Gardens Summer 2018 by Eileen Clayton

It is now 10 weeks since we put in the summer bedding plants, 10 weeks of minimal rain. This has given Kaz Spring and her supporting team a major challenge to keep all these annuals watered at 5 stations. Amazingly, they have managed this and the results have been spectacular.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case at Minffordd, where it was impossible to water the long bed which is almost 400 feet long. Despite a lot of hard work here, by the middle of June it looked disappointingly drab. Although most of its plants are well established, the continued drought and the heat proved too much, so for the majority of plants, their flowering season was shortened and many started to die back. Basically it was a premature autumn which was unfortunate especially when it didn’t look its best for Hunslet 125.

Whilst the thorough watering ensured a beautiful display of bedding plants, it also encouraged the weeds. By mid June the flowers in one of our raised beds were supported by a dense bed of chickweed. We have to thank two of our regular volunteers, who spent a lot of time carefully uprooting these unwanted invaders.

In order to maintain our displays, we continue to need help over this next couple of months. we welcome volunteers who come individually to spend a spare few hours weeding and/or dead heading or to help with the watering. If you contact us in advance, we can let you know which station is in greatest need. Kaz: kspring@ffwhr.com Eileen: eileen@eileenclayton.net

Help keep our bedding displays looking like this: