Welcome to December’s garden update.

First, our annual wreath-making workshop was a great success and some stunning willow wreaths were created.

Thanks to all those who attended, and supported the garden with their donations.

We raised a healthy £250 towards our projects.  Enjoy this little video of the day ⬇️

🗓️ DECEMBER EVENT AT THE GARDEN

🀩Winter Solstice, Thursday 21st December, 8:00 pm

We will be gathering to celebrate the solstice with a cosy fire and some mulled drinks and mince pies. If you’d like to join us, simply turn up with something to share. Fingers crossed for dry weather.

📍EVENTS OFFSITE

In collaboration with ZERO Carbon Guildford and Guildford Environmental Forum in this section, we share upcoming events organised by Sarah Davis, their Environmental Events Co-ordinator ⬇️

🐸Toads On The Roads: "Love Is In The Air" Tuesday 16th January 7.30 pm at St Nicholas Church Hall, Millmead Terrace, Guildford GU2 4AW

Spring is just around the corner, how you can help your local toad patrols - An engaging interactive talk from Regena Coult, Surrey Amphibian and Reptile Group in conjunction with Shamley Green Environment Group. Tickets » HERE

⭐VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT - MEET ANN

My daughter Kate introduced me to the garden 10 years ago when I moved back to Surrey. I now go regularly 2 afternoons a week and it’s given me so much.

I’ve met such interesting and friendly people, learnt an enormous amount about growing and caring for the soil and about the wildlife.

I’m involved in the annual seed ordering and since buying a greenhouse, raise the seedlings for planting up at the garden. I’ve also joined the garden committee and love being a part of the decision-making at Rosamund.

I’ve found peace up at the garden and enjoy working with the seasons under the stunning skies.

There are such a variety of tasks and jobs to keep me occupied eg planting, weeding, watering, and even shed clearing. It’s helped my fitness and flexibility noticeably.

Ann is our eldest volunteer and an example to us all. Thank you for all your hard work ❤️

📰GARDEN NEWS FROM CLARE

After the busy November, December is a relatively quiet month at the garden. Most of the plants, trees, and insects have gone into hibernation and it’s a time of reflection and planning.

We can now take the time to prune some fruit bushes and trees to promote healthy growth for the spring. Mulching around the bases with the lovely composts Kate has made this year will help provide nutrients and suppress weed growth.

We can also take cuttings from the fruit bushes to make more plants for the garden, they root readily and will fruit within a couple of years!

The berries on the trees are amazing this winter with fantastic holly and rose hips among many other stars. The old saying is they are a sign of a hard winter, so let’s hope for some lovely snow at some point, but also to support the birds and wildlife with nutritious food to help them through tough times.

We’re nearly at the solstice where the days start to lengthen again and we can look forward to the changes that brings.

🐮Surrey Wildlife Trust Cattle

The boys are back in town! This year we have 10 three-year-old Belted Galloways grazing the meadows below the garden. The Rosamund volunteers are enjoying checking these gentle giants daily, to make sure they’re ok.

It’s lovely to walk down through the back gate and watch them doing their thing, but please don’t be tempted to make contact as they need to maintain a bit of natural wariness to protect them from danger.

🔒Gate News

We are making progress with the new gate, we’ve made tracks for the gates to open on, and the next stage will be to attach the wheels (to make them easy to open and close), the hurdles and the new sign. This will make access to the garden both easier and more welcoming, as well as make us more visible from the footpath.

🌿PLANT OF THE MONTH - “YELLOW RATTLE” WRITTEN BY HELEN 

This November we have had another go at seeding our orchard area with Yellow Rattle, kindly supported by Buglife and the helpful Louis Harrington Edmans.

Yellow Rattle is widely considered to be the best wildflower to sow into a chalk meadow if you wish to encourage the natural re-colonisation of a greater diversity of native perennial wildflowers, which in turn bring about a greater diversity of insects. This is because yellow rattle is "hemi-parasitic" on the roots of the faster growing grasses, such as rye grass, and other nitrogen loving plants such as clovers. Hemi-parasitic means that the yellow rattle draws some of its energy from attaching itself to the roots of other plants and some from its own photosynthesis.

Although we think of adding nitrogen to our gardens and soils as a good thing for fertility, ecosystems such as chalk grasslands do better with less and many receive too much from atmospheric pollution in rainfall, causing the "wrong" plants to take over.

Some meadows will also have been seeded with fast-growing grasses in the past for grazing purposes. Yellow rattle can suppress the grasses and clovers by up to 60% creating space for the slower-growing wildflowers which prefer nutrient-poor soils. 

However, yellow rattle is notoriously difficult to get to grow where you want it on demand! Last year we had a go at establishing it by scarifying a few areas of the orchard and applying some handfuls of seed we had gathered from plants in the larger Rosamund field. No germination happened, but we subsequently learned we may have planted too late (February) for the seeds to be exposed to several hard frosts and that we may have left the seed too long before planting - it needs to be super fresh. 

Undeterred, this year we have had another go with some professional support. Mike kindly scythed the orchard, leaving his picturesque swaths of cut grass in place for a few weeks to mulch the grass beneath. These were then cleared and the lines scarified further by hand using hoes and rakes.  We were now ready for sowing! Louis rushed us over some fresh seed and helped us scatter and stamp it into our lines of earth. We were blessed with rainbows and enough dry moments to sow before a subsequent downpour which should have watered in our seeds nicely. Now to hope for a hard winter and clement spring and the emergence of the yellow rattle next May. All my fingers and toes are crossed. 

As ever, thank you to every volunteer who lent a hand to this arduous but rewarding process, and especially to Mike and Louis. We will report back next summer...

COMMUNITY PROJECT NEWS

🐝December Bee Update by Peter Smith

“Nothing really to say on the bee front. Snoozing peacefully I hope...”

🔨DECEMBER JOBS AT THE GARDEN

• Clearing the tool shed and cleaning/tidying the tools

• Edging and weeding the beds

• Cutting down the raspberry canes and weaving them into the teepee composts

• Make new teepee composts around the garden

🌳GARDEN VOLUNTEER GROUP SESSIONS

We have regular groups on Tuesday and Sunday from 2.00 pm - to 4.00 pm and Friday from 10.00 am - 12.00 pm so if you want to come and garden together, just turn up. If you are in our WhatsApp group, please also use this to check if people are in the garden for a session.

💰MEMBERSHIP 

The Rosamund Community Garden shares a membership system with Guildford Environmental Forum for joining info please email [email protected]

Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2024 🎄

November’s Update