Mill Lane Community Garden 
Mill Lane Community Garden Here you'll find the progress made on the site during 2022 along with links to even more photos on Flickr
On Wednesday 16th the children of the Ladybird Pre-school paid us a visit. The children were really well behaved and enjoyed activities such as planting tree seeds,
making bug homes, digging in the beds and pulling leeks with Maureen.
They also explored and looked at the pond. Thank you to the children and staff, as well as the volunteers who manned the garden during the visit.
As I said below, if you have a small group that would be interested in visiting the garden in spring 2023, please see the contact details on the website.
And let me just repeat that there are also more photos from this visit on Flickr.
It's almost mid-November and I just realised that I have been rather forgetful as I haven't yet mentioned Liam,
who is helping out in the garden as part of his Duke Of Edinburgh Award. He planted the strawberries this week:
On Wednesday 9th, we had a visit from the children at Jack and Jill Pre-school. A big thank you to the children, the staff and the parents who visited the garden.
The children were shown which vegetables were growing: leeks, carrots and spinach; they harvested some and took this back to school.
The children inspected the pond and talked about creatures that could live in it.
They loved tramping on the mud bank and also across the clumps of wildflowers at the top end - a bit like going on a hike.
The children enjoyed wanderng around the top end of the garden looking at the hedgehog highways and the hedgehog house.
It was lovely to see the children enjoying the space and generally having a lovely time!
And not forgetting a thank you to the volunteers who manned the visit and showed the children around.
If you have a small group that would be interested in visiting the garden in spring 2023, please see the contact details on the website.
Don't forget there are a few more photos on Flickr, so just click on "November 2022" above.
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November is off to a flying start! Our volunteers along with the Community Payback crew have already added new edging to our new path; dug over three petals;
evened out the bank of earth and weeded it; created a table top from some old pallets and our original noticeboard; and weeded the strawberry patch.
As mentioned on the Thank You page, we have received a plum tree from BBOWT. Not just any old plum tree but a Chinnor Plum.
So called because the original cutting was taken from the only known tree of its kind, which is in the Donkey Lane Community Orchard, Chinnor.
A fair bit of maintenance this month. The runner beans were cut down with the roots left in the ground and the seeds saved for next year. Also a lot of tidying
around the trees on the back fence. The dead wildflowers have been removed and we have created a new wildflower bed.
What's more, we have laid a new a path from the gate to the shed. And if that wasn't enough,
there has been loads of weeding, turning the compost, moving and refilling a couple of planters,
placing slabs under one of the memorial benches, havesting tomatoes and pumpkins, readying an area for broad beens. We completely emptied one of our large compost bins!
A lot was achieved thanks to the help of the Community Payback team.
Finally(?) for October, we had another successful open morning, with pumpkin carving, to celebrate the Chilterns Autumn Festival.
The sun shone and we had more than 40 visitors carving pumpkins or just looking around the garden. It was lovely to see you all!
And as always, there are a few more (and larger) photos on our Fickr album.
The wildlife area has been revamped. We have buried an old large planter, donated by one of our volunteers, and filled it with water. Also planted some irises next to it.
As we approach the autumnal equinox (Friday 23rd Sept) I've not heard that we have spotted any hedgehogs. However, we did have a visitor to our new pond
We had lovely weather for our Open Day, many thanks to everyone who came and to the volunteers that helped. As you can see, we took part in the Scarecrow Trail (thanks again Pam).
We had aalso harvested produce (such as tomatoes, chard, potatoes and various herbs) for visitors to take as well as a making a bird box activity.
And talking about bird boxes, here is Isabelle with her constructed box.
Goodness, it's already September and I didn't manage to add a single update during August! The month saw potatoes, tomatoes, onions, beetroot, runner beans, chard, and courgettes
being harvested and shared. The only other task our hardy volunteers undertook was a spot of watering! Our three water butts came in very useful, along with the various watering cans we have.
The butts have now been replenished by the September rain.
We also have been loaned a wildlife camera by BBOWT (many thanks!) to see whether any hedgehogs visit the garden. More news as and when we spy any. I think the most common visitor to the garden at the moment has been the white cabbage butterfly.
Almost August and the last three raised beds have been worked on, with one covered up (hopefully to keep the weeds down) ready for planting later in the year.
It's mid July. It's been mostly general maintenance, AKA weeding, and watering. I did manage to pop round with my trusty Box Brownie
and took a few (dozen) snaps which, as always, are on Flickr. You'll note that my horticultural ignorance prevents me from detailing what the arious plants are in
the descriptions. Here are just a few samples (including the more recently constructed beds):
Seems I wasn't the only one enjoying the garden that afternoon.
Probably the last update this month. We have mangetout, courgettes, tomatoes, peppers, Swiss Chard, runner beans, and leeks on the go, and there are photos on Flickr to back up my statement!
As usual, here are a few to whet your appetite.
And a quick thank you to one of our volunteers for putting up the tool rack in our shed. Are garden sheds supposed to be this tidy???
We had a soggy Open Gardens weekend. Thanks to those intrepid souls who braved the weather to visit the garden.
A few photos of the garden just before the event started:
We also harvested some garlic, which is now drying in the shed.
The month got off to a great start with an open morning on 3rd June as part of the jubilee celebrations. The event was well supported, so thank you to all the visitors; our volunteers thoroughly enjoyed
sharing the progress made in the garden with our visitors. And thank you for the generous donations! Speaking of our volunteers, as always they were there to set things up and host the event.
A special thanks to Pam who not only organised the children's activities but was responsible for the attendance of "a certain person". Here is a photo of that very special guest plus a couple of the garden just before opening.
I mentioned below that we also have flowers in the garden. Here are three photos of roses
Goodness me! Four of our volunteers were rather busy on the afternoon of Friday 20th May. They planted: carrots, beetroot, parsnips, tomatoes, fennel, lettuce, courgettes, pumpkins,
peas, broad beans and runner beans. I'm tired just typing that out.
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BTW the garden isn't just fruit and veg, here are just a few of the flowers currently blooming:
7th May saw our annual Plant and Seed Swap held in the garden. As always a big thank you to the volunteers who made it all happen.
We had a succesful event with a steady stream of visitors, thanks to everyone who came. Happily, despite some dark clouds, the rain held off. Another thank you to everyone who donated prizes to the raffle.
You'll find just over a dozen photos on Flickr. Here is a taster ...
First, a big welcome to new recruits Jocasta and Simon.
A busy start to the month as we have planted Swiss chard, pak choi, mangetout, carrots and beetroot in the raised beds on the left side of the garden.
And my apologies, I failed to mention on our home page an event we were hosting: the Jack and Jill Preschool Easter Trail. Happily a splendid time was had by all. Thank you to the volunteers who welcomed everyone to the garden
and helped with the digging. We estimate that approximately 100 sunflower seeds were planted.
We have taken delivery of, and erected, a fantastic new noticeboard. Thanks to everyone involved in fixing it in place.
It's the end of the month and we are getting all four seasons in one day!
Not that the weather stops our intrepid band of volunteers. Here's Thelma planting roses on a gloriously sunny day. Note the highly fashionable t-shirt she is wearing. We've also planted a bed of potatoes and another apple tree.
It's mid-March and lots of things to report. but first, it's obviously spring because the plants in the garden are growing and flowering
Also, the soak-away for the shed has been completed. This required the digging of a large hole. No treasure was found only clay! The "moat" around the shed has now been filled with
gravel so the water should end up in our new hole.
We took delivery of 25 roses - 11 climbing roses and 14 bushes, one of which is a John Ystumilyn rose. Lastly, for now, our final raised bed is now ready for topsoil and the trench for the shuttering has been dug (see Flickr for photos).
And suddenly it's March already and we have cherry blossom:
As I type this it is the last day of February and despite the weather, our hardy volunteers have, in my opinion, worked miracles in the garden!
The final raised bed has had its shuttering and work to prepare for the hardcore has been started (as you can see from the photos below and remember to check Flickr as there are a few more pics).
It's even started to be filled with soil!
Winter lettuces have been planted (note the smart DIY cloches), our toolbox has been refelted and a trench has been dug around our shed
(personally I'm hoping it's the start of a moat!)
As mentioned below, work is continuing on the sixth and final raised bed. Construction was completed over the weekend (thank you Emil) and it was filled with hardcore on Valentine's Day.
More rubble (pictured below) has been donated and will be used as hardcore as and when needed.
And the exciting news on 10th Feb is that we have our shed! A big thank you to everyone who helped get the base ready.
Work is also progressing on the last raised bed and we also now have a strawberry bed.
It's only the 5th February but already the base for the shed is ready for the paving slabs to be laid.
In anticipation of the arrival of the shed (by mid Feb) the team have moved the compost bins. The area for the shed, which will be 8ft x 6ft
will need to have more hardcore laid, followed by hoggin and finally some paving slabs. A busy and strenuous February lies ahead.
We've now received 2 donations of paving slabs to be used as the base for our shed, which is on order.
