Working Party Sat 26th March – Can you help?

We have reached an important and exciting juncture in the development of the Walled Garden.  We are ready to lay the final top dressing to the main north-south and east-west paths.  We have chosen a self binding gravel for this and have 20 tonne arriving on Tuesday 22nd March. The gravel will need to be barrowed, levelled and rolled.  This is a huge task so to get as much done as quickly as possible we will be holding a Working Party on Saturday March 26th.

Many of our regular volunteers will be there but we are looking for additional help from people who can rake off the existing path surfaces, load barrows, push barrows, carefully level the new gravel, or operate a motorised vibrating roller. If you are free and willing to help with any of these tasks please let us know.  

There will be two sessions.  9.30 ’til 12.30 and 1.30 ’til 4.30.  Refreshments will be available throughout with lunch at 12.30ish. Please come along for part or all of either or both sessions. An indication of your planned arrival and departure would be helpful to enable us to plan the working sessions.  Please also let us know if you would like lunch and any special dietary requirements.

If you can come, please email us at info.lgh.garden@gmail.com

Hoping to see a few of you on Saturday.

Many thanks

The Garden Team

The Walled Garden Newsletter – Winter 2021-22

Welcome to the winter issue of the ‘The Walled Garden’. Click here to open (pdf) 

In this issue:

• A new chapter
• Getting crafty
• Christmas in the Garden
• Garden design update
• Plans for the Productive garden
• Members and volunteers
• Plant a tree for the Jubilee
• Contact us

We hope you enjoy reading this update and welcome feedback. Please use the comments form below.

The Walled Garden Newsletter – Autumn 2021

Welcome to the autumn issue of the ‘The Walled Garden’.

Click here to download pdf 

In this issue:

• Welcome
• Putting the garden to bed
• Centenaries marked in 2021
• Covid survivor visits hospital gardens
• Garden design update
• Supporting us – another centenary
• The garden diary
• News in brief
• Pumpkin weigh in
• Contact us

We hope you enjoy reading this update and welcome feedback. Please use the comments form below.

Christmas Crafts at Llanfrechfa Grange

Started your Christmas shopping yet? Staff and visitors to Grange University Hospital will have an opportunity to buy some beautiful hand crafted gifts and decorations at our pop-up stall in the foyer on Tues 16th November. This will transfer to Grange House the following week for on-site staff. See the poster below for more information.

The Walled Garden Newsletter – Summer 2021

Welcome to the latest issue of the ‘The Walled Garden’.

In this issue:

• Welcome back
• Summer events
• No Dig update
• New ventures – a Florelegium of the garden
• Garden design update
• Supporting us
• Official opening of Grange University Hospital
• Meet the staff – from 1875
• Contact us

To download a copy – please click here

We hope you enjoy reading this update and welcome feedback. Please use the comments form below.

Welsh Cakes in the Walled Garden Fri 6th August

Open Day and Annual General Meeting 29th July

 

We are pleased to announce our next event is coming up on Thursday 29th July. No need to pre-book this time but visitors will be asked to complete a contact form on arrival for COVID Track and Trace and to observe the usual COVID guidance on hygiene and social distancing precautions.

The Annual General Meeting for the Friends of Llanfrechfa Grange Walled Garden, (Registered Charity 1176172) will be held at 2 pm and is open to the public.

We look forward to seeing you.

No Dig Organic Veg Project Latest

At the end of June the No Dig course officially ended. However there are still lots of veg in the demo bed which we will continue to grow on and harvest. In addition the no Dig course participants will continue to receive updates and advice from our course tutor, Cherry Taylor, who will guide us through the remainder of the growing season. We hope also to stay in touch with our fellow course participants so that we can continue to grow and learn together. It has been great fun and very interesting.

No 3 bed after lifting of the broad beans and mangetout.

Here then, is a round up of where we have got to in Bed #3!

• The Spring blush sugarsnap peas have grown to about 7 ft; pretty flowers gave way to lovely juicy peas, which we began harvesting in early June. They are nearly finished though so will be pulled out in the next week or so.
• Courgette ‘Genovese’ was planted out under fleece in May. The fleece was taken off after a couple of weeks but the plant was slow to get going. With the warmer weather it is now picking up.
• Two rows of ‘Czar’ runner beans were supposed to go in next to the courgette. However they mostly failed to germinate so were sown again in modules and also in the ground. Even these rotted off and in the end we only have 3 plants developing. This turned out to be a problem across the learning set. We think it must therefore be a result of the difficult growing conditions this year and perhaps also poor quality seed from the supplier. (We all used the same). Disappointing!
• Next is a row of dwarf french beans, all doing well. They went into the space vacated by the spinach. The spares have been planted in the bed next door.
• Beetroot and leeks are coming along from our module sown seed. Ours are quite small still while some course participants already have whopper beets!
• The Oregan Sugar Pod mangetout peas have all been harvested and were taken out today. They were delicious and prolific, a great success.

Mangetout in productive mode behind the leeks and beetroot.

• The broad beans have also finished and been lifted. They had quite a bit of blackfly in the end stages but interestingly when pulled out, there were quite a lot of ladybirds feeding off the bounty.
• Our first lot of carrots are doing well and have just been thinned out. The second row were sown between the mangetout and broad beans but failed to germinate. Lesson learned – not enough light and space.
• Today we transplanted 3 kale ‘Midnight Sun’ where the mangetout and broad beans were. These were started off in a seed tray in the greenhouse.
• Carrots, baby broccoli (currently being harvested), parsnips, celeriac and onions are continuing to grow under ultrafine mesh to protect against flea beetle, carrot fly, butterflies etc.

The first of the baby broccoli

We will continue to post updates on our demo bed. We will also start to think about what we might grow next year using this method. Indeed we have already been applying the principles to the rest of the productive garden in the north east quadrant.

We would like to share the learning and would be interested to hear from our readers and supporters about how we might go about this. If you have any questions about No Dig or are interested in getting involved in this project at the Walled Garden, please contact us using the ‘Leave a Reply’ box below.

“Have a Grow” Open Day at Llanfrechfa Grange Walled Garden – Sat 5th June 2021

The Walled Garden Newsletter – Spring 2021

Welcome to the latest issue of The Walled Garden newsletter.

In this issue:

• Spring bulb spectacular
• The Reflective garden
• The Productive garden
• The Social garden
• Show garden developments
• Volunteering for us
• Events coming up
• Plant sales
• Contact us

Click here to download