Rosamund Community Garden News May 2026

Dear all

Welcome to this month’s community garden news update!

📅EVENTS AT THE GARDEN

🌍Monday, 11th May, 9:30 am to 11:00 am - A visit from the Eco Club at Merrow Infant School (closed group with Jane)

🏗️Wednesday, 13th May - Galliford Try - Corporate Volunteering Day (closed group)

🥄 Weekend of 6th/7th June - Guildford Spoon Club in the Hub. Contact Guildford Spoon Club for details (invitation only)

🍃Wednesday, 10th June, 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm - Wild Food Walk at Rosamund - TICKETS

🌿Saturday, 13th June, 10:00 am to 12:00 pm - Introduction to Gardening Workshop with Lynne. Session 3 » TICKETS

🔥Thursday, 25th June - Women’s Campfire Singing at Rosamund (TBC)

🦋Saturday, 27th June, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm - Family Nature Connection session with Jane, a perfect event for families to slow down, explore, and enjoy meaningful time together outdoors » RESERVE A SPOT

🧱Sunday, 28th June, 10:00 am to 2:00 pm - Natural Rendering Workshop at the Hub - (all welcome)

🌍EVENTS AT ZERO GUILDFORD » CLICK

🐌GARDEN UPDATE

by Clare Millington

May is set to be a busy month as we sow our beans and salads and brassicas; harden off our outside tomatoes and squash and clear out the salads in poly 1 ready for the indoor tomatoes and cucumbers.

Using no-dig methods, we are covering areas of the garden with cardboard, and using that to do our weeding. When we’re ready to plant, we peel back the cover and have lovely damp soil to support the new seedlings.

This year we’re going for a cottage garden effect with lots of flowers among the veg to attract the pollinators. 

We have also had a lot of corporate groups booking in for volunteer days, so we can really tackle some of the bigger jobs, where we need many hands.

The orchard trees are looking really healthy and we’re crossing our fingers that our efforts have paid off after the rabbit damage from  last year.

The new kiwi vines look really great so far, so watch this space for our first crop on the corner trellis.

In the fruit-cage, Kate is trialling new brassica beds in the gaps and just keeping the grass low around the base of each fruit-bush. This is to encourage bio diversity into the soil, which in turn will nourish the plants. This also means we rarely need to water and have resilient plants.

Garden workshop

We had a great day for our second gardening workshop with Lynne. The focus was on seedlings and potting-on techniques, and the group had a lovely time practising in the garden and learning to make their own compost teas. 

Many questions were answered and lots of ideas and experiences were shared.

One of the best bits was sharing our perennial plants with the group to take home for their gardens.

Sharing and swapping plants and seeds is a perfect way to grow our knowledge and expand the diversity in our growing spaces, as well as providing an opportunity to make new friends and communities.

This month we were pleased to swap some of our tomato plants with Rob Stringer, who provides lots of his coppiced stakes for our garden supports.

The Hub

Cobbing Season off to a Great Start at Rosamund

VERY excitingly, we are now within an inch of completing the cobbing of the Hub. On Sunday 3^rd May Helen led a keen group of all ages, making use of our donated clay from Clandon Burial Ground and tackling the last remaining sections above the doorways and plugging gaps that have arisen as other cobbed sections have dried out. Thank you to all the cobbers for a lovely day together in the Garden!

Watch out for our next session on June 28^th when we will get started with the next phase! Rendering to add extra waterproofing and durability to our walls. 

Meanwhile, Malcolm has finished the bamboo guttering on the Hub and is just putting the finishing touches to the water-butts to make sure we have lots of water over the summer. He’s also knocked up a great back-plate for the wood-burner! 

We have given him a plum tree to say thank you.

🐌FAMILY NATURE SESSIONS

by Jane Tyson

There was a lovely, gentle rhythm to this April’s session.

Some of our younger children got fully immersed in the mud kitchen, mixing, creating and playing so beautifully together.

Meanwhile, the adults paused with a cup of rosemary tea and a chance to simply be.

A real highlight was when Jess shared her award-winning poem, entered into her secondary school competition. Out of 60 entries, she was chosen as the winner. A special moment for us all to listen and celebrate together. Congratulations, Jess.

Paul Jolley also made the most of the time while his son Daniel played, checking on the garden wildlife camera and adding a few more holes to his wonderful handmade bee posts.

Join us for our next Family Nature Session on Saturday 27th June, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm » TICKETS 

👩🏻‍🌾MAY JOBS AT THE GARDEN

• Water when dry in poly tunnels

• Harden off squash and outside tomatoes when ready.

• Sow peas and salads

• Mow paths when needed

• Harvest remaining salads from poly 1 (and chards/herbs from beds)

• Clear and mulch poly 1

🌼PLANT OF THE MONTH - BUTTERCUP

by Helen Harris

In May, Buttercups are coming into their height – easily recognisable to most of us with their glossy, pollen loaded bright yellow flowers that reflect light onto the chins of butter-lovers. But did you know there are four types of buttercup and can you tell them apart? 

Goldilocks buttercup (Ranunculus auricomus agg.) has petals that are lax and much more open than the other common buttercup species creating a golden yellow ring of petals around the prominent round dome of the flower centre. Its name means golden haired head. This species likes shady spots and is usually the first to appear in Spring and is considered a good indicator for species-rich habitats and long-established woodlands.  

Goldilocks flowers often have one or more missing or deformed petals, making them appear a bit dishevelled and this is often an easy way to identify them.  It has slender stems and long, narrow leaves at the base of the flower stem that are more diagnostic.  Goldilocks is also unusual in that it is apomictic (meaning that reproduction is asexual without fertilization).

Bulbous Buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus) tends to appear next and is typically found in dry, well-drained soils, such as those in chalk or limestone grasslands. Its bulb-like base stores nutrients, enabling it to cope with drought conditions and flower earlier than creeping and meadow buttercups, providing an early nectar source for pollinators in spring. You don’t need to dig it up to identify it however, as it is probably the easiest buttercup to identify as the flowers have what is termed ‘reversed’ sepals, where rather than the sepal lying under the petals, they are turned backwards and point down the flower stem. 

Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens) Creeping buttercup is the most common buttercup. It is found in damp places on grassland, along woodland and field edges and river banks. Its characteristic runners allow it to spread rapidly, making it a nuisance to some in cultivated areas. However, its low-growing habit provides ground cover and stabilises soil, reducing erosion in wetland environments. This buttercup  has medium sized hairy leaves divided into three lobes with frayed edges. 

Meadow Buttercup (Ranunculus acris) are the giants of the buttercup world and can grow up to 100cm in rich pastures, although more usually they are around 40 - 60cm tall, flowering well above the grass canopy.  The sepals are formed in a normal manner under the petals making it easy to distinguish them from the Bulbous Buttercup.  The leaves are palmate and deeply cut with the end lobe always unstalked which, together with the branched flower sprays, are the most certain way to distinguish it from a Creeping Buttercup. As its name implies, the Meadow buttercup is somewhat toxic, causing stomach upset if ingested and its sap can cause blisters if rubbed into the skin. 

Sources

Wildlife Trust Totally Wild UK

🎟️JOINING INFO

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We look forward to seeing you in the garden soon.

The Rosamund Team