Gather & Grow Round Up - July 2023
July has been a busy month at our Saturday Gather & Grow sessions! With the temperatures warming up the flowers have taken off, and both the allotments are awash with colour and life.
At Baby Bloom our volunteers have really been getting stuck in to all the garden jobs, which have included planting out the dahlias, deadheading the cornflowers and calendula, sowing biannual seeds, and lots of weeding. We have also created a new salad bed with some fragrant flowering herbs, and filled the greenhouse with tomato plants.
Although the weather has not always been on our side, the flowers have really benefited from the extra water after a very dry start to the summer. The antirrhinum are doing particularly well at the moment, as are the white cosmos and limonium. We have been experimenting with cutting flowers to dry, which we are hoping to use in floral arrangements over the winter.
At Big Bloom the volunteers have made great progress in clearing the beds and paths ready for planting to begin in the autumn. We have also begun to construct a dead hedge to create a wildlife-friendly feature that will be enjoyed by all manner of animals and insects. July has also seen the newest addition to the Big Bloom garden, in the form of a huge wildlife pond. With all the rainfall in July, it is filling up nicely. We just need to buy to pond plants now to green it up.
Of course it hasn’t all been hard work, and we have spent plenty of time drinking tea and chatting together. One of our very talented volunteers has been treating us to some lovely home baked goods, with this floral focaccia being a particular highlight!
The volunteers have also been able to use their creativity to make some beautiful bouquets to take home to their friends and families. We are all looking forward to seeing both allotment sites continue to grow and develop over the coming months. If you would like to come and get involved, sign up here.