We were joined by the Leatherhead Residents' Association this weekend as they used our huge polytunnel to plant up 18 planters for Leatherhead High Street. They used dwarf conifers and ivy as evergreen plants mixed in with some lovely flowers. The planters will stay in the polytunnel for a few weeks to mature before they are taken to the High Street outside Natwest Bank.
The Leatherhead Residents' Association have taken it upon themselves to create these planters for the people of Leatherhead as they feel strongly that it will make Leatherhead a prettier place :D
We have been very happy to help this project succeed by providing room in our facilities on site.

Other news this week: another wheelbarrow was planted up along with the Jubilee Rose we received from Thompson & Morgan, lots of flowers were potted on and the shed had a massive tidy up!!!
The fruit cage is also quite waterlogged but this will soon pass as the Garden is on a slope and the water will flow down to the stream at the end of the field.

I am tired. My arms ache. But I do have a huge smile on my face! We have completed our first day up the town where we are aiming to plant new life into the old flower planters in the shopping centre car park.
There are 17 windows with planters in them. Today we wanted to take out the old soil and put in fresh soil. We managed to empty and then fill up 13 of these today.
A huge effort was made by all 11 who turned up from 10am. We didn't finish until gone 3pm!!! Lots of digging heavy soil and wheelbarrowing was involved but it will all be worth it when we come to start planting them up next month. Plus these planters will be seen on the Olympic cycle route later on this year.
We then had a competition to see what the most unusual object we could find in the soil. The winner found a bone....!
A massive thank you to all that helped out especially as it's your day off and we had such a busy day yesterday. Volunteering does make a difference and we are out to prove it!

Over 30 people turned up to our Family Learning Day today. We had a great mix of local people and school families which made the day a great success. By lunchtime we had made loads of paper pots from newspaper, tried our hand at flower arranging, learnt to take cuttings from a plant, constructed bean poles and planted out peas and beans, sown onions in rows, put out the cauliflowers and finally watered EVERYTHING! BUSY!
We then had a chance to open up the Learning Cabin and take a step inside. Everyone was very impressed adn loved the smell of the new wood.
Everyone then got fed and watered and started to make their way home. The ones left over did a great job of clearing up and I thank you muchly!
Those who stayed helped to create our fabulous new entrance area. It was great to see it turn from a small dumping ground to a clear open space lined with woodchip and flowers. We even filled some more old wheelbarrows with flowers and created a pallet planter.
All in all a fantastic day. And it only spat a little rain from the sky. Sunny with showers but smiles all round :D

We have taken steps this week to prepare for the frost that has been predicted for this week. Last time, ALL our potatoes got badly frost burnt and some things inside the polytunnel didn't make it. So to try and save all our hard work so far, we have tried various ways to stop the frost getting to the plants to find out which works best for us.
We have used upturned clear yoghurt pots, horticultural fleece and bubble wrap. Plus to really stop the frost getting to the tomatoes inside the poytunnel, Phil made a polytunnel inside the polytunnel!
Our beans and peas went out into the bean trench and have already started grabbing on to the willow to make their long climb to the top.
Much of the rest of the day was taken up by chatting and clearing the polytunnel for next weekend.

  We have gained our Gold Award from the Big Wildlife Garden Competition!
As part of the Gold Award I had to write a poem......

"There once was a garden in Leatherhead
Whose chickens acted like they were never fed
They jumped on poor Pat
Like a well trained cat
And ran off with her sandwich to bed!"

What a great start to April we had this weekend! Charlotte brought down her four Painted Lady Butterflies butterflies she hatched and let them free in the polytunnel. We spent most of the day looking at the floor making sure we didn't step on them! Lots of flower seeds were planted and wigwams for the beans were mended. Peas, beans, radishes and brussels are doing well.
The last three apple trees went out and holes were dug for placing the bird tables in a static position.