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This page will document the transformation from a field to a community garden, via a building site. It will be updated on a fairly regular basis, especially following any work done on the site. And rather than have a page that just goes on and on and on ... Each calendar year's worth of progress will be made into a separate page.
Listed in reverse chronological order are details of progress on the site, which will include a few photos. Rather than overload the progress pages with hundreds of photos, a Flickr account has been created online that will be the repository of all the photos taken, for those of you who are interested. The photos on Flickr will be larger and will be grouped into albums that will reflect the entries below. Each sub-heading below is a link to its specific Flickr album, which will open in a new tab. Or, if you want to see all the albums, click here.

Previous years (which will open in a new tab) can be found:

2023     2022     2021     2020 and prior

September 2024

With the autumn equinox just a few days away. it's time for an update.

First is the news that the Little Greens Gardening Club has restarted. They seemed to enjoy themselves and, I suspect, had fun pulling that carrot!
Sept_009 Sept_011

The volunteers have been busy harvesting and tidying up the garden. And our pumkins are coming along nicely
Sept_001 Sept_005 Sept_006 >Sept_013

August 2024

Being born and bred a Londoner. I've never been very good at gardening. However, I'm sure that one of the plants below is from another planet (and I'm not talking about the pumpkin)!
Pumpkin 20240730_105906 20240730_105839

A big thank you to Emil and Dave for laying and cementing in the base for our greenhouse.
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July 2024

And in the last week or so of the month, we have planted (and protected) some kale:
Kale

Saturday, 13th July, saw the last meeting of the Little Greens Garden Club until September. As always we had planned tasks for the members, who seemed to have a whale of a time, especially building a den. See you all after the summer!
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Work in the garden continues apace. But the results make it all worthwhile. Why not pop along and see for yourselves. Who knows, you might feel inspired to join our volunteers!
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Goodness! One of our volunteers worked really hard to empty a large compost container and spread its contents onto a bed - all on his own! I am shattered just typing about it.
compost1 compost2 compost3

June 2024

Please forgive me if I am repeating myself but the members of the Little Greens Garden Club are really enjoying their time in the garden..
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A quick update to say that we took part in Chinnor Open Gardens and would like to thank everyone who visited us over the weekend. As usual we had lots of plants available in exchange for donations. The garden was a bit quiet this year, presumably down to the unseasonable weather and there being lots of other gardens to visit, so we had a few plants left over!
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As I have said before, the Little Greens Garden Club is proving very popular with the children (and some of the parents as well 😀). 1st June saw them planting their pea plants in the ground. Their area in the garden is looking lovely.
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May 2024

First things first, I am delighted to report that the Little Greens Garden Club has proven a great succcess. A huge "well done" to everyone involved and a big thank you to all our enthusiastic young gardeners. As you can see, one of their "tasks" was to make some scarecrows - and what a fantastic job they did!
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Despite the weather, we've been kept busy (in those rare moments between all that rain 😀) doing jobs like:
weeding the bed around fruit trees; doing some hard landscaping; potting up tomatoes; doing a bit more weeding, this time in the top bed; followed by yet more weeding; planting more spinach in the gaps; planting a pot of basil and a pot of coriander; rehousing at least 50 slimy snails; lifting the purple broccoli; digging in compost & planting courgettes; digging over the bed for cabbages and placing a cage over the area (cabbages now planted); potting up 3 pepper plants; and lots more but I'm tired out just typing about it! Quite how our volunteers do so much beats me.
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April 2024

Gosh! Tomorrow is 1st May. Where has April gone?

The last Saturday of the month saw us host our Seed and Plant Swap. Thank you to those of you who came along. It seemed to go very well! Here are a couple of photos of the calm before the storm (metaphorical rather than meteorological I'm happy to say).
Volunteers ready for the swap Tables ready for the swap

Earlier, the members of our Little Greens Garden Club enjoyed their latest vist to the garden. A couple of them trimmed some long grass while others started to prepar their area in one of the beds. The eagle-eyed among you might notice the painted pebbles used to mark the start of their area.
How to plant a large pot Trimming the grass Preparing the bed

It's the middle of the month and it is time for an update.
Spring has definitely sprung and the garden is looking lovely with the bulbs coming out and blossom on the trees. Our hardworking volunteers have also planted beetroot, corinander, spinach and chard. They even found time to plant the wildflower seeds to encourage the bees and the butterflies.
Flowers in the garden Flowers in the garden Blossom on a tree
Wildflower area
Our new venture, The Little Greens Garden Club, started this month. The first meeting saw the children plant cress seeds. Then this last Saturday they painted stones that will be used to mark out their planting area in the garden.
Cress Cress
Painted stones
April also marked the reopening of the garden every Saturday from 12:30-4pm, please feel free to drop by and say hello.

March 2024

It's the end of March and a quick thank you to all the families that paid us a visit as part of the Jack and Jill Easter Trail. Happily the sun was shining. Alas, only a few photos as our volunteers were kept very busy.
Visitors to Jack & Jill Easter Trail Visitors to Jack & Jill Easter Trail Visitors to Jack & Jill Easter Trail

And despite the seemingly never ending rain, the garden is certainly suggesting that Spring really is with us. We've also been able to replace our broken down mower with a brand new one, thanks to receiving our Co-op Local Community Fund Grant.
It's Spring! It's Spring! Our new mower

It's March and Spring is allegedly just a couple of weeks away. We held our annual Mothers Day event on Saturday 9th and were rewarded with a number of visitors. Many thanks to all who came. I hope you enjoyed the garden, and the tea and cakes!
Here are a couple of photos of our volunteers getting ready for the event plus one of the activity table:
The garden ready for the event Our volunteers prior to the event starting The activities table

February 2024

It might be mid-February but our intrepid volunteers have already been busy in the garden.The strawberries that were in the top bed have been dug up and temporarily replanted into pots. The front left raised bed that contained herbs has been dug over and we've planted some sage and lavender. Finally we have placed the two slow worm mats from BBOWT. Looks like 2024 is officially up and running in the garden!
A dug up bed A slow worm mat donated by BBOWT

January 2024

January has been a quiet time in the garden, but a lot has been going on in the background! The volunteers have been reflecting on what grew last year and how we can make the garden flourish for the year ahead with different vegetables and a rotation plan for all the areas. On the job list is to add perennials to the rose bed. If you have any perennials going spare such as salvias, alliums, lilies, foxgloves, asters, dahlias, rudbeckia, cosmos, delphinium, echinacea, it would be appreciated if you could donate them to the garden.