CGN garden settles in for autumn

Posted on November 14, 2016 by btleach

November update on the Good Neighbours garden

waiting for the baked potatoes to cook

The Good Neighbours garden is now getting much more sunshine now that the big willow tree has been pollarded. We have also started getting into have a small fire to cook baked potatoes, veggie sausages and the like at our Friday morning get togethers

Charlotte visisted the garden recently and is pictured here with one of the late flowering cosmos flowers that Tony had planted

……and here is Tony admiring his work

Good Neighbours garden – October update

Posted on October 13, 2016 by btleach

Good Neighbours garden – October update

For most of September and October the weather on the Friday mornings where we meet at the Good Neighbours Garden has been very good. By late September we had a profusion of tomatoes and beans, plus late salad crops we had only planted in early September

Here is the greenhouse, still producing tomatoes (mostly the Sungold variety) in late September

On Sep 30th the weather wasn’t so kind, yet it didn’t stop Marianne, whilst I took the photo from the safety of the greenhouse

Picking some of the profussion of green beans. We would pick a load one week and then the nbext week find just as many on only 3 plants in an arch over the raised beds

Tony always brings a selection of jokes along – usually a week’s load of ‘jokes of the day’ he sources from the Oxfam shop where he works

and here is Tony’s attentive audience.
(who said the CGN garden was just for older men!)

Tony admires the pink flowers whihc he had planted earlier in the season A week later the weather was better again Gearldine and Tony getting ready for some work

Big event of the week – the tree surgeons from the Tree Station a social enterprise based in Gorton arrived on Thurs 13th October to pollard the big willow that threatening to shded large branches on our neighbour’s garage. Though it now looks a bit bare, the willow will soon send out branches from the 5 nodes left lorry and big chipper arrives at Good Neighbours

tree-felling-07

Up in the tree securing branches so that when they are cut they won’t fall on the garage

Having a well earned tea break after curring down the branchese safely. Now just the wood chipping and clearing up to do

and here is the pollarded tree

CGN Garden update

Posted on July 15, 2016 by btleach

Garden has been doing well recently, but not enough sunshine (for us and the plants). Still, we are beginning to enjoy some produce including rhubarb, peas, beans, courgettes, cauliflower, garlic and red currants. Rain eventually stopped play today (15th July) but beginning to think about our plans for the future, including some additional raised beds

tomatoes doing well in the greenhouse

some cucumbers on this side of the greenhouse

the small raised beds

Tony looking out

Geraldine admires this week’s produce

redcurrants, cauliflower, garlic, rhubar, corgettes, baby carrots in this weeks haul

Getting ready for Chorlton Open Gardens

Posted on June 12, 2016 by btleach

Working hard in the Good Neighbours Garden, slowly getting it in shape for the Chorlton Open Garden’s day on Jun 26th

Spring at last in the Good Neighbours Garden

Posted on March 18, 2016 by btleach

Tony shows us his garlic

cgn garden 11-03-16 (02)

tidying the garden up, ready for planting

Good Neighbours Garden Spring & Summer 2015

Posted on September 25, 2015 by btleach

Some photos from the Good Neighbours garden in Spring and Summer 2015

Bill in the garden in Spring

Paul’s kitten – one of the ones abandoned outside Morrisons

Paul

Some early season planting

Enjoying some of Tony’s jokes. He brings in the weekly collection to entertain us

Planting a hanging basket

more seed sowing

tidying up the raised beds Bill takes a break

Early summer and the raised beds begin to fill up

the first ripe tomatoes in the Greenhouse – Ferlines and Sungold

Bill talks to Joan as they look at the vegetables that have been produced that week

Tony gives us a wave

The Good Neighbours Garden in September

Posted on September 22, 2014 by btleach

On Friday 19th September members of the Good Neighbours gardening club were out in the garden enjoying yer another lovely day. What a great September it has been for weather. You can see below some of the produce we have been picking

Here Tony shows us the ripening tomatoes in the greenhouse. These are Ferline tomatoes. Even the ones outside have been doing well and are now ripening up

A wider shot of the greenhouse shows how many of the tomaties are ripening. The smaller, orangey tomatoes are a variety called Sungold. They are one of the tasties tomatoes I have come across

In this video Tony tells us some jokes. Each week he has a selection from each week’s jokes he has on a calendar (there is a joke for each day). As you can see, some are better than others!

Making Mosaics week 2

Posted on May 16, 2014 by btleach

Making Mosaics week 2

This week (15-05-14) we finished off the mosaics which we are going to use as stepping stones in the Good Neighbours Garden

We cleaned off some of the adhesive that had dried on to the tiles and gouged out the gaps between the tiles so that the grout would work properly. Then spread the grout on to the tiles so it filled the gaps anf gave that a clean. They are now in the garden to dry off and then will be ready for use

Mosaic in the sun to dry

applying the grout

enjoying the warmest day of the year so far in the good neighbours garden

Tony and Paulette finishing off their mosaics

Another completed mosaic

Making Mosaics

Posted on May 10, 2014 by btleach

Making Mosaic stepping stones for the Good Neighbours Garden

Nicola Winters lead a craft session at Chorlton Good Neighbours to make some mosaics on paving stones, to be used in the Good Neighbours garden. Members of the gardening group and an art group that uses the church hall too. all participated in making mosaics to their own designs, assisted by Nicola.

Designing and making the Mosaics

We used adhesive to fix the bits of coloured tiles and beads to the paving stone base and left them in the greenhouse to dry. Next week we will grout them and soon they will be ready to use in the garden

Tony and Paulette working on their mosaics
Tony’s mosaicsBernard’s mosaicNicola who led the sessionNicola finishing the clean upThe mosaics in the greenhouse.
We will wait for the adhesive to dry & next week we will do the groutingNicola assisting Mary finish off her Mosaic
The Art group work on their mosaic’sTony concentrating on his workNicolaBernard’s mosaic takes shape Paul kept everyone supplied with tea & coffee

Selection of broken tiles, supplied by Nicola, for use in making the mosaic’sPaul, Nicola and Mary Paul, Nicola and Mary with Leo in the background

Garden Update 4th April 14

Posted on April 22, 2014 by btleach

Garden Update 4th April 14

We welcomed Paul back to the gardening group at Chorlton Good Neighbours, after he had been out of action for several months. We filled some bags with earth and put in some of the chitted potatoes and continued with the weeding of the Church garden at the fron

In the video, Geraldine explains the day’s plan

Tony brought some glass beads and a tile which he had found at the Oxfam shop. They will be used as part of the mosaic making project with a parent from Oswald Road Primary school who has been involved in similar project with the school

Spring is on its way in the CGN garden

Posted on March 30, 2014 by btleach

Spring is on its way in the CGN garden

We spent the usual Friday morning, working (with plenty of stops for tea & coffee) in the Good Neighbours garden. Weather was the best of the year so far and we got plenty done. Lots of new seeds put into seed trays to germinate in the greenhouse. We included some exotic flowers & vegetables like quinoa and rats tales ‘chilli’ radishes

Here is Bill in the greenhouse

Some of the seed trays in the greenhouse

Geraldine and Bill potting up some seeds

Paulette weeding the Church’s front garden. Where we have weeded we scattered some wild flower seeds to brighten up the area

Tony surveying his work

The tomato plants that Bernard has re-potted for later planting in the CGN greenhouse/The two varieties are Sungold and Ferline. Sungold are some of the tastiest tomatoes around and Ferline are supposed to show some resistance to blight, fusarium and verticillium wilt

Planting some onions in the CGN Garden plot

Posted on March 15, 2014 by btleach

Planting Onions on the Good Neighbours plot

Spring is happening but on this Friday in March (14-03-14) the weather was a bit chilly, especially as the previous Wednesday had been very warm.

We used our time productively to put a new hard tyre wheel on the wheelbarrow (why they usually have pneumatic tyres, that always puncture or deflate, I don’t know). We also moved some of the unrotted compost & leaves from the side of the greenhouse and put it in bags to slowly rot down

We were able to use our refurbished wheelbarrow to take them all to the back of the Church Hall where we intend to plant some fruit bushes when we get round to it

We also planted some onions sets – white Stuttgarter Giant and red Karmen which we planted in one of the raised beds. Some of our onions have over-wintered well in the other raised bed so hopefully we will get a succession of onions to pick later in the summer

Tony bagging up some of the semi-rotted compost

Geraldine & Tony having a chat about what to do nextPlanting the onion sets

Spring is on its way

Posted on February 28, 2014 by btleach

Spring is on its way in the Good Neighbours garden…….

Here are some of the group enjoying the spring like sunshine on the last day of February – Paulette, Bernard, Geraldine and Tony

We had ordered the three replacement panes of strengthened glass and John came to put those in. That, together with the 6 panes that we had put back the previous week meant that the greenhouse was now back to its complete self. Let’s just hope we don’t get gales like the ones we had in January again soon

We always make time to have a cup of tea and a biscuit

Peter who had been one of the first volunteers in the garden has recently moved to Preston, but on his visit to Manchester he came down to see how the garden was going and was very impressed

At the side of the garden, behind the church is a narrow passageway

At the far end it widens out and we thought that maybe we could plant some fruit bushes that can take it being a bit shady (though as you can see it does get some sun)Here is Tony spraying the weeds to clear the ground before we try to find out how best to enrich the soil and plant some bushes

CGN Greenhouse – repairs after the gale

Posted on February 23, 2014 by btleach

Repairs after the gale

This Friday (19-02-14) we had John’s assistance in beginning to repair the greenhouse after the damage caused by the recent gale. Altogether 9 windows were blown out and 3 of them smashed. So the reinforced glass stood up pretty well and the pieces of glass weren’t dangerous shards but like the starred bits from a shattered windscreen