Rosamund Community Garden Update December 2024

a wildlife garden for the community in Guildford, Longdown Road, GU4 8PP

Hello and welcome to December’s garden update.

First,

📅UPCOMING EVENTS AT THE GARDEN

  • Sunday 5th January - 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm Tree Planting for our Forest Garden at the garden, weather permitting, all welcome.

  • Sunday 12th January - 11:00 am to 12:30 pm AGM Join us at the Horse and Groom in Merrow. You are also invited for lunch after…

  • Sunday 26th January - 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm Winter Wassail a fun gathering in the garden for members only. A Wassail is an Anglo-Saxon tradition of blessing an orchard for a good harvest, involving decorating a tree, singing, poetry & cider! Bring a spoon and a pot to chase the 'evil spirits' away, and help to bless our orchard. Maybe you'll be our King & Queen?

  • Saturday 1st February, 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm, Family Nature Connection session with Jane Tyson - £20 per family, register your interest HERE

  • Sunday 9th February - 11:00 am to 1:00 pm BIG JOB Sunday at the garden, job tbc

🌍EVENTS AT ZERO GUILDFORD » CLICK

🌱GARDEN NEWS

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We kicked off December with our wonderful wreath-making workshop, which was fully booked, and this year we welcomed a lovely group of women and children to learn how to make natural wreaths from our willow and foraged foliage.

The weather was a bit drizzly so everyone ended up in the Hub, which felt really cheery, with mince pies and Helen’s delicious mulled apple juice.

Connections were made and ideas were shared, and some glorious wreaths resulted.

The guys from Guildford Andy’s Man Club (a men’s mental health support group) have been coming to the garden over the past weeks to help us with the Hub. It’s been a real pleasure to welcome them to Rosamund, and they’ve really pushed the project forward—hanging the doors and putting in the supports around the roof. They’ve also cleared the collapsed dome structure away and are planning a lovely fire circle and meeting space.

The team from Surrey County Council mental health have been making a film about the benefits of volunteering for projects like Rosamund, to spread the word on the benefits of working in groups and gardening for wellbeing. We’ll share the result when it’s completed, and look out for our Mike talking about the joy of scything!

The Guildford Spoon Club had their first meeting at the Hub, and despite the cold, reported a successful evening. They have donated a few lovely spoons for the garden and we have commissioned one of our lovely DofE students to make a bit of artwork with some of them.

Helen and Clare visited the pottery class at the Adult Institute in Guildford to collect the wonderful pieces they had made for the garden. We were bowled over by the fantastic array of art they had made—a gorgeous plaque of combined work to go on the Hub and lots of separate pieces that will be placed in and around it. Many thanks to Anamica Vince, who led the project. We can’t wait to see them installed in the Spring.

Our hibernaculum project was a real communal work, started by the students from RGS and GHS and contributed to by various volunteers. The school group did a fab job of creating the earth roof and dead hedge on top, while Clare and Ann had a great afternoon weaving the willow sides together. We hope to buy some wildlife cameras to see who’s using it (watch this space)

Our December Big Job Sunday was a bit of a washout, with the end of the storms keeping people inside, but it didn’t deter the men from Andy’s Man Club. They set to in the Hub making supports and frames, with Tony, the carpenter, providing support and keeping them busy.

We were pleased to invite them to our little Christmas gathering to mark the end of the year with mulled cider, lovely cakes, and mince pies. It felt really wonderful to gather in our beautiful cob house after four years of ups and downs to make it a reality. 

We’re nearly there with the build and hope to have it draft-proofed by the end of the Spring.

Meanwhile, our salads are growing in the poly-tunnel and providing much-needed fresh greens. The broad beans have been planted out in the raised beds and the garlic is showing healthy green spears above the ground. Promises of bounty for 2025.

We are delighted to welcome Surrey Wildlife Trust's Belted Galloway cows to the Rosamund Field again for their 4th year of conservation grazing. This year we have 9 boys who are already making good inroads into eating up the grass thatch, opening up micro-habitats with their hooves and cowpats and mixing up the seedbed as they move around so that the less vigorous grasses and flowers can thrive in the summer and insect diversity can improve. Thank you to the Wildlife Trust Grazing team and to our dedicated team of lookerers who check the cows' welfare daily and help us get the temporary fencing up. 

Our regular group days will resume in January (weather permitting) and we’ll be cobbing again as soon as things warm up. 

Until then wishing you all a lovely festive break while we dream of our next adventures for the coming year!

💮PLANT OF THE MONTH: Holly by Helen Harris

Latin name: Ilex Aquifolium

Height: up to 15m

Conservation status: Common

Origin: native

Holly is one of our most familiar evergreen trees with its bright red berries and glossy, leathery leaves, usually with spiny prickles on the edges.

Holly, or European holly as it is sometimes known, is common in UK woodland, scrub and hedgerows, especially in oak and beech woodland as well as in urban gardens. It occurs naturally in western, central and southern Europe, where its range includes the coastal region of Norway, Denmark, Germany, Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and across the Mediterranean to Bulgaria and Turkey. It also occurs in North Africa, in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, and further east, in the Caucasus Mountains and northern Iran.

Holly has also been introduced to a number of other countries, including New Zealand, temperate parts of Australia and the Pacific Northwest of North America, in all of which it has caused problems as an invasive species.

Holly Trees can live for up to 300 years. It is a dioecious tree, meaning that male and female flowers occur on different trees. Flowers are small and greenish-white with four petals. They bloom any time between early spring and the very beginning of summer, depending on the climate.

Value to wildlife

Holly provides dense cover and good nesting opportunities for birds, while its deep, dry leaf litter may be used by hedgehogs and small mammals for hibernation.

The flowers provide nectar and pollen for bees and other pollinating insects. The leaves are eaten by caterpillars of the holly blue butterfly, along with those of various moths, including the yellow-barred brindle, double-striped pug and the holly tortrix. Deer will eat any younger smooth-edged leaves that they can reach.

Holly’s scarlet berries can remain on the tree throughout winter. They are an important food source for birds such as thrushes, redwings and fieldfares as well as small mammals, such as wood mice and dormice. The mistle thrush is known for vigorously guarding the berries of holly in winter to prevent other birds from eating them.

Why are only some holly leaves prickly?

Scientists recently discovered that holly trees adjust their spiky armour in response to hungry animals and changing environments. They can produce some prickly leaves to fend off nibblers while others remain smooth.

This leafy transformation happens through epigenetic modification. This means it is a change to how the DNA in the leaf cells is expressed depending on chemical modifications in the cell that can be switched on and off to respond to the environment.

Symbolism, folklore and uses

Holly berries and thorny leaves are said to symbolise Jesus's blood on the crown of thorns.

Over 2,000 years ago, the Celts believed that two twins, the Holly King and the Oak King, became rooted in a terrible battle to rule the woodland. Legend has it that, in summer, the Oak King was in full leaf and the rest of the wood bowed to his extreme strength. But his leaves began to drop from his bows and the Holly King seized his chance to rule the wintry wood with his evergreen leaves and red berries.

Holly branches have long been used to decorate homes in winter. The tree was seen as a fertility symbol and a charm against witches, goblins and the devil. It was thought to be unlucky to cut down a holly tree.

Holly wood is the whitest of all woods, and is heavy, hard and fine-grained. It can be stained and polished and is used to make furniture or in engraving work. It is commonly used to make walking sticks. Holly wood also makes good firewood and burns with a strong heat.

Sources:

💰MEMBERSHIP 

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

We look forward to seeing you in the garden in the New Year!

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