Today marked the final day of the enrichment program with Stoneyholme School.
Seven families and 12 children had enrolled on the Gardening Club enrichment. The gardening Club was a session for children and parents to learn how to sew vegetable seeds, plant herbs, water, and care for their plants. In this session we gathered soil in a wheel barrow, and repotted 14 tomato and 7 coriander plants. First we added soil to the larger pots, then we removed the pot of a plant and added it to the new pot with fresh soil. The children topped up the soil in the new pot. Finally we added water to make sure that the plants would be happy and nourished in their new home with fresh soil. The children were allowed to take these plants away with them to raise over the summer and benefit from the vegetables the produce. Finally, they were taught how often to water them and when to repot them, and when the tomato’s were ready to harvest.

After a long hiatus, the band was back together; Neil had finished invigilating, and Nixie joined us after a month off volunteering to tackle the Italian Gardens. The Italian Gardens had not been worked on since Neil and I had worked on them back in February. Nixie, Neil and I got stuck in weeding the Italian Garden beds. we pulled out Willowherb and Hairy Willowherb managing to tackle a vast amount of it across five beds in two short hours. In total we removed 5 wheel barrows worth!

Thursday marked the first session of Quarry Club. An ex-quarry now turned nature reserve thanks to the help of Trees for Burnley who, in the early 90’s, planted the site with trees. I had scheduled work for a month at this site including cutting back weeds either side of the path, removing dead wood, and removing low hanging branches. Five residents of the area came to volunteer and as a result we managed much of the scheduled work for the month in a single session! Between us all we managed to clear the paths of overgrown weeds, cut back the roots, cut the low hanging branches down. We also managed to cut back some of the piles of dead wood that had been left, and work on some of the windfallen trees that have come down in recent storms.  

Stoneyholme school asked that I deliver parent and child gardening club sessions. The aim of the sessions was to encourage children’s interest in gardening and raising vegetables. Through having parents attend the sessions with their children, this allowed a bonding between children and parents through these sessions with a shared learning experience. This week we were planting bell peppers seeds. We planted them in small pots for the children and parents to take away with them at the end of the session.  

Wednesday the 26^th marked the first session of friends of Clifton Wood.
Helen and I started by widening the paths through the small woodland. Over the years they had become completely overgrown and, in some areas, made it impossible for anyone to walk through. Helen and I first removed overreaching branches that encroached into the pathway. Then, we cut back weeds, nettles and brambles. We increased the width of the path so that anyone were able to walk through it safely without being stung or scratched.
Brendon, a new volunteer, joined us and helped us with these activities, to finish up the session both Helen and Brendon litter picked the site.

Friends of Ightenhill Park. 

I joined Kath and Irelene in the vegatable garden for the first time. We prepared soil for vegetables, pruning dead leaves, and rotating vegetables around the polytunnel. I then went to help Ian and David move soil that was left over from filling the planters. We moved soil from the ton bags to a designated soil bay within the compound. We also helped Kath and Irelene by taking soil to the potato plot to help mound up the potato’s around the stems.  As potato’s grow, they need soil to be mound up around the plant, to encourage more spud growth!

Today marked the day of working on the circular bed outside the front of Towneley Hall by the pond and Cafe. It was overrun with self-seeded trees, brambles, and undesirable plants. They had to go. Working on the bed was Helen, Hazel, Karen, David, Jason, Mirabela, and myself. You often find when working on a circular bed that one completes work in segments, and that you end where you started.