News
DIG THIS JULY 2022
Friday 1st July 2022
Patience is a virtue..........
This is especially so when it comes to planning regeneration of areas of the ground and gardens! It can take a year of so for plants to become established and show themselves off at their best, and as ever consideration must be given to a fair number of factors. Finance, unfortunately is the first, followed by careful thought as to what plants will give us the ground cover required to minimise the costs of maintenance and weeding. We have to take into account that we have no on-site watering facilities, but on the other extreme we experience occasional flooding in the gardens. There will be planned replacement for some of the shrubberies that are getting very overgrown and becoming very woody, as they are coming to the end of their life cycle. So, unfortunately we expect there will be periods of unsightly bare earth patches in between planting times, but be assured we will do our best to ensure that this doesn't last for long. When we do make final choices we want to introduce some variety, height and colour to give interest that can be interspersed amongst the greenery (as we have heard residents so often request).
We are, as you are aware, now fortunate to be able to use the gardening knowledge of resident David Brown, who has been co-opted to advise the Board, with the support of horticulturalist, Pippa Willcox. They have already been hard at work preparing plans for the future, which will not be an easy task as they have to be conscious of all of the above factors. We feel confident that in years to come we will all enjoy the fruits of their labour, with the help of the gardening contractors.
Bamboo update
The professional company will start spraying now in early to mid-July, and we have been assured that there is no risk whatsoever to human, animal or plant life. A second spraying will be necessary in the autumn, and come the winter we will start to see the process evolving and bare ground appearing. The process used will disperse the bamboo rhizomes, and they will no longer be able to take the goodness from the soil, or choke and prevent other plants from surviving and thriving.
FoTOM (Friends of The Old Meadow)
Please look out on WhatsApp and the website for a date of our next meeting.
Gerry Smith (RMC)