Welcome to July’s garden update.

📅UPCOMING EVENTS

• Wednesday 3rd July, 6.30 pm to 8.45 pm - Joyful Outdoors Foraging Workshop at Rosamund £35pp, to book email: [email protected] (10% discount for Rosamund members)
  

Sunday 7th July 3.00 pm to 4.00 pm - Visit from the Mayor of Guildford 

Wednesday 10th July 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm Matrix Trust group activity, private event - Matrix exists to catalyse change for young people and help them make the most of their lives

Sunday 14th July 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm - Cobbing the Hub, drop-in, group activity all welcome

Events at ZERO » CLICK

🌱IN THE GARDEN by Clare Millington

June has finally brought the warm weather we’ve all been waiting for and the garden has gone bonkers in the sunshine! The grasses in the orchard are all flowering and have reached record heights. Walking along the paths with the grasses swishing around you is wonderful.

The Hub

This month we’ve really been focussing on the hub, and have made good progress on our cob walls. We’ve installed a big window and some more bottle art, and made some new friends along the way. The roof is nearly finished - just the polycarbonate and felting to finish.

Many thanks to John Andrews, who delivered another load of local clay for us to finish the walls.

We were lucky enough to meet a new member through the project, who’s a local potter.

Anamica loved the cobbing, especially because she remembers her grandparents’ cob house in India, which is still there. She has decided to set a project for her pottery students to make an installation for the garden in the autumn. Hopefully, it's the first of many art projects here.

More pics of the day on Facebook and a fun video reel on Instagram (thanks to Olivia Cal).

Green day

The first Guildford Green Day went really well. We had a good response to our stall and made lots of connections with the local community. The Lib Dems were out in force, and the Mayor came and had a chat. She’d heard all about the garden and is coming for a cuppa and a tour on the 7th, to see all the projects.

Entrance

The entranceway is finally finished! Huge thanks to Ringway and Bill Kears for making this happen. The new woodland bed is ready for planting, and we’ve ordered some native trees from the SCC tree project to be delivered in the Autumn when we can start laying it out.

The new bank next to the bed has been sown with Phacelia (a green manure that produces gorgeous purple flowers) which will provide a great food source for the pollinators and hopefully self-seed for next year.

In the Garden

The fruit trees are looking promising, peeping out from the grass and the fruit-cage is a great success! For the first time in ages we have a wonderful crop of logan-berries and our little cherry tree is really happy with some really tasty cherries. We’ve had to block up some holes where the birds managed to get in and strip the red-currants, but there are still black-currants, gooseberries and white-currants a-plenty. The raspberries will be ready late summer into autumn.

Huge thanks to Kate for all her hard work, making composts and ensuring the fruit-cage is weed-free and pruned, it’s made all the difference and looks really great.

Solar Pump and Water Harvesting

With our funding from SCC, Lisa has bought the solar pump and we’ll be finishing the water harvesting on the poly-tunnels this year to ensure the pond is topped up as well as finally installing a rain-water system for poly-tunnel 1.

DofE Project

The students have successfully grown woad and dyers chamomile, which will go into the dye bed. The dry spell has made planting difficult, so we will try some wool mulching to keep the plants moist and protected.

Some of the DofE young people have decided to stay involved with the garden and to do their next award here, which is great feedback, and it really is lovely to have them at Rosamund.

School Groups

We’ve been approached by local schools to facilitate them with their community volunteering initiative. The students will come and help at the garden in the autumn and winter terms, which will provide valuable help and hopefully inspire some budding wildlife gardeners.

👋FAREWELL TO CHARLOTTE

Charlotte is moving to Wales. Thank you for all your wonderful contributions to the garden. Enjoy your new adventure!

The following was written for our October 2023 newsletter -

Charlotte discovered the garden during lockdown when she spent her days walking the Surrey Hills. Though she isn't much of a gardener, she takes care of the orchard, pruning it in winter, mulching it in spring, watering it during dry spells, and enjoying its produce as often as she can. She loves the wildlife and often spends time in the garden and meadow, observing different species and watching the birds. "Coming to the garden is like a balm for the soul," she says.

🐌 JULY JOBS AT THE GARDEN

• Clear the compost bays and move the woodchips for storage

• Weed the beds 

• Water the poly-tunnels when dry and the raised beds/pots etc.

• Set up solar-pump and complete guttering

• Clear grass and cut comfrey around fruit-trees

• Harvest Black-currants, Logan-berries and white-currants when ready

• Train cherry tree (make frame-work)

• Paint new picnic tables with preserver.

🌿PLANT OF THE MONTH: RAGWORT by Helen Harris

Scientific Name: Senecio jacobaea

Habitat: bare ground or thin vegetation allows the development of seedlings.

Flowering time: July – October

Other names: Stagger weed

As July comes around, a familiar pariah plant doggedly starts to be seen flowering again in our fields and marginal spaces. 

What is ragwort?

Ragwort is a tall plant that grows to 90cm high and bears large, flat-topped clusters of yellow daisy-like flowers from July to October. Nineteen species of the Ragwort genus Senecio are found in the wild in Britain, but most of these are garden escapes or other introductions: only Senecio jacobaea is a native species to the UK. 

Why is Ragwort considered harmful? 

Ragwort is what is called a “ruderal plant”. This means it is a coloniser – it establishes easily on areas of disturbed ground.  and can thrive in areas where other wildflowers may struggle. It grows quickly and distributes many seeds that can travel a long way on the wind. In poorly managed or disturbed areas it can spread rapidly and take over. It often therefore becomes problematic in over grazed fields. 

Ragwort is classified as a “harmful weed”. This means that Natural England can require land owners to take steps to reduce or remove ragwort if it becomes “out of control”. 

This is because ragwort contains toxins called pyrrolizidine alkaloids. These, in sufficient quantities, can cause liver poisoning in horses and livestock. It is a cumulative poison that eventually leads to the rapid onset of symptoms before death. However, the symptoms are variable and resemble those of a number of other diseases.

If animals ingest ragwort, they could suffer low-level digestion of the weed for months before they start to show signs of distress. According to the charity Buglife, the lethal volume of Ragwort is around 7% of body weight for horses.

So many landowners and livestock owners react strongly to ragwort – pulling it on site, spraying it with glyphosate (which the World Health Organisation lists as a probably carcinogen) or spot burning it, as well as vociferously encouraging neighbours to do the same so as to avoid seeding other areas with the “pest”. 

But Ragwort has its uses…

So should we do the responsible thing and always pull Ragwort or run for the spray bottle if we see it growing? I would strongly argue no: please hear me out. 

Firstly, most grazing animals will avoid Ragwort growing in pasture. It tastes bad and they will only eat it if there is nothing else for them. However, it is true that ragwort in hay or silage is bad news as it is more difficult to detect and avoid. 

Ragwort is a natural part of our native flora and as such is part of the web of life in our countryside: it is needed! In a well-functioning environment, it does not spread and take over but exists in balance with other species. Its vibrant (I would argue beautiful) yellow flowers attract many pollinators: Among the 30 species of bee, beetle, other insects and fungi supported by ragwort are the daisy carpenter bee and the cinnabar moth, meaning it has significant benefits to conservation. It is also the sole food plant for the black and red cinnabar moth. 

🫂COMMUNITY NEWS

 The Green Sludge by Margaret Hattersley

Some of you may have recently noticed the green “sludge” in the pond. This is blanket weed, a filamentous green algae that likes to grow in aquatic environments with a little fertility from decaying plant matter or soil that has entered the water. It is common in new ponds which are establishing their ecosystem. It is currently giving the wildlife pond some of the appearance of a primeval swamp.

The algae, being a plant, feeds on nitrogenous products whithin the water, and gives off oxygen. This can be useful to oxygenate the water for invertebrates and amphibians that need a supply of oxygen in an otherwise static water body. In time the balance will naturally be restored, as greater numbers of invertebrates, pond snails and other animals feed on the algae, and are then fed on by others further up the food chain.

Blanket weed needs sun and warmth to grow so it is often seen as a bloom in the Spring and Summer. One drawback can be that it covers the water and shades out other oxygenating plants below such as hornwort, which we also have in the pond. However hornwort, and another plant we have, water soldier also compete with it and help to keep it under control.

Blanket weed provides a habitat for flying invertebrates such as damselflies and dragonflies which use it to land on. Recently we have seen dragonflies visiting the pond to lay their eggs or “oviposit”. It is also used by frogs and newts to lay their spawn and to provide cover for their young.

We are keeping an eye on the blanket weed, and making sure that it doesn’t cause a problem at this stage, but on the whole it is a welcome visitor, with a beautiful bright green colour, that will in time find it’s niche as the ecosystem becomes more diverse.

Bug Hotel and Eco School Updates by Jane Tyson

The Rosamund Bug Hotel, made by our talented volunteer, Lisa, has been on many adventures lately - one of which being a visit to Merrow Schools Federation at the Infant School where I’m teaching.

Using some leftover playdough from our stand at Guildford Green Day, the children happily created colourful bugs to live within the hotel.

Hopefully, it inspired the children to create their own bug hotels!

This year, alongside the children, I set up Merrow Infant School’s Eco Club, and recently we enjoyed a magical walk on the wild side to the community garden. The children were keen to weed Polytunnel One, visit the pond to see the damselflies, paint some flowers, explore the orchard and fruit cages, and top of the happy list was snack time!

The New Growers’ Nook By Olivia Cal

You’ve got your gloves and secateurs – you’ve watched a heck of a lot of Gardeners’ World – and you’re ready to start growing. It’s at this point you realise you’re not sure where to start. Sowing seeds? Mulching? Composting? These things can’t be too difficult, but you want to do it right. 

As a newbie gardener, I’m learning so much from the internet, books, and the wonderful people of Rosamund. But there’s so much I still don’t know and there are times when it feels overwhelming. 

I decided to start this segment when I realised I’m not the only beginner here! Every month I will share one thing I have learned about growing sustainably in the hopes that other beginner gardeners will find something useful.

Get the Most out of Tomato Plants with 3 Simple Tips

Ever since I started gardening, tomatoes have proved themselves as the least fussy plants – to begin with, at least. They germinate quickly and if they get enough sunlight and warmth, grow into tough little seedlings. 

I did, however, forget about a batch of Tumbling Tom seedlings on a north-facing windowsill earlier this year and when I remembered them, their spindly, pale stems and small, shrivelled leaves were reaching toward the dim light. I felt like a monster. 

Usually I do try to save leggy seedlings by transplanting them deeper into the soil. These ones were beyond saving. Fortunately, my other tomato seedlings hadn’t been neglected and were ready to be transplanted. 

Now we’re on the cusp of July and my tomatoes are beginning to produce, albeit slowly, and it got me thinking about ways to increase your tomato harvests: 

1. Improve pollination

Tomatoes are self-pollinating as they come with male and female parts. However, they do require wind to help things along and this can be a problem when you’re growing them indoors. 

The solution? Make sure the space you’re growing your tomatoes is well-ventilated. Open windows and doors to let the air circulate. Or, tap the trusses gently to help release the pollen. 

2. Water regularly

Your first line of defence when it comes to splitting and pests is regular, deep watering. Tomatoes are thirsty plants and should be watered weekly. They may also require daily watering in hot weather. 

3. Remove fruits at the breaker stage 

If you’re struggling with fruit splitting or pests, removing fruits at the breaker stage (when they stop receiving nutrients from the plant to ripen) may help you salvage your tomatoes. While I do try to let my tomatoes ripen on the vine, I did have to employ this technique in late summer last year when my watering became… sporadic. 

All you need to do is remove the tomatoes when they begin to turn colour and leave them in a cool, dark location to ripen. 

🐝 Peter’s Updates

The Bees in July » CLICK

Moths to spot in July ⬇️

🐛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.

👥TEAM VOLUNTEER GROUP SESSIONS

💰MEMBERSHIP 

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

Come and have a cuppa and a sit and enjoy the birds. Happy gardening!