Hello and welcome to February’s garden update.

📅UPCOMING EVENTS AT THE GARDEN

• Today! Saturday 1st February, 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm, Family Gardening Session at Rosamund Community Garden Bring the whole family for some outdoor fun! Join us for planting, weeding, and exploring the garden together. It’s a wonderful opportunity to connect with nature, learn new skills, and enjoy the fresh air. first Saturday of each month » REGISTER HERE

• Sunday 2nd February - 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm Winter Wassail a fun gathering in the garden. 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 an old pot to chase the 'evil spirits' away, and help to bless our orchard. Maybe you'll be our King & Queen? This will be for members and families only but may be an open event going forward. We’ll have a bit of fun and share a hot drink.

• Sunday 9th February - 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm BIG JOB Sunday at the garden »INFO

🌍EVENTS AT ZERO GUILDFORD » CLICK

🌱GARDEN NEWS

by Clare Millington

January is a quiet month at the garden, as most things are still hibernating and dormant and the weather has been pretty mixed with some beautiful frosty days and mad stormy ones.

It’s a good time to take stock, make plans and think about goals for the year ahead. It’s also a great time to prune the fruit trees and bushes before they start to wake up.

Some small signs of Spring are around: the snowdrops are up - the first flowers of the year; and the vixen was screaming for her mate as I left at twilight and spotted them furtively watching me before they headed into the garden.

Our salads are starting their growth spurt in the poly-tunnel and providing some lovely spicy leaves. The broad beans and garlic have survived the frost so far and there’s even an early rhubarb leaf popping up in the perennial bed.

There are also signs of an owl roosting in the treebog - we found lots of pellets and poop inside, but unfortunately, he’d forgotten to lift the lid!

We’re planning to position some wildlife cameras in the garden and capture some night-time wildlife action.

The big job Sunday was spent planting most of the trees from SCC in our forest garden. We had fun planning where they went, and experimented with burying some mushrooms from poly 2 to see if they’d take.

Ann has been busy making a seed order list, and Clare and Margaret have been planning what edibles we will grow in the forest garden.

We’ve had a lot of damage in the orchard from rabbits gnawing the bark off the fruit-trees. This has caught us out, as we’ve never had a problem before so don’t bother with tree-guards. After seeking advice we have tried 2 methods to try and help the trees -

1. We wrapped the damaged trunks with dry hession-backed wool 

2. We applied a damp layer of sphagnum moss with the hession wool on top.

Unfortunately, some of the trees may not recover, but we are putting tree-guards around them all to prevent further problems. We’ll report back later in the year to see how they do.

AGM

We had a lovely AGM at the beginning of the month, with just 6 of the committee attending. It was agreed that we’d had a brilliant 2024 with many positive achievements and new connections. 

The growing membership support and some successful funding applications have meant we can finish the hub this year and buy some much-needed equipment for the garden. 

Our committee members have all agreed to stay for another year. Although our website manager, Olivia Cal will step down, she will continue to support the website and social media.

Hub

The guys from Andy’s Man Club have been busy this month, working on the hub and making new potting benches and containers from all the excess wood from a local building site. Our new wood-burner has been installed and has been keeping them warm and comfortable.

The next stage will be to build stone plinths around the bases of the wattle sections and fill in the gaps at the edges. 

March will see us cobbing again, so watch out for cobbing dates for the diary.

We’re also planning to re-design our compost bins to smarten up the area, and provide Kate with some really snazzy bays. 

Groups

The young people from the Royal Grammar School and Guildford High School have made a great start back this month, with a lovely group of 16 coming on Tuesdays. They are working on making some dead hedges around the garden, and clearing our outdoor spaces ready for the Spring.

Our DofE students are back and getting stuck into their projects. Amy has been making some lovely signs, which will brighten up the areas and help people understand what’s going on.

👩🏻‍🌾FEBRUARY JOBS AT THE GARDEN

We’ll be putting a job list on a whiteboard in the hub for each week. 

• Cut down dead and broken stems and add to the dead hedges

• Weed around plants in the front beds and mulch

• Prune apple and pear trees (supervised activity)

• Clear grass around orchard trees

• Top up raised beds with manure and compost

• Tidy up storage areas

🗞️COMMUNITY NEWS

From B to C (well, Beans to Compost, anyway)

Did you know that

• A third of all food produced globally is thrown away

• The UK wastes approximately 9.52 million tonnes of food every year.

• This total is enough to feed upwards of 30 million people a year, yet 8.4 million live in food poverty in the UK

  (Facts sourced from www.wastemanaged.co.uk/)

Food waste is a big problem in the UK and we are delighted to be helping FareShare close the loop on food waste and getting some great compost at the same time! 

FareShare is a national charity that works to reduce food waste by collecting and re-distributing surplus food that would otherwise be thrown away. The food is given to other charities that can turn it into meals or distribute it to people in need»https://faresharesussexandsurrey.org.uk/what-do-we-do/guildford/ 

In 2023-24 FareShare re-distributed 56,000 tonnes of food in the UK, saving an equivalent of 112,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions and reaching nearly 1 million people. In July 2024 Fareshare opened a new depot in Guildford to support their network of food distribution in London, Sussex and Surrey and approached Rosamund Community Garden about whether we could help them compost any fresh fruit and Veg that they could not re-use. 

Below you can see a consignment of mouldy beans which just 3 months later are well on their way to becoming beautiful compost. Kate, our head composter, mixes the vegetable waste with horse manure and wood chip. We get through a lot of wood chip at the garden as we use it to keep our paths clear and mud-free, we mulch with it and it is a vital component in composting vegetable matter, ensuring the finished product is not too wet.

To enable us to keep helping FareShare we need more wood chip to help us process the waste vegetables. It needs to be fresh and from healthy woody matter, rather than anything treated or diseased. If you know a good source who might be willing to deliver a load please get in touch!

💮PLANT OF THE MONTH

Blackthorn  

Latin Name: Prunus spinosa

Height: up to 4m

Conservation status: Common

Origin: native to UK and Europe

Blackthorn is a deciduous shrub with small, dark green, toothed, oval leaves which appear after the striking bloom of small white flowers, which emerge in February/ March. In autumn, the tree bears small dark blue-purple fruits known as sloes. It is also notable for its robust, sharp, woody spines which cover the plant providing very effective protection from herbivores. 

Culinary and Medicinal Uses

Blackthorn has been used in traditional medicine for centuries. The flowers, bark, and berries each hold different medicinal properties. The flowers are often infused in teas to create a mild diuretic and laxative. The bark, known for its astringent qualities, has been used to treat ailments such as diarrhea and throat inflammations. Sloes, rich in vitamin C and antioxidants, are not only used in sloe gin and hedgerow jellies but as a remedy for digestive issues and to boost overall health. These fruits are traditionally harvested after the first frost, which helps reduce their natural bitterness.

Folklore and Mythology

The Blackthorn tree is steeped in folklore and myth. Often associated with protection and boundaries, it was traditionally planted in hedgerows and perimeters or as stock-fencing to form impenetrable barriers. In Celtic mythology, Blackthorn is linked to the dark half of the year, symbolizing strife and hardship, but also endurance and resilience. It was believed to ward off evil spirits and witches, with the dense thickets often thought to be portals to the fairy world. The wood of Blackthorn was also used to create magic wands and protective walking sticks.

Value to wildlife

Blackthorn provides critical habitat and food sources for many species. Its early blossoms are vital for pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Birds, including the Blackcap and Bullfinch, feed its buds and fruits, while also using the dense thickets as nesting sites. Mammals such as the Brown Hare and Hedgehog benefit from the cover it provides. Additionally, Blackthorn supports various moth and butterfly larvae, including the Black and Brown Hairstreak butterflies, making it an essential component of the UK's biodiversity as well as our landscape. 

Article created with the help of copilot generative AI. 

Picture taken from https://nativetreesfromseed.com/identify/blackthorn💰

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 soon!