Mill Lane Community Garden 
Mill Lane Community Garden Here you'll find information, photos and links to Flickr regarding the site in 2020.
Our lovely fence has been adorned with some wonderful homemade seasonal decorations
Since the last update, our brave volunteers have battled even more mud to continue the weeding and we have planted a few more trees! There are 2 Crab-Apple trees and 3 apple trees (varieties to be determined); plus more hedging along the fence with the school. We've also done some preparatory work on what will become a wildlife area. Obviously our plan will need to be updated once more. However, this time of year means extremely limited availability of the right people. We'll just have to learn to be patient.
The bench has been joined by two large pots and by another bench that surrounds the Liquid Amber. I noticed that someone has planted something (sorry, the webmaster is rubbish at plant identification!) at the base of the walnut tree. Many thanks to our secret gardener. And thanks also to Chinnor Turf and Paving for the donation of a large bag of sand and a large bag of soil. Much appreciated!
The garden now has a bench! Chinnor Parish Council has installed a bench as a "Thank you from CPC for all the hard work and support our community has been to each other during 2020 - the year of Covid-19." CPC says it's "for all to rest, reflect and be thankful for the great community we live in." So a massive thank you to CPC. Below is a photo of the bench in situ along with a photo of the inscription on the bench. Also, an intrepid pair of testers, ensuring the bench is safe!
A few hardy volunteers braved the weather and mud during October/November to clear the weeds from the rear of the site and to plant some bulbs in the north east corner. These pics show how much was achieved by so few people in a single weekend. Note the area planted with bulbs has been clearly marked out.
And in other exciting news, the landscape firm have planted the trees and hedges. Alas, I wasn't allowed to play with their toy!
However, there are fewer trees than shown in our original plan and they are different species. Not quite sure why that should be.
The photos below show the western side of the plot, alongside Mill Lane, where we have a Field Maple and two Cherry trees. To the east, a Cherry and Field Maple, with a Walnut set slightly further back. The keen eyed amongst you will have noticed a fourth tree on the western side. This is a Liquid Amber, and it's one of 70 trees to be planted in Chinnor; a family 70th birthday present to a member of our committee.
By the first week of October the developers had departed. What's more they had turfed the front areas of the site. The rear was left as bare earth and if you look at the photos on Flickr, you can see that the weeds were already starting to grow. But turf and weeds weren't the only additions to the site. We now had a fence across the rear section with a locked gate. There was some method in that madness as the developers had kindly left the standpipe they had used. So it being behind a locked gate made sense as we are now responsible for the water bill. Wouldn't want the whole of Chinnor washing their cars using our water!!!
By August the developers had gone from the garden site, leaving only a single portacabin as an office for the site manager. The area that will become the community garden had been prepared and was waiting to be turfed and planted with trees and hedges. The first and most obvious difference from what we originally expected was that tarmac track up to the rear of the site. The site had yet to be handed over and was fenced off from Mill Lane, albeit not very securely and not at all from the new properties along Mill Lane.
