Our 1st community day dawned on Saturday 14th May and was happily bright and sunny. but not too hot. The Danish pastries were plentiful which was just as well as our team turned up bright, early and well equipped.
The aim was to transform our overgrown allotment into a usable space for our gardening club and to clear the pond which was very overgrown with pond weed and irises.
We had asked for volunteers with spades and forks and were delighted when the first group brought this equipment in wheelbarrows. They attacked the allotment, cleared the rubbish and found that the soil was very soft and hopefully fertile. Using reclaimed materials, they soon had some beds marked out. One of our finds was a giant halfpenny. One of our volunteers remembered seeing it when she attended NHP. The game was moving it around in the garden. We will find a new home for it.
Thank you very much to Christian Gregory on behalf of Central England Co-Op who has donated so many plants and flowers. The allotment is now filled with strawberry plants and marigolds. Gardening Club have also planted some tomatoes and carrots and we found a small cherry tree which has been repositioned.
The noise from the pond area suddenly became very noticeable; the chainsaws had arrived! A tree had fallen on the fence surrounding the pond so the first job was to clear a path around the inside and outside of the fence and then begin to cut the tree into manageble pieces. Luckily, our well-prepared parents had strimmers to hand! While this area was tackled from the outside, we had some very hardy parents starting in the pond. The iris had taken a very strong hold and took a lot of effort to dig out without damaging the liner. There was also a lot of pond weed which was choking the water which had to be carefully removed. We found plenty of wildlife including frogs and newts as well as some water boatman.
Because of the willingness of our volunteers and amazing teamwork, we were able to go beyond our original plan and we have created a lovely seating space in our forest ready for story telling. The paths have been clearly defined and cleared and our children have loved sitting under the leafy canopy with their class mates.
Thank you to everyone who came and helped. It was really lovely to see the community come together and achieve so much in a relatively short space of time for our children. We are very lucky to have amazing grounds and with a little effort, can make the most of them as a learning space.