FLOWERS in the Triangle bed

Photos taken today of the flowering plants in the Triangle bed, a space looked after by Friends of Mayow Park.
Rosemary
Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris)
Forget-me-not (Myosotis)

GARDENING IN THE TRIANGLE

By Pippa.
The triangle herb bed needs caring for as it has a prime spot near the cafe entrance to the park and if you are sat having a coffee outside the cafe you certainly will be looking at it and now hopefully admiring it. Full of Forget-me-nots (Myosotis) it is looking rather colourful now.

Look out for another attractive flower at the moment, common self-heal (Prunella vulgaris). Though its soft pink/ purple colour is muted compared to Forget-me-not, it plays an important role in attracting pollinator insects. Watch carefully and see bees flying to the flowers.

The dead brown stalks are gone and the herbs will be on their way up shortly. The rosemary is doing well and I saw the cafe staff taking snips today which is great - fresh herbs for their lovely food menu. This work is down to a few FOMP members but anyone can join our 'gardening club'.

It's very rewarding to transform an area like this in a short time.

sowing wild flowers (May 2018)

A few parents with young children were interested in sowing wild flowers in the wild flower area that Friends of Mayow Park look after, beside the Triangle fruit bed. So we arranged to meet up to give the  youngsters the opportunity of sowing some seed balls  (a small ball-shaped mix of clay, compost and seeds) followed by loose seeds. 
The seed balls had been purchased through a crowdfunding campaign by London National Park City, aiming to bring appropriate colourful wild flowers into public spaces.
Now comes the waiting game, when we hope there will be enough moisture to allow the seeds to germinate and  wow us with a floral display during the summer

Young volunteers get ready to sow

Ready, steady, sow

Gardening session today

No photos as I forgot to take any. We worked on the fruit bed at the Triangle, pulling up couch grass that was threatening to strangle the currant bushes. It became clear rather quickly that we have neglected this bed, having done very little for a year. Some raspberry canes encroached on the space currently with currants, so they had to be removed. We found stinging nettles, good for wildlife but a menace in a space where people are encouraged to enter and pick fruit, so they had to be removed. We produced a large amount of organic garden waste and we could see what had been cleared, but we will need at least two more morning sessions to finish what we started.
A robin spent some time watching our activities with interest before flying off to find more food.

Gardening workday coming up

Thursday 15th Feb 2018, time for our first gardening session of the year in the Triangle, opposite Mayow Park cafe. New volunteers are welcome. Dress for the weather.
We will be reducing the height of the fruiting hedgerow, pruning raspberry canes, weeding and mulching the fruit bushes. As it is half term week, children can help with some of the tasks as well as look for minibeasts in the mulch and in the log pile.

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? 

Nature's Gym February 2017

Volunteers from Nature's Gym came to help Friends of Mayow Park (FoMP) on Saturday 4th Feb 2017. The main focus was to lay fresh woodchip mulch on the paths in the Triangle. Some work was also carried out on the fruiting hedgerow at the hard standing and more will be done by FoMP at the next gardening day on 4th March.

Gardening with Glendale 13 Oct 2016

As always when working out of doors, we hope for dry weather. The forecast though was a bit uncertain and there had been rain earlier in the morning. How lucky we were that by 10a.m the rain had passed  and we were soon working hard.
This session saw Glendale managers and Friends of Mayow Park working to tidy up the fruit bed  and the mini wildflower area in the Triangle.
The first task was to remove the stepping logs in the fruit bed. Many logs had been covered by couch grass and those that were still visible were rotting and slippery. In a very short time they had all been moved to create an invertebrate habitat in a corner by the hedgerow. A robin came to join us with the promise of a feast and a frog or two hopped away as we disturbed their hiding place.  Chris wheeled barrow-loads of woodchip to fill the small craters where the logs had been.

new log pile for invertebrates

camouflaged frog

holes to fill in 

The sitting logs near the holly tree and hedgerow needed some remedial work. Some logs had rotted. This was not a problem and in no time the Glendale team had it sorted.

Let's start with this log

warm work - time to remove jackets

The wild flower meadow was taken on by Sandra who cut down all plant matter from the site. Just as well she is not too squeamish as there were slugs and a frog hidden in  the vegetation.

Wild flower meadow cut

canes that were dug up

raspberry patch

Sue and Dave worked on the raspberry patch, pruning most of the canes and digging up some to allow more light in.

Here are some more photos showing the sitting logs, the team and the large pile of garden waste that was generated. All the garden waste will be taken to a depot for shredding and turning into compost.

Mike was skillfully pruning the wild rose bushes at the apex of the Triangle, at the herb bed closest to the cafe, and very visible to people entering the park. The roses are now full of delicious-looking rose hips for the wild animals  so care was needed not to lop them all off. Mike also pruned the hedgerow along one side of the fruit bed and it looks much better now. 

some of the team

the team again

story circle

job done

large pile of gardening waste

another pile of gardening waste

It was great to have the Glendale team  to help us as the fruit bed had become rather overgrown. While the team were in the park they also chopped some brambles in the bushes as these were beginning to spread onto the path and they also tidied up the tree pits around the row silver birch trees in front of the bowls cabins. The Friends of Mayow Park will organise another volunteer workday next month.