www.storeygardens.org
THE FRIENDS NEWSLETTER
Issue No 17
July 2014
July in The Gardens
At our first work session in The Gardens after our highly successful Open Day we
already began to see some positive results from the excellent promotion we’ve been
receiving recently. We had some new people come to volunteer to work in The
Gardens – welcome – and between 15 and 20 people wandered in to have a look at
what was going on and in many cases buy plants from Fiona. Indeed Fiona must be
given lots of credit for our current high profile – she ran a plant stall on behalf of FoSG
at the Fairfield Fun Day on the first Saturday in July, and as well as selling plenty of
plants, she was able to pass on information about the FoSG activities to all interested
enquirers.
Now that the grass is being cut again we can see what needs doing around the fruit
trees – for most of them they need some clear space around their roots and trunk.
Removing the matted grass from around the trunks is no small task as many of the
trailing grass roots were well intertwined with the tree roots and needed careful
unravelling – but the fruit trees look much happier now that they can see their own feet.
The exercise also brought to the surface many of the bulbs which made such a brave
show in the spring – these were quickly pushed back under the soil to divide and
multiply for next year. Staples were driven into the back wall of the western garden to
train the creamy-yellow roses which grow so prolifically (and wildly) there. There was
general tidying up in the wilder parts around the edges of The Gardens, so it was great
to have some new and enthusiastic hands to dig
and delve, cart and carry.
Notable among the flowering shrubs were some
spectacular purple blooms on the buddleia – good
to see this plant given some value, as usually
people curse its thrusting ways in the brickwork
and crevices of walls. The honesty has finished flowering
but the purplish motif was carried through in its seed heads.
The soft fruit bushes, although damaged this year by the
work on the central walls, still yielded up red-currants for
jelly – and new shoots are already coming up which will be
good for next year’s crop. Some bean sticks gave a
cultivated air to the erstwhile herb beds. The Gardens are
always on the move.
One of the new helpers who joined at the Fairfield Fun Day is working on a tree planting
project with young people and is very keen to take unwanted saplings off our hands,
even the dreaded sycamores. Fiona has potted up other more attractive seedlings –
silver birch, copper beech, oak and horse chestnut – to give him, offsetting sycamore
and ash seedlings which of course grow in great profusion in The Gardens. Although
we don’t want any more large trees in amongst the fruit trees, it seems a shame just to
destroy them when someone else can make use of them.
As a result of the increased interest in The Gardens this month we have decided to be
more proactive about advertising our sessions on the first Sunday of each month.
Francesca from NICE who is events manager at the Castle is happy for us to have an
A-board in the Castle courtyard when we’re open on a Sunday, and visitors on those
days will be able to take away information sheets, leaflets and membership forms if they
wish (and also make a donation). We will be keeping a stock of all relevant materials
(including a donation bucket) in the Arboriculturalist’s Hut. We are hoping to liaise with
the Visitor Information Centre in The Storey so that they will up-date their plasma
screen to show our activities, and keep a stock of leaflets in their Centre.
Community Use
Saturday 5 July saw the first formal use of
The Gardens by a local community group,
the Lancaster Branch of the Embroiderers’
Guild, who met there to use The Gardens
as a design source for a project based on
Secret Gardens – where better? Fortunately it was a
beautiful morning and many of the members had not been in
The Gardens for a very long time, if ever (although many of
them and their parents and other family members had
attended a variety of course in The Storey Institute as it was
then. Now there were embroiderers sketching, painting,
taking photographs and otherwise recording all sorts of
aspects of The Gardens which can be worked up into a
finished piece. They hope to have a small
exhibition of all the pieces in the Thomas Storey
Room in NICE sometime next year – tbc.
It was a very successful occasion and we can
hope that it is only the first of many such
events when local groups find pleasure for their
particular interests in The Gardens.
What’s on in the Hollygon
The poppies are starting to show – rather patchy (wasn’t this always the problem with
broadcasting seed?) and somewhat battered by the huge warm easterly winds last
week, but no doubt they will come good. The one place where about 2000 seeds were
sown before we realised how tiny they were and how many would come out of the
packet at any one time (just behind the bicycle rack) there seem to be none at all,
although a wide variety of other plants grow there quite freely. How whimsical is nature.
Pots, Pots and more Pots
Fiona is putting out a plea for any surplus plant pots which you might have – her
success at plant selling has come at a price and she is now short on pots in which to
grow on the cuttings etc. Fiona says – “Having had very successful plant sales, I am
now in need of yet more square pots for ongoing plant sales and for potting on
seedlings and cuttings for sale next year (for example I have a lot of Dierama needing 4
inch square pots). New members may be able to supply some. Square pots of any size
or tall round pots or very large round pots or tiny round or square pots (for tiny plants to
sell to children) are all useful.” Please contact Fiona on enidfiona@btinternet.com if you
are able to help out.
Next Meetings
The next monthly meeting will be held at 6.00pm on Tuesday 29 July at NICE and the
next work session will be on Sunday 3 August, 2.00-4.00pm. All welcome.
The next Newsletter will be out the weekend of 29 August 2014 and copy should be
sent to Sue on sue.widden@outlook.com by Friday 22 August.