The first early signs of the ending of Winter and the beginnings of Spring can be seen at the Garden now the snowdrops are out.

Elsewhere, the Daffodils are lining up ready to flower...

 And in the Dog Wood bed where they are nicely sheltered, the first couple are out already.

Garlic...

And Broad Beans are also sticking their heads above ground in preparation for a big push come Spring.

The coppicing of the woodland area has continued, leaving a lot of open space and Hazel stools ready to grow again this year.

All the timber is now being processed into bean-poles, pea-sticks, stakes and faggots. 

As usual it's nose-to-the-grindstone here at the Garden...

We're busy sharpening pencils...

Picking up sticks...

And barrowing about.

So that will be Winter then...

We arrived at the Garden on Monday to see that the snows had also arrived...

Which must have surprised the early bulbs, which were making the most of the recent mild weather.

Snow on the boughs of the trees always looks nice though.

As well as this blast of icy weather there was also a blast from the past in the arrival of our new Garden Manager; Paul Boyce.

Paul will be familiar to some of you as he was previously the Garden Manager here until 2006, and was largely responsible for building up the Garden Gate as it is today, and so we warmly welcome him back and wish him every success upon his return. 

Paul was straight to work at the top of a tree, pollarding the Willow which had become somewhat unruly...

By the time the snow had melted all the willow was down...

Leaving just the naked stubs, from which new growth will begin.

Of course, we now have a large pile of Crack-Willow to clear away, it is too brittle for weaving, but if you need any pea-sticks...

Christmas in the Garden

It's Christmas at the Garden, so here is a picture of some of our service participants out in the cold under our slightly sorry looking Christmas tree...

and then back in the nice warm cabin where we all had Christmas Dinner.

This year we roasted a large Crown Prince Pumpkin that we had stored from earlier in the year and accompanied this with what produce is still growing outside at this time of year.

Sprouting Broccoli...

and Cavallo Nero.

The Garden will be closed over the Christmas and New Year period, we'll be locking the gates at 3pm on Friday 21st December and re-opening 10am on Wednesday 2nd January.

There is not much else to report this month, but look forward to some exciting news in the New Year. Anyway, here are some seasonal pictures from Lee, Edward and David from the Mencap photographic group:

Autumn continues in the Garden and still the leaves are falling.

We told you that the Kent Wildlife Trust Gardening for Wildlife awards would be presented in the Autumn, and so they were.

We were pleasantly surprised to be given a Silver Award at our first attempt, but already we are thinking of how to make that a Gold award for next year. We hope to be working with East Kent Mencap on a number of projects to make the Garden more wildlife friendly and to get us in the mood for that , here is a small selection of fairly seasonal pictures from the huge collection of fantastic shots the Mencap Photographic Group have taken in the Garden over the years:

In other news, we have had an extremely generous private donation which has enabled us to start work repairing our large poly tunnel which was damaged by fire last winter.

 Hopefully work will be completed by the New Year so that we will be able to get a head start on Spring sowing.

 If anyone is planning on working on their own garden over the winter and think they may need some wood chippings...

 we have just had a huge delivery, so come and see us and bring a bag, or a trailer.

Of course we still also have leaf mould, compost and manure available here, so if you need any, or know anyone who needs any, come and see us or give us a call.

TO AUTUMN

"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

   Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun...

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees...

 

And still more, later flowers for the bees..."

Autumn seems to be upon us now, with leaves to rake and apples to pick, but there are still some pockets of colour to be seen in the Garden. The Jerusalem Artichokes have begun to produce their small, but vibrant yellow flowers.

Of course they aren't really Artichokes at all, nor do they come from Jerusalem. Their edible tubers do taste a lot like Artichokes though and when in flower they look a bit like Sunflowers. Their name is thought to have evolved from the Italian word for Sunflower; girasole as the flowers gyrate (gira) to face the sun (sole).

 Also in colourful bloom right now are the Amaranthus with their rich crimson heads.

We sometimes refer to them as the big finger plants.

A brand new shed has appeared in the Garden this week, 

 but it is far from just another ordinary shed,

 it is in fact our new Composting Toilet.

 This will be the new view from the Garden Gate, somewhere where we will get some of our best thinking done.

 All we need to do now is finish digging the trench and very deep pit for the soakaway, which is what will happen to all of the... well, you get the idea anyway.