Preparations for Open Day at Springvale Community Garden Sunday 17th June 2012

We are busy this week making preparations for an open day on Sunday 17th June. Building work is taking place all this week at the front of the site so hopefully all the packs of bricks that have been cluttering the area will be cleared away – turned into walls that will provide a framework for a garden area. The giant pile of soil brought to us from the old Penistone Grammar School has been reduced by about a half today – soil has been moved by a digger into a giant new bed that will eventually hold blackberries and some other bush-fruits. For this summer though it will be a home for runner beans and courgettes.

Today we realised that part of a new wall was blocking the entrance to a beehive, so we had a lot of bees hanging around towards the end of the day looking a bit lost. We’d like to think of ourselves as a bee-friendly project so the half-dry mortar was drilled in a few places to make some new entry routes to the hive. Hopefully it will work….

The event this weekend will involve Steel Valley Project and Hadrian’s Dry Stone Walls – two organisations that have really helped Springvale move forward in the early stages. Steel Valley will be making some wildlife shelters on site to sit alongside the new pond, and Hadrian’s Dry Stone Walls will be demonstrating dry stone walling by building a new barbecue on site. We can’t wait to start using it on summer days! It should be a far cry from microwave cooking in the greenhouse – our only option for heating food at the moment! We’ll also be holding a plant sale and showing those new to gardening how to sow seeds in pots for growing on a windowsill. Springvale volunteers will be around the site on the day to chat to visitors and explain all about the site.

We hope to see you there!