www.storeygardens.org
THE FRIENDS NEWSLETTER
Issue No 10
November 2013
November in The Gardens
It was definitely out with the lawn rakes at the November work session – the grass in the
Western Garden was covered in leaves from the fruit trees and others, but by the end of
the session thanks to serious raking by all those present and a calming of the wind as
the afternoon passed, most of the leaves had
been raked and bagged up and deposited in the
newly mended compost bins against the back wall
– many thanks to Jerry for turning the pallets
donated to us by Speights into working compost
bins.
There was a strong contrast between the leaf
colours of the two gardens – the Eastern Garden
dominated by the beech tree, now turning from copper to orange-brown, while the
leaves in the Western Garden were more greeny-gold from
the fruit trees, enlivened with splashes of colour from the
dogwood stems in the long border. A couple of frosty
mornings early in the month loosened the few remaining
leaves in the gardens and by the end of the month the
trees were practically bare.
The next excitement in
November was the
felling of several
sycamores by the wall dividing The Storey Gardens
from The Meeting House. This has allowed so much
more light into the gardens, you can almost sense the
plants expanding with pleasure – if only the remaining
sycamores with their unsightly wreathed ivy could go
the same way.
There is a definite sense of putting the gardens to
bed – tidying up, clipping and pruning, making sure
that winter won’t harm the vulnerable and tender
and wondering what the spring will bring.
The Latest Addition to The Gardens
The triangle of garden at the Castle Park entrance
to The Gardens has also had its overpowering trees
removed – the four dark holly trees which crowded into that small railed space no longer
obscure the fairly imposing entrance to that part of The Storey, and as an additional
benefit open up the vista of Castle Park down into Lancaster and across to the Ashton
Memorial. Three yews with a vertical habit have been planted there instead, so there is
plenty of space for us to make the space more beautiful. The removal of the hollies
reveals the junk which has been thrown over into the railed area – perhaps some
evidence of TLC will help to prevent that.
Consultation Exercise
During the month about 500 questionnaires were delivered to households in the areas
immediately surrounding The Storey Gardens with requests for completion and return to
the City Council. Helen from the City Council reports that there has been a very good
response from the survey and that someone at the Town Hall is putting the outcomes
onto the computer for us. There have been some interesting suggestions in the Scrap
Book which accompanied the display boards, so we should get a full picture from the
combined findings – we hope these will be available in the New Year.
Many thanks to those members who did the door-to-door delivery which made this part
of the consultation possible.
Funding Fair
Annie, Michael (Treasurer) and Sue (Secretary) attended a Funding Fair in Morecambe
in the early part of November, where representatives from funding bodies both local and
national were happy to chat through their funding criteria with groups wanting money.
There were several bodies who liked the sound of what we are doing with the Storey
Gardens, but their criteria included regular and fairly frequent public access, which of
course isn’t possible just now. But these bodies will be there another year, by which
time our situation may have changed quite radically, so that we can meet the criteria
easily.
Next Group Meeting
Don’t forget – the date for this has been changed. There was no Group Meeting in
November – it was instead rescheduled for Tuesday 10 December, 6.00pm at NICE,
when we hope to hear from Helen from the City Council about how things are
progressing from their point of view. There may also be some festive goodies to set a
seasonal tone. Hope to see you all there.
Next Meetings
Tuesday 10 December
Sunday 5 January 2014
Tuesday 28 January
FoSG Meeting 6.00pm NICE (note change of date)
work session in the gardens, 2.00-4.00
FoSG Meeting 6.00pm NICE
The next Newsletter will be out the weekend of 28 December 2013 and copy should be
sent to Sue on sue.widden@outlook by Friday 21 December.
In the meantime the FoSG Chair, Treasurer and Secretary wish all members a Happy
Christmas and a fruitful New Year in 2014.