Spring Woods and Whalley Abbey

Last weekend our daughter and family travelled up north to us for a visit.  We always try to get out and about when they visit. We decided on a walk. Spring Woods, one of our local beauty spots, is at Whalley near Clitheroe.  It looks its best when the bluebells are out and is often known as bluebell woods. The wild garlic is another flower which grows in abundance from late spring onwards and you can smell it just driving past. There were no bluebells or wild garlic in flower yet of course but we could see them poking their green shoots out of the ground. Not surprising after all the rain we've had recently, it was very muddy. A number of trees down was evidence of the windy weather we've also had.

 We saw some interesting fungi too:

After our walk around the woods we went into Whalley to the abbey.  Whalley Abbey is a former 14th century Cistercian abbey, most of which was demolished after the dissolution of the monasteries. 

A country house was built on the site and today this is used as a conference and retreat house. The ruins of the abbey remain and it is a very beautiful, peaceful place to walk around. 

Making a woodland garden

The first day of the half term holidays, Helen and the grandchildren arrived to whisk me off to the allotment.  I was surprised. Firstly because it was raining and secondly because the children are not usually so enthusiastic about going to the allotment.  Gardening with children is often a bit hit and miss, so when they are keen to go it's best to encourage them. And I had a few jobs for them to do which I thought they would enjoy.

Last year I helped them to make a woodland den at the top of plot 8. It's an area where we can't grow any fruit or vegetables, there's a big sycamore tree, an elder bush and a holly, with a privet hedge along the plot boundary at the top and lots of ivy. The ground slopes down from the privet hedge forming a steep bank. Last year this bank was full of weeds, but I thought we could make a woodland wildlife garden here.  There are a lot of birds about in the trees and shrubs, we have put bird feeders up around the plot and built a bug house.

A couple of weeks ago I tried digging the soil in this area. As I expected, it was full of roots from the trees and shrubs, but after getting rid of some weeds I did find some pockets of soil where I could dig to some depth. So I cleared a few patches where I thought we could grow some woodland plants and made a start by planting some pots of spring bulbs, crocus, snowdrops, tete a tete narcissus and also some bluebells which Richard had dug up last year when he was clearing some of the ground in another part of the plot.

When we arrived at the allotment this week the grandchildren were quite enthusiastic about having a garden area in and around their den.  They set to work defining these planting spots with stones and pebbles and making paths.  Somehow I managed to end up being the labourer, collecting buckets of stones. We also planted up another little border with spring flowers.

By the time they had finished their jobs, it was all looking really good. I'm looking forward to seeing the woodland garden spring into life soon and we will be adding more plants as time goes on.

A bit of digging and a lot of rain

The weather continues to be rainy and windy, so we're not getting as much done on the allotments as we would like. On Friday though, the weather dried up enough for us to go down and do a bit of work in the afternoon.

Last year when we took over plot 8  there were some small raised beds which were a bit rickety.  We managed to grow some beans and salad crops in them, but we decided that we would dismantle them at the end of the summer and start again with the bed.  This has left a huge bed which we will divide up into two or three smaller areas. The picture above shows the plot last summer with the raised beds to the left.

Digging nearly completed

I started digging this bed over, it was full of weeds, but the soil is quite crumbly and easy to dig.  We had dumped some soil improver in that area last year so I think that helped. The weeds came up easily and I managed to get  most of the  bed dug in an afternoon.  We went back on Saturday taking lunch with us.  An hour's work completed the digging of the bed. So that's all ready for planting when the weather is warmer. We will probably be growing, onions, garlic, carrots, parsnips and beetroot there. The bed you can see to the left at the bottom of the picture above is the next one to tackle after we've had a bonfire to get rid of all the wood. We need some dry weather first though!

We had to adjourn to the shed for our soup lunch when it started raining. It's quite cosy in there and the big window gives us a good view of the plot. The rain however continued so we decided to call it a day.

Newly dug bed