We have some exciting plans for our Church garden for this year.
If you would like to help out with one of our projects, please get in touch with one of the team for details. Any help is appreciated, whether it is joining our weekly garden team or just popping in for an hour or two to help with a specific project.
A new Shed
We have applied for a grant to purchase a shed. We have a site in mind, and this will enable us to have a storage space for various tools and equipment at St John's out of sight and no messy wheel barrows or pots left in the social area!
The hedge at the front of St John's
For so long, we have talked as a Church about restoring the hedge along the front of St John's. This is a big project, and we hope that this year will be the right time. Unfortunately this is a big piece of work (and is more that our small team of volunteers can do with out help). We are investigating a number of options - including replacing the hedge with a new hedge and the fabric team have suggesred replacing the hedge with a fence.
In the meantime, we are continuing to work with what we have. We researched the best time to prune the existing heathy bits of beech hedge - did you know you trim small amounts in the Autumn, and a more drastic prune is better in February.
Our hedge is health at one end, with a big dead bit in the middle. We have been removing brambles and clearing under the base of the hedge, to ensure the beech stays healthy. Whilst brambles are a good source of food, with flowers and fruit feeding many insects and birds, we are not planning to remove all the plants at St John's, but try and keep them better under control, and these that form the hedge at the front we hope to be able to replace with a healthy hedge.
We have started by pruning the hedge, and pulling out some of the dead plants, the brambles and the rubbish. We get a suprising amount of rubbish here!
