Another surprisingly decent morning’s gardening  with 10 of us out  despite the apparent gloom. 100  wood anemones planted in the woodland bed in the Memorial Garden, and the roses in the Sunderland Street entrance have been pruned.  We will be going out next week to discuss tree planting with the council tree planting officer as we have had a three offers of trees. This is very welcome as so many have come down over the last 3 years, and two more need to be taken out. the Narcissi are coming out as are the crocuses, and  here are a couple of other flowers  and a lovely fungus for you to find in the park…and don’t forget  to see the frog spawn. And finally we are starting a WhatsApp   group for the park, mostly for the gardeners, but everyone is welcome…..

A man on a bike with a trailer stole all but half a dozen of the logs that we had cut on Thursday morning  between  Thursday evening and Saturday night.  He was seen,  and we know he went down the canal towards Bathampton. I cycled to Claverton just now but there were no logs and no further sightings from the canal people, so he might have gone to Larkhall.  Disappointing, as now we can’t make a path through the proposed fernery. Never mind…

The crocuses have taken a beating this year, but the Snowdrops and Aconites and the Narcissus bulbocodium are in flower. The rest of the narcissi are in full growth,

George came and  cut the logs  into manageable sections for us. And several people have suggested we make a walkway out of the smaller ones. We will come up with a plan :–)

Thanks to all the hard work from our Gardening Volunteer Team, the “Your Park” volunteers, and  to Jane Robson from the Parks team, whose initial idea it was, we were awarded the winners certificate  in the Community Connectors category for the Fernery. This has been taking shape over the last three months between the loos and the main entrance on Henrietta Street. We have been clearing the patch of laurel surrounding the logs and stumps of trees cut down and trimmed over the last year, and which provided shelter for unlicensed commercial activities. We will be cutting and arranging logs, bringing our some stone from the compound, spreading compost and chippings, and then sowing with a range of woodland herbaceous plants but primarily ferns. We may plant two small native trees to provide some shade, say Sorbus aria, the Whitebeam, several species of which are native to the Avon  Gorge. The full write up will appear in our awards pages soon.

A splendid event in the newly refurbished Beacon was much appreciated,  and thanks go to the Bristol and Bath Your Parks team for providing so much support now that the Council have cut the Parks team so much. The street photo shows we were definitely in Bristol…

Good to see budding artists and marine biologists at work in the park….

Street art: Octopus . a future marine biologist

The proposed bed for the memorial garden, designed by one of our members, has been implemented by the council. The laurels were removed and the roots grubbed out by FoHP and the Council two years ago. This year FoHP dug the bed and sowed an annual wild flower mix from Landlife and this has flowered wonderfully. The council have now laid the paths and over the autumn we will fill in the new beds with insedt friendly mixes of annuals and perennials.

Paths for the new bed.

Paths for the new bed

Council workers helping out with the chippings: Thanks Jane !

A splendid days gardening saw 14 of us out for Sunday Morning., with a good clearout of the Sunderland Street entrance. You might notice fewer weeds and the roses dead headed, but also a transplanting of several white Borage plants which should come into flower soon. These have reseeded themselves from last year.

And You all will have noticed the demise of the Pine tree , Pinus wallichiana, near the entrance. It came down on Saturday afternoon, and a note to fix my streetsaw it taped off straight away, and the council removed it very tidily on Monday morning. It had been badly attacked by fungi then by insect borers, and now provides a stool.

We have started to record insects in a more systematic manner. The link is here, under the natural world/ animals /insects from the main menu – do feel free to mail your observations to us. I hope to automate this at some stage.

Jersey Tiger Moth, Euplagia quadripunctaria

Common Darter, Sympetrum striolatum ( probably)

Hornet Hoverfly, Volucella zonaria

Thanks to the  awareness of one of our members, Fiona,  we have a range of new tools for the Park obtained from  the generosity of people on local donation sites  who have them to spare. Now we have a wider range of hand tools for all to come out and garden next time 🙂