News from the village of Ardentinny, Argyll, Scotland.
A milestone was reached this weekend for the dedicated Ardentinny Community Trust Glenfinart Walled Garden team as the first produce from the garden went on sale at the Blairmore Local Producers Market.
The mouth watering display of strawberries, rhubarb, cabbage, courgettes, lettuce, herbs and a range of plants, chocolate, home-baking and tablet raised over £100 for the Community Trust.
The Beechgrove sensory garden is making great progress today despite the very changeable weather.
Glenfinart Walled Garden volunteers assisted by the Beechgrove team are now spending most of their waking hours preparing the ground for the cameras next week. The paths are going in, as final touches are made to the layout. It’s going to be an amazing place!
Why not come along this weekend and get involved in this marvellous Cowal community effort. We’ll also be at the Blairmore Local Producers Market this Saturday with some local Ardentinny produce, so stop by and say hello!
BBC’s Beechgrove Garden team of Producer, Gwyneth Hardy; Designer, Lynn Harris; and Researcher, Stacey Shear together with Presenter, George Anderson, did a final recce on Friday before finalising their filming schedule for the end of the month. They first checked the progress being made in Ardentinny Community’s Glenfinart Walled Garden and, in particular, the Sensory Garden which will be the main focus of their programme.
George Anderson also advised the Walled Garden team on the problem of “Mares’ Tail’ weed and pronounced it invincible, declaring that it can only be kept at bay with regular hoeing. He also suggested that the orchard needed regular pruning and lots of bird boxes to encourage birds which would eat the caterpillars.
The team then went on to recce several domestic private gardens in the area for possible inclusion in the programme, one of which was Andy McLintock’s in Kilmun. Andy, a local sculptor, is kindly donating one of his works in the shape of a garden seat for the Sensory Garden.
Lynn’s design includes several seats, of which Andy’s is one. Ardentinny resident and stone mason, Stephen Johnstone is both constructing and donating a stone seat; similarly, a carpenter from Kilmun is carving and donating a wooden bench; Designer Lynn Harris plans to create a grass sofa and a local resident has commissioned a metal bench in memory of a friend.
In addition to these generous donations, Ardentinny Community Trust is also indebted to its tireless volunteers and the support and donations of individuals and companies, most notably West Coast Tool & Plant Hire who continue to supply invaluable equipment, free of charge.
A group of children from Strone Primary visited Glenfinart Walled Garden on Friday afternoons for 4 weeks, accompanied by school staff. They planted out seedlings of radish, broccoli, cabbage, peas, beans and pumpkins which they grew from seeds planted in school. They have also been involved in planting seeds and established plants donated to the garden e.g. sunflower seeds, strawberry plants and broom. They learned about the history of the garden, Ph soil testing and how to weed round their plants. Some of the children added their wishes to the wishing tree (one wish we all identified with was for ‘a weed free garden’).
The most memorable activity was when the children were let loose on the tyres which were to be used as planters. They spent a fun filled 15 minutes rolling on and inside the tyres which had become sports cars, sailing ships and mobile play parks.
On the last week of term Lynn Kerr gave a talk at assembly about the garden, the history and the future plans for it. She showed a powerpoint presentation of photographs of the garden, both old and new and ran the video footage from Ardentinny.org. The pupils were very interested to hear how the video had been shot and the children who worked in the garden were surprised to see how much it had changed. They pointed out to the rest of the school the areas they had planted and the tyres with which they had played. They also spoke about the plants they had put in and what they remembered about the history of the walled garden.
Many of the children were keen to visit it in the school holidays, some wanted to do some work and others were interested to hear about the Beechgrove filming days.
Lynn Kerr.
Photographs supplied by Strone School.
