The ground was frozen, the water in the pipes were frozen, we were frozen!!! Despite the bitter cold we moved ice away from the sides of the polytunnel, refilled the bird feeders, moved some scrap wood to make way for the new ramp and had a nice long chat about the exciting things that will be happening in the Garden in the next couple of months.
We did also witness first hand a robin and a blue tit feeding form the new bird tables which was exciting!
Next week, we should see the base for the new learning cabin completed ready for the cabin itself the following week.

The West Hill students are really getting into the swing of helping out in the Garden! They have now shortened the planting bed and moved the last of the soil into the new flower beds.
The students are looking forward to planting seeds inthe Garden after their half term. They have plans in place to grow some bits in the planting beds closest to the chickens. We wait to see what they choose to plant!
Thanks for your hard work guys!

It was FREEZING today! When I turned up everyone was huddled in the polytunnel! It was just those few degrees warmer in there but it makes a huge difference. We turned up with cake so that kept everyone happy!
We then spent the rest of the day constructing the last of the new flower beds. We also tried to break up the soil in the old flower bed to make it easier to transport but soon gave up as the soil was frozen solid. A few plants were moved into the polytunnel to protect them from the frost and the compost was turned.
To top the day off, we put out the new bird feeding tables in the Garden. Each one has a different type of bird feed on it. We have positioned the nature camera to hopefully catch the birds feeding from the tables. We also added some water to the tables which we will have to keep topped to help our feathered friends.

We will be having a new outdoor classroom built in the Garden! Construction is starting in just three weeks! So... we need to move the L shaped flower bed to a new location in the Garden. We have managed to create one bed today and fill it with soil AND plant it up with lovely bulbs! We also started on a second bed and thought about the third. Hopefully we have enough time to move all the sleepers out of the way before the base goes down during half term.

Well... Compost is now all moved to sunnier parts of the Garden to increase the rate of rotting and everything has been watered.
We were visited at the Garden today by three young offenders. They presented us with three bird tables and three bird boxes hand made by themselves. This is a scheme set up by Surrey Police to get young people who have committed offences to give back to their community. The bird tables and houses are wonderful and will be well used when they are out in the Garden!

Check us out in Garden Answers Magazine February 2012 edition!
We have a double page spread. It is a great round up of nearly a whole year's worth of work!

It was extremely frosty today! It was so cold!!! We got some nice pictures of the frost that had formed on some of the plants.
We got alot done inside and outside of the polytunnel. We need to make space for the new outdoor classroom that will be with us soon so some things need to be moved. 
Firstly we repositioned the carpet down the side of the polytunnel. This was soon followed by the mass moving of all the tyres next to the polytunnel. This has now created a space for the new flower beds.
The biggest job was repositioning the compost bins to sunnier places in the Garden. We managed to move the contents of one bin today. It is alot of hard work! I feel like my arm muscles have grow 20 times their size! We met our lovely hard working worms in the process who seem very happy (we had to keep the chickens away so they wouldn't be eaten!).
All in all a very productive day!

 Enter our first Scarecrow Building competition at Leatherhead Community Garden! We are encouraging all local schools, businesses, community groups and families (or even a bunch of friends!) to take up our challenge and let their creative skills create some eye catching entries. 
Judging will favour the use of recycled materials!
 

To register, please fill in the simple form online at /scarecrow-competition.html
All information and rules can be found here too.

Register by Tuesday 21st February 2012
Judging will take place on Saturday 25th February 2012

Well! Happy New Year to you all! We had a busy start to 2012 this weekend. A lot of clearing up needed to be done to start with as the high winds had a made a bit of a mess in the Garden. All the willow structures are now tied down to the fence so we can use them again later this year.
Plenty of seeds were planted! We are experimenting with planting some tomatoes, herbs, radishes and beans early inside the polytunnel. So far, the potatoes and leeks we planted before christmas are doing very well inside the tunnel so we have high hopes for an early crop.
The bean bed was finally lined with weed control matting and we will be adding nutrients to the soil over the next few weeks to prepare the soil for the new plants.
Lastly we topped up some of the bird feeders. We also found that some of the bird seed had started to sprout due to the damp conditions in the bottles. We gogt rid of these bottles but have planted some of the seeds in pots to see what they do. We shall wait and see what comes of them....
Next week we will be moving the compost bins to warmer parts of the Garden to help it rot down quicker.