St Thomas’ Garden Group Activities
Currently the Garden Group has 9 volunteers – their main objective is to keep the church frontage looking as neat and tidy and weed free as possible.
And then provide a splash of colour in each season as well as a convivial opportunity for volunteers from the church and wider village to come and help out at their own convenience.
The group meets together very informally about 6 times a year including an August working party to undertake some of the more arduous tasks together otherwise volunteers spend as much or little time as they wish at times that suit themselves. In broad terms each person takes responsibility for a particular area but everyone is encouraged to do anything that needs doing anywhere.
Regular activities include:
Weeding, annual beech hedge cutting, lawn mowing and planting.
Highlights to look out for include:
Spring bulbs including: snowdrops / crocuses / daffodils / tulips plus primroses and forsythia – lots of yellow.
Various shrubs providing colour at different times of year including: Escallonia / Cotinus / Acer Palmatum / Euonymous / Nandina / Forsythia / Hydrangeas / Hypericum / buddleia / hollies etc. Winter jasmine, honeysuckle and climbing rose on trellis area.
Summer flowering includes: geranium / lavender / Phlomis / hollyhocks / ladies mantle / aquilegia / campanula along fence and, of course, the glorious roses.
The Persicaria and red Crocosmia under vestry window look wonderful and attract the bees, the buddleia attract the butterflies and frogs have been spotted on several occasions recently (and sometimes slow worms) so the dead wood under the beech hedge and less cultivated places provide a haven for small wildlife and insects.
Autumn colour includes: sedums / Colchicum / shrubs with autumn colour plus, this year, a number of bright yellow chrysanthemums.
Winter colour is provided by the hollies and conifers and various other evergreen shrubs plus the wonderful Christmas tree that lights up the village. Otherwise everything rests – including our volunteers - until spring starts to waken everything up again.
If you would like to help or volunteer in any way then please contact Linda Holden for more information.