A look back at 2018

January 7th, 2019 | Posted by llangollen garden in Garden News - (Comments Off on A look back at 2018)

As 2019 starts with winter frosts it seems a good time to look back on 2018 at the Llangollen Community Garden, including a scorching hot Welsh summer!
The year started with more deep snow, followed by the wonderful news that the garden was safe and that we could continue to grow!  Spring 2018 saw a flurry of help from our youngest gardeners.  Our potato crop was entirely planted by children and we had one spring day when a whole group of under 5’s got busy planting out our first bed of new potatoes.

The under 5’s, but especially the under 2’s, used a string line and a spacing stick with considerable more care than many of our more grown up gardeners! The last crop for the season was put in by Llangollen Scouts.
The garden continues to welcome gardeners of all ages and planting is just one of the jobs our smallest gardeners enjoy.  Our sunflowers were also planted by kids. Our tallest this year was planted by Sunny, aged 4 and his Mum; their sunflower grew to a fantastic 8 feet tall.

    

Our first big event of the year was our Midsummer open Day in June.  We sold tea, homemade cakes and plants raised at the garden and showed off the plot to many first time visitors as well as returning supporters.  Our strawberry patch was at ‘peak strawberry’ and kept our younger visitors happy as did our Children’s Corner.  It was a scorching day, but this corner was shaded and cool with a mixture of water fun, dinosaurs and pretend fire building (without the flames!)

    

Once again our solar powered water pump proved invaluable and meant throughout the long hot summer we always had 3 water butts full of water pumped up from the stream. Thanks to our volunteer watering team, the warm weather meant we had a bumper harvest despite the arid conditions.  The photo below shows the results of one of our harvest evenings, just a small part of the fantastic harvest we enjoyed. We even had some spare courgettes to drop off at the Plas Newydd café to go into the veggie tortillas.

We are always delighted to welcome different groups to the garden. In April we welcomed the scouts. They proved an energetic workforce and enjoyed cutting down laurel, clearing the old collapsed dead hedge from the children’s area and helping with a litter pick along the road boundary.  They have since returned to the garden to practise their scouting skills in constructing and lighting small fires.  In November we also welcomed Year 6 from Ysgol Y Gwernant who came to cut and stack laurel with help from the Countryside Service Team at DCC. We look forward to welcoming many more groups in 2019.

Another highlight of 2018 was our second ever annual Apple Pressing Day in October. This was once again hugely popular and very well attended. Some families even arriving with 3 generations to enjoy the fun. Lots of juice was pressed by helpers of all ages and we also enjoyed some excellent hot spice apple juice together with homemade scones and apple cake. This event epitomises the garden; free outdoor fun for all the family that gets friends and strangers busy making juice from windfall apples that would often otherwise go to waste.

Our final good news of 2018 was our success in the Participatory Budgeting event in the Town Hall in the Autumn.  We secured some funds to finally complete the inside of our straw bale building with clay render. The clay will be completely child friendly and will enable us to involve children from the local schools to assist in this fun, messy, hands-on eco activity.

So we wish you all a very Happy New Year and thank you for all your support in 2018.  Remember you are always welcome to come along and visit the garden.  Sessions run every Saturday morning and would love to welcome you in 2019. So even if you live a busy life, (never enough thyme!) we hope you can make a little space to drop in and ‘live life on the veg’!

After the Christmas break we will be returning for our first session on Saturday 12 January from 10.30am. Further information and updates will continue to be on our Facebook page.

Best wishes,

Catherine
Lead Gardener

Developer withdraws proposal

January 30th, 2018 | Posted by llangollen garden in Garden News - (Comments Off on Developer withdraws proposal)

Denbighshire County Council has confirmed that the developer has withdrawn their proposal for the community garden land. This means that there is no longer an immediate threat to the community garden. THANK YOU for your support that has helped save the garden.

Our disagreement over the land use and value of the community garden has always been with Denbighshire County Council. In order to safeguard the garden for the future we hope to work with Denbighshire County Council and Llangollen Town Council to find a long term solution. So there is still work to do. Working out a long term solution could take 12 months or more.

We appreciate and would like to thank you once again for your support over the past few months. Your support going forward will also be very much appreciated.

Please help us prevent the closure of Llangollen Community Garden

November 30th, 2017 | Posted by llangollen garden in Garden News - (Comments Off on Please help us prevent the closure of Llangollen Community Garden)

*** UPDATE ***

Denbighshire County Council has confirmed that the developer has withdrawn their proposal for the community garden land. This means that there is no longer an immediate threat to the community garden. THANK YOU for your support that has helped save the garden. Read more here

*** END UPDATE ***

On 11th January 2018 the Asset Management Group at Denbighshire County Council will decide whether to ‘gift’ the community garden land to a developer looking to build 4 or 5 detached houses on the garden site.

This will be in return for building work being carried out at Plas Newydd; the developer has suggested this could be building an extension on the café.

The Council has already agreed to this in principle, at a private meeting.  However, at the next meeting on 11th January the Asset Management Group will decide whether to ratify their decision and proceed, or whether to stop and save the community garden.

We need your help to save the community garden! PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SIGN OUR PETITION

UPDATE 11/01/2018: Thank you to everyone who has signed our petition or written to our councillors. The council were due to make a decision today on the developer’s proposal. However your support has helped us delay the final decision on the garden to March 8th. If you haven’t already signed the petition please click here to do so now.

If you have already written to your councillors then rest assured your input has had a huge impact on decision makers at Denbighshire County Council. If you haven’t already sent an email, please use our guide here to send an email to our county councillors. It’s easy to do, and really makes a BIG DIFFERENCE.

Water system upgrade

September 8th, 2016 | Posted by llangollen garden in Garden News - (Comments Off on Water system upgrade)

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Watering the garden used to take an hour, now it can be done in 10 minutes! Our first water system upgrade this summer was a pumped delivery hose.

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This was great fun, but could only deliver 20 litres per minute to the plants. By moving around the tanks and hoses, we can now use gravity fed large diameter hoses that deliver up to 200 litres per minute – making watering an area very fast!

Solar powered water pump at the garden

October 27th, 2015 | Posted by llangollen garden in Garden News - (Comments Off on Solar powered water pump at the garden)

We’ve recently invested in a solar panel to power a new water pump. The stream that runs near the bottom of the garden is our only source of water. We’re lucky to have it, but access to the stream has always been difficult. Hopefully this pump will help us make the most of the stream.

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The panel is ground mounted facing South at approximately 50 degrees. A dedicated solar controller is used to store energy from the panel in a battery. The controller protects the battery from overcharging and over-use.

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Timing circuitry allows automatic operation of the water pump. The pump can only operate for 14 minutes before requiring a 1 min idle period. The circuitry also provides this control.

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The pump is of the sort used as a water lift pump in a caravan. They cost between £15 and £25, and vary by pressure, flow, and by impeller type (metal/plastic). Our 1.1bar, 20l/min pump cost about £20 and has a plastic impeller. It is surrounded by large rocks which prevent it being knocked by debris floating down the stream.

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The 150 litre water tank is filled every day ready for use, this takes about 40 minutes to complete. The tank is located approximately 20 metres horizontally from the stream, and 6 metres vertically. A hose is attached and can be used to fill watering cans, or used directly with a nozzle.

Currently we abstract 150 litres per day. Natural Resources Wales rules say that we can abstract up to 20’000 litres per day.

Getting ready for the greenhouse!

January 31st, 2014 | Posted by llangollen garden in Garden News - (Comments Off on Getting ready for the greenhouse!)
Greenhouse

2014 will be the year of the greenhouse! We’ve removed the old fruit cage, leaving enough space to give our greenhouse a prime position in the garden. We still need to level the ground slightly, but by March the greenhouse should be fully installed.

Open day and bee world launch -18th May 2013

May 26th, 2013 | Posted by llangollen garden in Events | Garden News - (Comments Off on Open day and bee world launch -18th May 2013)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.589708031047957.1073741828.495746240444137&type=1

Garden Open Day & Bee World Launch – 18th May 2013

May 8th, 2013 | Posted by llangollen garden in Events | Garden News - (Comments Off on Garden Open Day & Bee World Launch – 18th May 2013)

Visit Llangollen community garden on Saturday 18th May and see the launch our Bee World area, find out more about the garden and enjoy a BBQ in the sunshine!

The day starts at 10am with a visit from Susan Elan Jones, who will be helping launch our new Bee World area. The BBQ will be serving food at around 1pm, with the day wrapping up around 5pm.

Wild Weekend

October 27th, 2012 | Posted by llangollen garden in Garden News - (Comments Off on Wild Weekend)

What a brilliant effort at the garden. See photos below or on Facebook.

 

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.499029046782523.150959.495746240444137&type=3

Garden Session 20th October 2012 – Photos!

October 20th, 2012 | Posted by llangollen garden in Garden News - (Comments Off on Garden Session 20th October 2012 – Photos!)

Great work this weekend! See photos below or on Facebook. We’ve got the Wild Weekend to look forward to now!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.496066923745402.150270.495746240444137&type=3