Garden News

Recovering The Central Bed – May 2018

29th May 2018 By John Roper Leave a Comment

During the week of 14th May 2018 Mark and Richard from Maydencroft removed all the rocks from the large Central Planting bed, then re-shaped and re-profiled it, before edging it with large stones. James and Im0gen finished it off by bedding the edging rocks with soil so that they looked as though they had always been there.

Ann MacDonald decided to cover the Central Bed with a weed suppressing membrane and on 18th May with Sarah and Andrew, they spent a couple of Happy Hours at Rochfords Nurseries selecting plants. It took three trips to transport all the plants back to the Fernery.

Some plants were planted straight away.

Early on Saturday morning 19th May the first of a two day planting session started. After Sarah had marked out where each specific plant should go, the Fernery Gardening Group swung into action. Generous watering took place before the task was completed and the process was repeated on Monday morning 21st May 2018.

Hopefully, before 17th June 2018 Open Day, a mulch of bark chip and compost will be spread all over the bed to complete the job.

All the plants will be added to The Planting Record in due course.

23rd February – 100+ bare rooted trees planted

5th March 2018 By John Roper Leave a Comment

Screening

The prime purpose of many of the bare-rooted trees planted on 23rd February is to restore the shelter which the more delicate ferns and other specimen plants would have enjoyed in the past. An equally important purpose is to screen the site from unwelcome Motorway views, (not a Victorian problem), whilst also presenting seasonal blocks of colour and interest which will frame the many other vistas to be enjoyed from within the Fernery.

25th February 2018 – More Snowdrops and Acconites planted

2nd March 2018 By John Roper Leave a Comment

At short notice the Borough Council delivered 500 x Snowdrops and 500 x Aconites – all ‘on the green’ (i.e. well rooted with full stems and leaves). We had to get them planted in a hurry, and volunteers stepped forwards to help on 25th February 2018.

But because of fears of frozen ground a last-minute postponement was circulated. As happens, a few volunteers who hadn’t received the ‘postponement notice’ did nevertheless turn up and perversely we found that the ground underneath the large oaks was in fact in perfect condition. So, although bitterly cold, the five of us got busy! Apologies go out to all those volunteers who, but for the ‘postponement’, would have joined us.

Sarah directed the planting and we have created a ‘Spring Bed’ which will in time show well.

British Pteridological Society (BPS) Membership Confirmed

6th December 2017 By John Roper Leave a Comment

Treasurer Andrew has succeeded in arranging a group membership for “The Danesbury Fernery Volunteer Group“

The BPS are very interested in our Project and Andrew has already had contact from Dr Alison Evans, BPS Membership Secretary, and Dr Peter Blake acting Representative for the East Anglia section.

As East Anglia Area representative, Peter Blake (from Norwich) hopes to visit us in person at our work party of 15th March 2018.

Peter is also circulating all east Anglia members with details about our activities and our social media contacts, and we might therefore expect visits by local members of the society. Such contact would give us hands-on guidance on growing ferns. Peter is suggesting that if any BPS member has spare ferns, then we would be pleased to have them. (Many BPS members grow their ferns from spores that take two to three years to become a sustainable plant).

Peter Blake also recommends that the Friends of Danesbury Local Nature Reserve (FOD) visit the BPS website for details of regional events that are currently at the planning stage. To access the BPS Members’ area which contains the plant exchange scheme details, you will need to note the user-name and password : BPSMember (case-sensitive) – the same for both boxes.

Out of interest, BPS Secretary Alison has commented to Andrew on one of the posts from our own website, How to Grow Specimen Ferns (principally the extract from Robinsons’s book documenting Anthony Parson’s systematic approach). She endorses the need to remove any chalk from the planting beds, and to try to plant domestic cultivars as ‘they are more resistant to rabbit and deer taste’.