterious machinery parts throughout the woods.  Enough of the history, here are some photos I took along both walks.

main route through Kingswood

off the beaten track - Kingswood

Aaah, good sign of a cold winter!

Luxulyan Valley - top level walk from the viaduct

No toe-dipping this time of year!

end of the man made watercourse

 

Python? in Cornwall?? Just an odd-shaped fallen branch caught up in the trees.........................or is it?!

Work has been busy this month but we've managed to fit in the annual Christmas sing-song in the office,  and a day for our Sensory Trust team to have our own Christmas 'party'.  This year we all got together at a colleague's house and made lots (and I means LOTS) of gingerbread shapes to give out to people we've enjoyed working with this year.  Various offspring came and joined in too and together we rolled out the dough, made shapes (including several crocodiles, a goat, a sheep and a Phoenix bird!), baked and went completely mad with icing pens, silver balls and chocolate and candy decorations.  Great fun!  You can see some images on our work's Facebook page if you're interested.

Thankfully the bout of flu finally dissipated this weekend and I spent a lovely afternoon in the garden yesterday.  We've only a smattering of snow here so I was able to get up into the field and cut some logs in the sunshine before collapsing back on the sofa with the realisation that perhaps I'm not quite back to full health just yet and that I really ought to get a good bow saw as soon as possible!

This isn't snow that's leftover; this is as much as we've had so far

Evidential footprints; rabbits have been eyeing up my apples trees!

at least there's food for the birds

one single, tiny Cinquefoil growing on the path caught my eye

Today I went for a walk in the nearby woods that are at the opposite end of Luxulyan Valley to the viaduct, following a route that follows an old railway track (there's that industrial heritage again!) through the woods and out along by the river and local railway line.  There's a lot to see in the Luxulyan Valley; if you've never visited you should next time you're in Cornwall.

by foot, by boat, by train 

old railway line now provides a route for walkers

                                         

                                                    old railway route passes underneath Par - Newquay branch line

coming out of the woods to the riverside walk

Anyway, the walk must've done me a lot of good because I've had more energy today.  I don't think I could've coped with the 'bird' incident otherwise. Oh yes, Jasper the Giant Killer went out to hone his ninja stalking skills and came back dragging a live bird through both cat flaps and into the kitchen.  The poor thing, a female blackbird, was dragged in shrieking and flapping.  She managed to get away from him and fly from the kitchen through the living room to rest on top of the curtain poles, having left a series of, well lets just say 'messages' across the floor, on my sofa and all down the curtains!  Nice!

Jasper was promptly removed (whilst he was still trying to get various feathers from around his mouth) and my next door neighbour, whose over 6 ft and very handy at getting things that I can't reach, was equally promptly fetched to catch the bird.  Thankfully, it wasn't hurt and was swiftly released over the fence outside whilst Jasper looked on confused and wondering why the early Christmas present had been rejected!

Having washed the curtains, I've spent the afternoon baking.  Home made presents for the neighbours as well as biscuits and chocolates for Christmas, although I may have to make more because the white chocolate, cranberry and roasted hazelnut cookies are mighty fine if I say so myself.  Thankfully the chocolate isn't yet set enough for me to make the Cointreau truffles, otherwise it's highly likely that they won't last until next weekend either!   It's all Quality Control, honest!

I'm spending Christmas at home in Cornwall this year, with various friends and then hope to see the family before, or after, New Year; depending on the weather.   Wherever you're spending your Christmas and New Year I hope it's with good people, good food and the odd tipple of something warming and I hope you spend this festive time sharing laughter and memories and making many more new ones!

Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year xx

Bulb planting

Had such a great morning yesterday.  Myself and a couple of friends from work hosted a bulb planting session at the care home where we're working with residents with dementia.  We'd gathered a group of the residents, care staff, relatives, young people and others from the community to plant a mixture of daffodils, crocuses, lilacs, tulips and Glory-of-the-snow in the garden.  Turf squares had already been cut in advance so that we didn't waste too much time and could get straight into planting the bulbs.

It was just so great to see the residents looking forward to being outside.  Because the outer garden area of the home has open access to the road, they spend very little time in their garden.   This is something we are changing as part of the project; demonstrating to the care staff that time spent outside is so important to people's well-being that it shouldn't be seen as an 'add on' to their normal daily routines, and by that I mean for both the residents and themselves.  

It only took about an hour and a half to do the planting but that was long enough for the residents and they were quite ready to go back inside once we'd finished.  So many rosy cheeks, so much conversation and laughter.  It felt just like it was, a morning spent with friends in the sunshine, doing something fun that would give us more enjoyment in the months to come.

One resident (I'll just call her 'R') is an ex-marathon runner and has been known to run off down the street when taken outside before, even making it difficult for fit and healthy care staff to catch her!  The care staff weren't keen on bringing R out to participate because of the risk of her running off, but we persuaded them to try and it was so worthwhile that we did.  She didn't once make a run towards the entrance, she was too busy enjoying herself in the garden, chatting with the member of staff who was planting with her and watching others planting their bulbs.  After R had planted all her bulbs, she asked to go back in for a cup of tea, and as she passed me she had the biggest grin on her face that I knew it had been worth it.

Another resident was a very keen gardener when he was younger.  E is 90 now and has been a bit of star in the project.  He's given radio interviews and had his picture in the paper, talking about his days as a gardener and how his favourite flower is  the Chrysanthemum which he used to grow for competitions.  E's eyesight is very poor and he can't bend down far these days, but we weren't going to let that reduce the level of his involvement.  Working with the guidance of a youngster he planted a whole row of bulbs.  It was a bit like watching an episode of 'The Golden Shot' (remember that game show?), with the young lad calling "Left a bit, right a bit" until E had his hand right over the hole then he'd drop the bulbs in and his assistant would cover them over.  They talked together as they planted and walked around the garden.  I think they're building up a real friendship, and it doesn't matter if E doesn't remember his helper the next time they meet - he'll feel a familiarity with the young lad that will make him feel safe and comfortable in his company.

You see, we're as bad at wrapping older people with dementia up in cotton wool as we are our kids these days.  We assume that people with dementia are unable to do so many things and yet when we let them take the lead (letting them know that there's support available should they need it), they show us that they're more capable than we think they are.  Particularly when it comes to being creative or using skills that they're familiar with.

Isn't it time we took the stabilisers off their bikes and allowed them to wobble a bit?  Because if we did, the obvious look of joy on their faces would put a smile on ours too.  Sometimes a risk is worth taking.

  

Garden Memories

The foliage all around the garden and in the woods across the road are shouting "Hi!, it's Autumn!! I love this time of the year. Those colours! not to mention the numerous opportunities to shuffle through piles of leaves; who can resist?  Here at home, I have a great view of the woods on the opposite side of the valley, particularly from the top of The Field. At this time of year, if you get a good sunrise, there's an explosion of oranges, reds and yellows as the sun hits the trees.  I've not yet managed to take a decent photo of this but if you look at this photo and imagine it being much better in quality and colour, you'll get some idea of what I'm talking about.

This will be the first autumn that I'll be able to get into the field.  In previous years I've concentrated on creating the lawn and borders and haven't had time to do much to the field - especially with the last two wet summers we've had - hence the photos of tall weeds and wildflowers in my slideshow.  But this year I've managed to keep on top of the strimming and it'll be great to get into the field properly and see the colours change in my own garden.  Hopefully I can have one or two bonfires. That smell of burning wood takes me straight back to my childhood and grandpa's garden where he'd have a bonfire after pruning the roses and raking up the dead leaves.

I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't have a memory of time spent in a garden.  Whether it's a childhood memory of playing with friends, building dens, planting seeds or of your first family garden watching your own children playing with the dog or running around on a hot summers day with the hosepipe on!

Garden memories are playing a big part in my work at the moment.  I'm involved in a project that is re-connecting older people with dementia, living in care homes, with their communities.  Using the outdoor environment at the care home as the place to create those opportunities through activities and events.  I've spent hours talking to residents, finding out what elements and features make a good garden, how it makes them feel (in it's present state) and how they would like to use it if they could make more use of it.  I've involved care staff and relatives to find out how the garden can support their work or make their visits more meaningful.   The stories and memories that have been shared show just how much we are all connected to the outdoor environment and nature, even if we lose our short term memory or are unaware of that connection during our hectic, daily lives.  We feel more relaxed when we've spent time in the garden, we sleep better when we've had a few hours out in the fresh air.  We go for walks to be on our own, to 'sort our heads out', make life-changing decisions or to spend time with people who are important in our lives, sharing our favourite places with them and making new memories all the time.

I spent yesterday afternoon with a group residents from a couple of the care homes involved in the project, all with dementia, and their care staff.  Friday afternoon we carved pumpkins together with some local children; making silhouettes of bats, moons and stars, cats and Jack o' lantern faces.  Conversations struck up about who had or hadn't tasted pumpkin soup, about who's had the scariest face or the most pointed teeth or the best bat outline! Yesterday, we took those pumpkins to Trerice, a National Trust property near Newquay, where we entered them into a 'Best Carved Pumpkin' Competition.  First, Second and Third prizes all went to delighted residents and they received a jar of pumpkin chutney and a bag of daffodils each.  We had a quick wander around before the rain drove us in to the Tea Room (not much persuasion was needed to get them into there!).  We'll be planting the bulbs shortly in the garden at the home.  Hopefully some of the relatives and people in the community will get involved as well.

This morning I finally got time to carve my own pumpkin which was very quickly joined by a pumpkin that's either manically depressed or is based on The Scream! Carved beautifully by my friend and fellow blogger Envirobitch who's over from Australia at the moment.  They'll be out on the windowsill later scaring small children but hopefully not causing the traffic to swerve or brake!

Happy Howloween one and all!