As the nights are beginning to draw in and autumn is finally upon us it’s a huge welcome to all you faithful blog followers to yet another monthly update from the Tree Life Centre! With summer drawing to a close we here at the Centre are gearing up for our busiest time of the year as the leaves and seeds start to fall it means we can start planning our growing programme for the following year with collecting many seeds and take stock of all the trees we can sell bare rooted over the coming months.
Just one of the many seed collecting trips out!
With the main focus this month on collecting seeds the Tuesday and Wednesday groups have taken a back seat slightly to make way for many local trips out collecting seeds. Above is one of the groups which visited Folly Farm, near Pensford, which included a great walk around its nature reserve and fantastic views of the nearby lakes. It was the first trip out in a while for some of the members in the group so the change of scenery was greatly enjoyed. Other places visited, and enjoyed, recently were Golden Valley, Wick, and other nearby nature reserves.
Sorting collected seeds.
Hopefully these seeds will be the first to be grown in our new area in our entrance/public area that is still under construction. The plans include having a strip of beds, which are of course mouse proof, so the public can see much more easily the process of native tree growing from seed we carry out at the Centre!
Just some of this year’s carrot crop!
Meanwhile, the Edible Plants group on a Monday have been busy harvesting their crops and preparing/planting some overwintering crops in the polytunnel. Also, this year the group has taken charge of growing new strawberry plants from all the runners our patch has thrown off. After the huge success of selling this year’s plants hopefully more will be produced for next year!
The Herb Garden group on a Wednesday have recently been throwing their hand at trying to make a cold frame out of bits of material from around the site.
The cold frame during building.
The idea is to have a basic and successful plan so that it can be replicated for use in the other areas in the centre, such as the wildflower area. Another idea is to use recycled plastic bottles in the lid instead of buying in plastic sheeting. Fingers crossed we can find enough bottles and make it work!
Finally, we have just completed a new area in the Centre. We now have an area devoted to green woodcraft to enable volunteers to learn how to make some funky creations for themselves and to sell to the public. Watch this space for our first few attempts! Hopefully, in the future we will also be able to run workshops for the public who are interested in learning woodcraft skills.
Our new woodcraft area.
Parish Notices:-
On Saturday 5th October 12-4pm we will be holding the years Big Green Weekend. Following on from last years successful event we will again be opening our doors to the public to show off what we do at the Centre and giving them a chance to get their hands dirty too!
The following weekend on Sunday 13th October, The Friends of Grimsbury Farm (our home), will be holding their annual Apple Day, where we will be selling our apple trees too! For more details click on the links.
Also, don’t forget we have many apple trees for sale from as little as £20 each. They have been grafted, grown and nurtured by our volunteers so why not support us by buying many! We offer discounts for bulk buys.
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