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.