NATURE’S GYM3 – THE HERB BED

The Friends of Mayow Park look after a plant bed of mainly herbs in front of the cafe in a space that once contained neglected and sad-looking roses. Look for the sign saying Capital Growth Community Garden 797 to see the area. It is just one edible garden of many across London that Capital Growth support. See http://www.capitalgrowth.org/ 
Grow Mayow behind the cafe is another Capital Growth site. 

 Now the former rose bed grows herbs with park users  invited to pick some leaves to smell, taste and take home to use.

On 6^th April Nature's Gym volunteers worked hard to remove 'weeds' growing in this space; in other words plants that are not meant to grow there. 

Digging up willow herb plants

There were large quantities of willowherb plants to remove, despite a major cull last autumn. How the willowherb got there in the first place is something of a mystery as it is not widespread within the park.

Another invasive plant in the bed is bindweed. Any piece of broken root can re-grow and the roots are rather brittle, breaking easily. This growing area received a large amount of fresh soil when we started the herb bed and there is a suspicion that the bindweed came in the soil. We don’t put any plants from this bed into our compost bins as the bins use ‘cold composting’ so persistent weeds are not destroyed.

Clumps of blue Forget-me-Not in flower

There were also plenty of other wild plants – mainly wood avens, cleavers and grasses. All of these are attractive but compete for space with other plants that have been intentionally planted such as strawberries, chives, mint, lemon balm, oregano,  rosemary and more. We decided the Forget-me-Nots could stay as they are non-competitive plants with shallow roots and beautiful pale-blue flowers. They will be removed when they have finished flowering. 

Thank you Nature's Gym volunteers for the hard work you put in to clear the ground ready for new planting. 

Our plan is to plant edibles at our Big Dig event on 22nd April. Potatoes and broad beans, lavender and sage are ready to go into the ground. We have some packs of wild flower mixes to sow as well. New volunteers are welcome to come and help. Why not join us?