December snow (2)

Another picture of the library garden in the snow.

December snow

Just a picture of the library garden in the snow....

Plan of apple varieties

Here is a rough plan of the library garden showing the twelve different apple varieties that were planted today. Ten of these were bought from the East of England Orchards project. These were specially chosen to be of local interest. Further details can be found on the website at http://www.applesandorchards.org.uk/. We have also planted one Crab apple and one Bramley apple so that we have a full range of different apple varieties. If you click on the plan on the right it will open in a new window so that you can read the different apple varieties.

More pictures of 5 December tree planting

Planting and staking trees on 5th December

Twelve apple trees planted

It was a perfect day for planting trees...the sun shone on us in the morning, the ground was soft and not too muddy, and then it rained late afternoon and evening. Thank you to everyone who came to help, and to Mary and Juliet for providing much needed hot drinks and biscuits! This is a picture of Mary Lachlan-Cope showing the group how deep to plant the trees.

Tree Planting 5th December

The tree planting for the Rock Road Library Book Garden is next Saturday 5th December. This will be from 10.30 to 12.30 and the aim is to actually plant the trees between 11am and 12 noon so that we can be part of the BBC attempt to break the record for planting the most trees across the country in an hour, as part of National Tree Week. Further details about this can be found at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces/treeoclock/

Native Hedge

We have planted a double row of native hedge plants on two sides of the Library garden to create a haven for wildlife and also to improve the security along the back fence. The plants are tiny at the moment (if you look at the picture you'll see what I mean!) but the soil has been well prepared and this is a great time of year to plant hedges and trees. The hedge will be a mixture of hawthorn, holly, and wild rose. Many thanks to Mike and Ann Hood from Green Man Landscapes who kindly donated all the hedge plants. Green Man Landscapes is a soft landscaping & domestic maintenance firm based at Whittlesford.

Good progress - hedge planted

We made great progress yesterday morning and managed to plant all the 124 hedge plants as well as preparing the ground for tree planting in two weeks time. There was even time for a tea and coffee break - thanks to Katie, Fiona and Juliet for providing refreshments.

Hedge Planting

Just a reminder that we will be planting the hedge for the Rock Road Library garden this coming Saturday 21 November from 11am -1pm. Please e-mail me or ring if you can volunteer to come and help for an hour. Plants have been kindly donnated by Green Man Landscapes at Whittlesford.

Celebration of Apples

On Saturday 17th October 2009 we are planning a 'Celebration of Apples' from 11am to 1pm at the Rock Road Library to include a cake stall and plant sale. This is to raise funds for developing the library garden. Please e-mail me on J.Elliott@ioe.ac.uk if you can volunteer to provide some plants, or cakes or to help on the day.

Security and the Library Garden

Several people who live near the library on Rock Road have expressed concerns about security. There have been a number of incidents in the past of people lighting fires in the cut through between Blinco grove and Hartington Grove and also of people climbing on to the library roof.

One of the reasons for planting a hedge around the garden is to improve security in the longer term. I have also just rung the Neighbourhood Policing Team to make contact with them as we are hoping to work with them to improve security as we develop the garden.

Rock Road Library Garden before all the work started....

The Big Dig - 12 September 2009

A big thank you to everyone who made the 'Big Dig' such a success this morning.

We have made a fantastic start to the Rock Road Library Garden Project. The ground has been prepared for hedge planting later in the autumn - with lots of free compost from Dunarbon mixed into the soil so that the hawthorn, holly and rose plants will thrive. We have also measured out the places where the trees will be planted and removed the turf and started preparing the ground.