Gardening - 10-12th July

We have been weeding and raking. I posted a default on Parktracker asking the Enterprise team to come and tidy up the Square. Today there were 10 + of them with all sorts of machines: chain saws, weeders, cleaners, mowers, strimmers. They pruned and weeded and mowed and the Square looks spritely and better cared for now. They have also cut some of the shoots from the trees on the SE corner so the sight lines are better. Unfortunately someone has trampled the stem of one of the new elm tree which looks like it has had it.

Gardening - 3rd July - planting Gaillardia

We put in the Gaillardia plugs which have grown on nicely in my back garden. It has rained and poured since and although they have survived they do look drenched and partly flattened. We are working towards London in Bloom - Your Neighbourhood judging on Friday 13th July. Lots and lots of weeding to do as you can see from the photo of the rose beds.

Map of planting Spring 2012

This is a layout to show what we have planted this spring. We are grateful to funding we received from The Amwell Society and to Greenspace who held money from filming in Wilmington Square which has enabled us to buy most of the plants.

Gardening 16th June - planting Iberis Snowflake

We planted out the Iberis Snowflake in the lavender bed having grown then on from plugs for 3 weeks. I have repotted small Gaillardia in the pots which we will put in the beds in a few weeks time. Unfortunately some people continue to walk right through the beds and these fragile young plants have been trampled already. A and I replant squashed and uprooted plants daily. Let's see what survives.

Gardening 14 June - weeding

The chickweed has loved the rains as much as everything. We weeded the lavender bed.

Gardening 27 May - homeless visitors

Enterprise have mown the lawns and weeded the rose beds this week so the Square is looking fine. As the weather has warmed there have been more homeless people sleeping in the Square again. The plants were wilting a little, especially the hellebore. We watered with the watering cans early Sunday morning and I planted some campanula mixed with the geranium. This bed is looking OK now. Unfortuately someone has taken another of the azelea. The Iberis cotton white have arrived as smallish plugs so we are growing these on for a few weeks. A has kindly taken them in to her care.

Gardening 19 May- tree damage

There was a fight with sticks in the Square last night and some of the small trees were uprooted. Gardening wise, a couple of plants have been taken: an azalia and a rose. We planted some Verbena Voodoo Stars in the bed near the gates. Replaced the damaged clematis and the missing rose. I planted three Globe thistles in the cntre of the bed with pansies.

Gardening update - 4th May

The clemetis has been uprooted despite the protective guard around it. On Friday 4 May I planted some red and white "St George" geranium plugs in the bed nearest the gate. I moved the periwinkle from the shaded bed and planted them alongside the roses near the gate. Unfortunatedly dogs have already squished a few of the geranium. Let's see whether these smallish plants survive.

Pigeons galore

The Wilmington Square pigeons are well fed and so there are even more of them:

Gardening - April 18th

I have ordered mail order plants to fill the beds. Luck had it that the first delivery arrived in the middle of the only week I will be away this spring. We planted everything yesterday but the helleborus (Niger) were looking a bit limp and slightly mouldy. The geranium (Blue Johnson) were quite difficult to work out having been grown from cuttings: it was clear which were roots but not obvious where the shoots were. Let's hope that both survive. We also watered with the cans (hosepipe ban is effective). It took A, O and I, 4 plus hours. We also planted nasturtium which had been grown from seed in the stone pot. We got some free Dahlias and Begonias in bulb form which O planted in the middle of the philadelphus.

Spring window boxes

The window boxes were abundant this spring.

Gardening Session - March 25th

We had a good fine warm day for gardening on 25th. Around 12 - 15 people joined in and we were helped by Chris from Greenspace.

We achieved the following:
- weeded and turned the soil in the two NW beds.
- planted a ring of pansies and 3 St John's Wort in the round bed
- planted 30 lavender (a further 30 planted later in the week) and 3 philadelphus (mock orange, which looked a bit lame on arrival from the garden centre) in the oval bed
- removed ivy from the oval bed near the entrance.
- planted a clemetis on W border to climb the dead tree
- planted a climbing rose on the other dead standing tree. This was removed 2 days later but a new one replanted within the week
- we also planted a semi circle of bee friendly summer flowering bulbs (spicata Blazing Star) in the rose beds and some crocosmia in the SW border

A big thank you to all the gardeners and to the encouraging comments from neighbours.

RSPB Survey and Islington Parks Survey

On Sunday 29th Jan a few of us met in the Square to conduct a bird count for the RSPB's Garden Birdwatch and to fill in a more detailed survey on wildlife in Islington Parks.

10.50 - 11.50am
Cold but clear
3 Blackbirds (2 male, 1 female)
3 Blue tit (including 2 eating from feeder)
56 Feral pigeon
2 Wood pigeon
2 Carrion crow
2 Jay
1 Robin

We also saw 4 squirrels including one building a dray.

Snowdrops are out, as are a few aconites. There is honey fungus next to the bug pit. I have notified Greenspace to see if this needs treating?

Tree problems

There are two trees in the Square with notices explaining that they are unhealthy and due to be chopped. I have written to the council asking for more information as one of the trees appears to be healthy. A few of us are concerned that the tree policy is haphazard and that the spruce trees which were planted relatively recently are detrimental to the more established cherry trees. I have not had a response from the tree section of the council yet. We did note that there are fungi growing around the root of the apparently healthy tree which could be problematic.
For documentation here are the condemned trees and the fungi:

Gardening session photos

There were two main things we did in the gardening session on Sunday:
1. Shrunk the shaded bed adding lots of cyclamen bulbs and 4 periwinkles
2. Planted 10 new colourful, scented rose bushes on the left as you come through the gates.

Let's see what survives.

It was fun to be out in the square gardening with a few neighbours. Thanks to Chris from Greenspace for coming to help, tips on pruning and supplying the bulbs.

Here are some photos:

Sweet smelling roses - Planting session on 20 Nov

Apologies for the long gap. We are going to prune and plant in an autumn gardening session in the Square. Please come and join us:
11am-1pm, Sunday 20 November.

We intend to cut back some of the southern shrubbery, prune the roses and use our funds to plant some more sweet smelling roses on the left of the gate as you come into the Square.

Spring update

Firstly, sorry for the sparsity of posts :-(
On 12th March we planted some new grasses (around 18) in our flower bed. Islington Greenspace also gave us some anemones and snowdrops. The bulbs we planted in November are coming up and the daffodils should look good in a week or so. We also transferred a couple of plants from the flower bank. It was a beautiful day in the Square and lovely to be gardening together. Thanks to the Greenspace team for bringing tools, plants, helping hands and biscuits.

back garden No. 18-21 and No. 7: Goldfinches and long tailed tits

Sorry for the long break.
Good news from the back gardens. Last week I spotted 3 long tailed tits in our garden and 11 goldfinches in the back garden of 18-21.

gardening group - flower bed maintenance

With the help of A we weeded the flowerbed today. Neating it up and tieing daffodil leaves in knots.

Gardening group - flower bed problems

The good news is that most of the plants we have put in are thriving in the shady flower bed and have made it through some dry spells. However there are some problems:
- The main one is the dog poo throughout the bed
- Dogs have also flattened or broken quite a few of the taller plants
- We had a further go at ridding the bed of milkweed
- There is no water supply in the Square.