Mill Lane Community Garden 
Mill Lane Community Garden Here you'll find information, photos and links to Flickr regarding the site in 2021.
We were awarded an achievement by the Royal Horticultural Society in its "It's Your Neighbourhood" scheme, in association with Thames and Chilterns in Bloom. A huge Thank You and Well Done to all our volunteers | ||
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The main news is that construction has begun on the final raised bed. Thanks to Emil and Nigel. We have also put a poster on the gate thanking those
organisations who have awarded grants to the garden.
On advice of our BBOWT adviser the wildflower areas have been cut. An area has been scarified, AKA given a good rake (see photo), and yellow rattle seeds have been planted in order to curb the invasive grass growing there.
The third rased bed has been mapped out but construction is yet to be started. Finally we'll add the shuttering around the new beds. We also have a new pot planted with bulbs next to Jim Castellaro's bench.
On Tuesday 16 November the community garden enjoyed a visit by the children and staff from Jack and Jill Preschool.
They enjoyed digging and planting hyacinth bulbs, making bug hotels and walking and running around.
Thank you to Maureen and Pam who did a risk assessment the previous day and who facilitated their visit on Tuesday.
I've already mentioned the green manure. This has been planted in one of the beds, and when dug in it will enrich the soil.
And as of 13th November, the large mound of earth that seemed a permanent feature, has gone!
The area, thanks to Emil, has been flattened ready for the construction of the sixth raised bed.
A few more photos, this time of the lower bed. In adition to the stones at the base,
it took 20 barrow loads of soil from the mound plus another 7 loads of topsoil. I can only suggest that we have some very fit and strong volunteers!
First, we have now constructed two of the second set of three raised beds, with thanks to Emil and Raf.
Currently growing in the garden - broad beans, white onions, red onions, and garlic.
We are also growing Green Manure, which really confused this Londoner, until I did a web search!
2nd November 2021 - We are now ready to embark on the next phase of the garden's development. The materials for the remaining raised beds have arrived and construction has started. Also coming soon, a noticeboard to keep everyone up to date with news and events. A big thank you to Chinnor Open Gardens 2021 for funding the noticeboard.
OCTOBER 2021
Our Autumn Pumpkin Carving Event and Open Day on 24th October was well received and we had a steady stream of visitors (see below for a few photos).
There were some brilliant designs and both children and adults had fun carving them.
Any remaining pumpkins were left outside for anyone to take. We hope that after carving out the flesh, some were cooked and eaten.
The current task in the garden is to tidy up the remains of summer's crops and prepare the garden for winter.
There are still parsnips and leeks to harvest and broad beans are already in the ground for next spring.
Volunteers are usually on site on Mondays, Weds and Thurs from 9-11am and also on Saturdays from 10-12.
Why not come along and join us or just have a look around.
We'd also like to thank some of our committee members: Pam for organising the event; Thelma and Mike for manning the garden on the day.
As always our wonderful volunteers have been working hard in the garden. Amongst the jobs they have been doing this month are:
- Continuing to move the mound of soil to level off the ground on the left of the site;
- Weeding, which is a seemingly never-ending process;
- Continuing to put out vegetables boxes for members of the community to help themselves;
- Harvested the onions and potatoes, the parsnips and leeks are also now ready for harvesting;
- Mike has made a hedgehog hide for the site and has pegged out the first raised bed on the left hand side of the site;
- And finally, they have planted broad beans, garlic and kohl rabi.
And all while dodging what felt like constant downpours!
Meanwhile, other plants just keep on growing and our wild flower area continues to develop
And we welcomed Louisa as our newest volunteer.
We were pleased to open up the garden on 26th September as part of the Great Big Green Week and also delighted to contribute to the village Scarecrow Trail (thanks to Pam for the brilliant scarecrows).
A big thank you to everyone who visited the scarecrows or wandered around the garden and chatted to some of our volunteer team.
A special thank you to all the children who took part in the recycle and re-use activities.
And our scarecrows
We The garden continues to flourish. Our pumpkins are in a rush to be ready for Halloween
Work in the garden continues but the efforts of our volunteers have been rewarded. The garden is looking absolutely splendid. I have uploaded about 3 dozen photos taken mid-July onto Flickr.
As always here are just a few to whet your appetite.
AGM 14th July 2021
We held our first ever AGM at the Community Pavillion Marquee. For some of our volunteers, it was a chance to meet up without the need to be wearing wellies and gloves or to be wielding a garden implement! Here are a few photos from the evening:
Chinnor Open Gardens - 26/27 JUNE 2021
We were delighted to open our gates to visitors on the 26th and 27th of June, as part of Chinnor Open Gardens. A steady stream of people came to look around and chat with volunteers about plans for the garden. Although still a work in progress, thanks to grants from a number of organisations including Chinnor Parish Council, donations from the public and a lot of hard work from a group of dedicated volunteers, the garden is beginning to take shape. The formal space in front of the fence has been planted with perennials and climbers and the natural hedging around the perimeters is settling in and beginning to show growth. The raised beds are bursting with a variety of vegetables and herbs and the soft fruits are starting to ripen. Much of the site has been planted with wildflowers and native species with hedgehog holes to encourage our spiky friends to visit. Plans include hedgehog houses to encourage them to stay during the day, raise a family and hopefully overwinter. The bog area, including a natural pond, bee houses and bird boxes is flourishing. The aim is to create a natural and sustainable environment for all wildlife. The next stage of development is the construction of growing pods on the left side of the plot to mirror those already completed. Workparties are usually on Tuesday and Thursday: 9-11am and Wednesday 10-12pm. When volunteers are on site, the gates are open - come along for a look around or a chat. Better still, bring your wellies and join us. The long term plan is for the garden to be open to all during the day, to pick the fruit and veg, observe nature or just relax in the sun and enjoy. Finally, a big thank you to everyone who has donated; seeds, plants, tools, materials and cash. We have been blown away by your generosity. You can keep up to date by visiting this website or our facebook page. You can also still donate via our gofundme page.
Thanks to our indefatigable bunch of volunteers, the garden is looking in great shape. In fact, everywhere you look the plants are "blooming marvelous" (sorry!).
I finally recharged my Box Brownie and so have added a couple of dozen photos of the garden as of end on May
(although I literally took them on 2nd June). So please do click on the link above to see the amazing work done by our small, dedicated band of volunteers.
Just to reiterate there has been lots of activity in the garden during May. Here are a few photos to whet your appetite
And just so the hedgehogs know where to go ...
Maureen Dyroff and Sonja Dugmore have attached a number of informative wildlife signs to various trees; well worth checking them out!
There are 7 photos on Flickr, here are a couple of examples:
It's 4th May and since my last update I can report that the raised beds have been planted with vegetable seed: lettuce, raddishes, onions, spring onions, garlic, carrots, beetroot, swiss chard.
Gosh! It's the end of April already. A quick summary of what has been happening at the garden. In a word - LOADS!
As mentioned below, at the start of the month we had started to construct the raised beds. We have now built three raised beds (I say "we" but I really mean several dedicated
committee members in small socially distanced workgroups). What's more, two of these raised beds have also been filled with soil, manure, and topsoil; so are ready for
planting. Folk have also been busy planting vegetable seeds, more fruit trees, and roses. The bog garden has also been the subject of further work.
The donated water butt has been plumbed in and is already filling up thanks to the recent rain.
On the wildlife front we have seen masonry bees and butterflies.
And while all that was going on, we organised our first public event, a seed and plant swap. See
Flickr for a few photos.
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It's only the 5th April but a lot has already happened this month.
Almost mid-March, time for an update. An awful lot of hard work is underway to level the sloping site prior to building the pods. With the current restrictions that means two people at a time, armed only with shovels, shifting donated soil from the large piles in the middle to the left side of the site. More trees have been planted as have two of the large planters (probably last month!), one planter with spinach, the other with strawberries. The donated horse manure has been mixed into the compost, we really know how to have fun!
As always, there are a couple of more photos on Flickr, just click on the month.
What a splendid month with lots of items donated. A few of the items are:
And despite the weather, we've had some brave socially distanced volunteers on site. We've done more planting; part-built a couple of compost bins (which have now been joined by the donated bins, see photo above); and started to make the site more level ready for the pods. We also had a visit from the Chalk, Cherries and Chairs Landscape Partnership Scheme to look at what we can do around the edges of the plot to encourage wildlife. A draft schedule of work has been created for the coming few months. This includes planting wild flowers and installing hedgehog boxes and bug hotels.
The fence now proudly wears some lovely bunting, made for us by the pupils of St Andrew's School in Chinnor. Thank you very much, the bunting is brilliant! Also a big thanks to Nem and Eli for painting the two pots by the bench, beautiful!
A new year means new equipment. Some new planters and benches arrived, thanks to a grant from Chinnor Parish Council. Below you can see our chair, Maureen, eagerly unpacking these new additions. Some hardy volunteers then assembled and planted a couple of the planters. At present, the benches await being unpacked and placed (not that it's the weather for sitting out!
