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?