Valued volunteer Alex - maintaining the gravel areas

Quote for the week.....

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

How you can help hedgehogs

"Every year an unknown number of hedgehogs die or suffer horrific injuries because bonfire piles are not checked before being lit. To save hedgehogs and other wildlife from appalling suffering the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) urges that bonfires should not be built until the day they are to be lit"

If you would like more information on how you can help hedgehogs, please visit the BHPS website here

Autumn in the garden

Autumn in the garden, a set on Flickr.

Thank you to North West Evening Mail

Berries in some of our wildlife border areas

Browsing the undergrowth in autumn

How to make pine cone bird feeders - advice from Gardeners' World.

“Our gardens our becoming increasingly important places for wild animals and especially birds. By providing a regular supply of food and water, we can help birds survive the challenging winter months, when they can struggle to survive. One way you can help is by combining pine cones, gathered from your garden, with a seed and fat mix, to make simple hanging feeders”

For more details please visit the Gardeners World website here.

Just a few jobs you could be doing in the garden now

Vegetables:

Sow broad beans and hardy peas

Plant out garlic cloves

Plant overwintering onions sets and broad beans

Herbs:

Pot up a few roots of mint and bring under cover for winter pickings

Fruit:

Tidy strawberry beds, cutting back old foliage and congested runners and removing weeds

Plant currant bushes

Flowers:

Plant spring flowering bulbs

Plant out spring bedding plants such as violas, pansies and primulas

Soil:

Preparing your soil before winter sets in. Once the soil becomes very wet or frozen then you will have to wait until mid-spring before you can dig it without damaging the soil structure. Clear out the weeds and old crops and add some organic matter to the soil and dig it in. If you are not replanting during the winter you can use a good layer of compost, leaf mould, sow a green manure or even use plastic sheeting to cover the soil. The soil will then be easier to plant or sow into the following spring.

Wildlife:

Make log and twig piles to provide shelter for insects and amphibians over the cold winter months.

Put up nest boxes and hang out bird feeders

Make a hedgehog a home. Making an artificial home can be as simple as placing a piece of board against a wall. Leave areas of the garden ‘wild’, with piles of leaf litter and logs. These are an attractive nest as well as a home for the invertebrates (slugs, beetles) that hedgehogs like to eat.

Love food, hate waste. Make the most of your Halloween pumpkin

"Pumpkin carving is a great way to amuse the kids but what happens to all the succulent orange flesh that has been scooped out of the pumpkins?"

Love Food Hate Waste has some delicious pumpkin recipe suggestions including:

Pumpkin tart

Roast pumpkin lasagne

Roast Pumpkin seeds

Roast pumpkin and coriander soup

For more information please visit their website here.

Autumn colour

"Mind.....making the case for ecotherapy

"Mind.....making the case for ecotherapy as a public health intervention and as a mental health treatment. Ecotherapy improves mental and physical health and wellbeing by supporting people to be active outdoors doing gardening, farming, food growing, exercise, art and craft, or environmental conservation work"

For more information please visit their website here

Quote for the week.....

“Gardens and flowers have a way of bringing people together, drawing them from their homes.”  -Clare Ansberry

What to do in the garden in October - Advice from Vertical Veg

What to do in the garden in October - Advice from Vertical Veg

Jobs for this month include:

Harvest warm weather crops.

Protecting winter crops.

Protecting tender herbs.

Slug and snail patrols.

Cover empty pots or sow with seeds

Sow fast growing salad crops.

Save seeds.

For more detailed information please visit the Vertical Veg website here

Vertical Veg - Starting a new container garden

Vertical Veg - "The one thing you MUST do when starting a new container garden. In this video Hedvig Murray explains how observation was invaluable to help her convert an unpromising concrete space into a flourishing container garden". 

One of several videos published this month in the Vertical Veg Club, the online club for container growers: http://www.verticalveg.org.uk/observe-and-interact/

Woodlands Trusts Nature Detectives - autumn activities

"Autumn is a great time to play outdoors; treasure hunting, leaf collecting, blackberry picking, conker playing, seed planting".........Woodlands Trusts Natures Detectives has developed a diverse range of free ideas and downloads. Free resources include; free booklets, fact sheets, recipes, story telling, art and crafts, puzzles and identification sheets.

If you would like more information please visit their website here.

An early autumn collage

Butterfly Conservations "Munching Caterillars" Project

Munching Caterpillars is a new education project for Butterfly Conservation. They are teaching children (and adults) about butterflies and moths, their lifecycles, habitats and foodplants, and about how they can help to conserve our British species. Download their free colourful guide to garden butterflies and their caterpillars. Below is just a one page teaser, you can get the full poster here

For more information please visit the Muching Caterpillars website here

Autumn's here.....

Quote for the week.....

“Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and it's beauty.” - Albert Einstein

Common lizard taking advantage of the autumn sun

About common lizards:

Size:  Usually between 10 and 15cm long including tail

Average Lifespan: up to 12 years

Distribution:  Found throughout the U.K.

Months seen:  March to October.  During the winter Common Lizards hibernate underground

Habitat:  Grassland, heathland, forest edges, sand dunes and brownfield sites

Food:  Small insects and spiders

Conservation status: Protected in the UK under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981, and classified as a Priority Species in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.

Threats to the common lizard: largely due to man, for example loss of their habitats and habitat fragmentation due to urbanisation and agricultural intensification.

Would you like to help us by sponsoring a raised planter?

Would you like to join a number of local companies, clubs and voluntary organisations that have already recognised the important role that Marsh Street Arches and Garden Community Interest Company plays in our local community and have made a conscious decision to support our work by sponsoring a planter on our community grow your own scheme for a 12 month period.

The planters are used by local people, local primary schools and various local organisations such as; MIND in Furness, New Roots, CADAS, Crofltands Trust, Drop Zone Youth Project, Age UK Barrow, Abbey Lodge Childrens Home, Furness Parents and Carers Disability Forum  and our local LGBT group.

For £100 for a 12 month period your organisation will be assisting this important community asset and your contribution, if you so wish, can be recognised via your sponsorship being publicised on one of the planters used in the community grow your own section of the garden.  We believe that this represents a win – win situation for both of our respective organisations and we sincerely hope that you will be able to assist us by becoming one of our sponsors.

We would be delighted to show you around the garden in person so that you can see for yourself what the support of local organisations is doing for the people of Barrow-in-Furness.  If you would like to visit the garden to see how things are progressing, our Voluntary Project Co-ordinator, Graham Bromley would be delighted to arrange a visit for you.  Graham can be contacted on telephone number 07919 991989 or by email at: grahamgbrom@aol.com. Thank you.