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: