Continued from "Grounds 1"
The grounds planting diary
NOTE: most recent entry at the bottom of the page
(July 2012)
Watering log near the bottom of this page
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Sat 22 May 2010
We have entered the estate in the "Hackney in Bloom" competition
in the Best Voluntary Organisation Garden category.
Even though the beds won't be at their best for a year or two
they should look pretty good by the time judging starts.
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Tue 1st June
Tue 1st June
Fri 4th June
John Little came early this morming at my request to help me work out which plants are weeds - not as straight forward as you might think because some of the plants originally planted suffered a little shock from the event and lost their foliage, only now starting to re-sprout. As they are so small they are the same size as the few odd weeds that have made it through the mulch in places.
The semi-circular patches of wildflower meadow at the front edge of the beds (where there is no mulch) is another place where it's very difficult to tell the weeds apart from the flowers.
Fortunately, John did all those areas himself, as well as going over half the mulched beds while showing me what to do.
The mulch - which is the top grade mulch available - is doing its job very well, only letting a few weeds through in about 5 of 200 square meters covered.
The plants are really starting to shoot up now, esp. the grasses.
As soon as I get time I'll upload the latest photos.
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Wed 9th June
Just a couple of days of rain with a little sun and they've shot up.
I took these photos with with my mobile phone camera so they are little more than "snaps" but they do show how much everything has grown.
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Damage to Prout Road beds
John Little of the Grass Roof Co is away for a week (until the 21st) so to stop the cement and rubble being rained into the soil I removed the worst of it today.
This is what the beds look like now and will remain looking like until John gets back and can replace the affected plants (and soil and mulch):
I have suggested the contractor who did the damage while repairing the railing should "donate" a few pounds to the Beecholme TRA to help pay for the replacement plants, soil, mulch and labour costs.
In fact I suppose the most important thing is that in future they try and take more care of surrounding estate property, including plant beds.
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FRI 11th June
Damage to Prout Road beds
Today the low loop top railing border to the flower beds on Prout Road, in front of 63-104 were repaired and straightened. The contracted did do a good job of straightening and securing the railing.
Unfortunately, the work was carried out with little or no care or respect for the plant beds. Personally I think they could have cleaned up the sidewalk a little better as well:
PHOTO: damage to beds when railing straightened
In the photo above you have to look very closely to see the spade fulls of earth and rubble covering whole areas of mulch, right up to the climbing vine on the building side of the bed.
The three foot wide semi-circle of wildflower meadow plants grown from seed over the last six weeks has been pretty well trashed.
I am getting it looked at and then returned to its proper pristine state:
PHOTO: as it was before the railing was straightened
...PHOTO: as it was before the railing was straightened
SUN 13th June
John Little of the Grass Roof Co is away for a week (until the 21st) so to stop the cement and rubble being rained into the soil I removed the worst of it today.
This is how much cement and rubble I took off the beds:
This is what the beds look like now and will remain looking like until John gets back and can replace the affected plants (and soil and mulch):
I have suggested the contractor who did the damage while repairing the railing should "donate" a few pounds to the Beecholme TRA to help pay for the replacement plants, soil, mulch and labour costs.
In fact I suppose the most important thing is that in future they try and take more care of surrounding estate property, including plant beds.
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The beds in front of block 10-21 are going to get new railings sometime in the next month or so. I will try to be on hand to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to them.
WED 16th June
I spoke to the contractor's surveyor yesterday while accompanying Gary Lane & Jo Evans on some more of the Clapton 184 walkabout. He has spoken to the men who did the work and will notify me when the railing in front of 10-21 is going in so that we can remove some of the plants and mulch and replace them when the work is done.
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SUN 20th June
These are just from my phone camera but give you an idea of which plants have shot up and which are just starting to grow after they died back due to transplanting.
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FRI 25th June
BELOW: This strip is in shade and was planted some 2 weeks after the railings strip above, which gets sun half the day
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TUE 29th June
As you can see, during the last week or so they have shot up
more (full size) at http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidandseb
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Paid for by £2,500 EIB grant + a £5,000 grant from HCVS in 2009
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JULY 20th
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JULY 22nd
ABOVE: Daytime BELOW: Evening
July 26th
lots more taken at the same time on my Flickr stream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidandseb
click on any photo to see it full size
once it's opened in a new window you may have to click on it again to enlarge it to full size
more to come
Watering Log
The new beds in of the whole estate have been done at the least every 2 to 4 days since planting (from 20th April up to now, Fri 21st May) by residents.
Just for us to keep track
5 main areas
1. block 10 -21 + Casimir Rd
2. block 22-33 + railings
3. strip front of 34-51
4. strip behind 63-104
5. block 63-104 front on Prout Rd.
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Met Office London weather forcast:
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colour code below: David Christine Ingrid Darren
March 2011
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End of Sept 2010 - still going strong
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End of Sept 2010 - still going strong
2011
March 28
John Little of the Grass Roof Co has weeded all the flower beds (not the first time this year) and carefully sprayed the larger dandelions as well as the wildflower strips behind the tall block and in front of block 34-55 and re-seeded them.
The railings wildflower strip was partially self seeded but need a bit of a top up, so John put more mixed wildflower seeds down today.
END
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2012
JUNE
Here we are in the middle of June and I have a bit of catching up to do. I have quite a few photos to sort out to cover the period from March 2011 to now, June 2012 and will get them posted here as soon as I can.In the meantime, here are a couple of shots I took at the beginning of June this year, just a couple of weeks ago:
ABOVE: Rafal from Hackney Homes, preparing the strip next to the railings to sow wildflowers again. This year though, we've selected a "marmalade mix" of wildflowers and sown very densely so the effect should be spectacular.
ABOVE: 1st June 2012.
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BELOW: 20th June 2012
Seeds sown are wildflower "marmalade mix".
BELOW: the other side of the square to the railings, outside block 34-55 - seeds sown "short" wildflower mix.
BELOW: the top square - seeds sown: normal wildflower mix
BELOW: the top end of the "top square" either hasn't germinated or just hasn't had as much rain falling on it and is a few days behind the rest.
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3rd July 2012
ABOVE: Wildflowers along railings coming along well
ABOVE: beds outside 23
ABOVE: beds outside 23 to 27
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July 2012
For photos and info about the allotment, see this new blo:
Beecholme Community Garden
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August 2012
more to come
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