The local Beavers group were looking to earn some badges to do with growing. We hatched a bit of a plan. They could grow pumpkins in time for Halloween. First they came down and sowed their pumpkin seeds, watered them and hoped they’d grow into small plants that would be able to survive out in the main plot.
Then they came for another trip to plant them …
June saw the plants really kick on. The warmer temperatures helped to keep the slugs away, however, as the heat wave took over, watering became our priority.
Rich told me he could build a bailing machine in half a day. He was wrong… it took the whole day – but it’s really good! We have collected up the dried grass and successfully created some bails of hay.
We have been thrilled to see the emergence of wildlife in our pond. We’ve already noted the frogspawn and toad spawn – these have developed and we have many fat tadpoles swimming around. We’ve also seen newts, water boatmen, water snails, various nymphs and most excitingly, dragons flies laying eggs!
As part of the Coronation celebrations, we offered people the opportunity to come up and help out with our wildflower meadow.
The Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust ran the ‘Bee Together’ Programme with us last Autumn. Children from Embsay Primary School plug planted flowers and sowed seeds, all originating from local estates and farms. We were instructed to leave the meadow over winter. Now, in Year 2, we needed to weed out any small (or larger!) docks and thistles, mow early if required (since we removed the turf initially, this wasn’t necessary) and wait with baited breath.
Marian, our very knowledgeable neighbour, agreed to come down to help us identify the emerging plants. We were all relieved when she told us that a good amount was coming through, including yellow rattle.
Just over the beech hedge, a small team started to build one of our pond dipping platforms.
We have been really pleased to welcome a small group of D of E students to the plot over the past couple of months. They have been a great addition to the team. They’ve busied themselves sowing all sorts, including potatoes, beans, salad, brassicas and flowers. They’ve planted a few trees, weeded the veg beds, planted up tomatoes in hanging baskets, shovelled wood chip, planted rhubarb and some spring bulbs and fed the chickens!
We all had such a good time welcoming lots of new visitors to the plot. The weather was glorious – it was as though we had planned it. The daffodils were in bloom, cakes were baked, plants ready to be taken to new homes and we even had our very cool Holme Grown Eastby tote bags available.
Thanks to everyone who helped out over the weekend, and I’m amazed to say, that many hands made light work of the huge pile of bark chips – the veg patch and soft fruit areas look great.
We have all been waiting to see whether the pond would start to encourage wildlife into its waters. Over the last few weeks, we have been more than a little bit excited by our findings….
