The start of the new year, and some early snowdrops were out. The news reached us that 11 young trees were cut down in Witham Way Country Park. We investigated getting trees from the Woodland Trust to replace them, but decided in the end that what ever we planted then would be attacked too, so we will wait until the moment is right.
Good news was that two new volunteers joined us, and enjoyed their first weeks with us. They started in the park and we cleared the long beds and planted fritillaries for the Spring season. We discovered that fritillaries are very smelly bulbs, but very pretty.
The weather got progressively colder and put an end to gardening both in the park, the police beds and all the planters.
We were able to today our Narrow Market planters that have been so successful, filled with perennials. We noted that in the Market Place and at the Ingram Memorial, the planters have not fared so well, pansies are either attacked by pigeons or get botrytis and die off, so there are better planting solutions. We will discuss with Trev at the Borough who plants some of them.
This was the third day we couldn’t work because of the cold, the planters were frozen solid on Custom House Quay, but we did try.
