The first two weeks of June saw BTCV launch the Carbon Army Grow your Own Food project and keen, eager and hungry volunteers descend upon the garden. Donning their Carbon Army t-shirts, everyone got stuck in to planting up a strawberry patch, weeding in general, sowing some beetroot, pumpkin, courgette, sweet corn, cauliflower, butternut squash and broccoli seeds (a very eclectic mix, just like our volunteers!) into trays, as well as planting out some broccoli and cabbage plants.
The afternoon was broken up by lots and lots of water breaks – hottest it’s been in the garden I’m sure! The temperature was in the mid to high 20’s so plenty of water for everyone. Managed to keep enough water to give everything a good drink after it was planted, which was good. One of the schools donated two tomato plants to the garden, so we’ll monitor their progress alongside the plentitude of sunflowers that everyone has planted and the first ones are already popping up at quite an impressive rate. A bit of healthy competition between teachers and pupils is a good thing, right….?!
The sunflowers were definitely getting lots of sun, that’s for sure. The volunteers from the hospital have expressed a concern about who is going to water the plants in the evening so will hopefully take on that task in the next week or so, now that there’s a lot at stake, or maybe I should say ‘steak’ to stick with the food theme…no? OK then…
The Carbon Army await their next mission, which may well be to see how we can keep the big wood pigeons away from the strawberries!