Community Gardening Comes To Hurst Green - 12th March 2016 2pm to 4pm - A Date For Your Diary

For some time, we have been banging on about the support that Hurst Green Gardening Club has been providing to local groups such as Hurst Green Creative Community.  This group is trying to encourage more community-based events and projects in the local area.  We have also supported Mighty Oaks Youth Group, based in the Community Centre at the rear of the Pollard Oak shops (click here to read our earlier article).

I hope therefore that you have all been admiring the new planter at Hurst Green rail station.  It was planted earlier in 2015 by members of the club, along with members of Hurst Green Creative Community and Mighty Oaks Youth Group.  We have subsequently replanted the summer display with lavender (as a more permanent framework), and with pansies and spring flowering bulbs, so do keep an eye on its progress!

Installation of the planter, constructed by the Men In Sheds project

The initial summer planting

The winter plumage - a framework of small lavender with
pansies and bulbs (which are now starting to appear)

As some of you may now be aware, there are plans to develop a Community Garden in the grounds of the Community Centre (the place where many of us vote).  There are a number of areas earmarked for development, including the main patch beyond the car park which is currently laid to grass, and which hosts a single Garden Bench of Solitude.  In addition, at the rear of the car park there is (was) a badly overgrown area which has now been cleared, and kindly composted by the Council.  It is suggested that, since some trees have been left, this area might become a space planted and presented as a small area of woodland.  Some members of the Club spent a happy few hours (well, one hour, really - Ed), planting a small area of bulbs into the cleared area in order to give some idea and interest as to what the area could become.  The official launch event of the Community Garden is on Saturday 12th March, at the Community Centre, between 2pm and 4pm.  Please do come along and find out the plans for the future of the space - nothing has been decided yet, and there is plenty of time for everyone to have their say.  The Community Garden is envisaged as an area for relaxation, enjoyment, health, well-being, and education (along with many other advantages), and is an attempt to beautify a rather drab and overgrown area for the benefit of all.  From our own Club's point of view, it will also serve as an introduction to gardening for many people who might otherwise lack the resources, knowledge or space in which to learn and understand many aspects of horticulture.  And that has to be, in the vernacular, A Good Thing For All.

The proposed area for the main Community Garden,
showing the Garden Bench of Solitude

At the rear of the car park, this area of scrub has been neglected for many years.

However, with thanks to the council, it has now been cleared and composted.
One proposal is for this to become a woodland area.

Initial bulb planting in advance of the plans and specifications.

We should stress that the project is being organised and run through Hurst Green Creative Community.  The intention of a Community Garden is that the community as a whole should get together in order to specify, design, build, plant and maintain it.  Hurst Green Gardening Club is offering to support the project with knowledge and practical help and advice - we are not committing to actually building or planting it under the auspices of the Club as a whole (although we would hope that some members of the Club might offer to do so under their own steam, as it were).  There are some practical things that we can do immediately, however; one of the big costs of the project is likely to lie in the planting of the completed garden, and it would be a grand gesture if any member of our Club could think of the Community Garden when taking cuttings or planting seeds over the next few months, and take a few extra for the project; all annual, perennial, fruit and shrub contributions would be welcomed.

Oh, and if you are interested in helping in any way at all, major or minor, please let Jane, Jilly or Jeremy know.