Updates
Much has happened since the last update and the garden is currently hibernating. The railings are fully restored and repainted, the garden cleared, tidied and partially replanted. The compost bins are labelled, in use and we are spreading the word how to compost. Hundreds of bulbs have been planted for the Spring, a bench installed and painted and we clear litter when it is left. (Grrr…). The Spring and Summer planting is planned and our completion date is extended to the Autumn 2022 in order to complete the seasonal planting. We’ve already held some lovely events, Cakes In The Square, Family Planting Day, decorated the trees with lights for Christmas and used the Square Garden as one of the scenes for shooting a Victorian Christmas film shown at an event in Valentines Mansion, with neighbours dressed in Victorian costume! We have had support from the Celebrating Redbridge team and look forward to continuing this exciting project and growing the gardening and children’s teams. Please leave us a message if you want to be involved.
Quick update… clearing of the perimeter beds and redesign of planting is done. Some of the beautiful old roses we pruned and fed have been blooming, others removed. Just need to keep on top of weeds and leaf-fall. Tree work for the centre is organised for this month, then we’ll start to see the real transformation, to coincide with finishing the rubbing down and repair of railings and gate. There will soon be a ramp into garden to make access easier. We’ve held a well-attended community event CAKES IN THE SQUARE (see our website). The compost bin has been constructed and materials gathered to build the bug hotels. Repainting will start later in September… we are nearly there! All in time for OCTOBER 16th CHILDREN’S BULB PLANTING… all welcome! From 10 am. Then a big effort to dig in compost and start the autumn planting. Do get in touch if you can help. [email protected]
No-mow May has given us the beauty of a host of buttercups, daisies, other wild flowers and clover in the lawn. The daffodils have fully died down so today’s job was to weed and dig over the perimeter beds, check on and water the roses, sunflowers, cornflowers and marigolds. We’ve planted a few pelargoniums and delphiniums at the front to give us some colour while we are working on the railings. Here’s hoping the delphiniums survive! Please remember to get in touch if you want to join us! [email protected]
It’s the final day of our campaign so we want to take a moment to thank all our backers for helping us make this happen. You can see from this photo that the hard work now begins! Not to late to let us know you want to join in! But we have made a great start and have done initial preparation of 10 out of 52 railing sections! Bear with us while it looks tatty but the children’s sunflowers are growing! As are our ideas for the garden. We plan to set up some more plant swaps at weekends so please follow us on Twitter @CranbrookGarden. We look forward to seeing you! Generally Saturdays and Sundays 2-3pm is best time to be sure someone is there. Thank you again to everyone and massive thanks to the Redbridge Neighbourhood CIL #CommunityCrowdfunding fund.
Whoop, 30 people have pledged since fundraising began!
We are so excited to announce officially ...... drum roll! ..... we have reached our #Spacehive funding target thanks to a second large pledge from the Redbridge Neighbourhood CIL fund! #CommunityCrowdfunding. Enormous thanks go to all our backers and helpers! So the next stage is to start the railings and gate restoration and agree the planting design. While the restoration takes place, the gardening group will continue to keep the garden tidy and put some summer colour in. Please keep following us on our website for updates, news and announcements from June onwards. https://gardencityredbridge.wordpress.com/ and on Twitter @CranbrookGarden.
