Welcome to May’s garden update.

📅UPCOMING EVENTS 

Big Job Sunday at Rosamund - 5th May - Building the new arbour 

Events at ZERO » CLICK

We sure had our share of April showers last month, and now the weather has taken a very chilly turn. This means it’ll take a bit longer to get our seedlings going.

But despite the rain and cold weather, the garden is looking wonderful and the apple blossom is out in all its glory.

Poly 2 is full of seedlings waiting to be planted out, and Ann has been busy in her greenhouse tending to the tomatoes and cucumbers. This month we’ll start clearing out Poly 1 and planting our summer produce.

Funding

We are pleased to announce that our funding application to YourFund Surrey sponsored by Residents for Guildford Villages County Councillor, Fiona Davidson, has been successful. 

We’ve been awarded £6,000 to spend on various garden equipment and amenities. We’ll use this money to increase our rainwater storage, buy solar powered pumps, watering equipment, new garden furniture, edging, a woodburner for the hub and polycarbonate for the hub roof, to let in more natural daylight. 

We are super grateful for this support and excited to get shopping!

Our Countryfile debut!

We all sat with baited breath last Sunday to watch Rosamund on Countryfile. It was a great episode about bees and our Peter did a lovely piece on the honeybees in the garden.

The Countryfile film crew made us all feel at ease, and we’re chuffed to have been able to show off our garden on such a renowned, popular programme!. 

Thanks to all the volunteers who came and participated. It looked fab. Watch it on iPlayer if you missed it - we’re in the last 5 mins. 

Watch Rosamund on iPlayer 

Galliford Try’s Visit

Galliford Try, a nationwide building company who does a lot of community projects, came back for a volunteering session. They did a fantastic job of putting the guttering onto poly 1, making a new wildflower bed near the treebog. They also enjoyed learning to weave a willow edge on the herb-bed. It’s fantastic when we get a group up to focus on big tasks for the day.

Checkout our Facebook post about Galliford Try’s visit

If you are part of an organisation that would like to arrange a volunteering day at the garden, please get in touch and we’d be happy to book you in.

The Hub

Fudge (the builder) is scheduled to finish the Hub’s roof within the next month. He’ll be felting the ply and inserting some poly-carbonate roof lights. 

We need more cobbing volunteers to come and help finish the walls, so watch this space for dates. 

Craig has taken his lovely solar rig away to make way for our new entrance path which will be installed soon through the Ringway project. We have some funding to install new solar panels into the building so we can charge our batteries and run some lights etc.

The Pond

The new wildlife pond is looking great with some gorgeous plants and coir mats to protect the edges. The coir will stop the liner from degrading and provide a purchase for the marginal plants to grow in. 

Our new solar pump system and large tanks should help us keep the pond topped up in the dry months, thanks to all the gutters installed on the poly-tunnels.

The Gate

This month will see the much anticipated entranceway completed. Lorna Bannister has made a beautiful sign, and the gates will be fitted with wheels and hurdles to make them attractive and easy to open. 

Special thanks to Mark Brown for his generous donation for the new gate and fruit-cage. 

Yellow Rattle Success

And… almost as excitingly… we were delighted to spot that the yellow rattle seed we put down in strips in the orchard last November have taken! This is a major step forward in our project to improve diversity in our orchard and no mean feat as yellow rattle is notoriously tricky to establish  through seeding. 

Thank you to Louis Harrington-Edmans and BugLife for donating the seed, advising and getting stuck-in on site too. Watch out in our June issue for more on yellow rattle and why we love it!

⭐VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT - Mike

“I worked for many years, and still do part-time, in the city. It's a decent job but leaving each day before 7 and returning after 7 rather limits your exposure to the wider world. You also spend your days working with people just like you in areas where you are increasingly regarded as the expert. It's nice for the ego in some respects but has a tendency to narrow your view of the world rather than broadening it. All good (or well paid) things come to an end so I was considering how best to spend my increased 'me' time once my semi-retirement began.   

“I'm still fit, I like to be outdoors, I like to eat well on food that I know where it comes from and, on balance, would prefer that the earth's ecosystems aren't destroyed just before or after I depart the planet. From that basis, I was looking for something where I could both contribute and learn. I'd researched CSA and once my dog wandered into the Rosamund garden, the decision was made for me.

In the two years that I have been volunteering in the garden, I've learnt a lot of new skills - including checking on cows, fencing (agricultural, not with swords), scything and planting seedlings the right way up. I'm not an expert in any of them but no cows have died and nobody has lost a foot so it's been a generally positive experience. Additionally, I've got involved in helping to build the hub. I wasn't involved in the conception of the project, which is probably for the good, but have very much got my hands dirty. I can now just about build a stone wall, I can just about build a cob wall and there will no doubt be other things that I can't do yet that will need to be done. The only reason that I can now do these things is because there are other people involved who already can.

So, my life hasn't been transformed but I know more people and more things which have got to be good."

🌿PLANT OF THE MONTH: Cowslip (Primula veris) By Helen Harris

• Common name: Cowslip

• Scientific name: Primula veris

• Family: Primroses

• Origin: native

• Flowering season: April to May

• Habitat: dry chalky soils, grassland, woodland, hedgerows

We have a beautiful and growing little patch of self-seeded cowslips at Rosamund Garden, under the crabapple between poly 1 and the wildlife pond. They are now in full flower and will hopefully set seed and spread further. 

An endangered wildflower

Formerly a common plant of traditional hay meadows, ancient woodlands and hedgerows, the loss of these habitats has caused a major decline in cowslip’s populations between 1930 and 1980, mainly due to the ploughing of old grasslands and the extension of the use of chemical herbicides. 

Nowadays, fields coloured bright yellow with cowslips are quite a rare sight. Fortunately, it is now showing signs of recovery and is returning to unsprayed verges and village greens as well as colonising the banks of new roads. Masses have reappeared in Hertfordshire where grazing pressures have eased.

Value to wildlife

Cowslips are important for wildlife because their flowers are an early source of nectar for various insects including bees, beetles and butterflies such as the brimstone. Cowslip is also a food plant for the rare Duke of Burgundy butterfly.

Folklore and symbolism

Cowslips were traditionally used in May Day garlands but also for other celebrations, such as weddings. The name ‘Cowslip’ is actually a distorted pronunciation of ‘cow slop’, so named because the flowers are associated with cow pat in meadows and fields. Cowslips have also been called ‘St. Peter’s keys’, ‘keys of heaven’, ‘bunch of keys’ or ‘herb Peter’ because the one-sided flower heads looked like a set of keys, and it was said that cowslips grew where St. Peter dropped the Key of Earth.

Cowslip has many other folk names due to its historical importance and fame, including  'paigles', ‘freckled face’, ‘golden drops’, ‘fairies’ flower’, ‘lady’s fingers’, ‘long legs’ and ‘milk maidens’. In Welsh, the flower is known as ‘dagrau Mair’ which translates to ‘Mary’s tears’. 

Cowslip uses

Tea made from the flowers is meant to be good for insomnia, headaches and nervous tension. The scented flowers also make delicious wines. Cowslip leaves are used in Spanish cooking and have a slightly citrusy flavour and the flowers are traditionally used to make wine.

The cowslip is the county flower for Essex, Northamptonshire, Surrey and Worcestershire. Find out more about Cowslip here.

🐌 MAY JOBS AT THE GARDEN

• Finish fruit cage door and roof netting

• Finish guttering on poly 1 and install water-butts

• Fill raised beds with soil and plant up (soil on order)

• Start to clear winter salads from Poly1 and plant out tomatoes etc when big enough

• Keep sowing seeds in poly 2 and water all the trays if needed

• Water the polytunnel beds when dry

📰COMMUNITY NEWS

❓What’s In Our Soil? by Paula Meyers

🐝 Peter’s Bee Update: May

» CLICK TO READ

🦋Moths To Spot In May by Peter

👩‍🌾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? You want to do it right. 

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.

Nasturtiums: Attract pollinators and deter pests

Nasturtiums are an attractive, fast-growing, fully-edible annual. They come in a wide variety of colours including orange, cream, salmon pink, burgundy, and crimson. They’re a magnet for pollinators and astonishingly easy to grow!

The flowers, leaves, and seed pods have a slight peppery taste and are wonderful in salads, as garnish, and the seed pods can be picked like a caper.

But the best part about nasturtiums, aside from being pretty and edible, is that they act as a natural pest control or sacrificial crop. Slugs and snails can’t get enough of them - especially the dreaded white cabbage caterpillar. So, instead of munching away at your cabbage, they’ll be drawn to nasturtiums instead. 

Nasturtiums are also a fantastic companion plant. Plant them next to brassicas (e.g., broccoli, kale), cucurbits (e.g., cucumber, squash), legumes (e.g., runner beans), and nightshades (e.g., peppers, tomatoes) to repel aphids and flea beetles. 

Nasturtiums require a well-draining soil mix so consider adding some perlite or vermiculite. According to Jamie Walton, recently seen on Gardeners’ World, the Pink Emperor variety seems hardier and blooms for a lot longer. 

Note: nasturtiums reseed easily, so only plant them in locations where you don’t mind them returning every year. If you’re hesitant, grow them in pots first! 🙂

Read more about nasturtiums

🦋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

With thanks to Julie for creating the wonderful flyer below, and for raising our profile in the Guildford Dragon » CLICK to read.

💰MEMBERSHIP 

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

Happy Gardening!