As most areas on the green are finished structurally I thought it would be a good idea to focus on one area in depth . So over the next couple of weeks you will be able to see more of each area.
The first area I shall take you through is The Meadow
The meadow has been under construction since Autumn of last year and it has involved building a dry stone wall, clearing out a small wooded area, making a fence around it , providing two benches, sowing some wildflower seed,creating two log pile/habitat things and finally marking out the area with 26 two meter logs. The view you are looking at it what you will see if you enter the meadow from the reindeer hut entrance.
As you can see the grass and wildflowers are starting to look quite meadowy and I think you will agree the logs marking out the area fit in very well. The paths will remain grass and will be strimmed every now and again to keep it short. I think leaving the paths grass adds to the feel rather than mulching them.
Several of the areas were sown with wildflowers around March time and they are just starting to fill out the beds and blend in with the grasses.
The log piles are also starting to blend in and the green roof will be in flower soon. You can also see our giant log pile in the middle of the picture, these logs where put there around 6 years ago and they are starting to break down quite nicely, creating habitats for insects.
I mentioned earlier that we had cleared out some of the lower branches from this wooded area, this has been planted with woodland plants and in the Autumn we shall be planting it with bluebells, so come next Spring it should look fantastic.
A bit of a closer look at the plants in the wood. The wooded area has a fence that goes around it which you can see at the top right of the picture. It is made from hazel and silver birch and works really well.
The view from the woods looking out onto the meadow. The two places blend quite nicely into each other by using the right plants in each area.
The dry stone wall is now complete with its grass bank. This has taken a while to establish due to the warm April, but with all of the rain we have had recently it has taken off.
And finally... this is the view from one of the benches and it one that I enjoy sitting on watching all of the insect. That in its self is important to me as I feel that we have created a useful habitat for many insects and other animals in what was just another bit of grass that was mowed once a month and was not a lot of use to anyone or anything.
So if you would like to have a closer look why not pop down and I'll fight you for the bench.
The children that came down were fascinated to see the potatoes coming from the ground as this was a totally new experience for them.
With this being the first time that we have grown potatoes I was also a little apprehensive how they would turn out. As it was I needn't have worried as the potatoes were lovely and firm and in good numbers.
We only had to throw a couple onto the compost pile that were damaged from grubs
otherwise we had a good haul from the 8 plants that we lifted. The bounty of our harvest was then shared out amongst ourselves. Hopefully Mrs Greenspace will be using some this week so I will be able to report back how nice they where.
