Thursday March 28th 2013

Tree Trail Open! Today, we launched our new tree trail which takes people from the orchard on a tour around all the key trees on the property. Paddy Dillon, one of our regular volunteers, has updated our tree survey and created the tree trail as part of his John Muir Award. With help from volunteers to test the trail and create the signage this is ready for our family activities on Easter Monday, which is great!

Thursday March 28th 2013

The beekeeping session last night was all about diseases and how to choose the best site for your hive-everyone has really enjoyed the course and learned a lot about bees. There are some follow up sessions as well as the Apiary workshops when spring finally arrives!

Today in the garden we have been harvesting mixed salads for the cafe, sowing cabbage seeds, improving the wiring for the espaliared apples and feeding all the trees, fruit bushes and the places where we will be planting fruit trees next week. We have also been working on the trees out in the grounds which has generated turf which we have layered with torn up cardboard in the compost again. We have build some tiered baskets and made a planter from recycled wood for the demonstration back yard and completed our preparations for Easter Monday when we expect to have many visitors

Wednesday 27th March 2013

We want families to get involved with our project and learn about growing food with their children. So we are busy arranging a programme of events from the coming Easter break and right through the summer to involve families in all sorts of ways-this will include workshops in the kitchen garden on topics such as "Grow a Pizza in a Pot" and "Grow your own Veg" delivered by our gardener, "Making Puppets of the Wildlife in the Kitchen Garden" delivered by a local artist and "Pests and Partners in the Kitchen Garden" delivered by the Cumbria Wildlife Trust

 

Tuesday March 26th

Brrrr! Very cold today so lots of people were happy to sow Chinese cabbage, Chervil, Spinach and Mizuma seeds in the warm greenhouse. Also been chitting potatoes and adding small pieces of cardboard and teabags to a recently turned compost. We have just been ordering new equipment including containers for our demonstration backyard garden so have lots of cardboard to tear up!

Also Sarah, our head gardener, ran a workshop for 11 volunteers on planning your garden and analysing and understanding your soil, which was very interesting .....and a bit muddy!

Wednesday 20th March

The Beekeeping Season and routine maintenance has been our topic this evening-the message seems to be that "Less is More" and we should interfere with our bees as little as possible and take lots of advice! You can check out the Furness beekeepers at http://www.furnessbeekeepers.co.uk/. We are hoping visit their Apiary at Gleaston Water Mill when the weather warms up!

Tuesday 19th March 2013

Runner Bean trenches were the order of the day and involved digging the trenches, putting in compost, paper and egg boxes and then back filling before leaving them to "mature"!

Monday 18th March 2013

Exciting new course this week!! On Saturday March 23rd from 10am to 3.30pm our Head Gardener Sarah McCormack will be running a course called Plan to Succeed! This will involve assessing your garden for Vegetable Growing and will include understanding your soil, considering all the factors that influence optimal growing in your garden, a tour of the garden, practical activities and some theory to take home and apply. It costs £30 including a light lunch and refreshments. Please ring Sarah on 01229 588164 for more infromation and to book. This is all part of our desire to show as many people as possible how to grow their own fruit and veg -we run workshops regularly for our volunteers, so this is really aimed at people who work during the week

13th March 2013

Learned about the Hive and equipment tonight on our Basic Beekeeping for Beginners run by Furness Beekeepers. It was very interesting and practical, so that we looked at tools, clothing and how to make frames!

12th March 2013

Keeping the pigeons away! We now have a fabulous netting arrangement over our brassicas which was constructed and erected by our volunteers and should prevent the local pigeons from snacking on our cabbages!! The second photograph shows what a beautiful day it was and how close we are to Hoad Hill and the Sir John Barrow monument.

March 7th 2013

Today I attended a "Locality" regional networking event about measuring the social value of projects. The idea is to check that you are on the right track by asking people what has changed for them as a result of being involved with your project -it's not enough to hit the targets set by your funders, we want to find out what difference it has made to our local community -interesting stuff and lots of work ahead to collect all the views!!

6th March 2013

Beekeeping- ten Ford Park Community Group members went off to start the Basic Beekeeping for Beginners course put on by the Furness Beekeepers. This excellent and experienced group are supporting Ford Park with a legacy which will provide training, a bee hive, a colony of bees and mentoring services!!! The first night covered the natural history of the Honey Bee and was extremely interesting....more to follow.

March 4th 2013

We are recruiting for a trainee gardener on a one year contract and are getting lots of interest! The closing date is next weekend, so hopefully we will have a great field to choose from when we short list next Monday -it will be a great addition to the kitchen garden as we get well into the growing season and good experience for a budding horticulturist!