Glorious Gardening

Beth and Anita completed an huge array of Good Deeds working way beyond the scheduled session

Water Workout. The parched Three Pigeons received a really good soaking with Beth and Anita spending over an hour shuttling from the river to the plot with watering can after watering can of river water. Some of the more parched looking plants at The Arcade also got a soaking.

Tomatoes. An escapee tomato, rolling towards the Thames, was reunited with its delivery man owner. Was this a good deed or a sad thwarting of a vegetables brave bid to escape its culinary Fate?

Weeding . With the ground a bit softer from watering, Beth cleared out masses of mint that has started to run wild and also rescued some mint runners (if you’re attending The Big Garden Week Group Run session on Monday and would like a mint plant please let Anita know) and Anita tackled nettles, grass, plane tree saplings, hog weed and Sow-Thistle.

Removal of Woody cuttings and plyboard. Beth Richmond Landscape Contractors collected the Forsythia cuttings and plyboard from beside The Arcade Rockery lawn and also took away most of the day’s green waste.

The Man from the Council. Matt Almond, Richmond and Wandsworth’s Parks Operations Manager dropped by to discuss GoodGym Richmonds’ plans for the benches and our work in Buccleuch Gardens. He was very positive about our transformation of The Three Pigeons Plot and The Arcade Rockery and will try and facilitate outstanding requests for plants, tools and an extra key for the Arcade.

Big Garden Week plans. Richmond Landscape Contractors will be instructed to improve the site-lines from all the benches by cutting back the shrubs. GoodGym will contribute on Monday and going forward by weeding around the benches and starting to plant up Liriope Muscari, hawksbill geraniums and other low growing plants and shrubs.

Willow Weaving. The withies that were soaked for soaked but not used during the Coronation ‘Big Help Out’ session in May were beginning to harden. Rather than waste them, Anita wove a number of wreaths. Some can be these can used to decorate the Arcade (e.g. at Christmas) and they can also form the basis of plant supports.

Going Green with a Bike Trailer. Anita gave her new eBay purchased bike trailer an outing, transporting gardening tools and equipment with pedal power rather than petrol.