15/09/12 Working party

We met for our regular working party at Millenium Garden and did some weeding and pruning. I left the technical pruning to the better gardeners and I concentrated on pulling arms full of bindweed/morning glory out of the far border. There wasn't any point in taking photos of that as you couldn't see any real difference after I had done it. Pauline did a great job with the lavenders but I forgot to take a photo - Linda took some so she might send them to me.

Last night quite a few of us went to Viviennes 80th birthday party. She put on a great do, with good food and music and loads of friendly guests. Here are a few photos I took [although it was not strictly a Beeston in Bloom activity I don't like to do posts without photos].

Her cake was fantastic with a representation of Beeston in Bloom on one side and the Adel Players [her other great enthusiasm] on the other. She had also put an interesting photo album together of her life for us to look at.

Sara

03/09/12 Cardinal Triangle

Instead of having a meeting this month we decided to have an extra working party while the weather is still good and the evenings not too dark. The Cardinal Triangle looked fine from a distance but when we started weeding and pruning back we took an amazing amount out of the beds without making most of it look too bare [there are a few empty patches].

We had 3 car boots and back seats full of black bags containing weeds etc which we took back to compost at Cross Flatts Park.

Sara

18/08/12 Barkley Road Planter

Today we had our regular 3rd Saturday of the month working party, this time at the Barkley Road Planter. It was a very warm day and the planter was absolutely full of weeds, fortunately lots of us turned up and many hands make light work [well lighter anyway]. In just two hours we managed a remarkable transformation.

We replaced all the thistles, nettles, dandelions etc with some hebe, hypericum, vinca, conifers and other plants recycled from our gardens [or in my case from my mums garden].

It was Leeds United's first league match of the season and apparently we were parked where some supporters usually park - one of them told us it would be our fault if Leeds lost as we had caused them to have to find another parking space [not totally clear on their logic - however Leeds managed to win one nil against Wolves so clearly it was faulty].

Sara

Eversheds Day

This was the volunteer day - I think it was last Thursday. Shelley arranged for volunteers to weed the city veg project and Judith has sent me these photos.

This is before

during

and after.

Judith reports "I only stayed the morning but the group were friendly and weeded willingly. The weather and the fact the bed was in the shade helped but as the pics show, they didn't half make a difference -thanks to Shelley and the park rangers as well as the park keepers for providing the tea, the gear and a trailer to fill with weeds."

Thanks Judith.

Sara

11/08/12 Not Beeston

I went into town on the bus today and was inspired by the floral display at the Scarborough Taps to walk round and take photos of the city centre floral displays [unfortunately I ran out of enthusiasm before I got to the civic hall] and doesn't town look

wonderful from city square to the town hall and up the headrow.

I think the Scarborough Taps is best though - the red and green colour scheme is so much more vibrant than the pastels.

Sara

06/08/12 Meeting

We had our first meeting in quite a while on Monday night. The June meeting was turned into a working party because summer judging was fast approaching and the July one was actually judgement day.

Apart from everything else we are trying to decide what sort of marker we want to put up to welcome people to Beeston. It's quite complicated as firstly where does Beeston start, there are several main roads through it [separate argument which areas actually qualify as Beeston], do we want a carved stone marker [very posh looking but we haven't really got a spot where it will stand out], a finger post [as it's taller, so more visible above planting but being metal more likely to be a target for metal thieves and also confusing when people might be expecting directions to be on it] or an arch [which was originally an idea for the millenium garden but if it gets put at the cardinal triangle - current favourite place to put any sign - it needs to be double sided so it's legible from both roads coming up from the white rose, and cut out words will only work from the front, and it would also be metal] and the final trauma of making decisions by committee, where everybody seems to understand that you said something different from what you meant. [I've read that lot back several times and it's as clear as mud but after several tweaks it's not getting any better !!!]

Anyway I don't like to do a post without a photo, so here is one of the Lodge Lane Planter taken as I came home from work. After being a bit of a rubbish tip at the beginning of July [I don't think we moved it, but there was a lot of junk including a smashed double glazed window frame there, so somebody did - thank you] it looked really colourful and I've kept meaning to take a photo - and at last I've got 'a round tuit'.

Sara

01/08/12 Ladies who Garden

This is a bit belated, sorry, but Linda sent me some pictures from their latest working party.

Where they were weeding the bowling green border and dead heading/weeding rose borders.

Unfortunately quite a few of the grasses and both yuccas have been mis-appropriated.

Sara