An update from Sara Messenger of the Bradley Stoke in Bloom group.
How much can change in just one month? At The Common East pond, the wonderful little balls of fluff quickly grew into something that more closely resembled a small duck, aided I’m sure by the constant and adoring crowd ever ready with a tasty titbit or two. Sadly, they have now all gone. Ten were hatched, but one was lost the first day – not an unusual occurrence with such a large brood. The family were doing well, but then I’m told nine became eight the same night a large pile of balloons and gas canisters appeared by the bench next to the pond and then there were none. However a duck with eight large ducklings does seem to have appeared at the Three Brooks lake so I am hoping that this is the same family; it’s not implausible that they could have crossed Primrose Bridge and have swum down the brook to the lake. Although the pond water is clear and in places teaming with froglets, the pond has become very low so it may have been a wise decision for them to move on.
Water does seem to be very scarce, our insect hotels require frequent watering and our planters, including those at the Willow Brook centre, are drier than the Sahara. The agreement with the centre is that they are litter picked and watered although this does not seem to happen as frequently as we’d like. They’ve all had a tidy up and we’ve re-planted the ‘kitchen garden’ with onions, carrots, tomatoes, ‘Lucy’s’ strawberries, peppers, wasabi and radish to compliment the rosemary, potatoes, chard and rhubarb. Once watering has recommenced, we will restock the other planters too.
Our other herb garden outside the Brook Way doctors’ surgery is also very dry, although there was another promise to water them, this also has not happened. As we no longer have access to the water tap at the rear of the building, we’re often seen unloading water bottles to give them a drink. The rose garden fares better in the dry weather and in the garden we’ve added some ferns that should thrive in the shade. Thankfully, the neighbours by our ‘beehive roundabout’ have faithfully kept their promise to water the roundabout and it is indeed blooming, as is the roundabout at Palmers Leaze which is watered by BSiB’s Andrew.
The ‘Aztec West triangle’ is looking amazing, as this is its first season we’re still seeing what works here and what doesn’t. For some reason the nigella (love-in-a mist) only wants to be seen by pedestrians – on the path side there are great swathes of purple to greet you – but on the road side? Nothing! Our ‘Manor Farm corner’ had some summer colour added and although we didn’t start the opposite corner, we weeded it (and the wild flowers) so that it all looked fabulous in time for the Community Festival.
We were also asked to help with the wild flower planting on Brook Way and although we asked for daisies, cornflowers and poppies, we were disappointed to be told by SGC they weren’t suitable, so when a beautiful wild flower meadow appeared we thought they had changed their minds. We may have accidentally dropped a few seeds on the ground, but we’ve now discovered we’re not the only ‘guerrilla gardeners ‘in town and that others were doing the same thing, and the area now looks stunning.
Best Front Garden competition
Next month we’ll be concentrating on our annual Best Front Garden competition. We’re getting a steady trickle of mainly large gardens entries and although we’ve set the closing date as 6th July, I’m sure we won’t turn away any late entries. We’d like to see more small gardens entered; we’ve had some fabulous ones in the past and although they may have been small, some with their pretty urns and strawberry boxes left a lasting impression. Forms can be returned to us via email or dropped off at the town council office at the Jubilee Centre. Good luck!
How to contact Bradley Stoke in Bloom:
- t: 07582 634107
- e: bsib@hotmail.co.uk
- w: bradleystokeinbloom.com
- Bradley Stoke in Bloom on Facebook
