Art invited our whole group of volunteers to see Judy’s garden and learn about the Yard Gardens scheme; several of the volunteers stayed to help replant the strawberry plants and attack a buttercup invasion.  The remainder came back to RP and tackled our own weeds: in the woodland border, the Roots bed (a delicate job removing small hairy bittercress and other weeds from the emerging carrots (finally!) and the turnips, although as yet there is no sign of beets) and in the larger herb garden, where the forget-me-nots are now past their best and need removing before they go to seed, also the self-heal which has started to spread rapidly.  Some of the larger perennial herbs suffered during the winter and had to be either removed entirely or cut back to new growth lower down.  As the standing water has now evaporated we have removed the majority of the wet weather boards and stacked them temporarily beside the Shed until they are needed again. In the Espalier Orchard, the long water shoots (vegetative growth) were removed to allow the trees to concentrate energy on growing fruit.

Angela