By Tim Hewitt, St Mary’s Head Gardener/ Community Gardener
A very hot week, great for summer fetes, barbeques and playing in the fountains. Much of the remaining green in the churchyards will brown off this week, leaving various shades of brown and yellow as the prevailing colour.
We will continue to nibble away at the long meadow grass, whilst clearing old spring growth and attending to some light pruning. However, the main job will be nursing recently planted trees, shrubs and perennials. We aim to make life easy by planting tough plants in Autumn, mulching and watering very well, but infrequently. However, the building renovations have meant moving lots of plants at less than ideal times and this means their roots are not well established enough to survive weeks like this one. So watering well and deeply is the job of the week.
This is also a great week to collect ripened seed. We try to increase our seed bank of desirable species around the site, and collecting our own seed to direct sow is an important part of this.
Lillies, Salvia, Pelargonium, Sweet pea, Veronica, Nasturtium, Verbena, Monarda and Scabius are all in flower. As is Gypsophlia Baby’s Breath in the sand bed.
Quote of the Week
“Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” –Henry James
Volunteer Times
St Mary’s offers weekly supervised volunteering in the churchyard at these times:
Tuesdays: 1pm to 3.30pm
Wednesdays: 1pm to 4pm
Thursdays: 1pm to 4pm
Fridays: 1pm to 4pm
There’s no need to book; just turn up, preferably with your own gloves. Tools and expert instruction will be provided!
Burials in Bloom 2022
Dozens of local people have adopted a grave to plant around and care for; if you would like to adopt a grave that’s currently not visited or looked after, contact me at tim@stmaryswalthamstow.org.
(Photo: Daniel Hebditch)
