News

DIG THIS May 2021

Saturday 1st May 2021

Gardens Update -

The last month has been the driest April on record and the challenge of keeping the new planting alive has been met through the stalwart actions of David Brown. David has been seen almost every other evening with hosepipe in hand keeping the water flowing and the plants alive. Thank you so much David, your efforts are really appreciated.

I mentioned last month that we have had significant problems sourcing the plants identified by Pippa Wilcox for the various areas of planting in the two main gardens. It appears that the combined effect of Brexit and Covid has caused these supply problems and also increased prices.
I have recently received an update to confirm that some, but not all, of the required plants have now been found. Sadly we are going to have to wait until Autumn for the Salix plants for the two main beds in the south garden.

I mentioned that a temporary solution for this summer will be to plant up the beds with some colourful summer bedding. These are kindly being provided by Limetree Landscapes.
The Limetree staff will continue in their efforts to bring the fast growing shrubs and grasses under control over the next few weeks. So if you see them hard at work, please give them your encouragement.

During the last two weeks Pippa Wilcox, David Brown and myself have been drawing up plans for the next stage of works to be carried out on the development. When plans are drawn up and costed I hope to share the ideas with residents and invite constructive comments.

Alas, further work is not now likely until the Autumn, and as always is limited by available funding from our estate budget. While there have been generous offers of financial support from some residents, the Board of the RMC is looking into the implications and viability of funding the work in this way.

The Friends of The Old Meadow (FoTOM) - Diary date

A clarion call to awaken all our Friends of The Old Meadow.

On 20 May we plan to hold a work session to carry out some seasonal cleaning and tidying around the development.

The assembly time will 10:00am near the Montgomery House bin store.
Tasks will include:
• Removing the winter bedding plants and replacing with summer planting
• Cleaning the main entrance gate
• Rubbing down and treating the garden benches with teak oil
• General weeding and tidying around the car parking areas.

So if you would like to come along and join in please do so.

We will continue to observe all rules for keeping ourselves Covid safe and of course we hope to be able to serve coffee and biscuits to all who participate. Put the date in your diary now.

John Yeomans
1 May 2021