Hello one and all, friend both old and new, welcome to this months update from the life and times at the Tree Life Centre just outside of Bristol! Whilst the first month of Spring has been very busy for everyone I shall try and pass on what’s been going on but no doubt a lot will be missed…so instead you could come and visit us and see for yourself!
First off this month we hosted a new event right at the beginning of the month. We held an Apple Grafting Workshop where our friend Bob Seddon, from Friends of Cock Road Ridge, returned to teach the participants how to graft and then they got to take home their best grafted apple. Hopefully everyone enjoyed the day and a huge thank you to them for coming along. Watch this space for more events/workshops to be announced in the future!
Bob then returned a couple of times to help teach the diploma students how to graft in two different styles. First off it was the ever popular whip and tongue graft which is always fun to do, and to watch being done! For the second week the guys used the thicker rootstocks for wedge grafting, which was a new one for me also, apparently this is a much more successful graft, and one which can be used for multiple varieties of apple if there are two shoots on a rootstock. Hopefully all these grafts will take as we can then put them on sale. Thank you again to Bob for coming along, we look forward to continuing the relationship and seeing you again in the future!
Just some of the wildflowers, herbs and veg seeds we have sown.
With spring well and truly in the air everyone has been busy sowing a whole variety of seeds for both the edible plants project and for sale to the public. We grow a wide variety of native wildflowers, and this year we are adding popular herbs to our cannon. Hopefully they will take (well a good majority of them anyway!) as everyone enjoys all the processes involved, especially almost charting their progress per day. Also, with the veg the plan is to potentially have various plants on sale much like our strawberry plants. Why not come by and see what we have on offer! This month we supplied some of last years seed grown wildflowers to a local community gardening group who planted them in Kingswood Park to attract wildlife into a previously unloved area, if you are a similar group then get in touch and we will be more than happy to help you out with wildflowers and advice.
Finally, the whole centre has been buzzing due to the funding grant that was previously mentioned in last months blog. Many discussions and ideas have been had to help form a plan of what the volunteers would like the entrance and public area to look like. Hopefully we will be able to get something more ‘concrete’ in place soon, and of course there will be many a picture to show the progress!
Parish notices:-
We will be resuming our Work-based Horticulture diploma in the coming weeks so if you are interested in signing up to do either level one or level two then please do contact us. If you are interested in a career in horticulture then having a diploma is a good springboard so why not learn whilst gaining valuable work experience with us!
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