Mill Lane Community Garden 
Mill Lane Community Garden Here you'll find the progress made on the site during 2023 along with links to even more photos on Flickr
Somehow it's the first day of December (at least, it is as I type this) and I've not updated for November.
Despite the time of year, work continues in the garden. We have been digging and weeding and pruning; and still more to do!
We have also planted garlic and broad beans. Looking around, there is still chard, leeks and kale calovo nero in the garden
while the chrysanthemums and penstemons are providing a splash of colour.
And a thank you for the donated leaves, they are being put to good use
Here we are at the end of the month and, as always, our volunteers, and the Community Payback team, have all been working hard in the garden.
There has been much work done on the shuttering and the raised beds are being prepared. We've bagged up the compost ready to added to the raised beds as they are cleared.
Our new gazebo has been put to good use this month as well.
Finally, we held our "Light Up The Autumn Sky" event on Saturday, 28th.
We'd like to say thank you to all the visitors to the event. It was wonderful to see the enthusiasm from young and old enjoying the garden, digging, pulling up vegetables and finding bugs.
Special thanks to Pam for prepping all the activities and to all of our volunteers for sharing the garden with the visitors.
Goodness it's October already! First, a big thank you to Chinnor Parish Council for the purchase of a new permanent sign for the garden
and to Greg and his team at Vinyl Frontier for making and installing the sign.
In other news the shrubs and perennials in the garden are really coming into their own now and the garden is full of glorious autumn colour.
The newly planted border separating the raised beds and pond area is looking particularly lovely as are the roses.
With the late summer, we continued to share the abundant produce of cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, potatoes, beetroot, courgettes, beans, squash and onions, as well as apples and pears. As always, keep watching the entrance.
Doesn't time fly when you're having fun. One minute I'm telling you that tomorrow is September, the next that tomorrow is the autumn equinox!
Anyway, as always our amazing volunteers have been weeding and spreading topsoil and mowing the grass and watering (those hot days are now but a fading memory) and strimming
and taking the runner bean plants down and harvesting various produce and I think I'll stop now, I'm getting tired just typing about it.
This last week has been yet another busy week at the community garden.
First, a big thanks to the Community Payback Scheme for their hard work: cutting down the wildflower meadow areas, weeding and covering the areas with weed suppressing membrane, cutting back the runner beans and tomatoes.
Also, a big thank you to our Duke of Edinburgh student who starts his university course this month; thank you Liam for all your enthusiasm and hard work - we shall miss you!
If you are interested in volunteering as a Duke of Edinburgh student, please contact us.
There has also been a bounty of produce shared with the community - apples, raddishes, tomatoes, marrows.
Finally (for this update) we've spotted another visitor in the rose bed - a brown tailed moth caterpillar
Goodness, it's September tomorrow! And the garden seems to have a fondness for yellow:
We've also placed some slabs under the memorial bench in the arbour.
It's the middle of the month already and the hard work continues at the garden. Further to my earlier update, the contents of compost bin 3 have now been moved to bin 2 (as you can see from the pic below)
and the mustard seeds AKA 'green manure' have been planted. The volunteers have also continued to do lots of weeding and have been cutting back the annuals. In other news our duo trees, apple (Bramley and Braeburn)
and pear (Conference and Concorde) have lots of fruit. Just need some more sunshine
We've also discovered a visitor to our wildlife area:
The month got off to a busy start. First was weeding the new bank and cutting back one of the beds.
Next we emptied the contents of compost bin number 1 onto one of the beds, then we turned the contents of bin number 2 by transferring
it into bin number 1. We also need to move the contents of bin 3 into bin 2. Hard work but it's great compost! Also planning to plant our 'green manure' soon.
The end of the month and we've been harvesting produce. We left some runner beans, tomatoes & cucumbers out front for local residents to take.
I forgot to post a photo of our "labourers" actually constructing the arbour. Plus here's a photo of it with memorial bench and table. Just few paving slabs to be laid ...
Despite the absence of summer 😎, the garlic, red onions, beetroot, cucumber, lettuce, broad beans, sunflower, and beans are all growing well.
As I always say, I've posted a few photos here but there are more in the July 2023 album on Flickr,
although latterly it seems that very few folk actually follow the Flickr links. If you have tried but have had a problem, please contact me with details.
This month we took delivery of an arbour, purchased with a grant from Chilterns Landscape Partnership Chalk Cherries and Chairs.
Of course, it was a construction project.
Happily we had three volunteers who were able to dig
the holes for it. Now, I don't know about you but when I hear the word dig
, it conjures up the use of a spade.
As you can see from this photo, what was needed was something that looked like an supersized drill bit!
And here is the end result, just waiting for its bench. A good job well done!
OOPS - it's almost the middle of July and I've yet to update the website with what's been happening.
I'll start with something that happened yesterday, 12th July and add the earlier updates shortly.
Thank you to the 5th Chinnor Guides and their leaders who visited the Mill Lane Community Garden yesterday afternoon. The 5th Chinnor Guides had fun doing some community action at Mill Lane Community Garden, they explore the
garden, helped with building the bug hotel, learnt about herbs, planted a tomato plant and helped with deadheading the roses. Also got to taste vegetables & herbs that grow in the garden. Thank you for your enthusiasm -
the feedback from the Guides says it all. We hope to see you again soon. Thank you to the volunteers who manned the garden and showed the Guides
around the garden as well as putting on activities for them. As always here are a few photos, there are a couple of dozen on Flickr.
Gosh! Longest day has been and gone and the days are getting shorter 😀
I'm being a bit lazy and am just copying the latest update and photos from our Facebook page :
Thank you to the Rainbows and their leaders who visited the garden last Wednesday evening. They helped with the building of the mini beast mansion, enjoyed a bean activity and a treasure hunt around the garden.
The Rainbows were asked to give their feedback and the comment "Everything" sums it all up - thank you!
Thank you also for the donation of tomatoes from Tom and the anonymous donation of the pack of birdseed left at the gate.
The wildflowers, roses and vegetables are all looking lovely - the volunteers are busy as usual watering in this hot weather.
Thursday, 15th June saw us play host to 25 members of 3rd Chinnor Brownies, along with five leaders/assistants. Based on the lovely feedback they left (see photos on Flickr)
they all seemed to have a great time making a bug hotel, exploring the garden, and weeding!
And a couple of days later - the grass has been mown, work has started on our overgrown pond, courgettes have been planted, as have a couple of brassicas.
We took part in the Chinnor Open Gardens event and were open on Saturday afternoon. Happily the weather was lovely, unlike like last year! Many thanks to those of you who visited. Just a few pics. As always.
there are more on Flickr. Just click on "June 2023" link above to see these and a few more in larger sizes.
Somehow our volunteers also manged to plant some sunflower seeds, topped up one of the raised beds with compost, did some pruning, and more weeding (but still more to do).
Not sure how that happened but May has now been and gone! So what has happened since my last update three weeks ago?
⚬ A short row of privet has been planted where the bank outside the school has been cut back
⚬ We have planted borloti beans, tomatoes, and runner beans
⚬ Earthed up potatoes and tied up runner beans
⚬ Prepped the soil for more tomatoes
⚬ Cutting the grass
⚬ And finally lots of the two Ws - watering and weeding
We had a very successful Plant and Seed Swap on Monday, 8th. Many thanks to the more than 60 adults who visited the garden and who generously donated to our funds.
Here are a couple of pics of some of our volunteers getting ready for the event, as always thank you very much. And a couple from the event itself.
On Friday 5th we had a return visit from the children of the Ladybird Preschool. They took part in a treasure hunt, planted some sunflower seeds to take home with them,
and they even did a bit of weeding. Some drew on our new blackboards and they all enjoyed a magical story told by Maureen, our Chair.
May, much like this spring, got off to a soggy start; our standpipe started leaking at the stopcock. Thanks to Nigel for getting and fitting a replacement.
A quick update as we are about to enter the last week of the month. We now have two cloches screwed into the raised beds, so hopefully they'll
stay put in any wind.
What else? Well, amongst other things: the far end of the wildflower area has been dug up and planted; the strip along the fence has been weeded and planted with wildflower seeds;
We planted the donated duo apple tree as well as some red onions; and we have a new litter bin. If you get a chance, do come along on 8th May between 11am and 3pm to have a look around (and maybe volunteer???)
Thanks to Nigel for constructing our greenhouse and for fixing it to a fence. He also managed to repair
our flying cold frame (see below for a before and after).
On Saturday, 1st April, we had an open afternoon from 2-4pm in conjunction with Jack & Jill preschool’s Easter Trail and we had over 100 adults and children visiting the garden
to find the clue for the easter trail as well as view the progress of the garden. We used the grant money from Transition Together to purchase educational signs, blackboards for feedback (which were put to good use on Saturday)
and tuft trays – see photos attached.
The feedback from Jack & Jill:
"I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you all at the community garden for helping and supporting Jack and Jill, yesterday!
I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to drop down to see you all, it was wonderfully busy at the school, but meant I couldn’t get away! I saw lots of families with their sunflowers and
lots commented what a lovely touch it was.
Thank you again, I’m so grateful!
Louise"
Some of the Transition Together grant money was spent on educational signs
Lots more achieved as the month progesses. Mostly weeding beds in preparation for planting (with rain stopping play on one afternoon), plus some roses that were in pots are now in a bed.
One piece of excitement was when our cold frame took off in the wind and flew up the garden! Alas, the frame took a bit of a battering but happily no plants were damaged..
>
Seems March has got off to a cracking start with a very productive afternoon on St David's day.
The team planted the bank and temporarily placed a log roll in position. It will be fixed properly in place shortly.
Liam (our DOE student) planted more garlic. Kim donated and planted irises. The rhubarb in the front lawn was tidied up and a new bay tree was planted. Definitely not a bad afternoon's work!
Since the last update way back in November work has continued on the garden. Just before Christmas we discovered that the door on the noticeboard had snapped off.
Thanks to Dave for fitting a new door, with safety hook for added security. Most of the work in the garden has been tidying and weeding. The various beds are now virtually weed free and ready for planting
while the areas around the raised beds continue to be dug and weeded. We moved the Rosemary to a new location, although the cone we placed next to it went walkabout within 48 hours.
