“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
— Marcus Tullius Cicero
And we have both! I’ve taken a few books from the book tree this week. Someone has bought in some interesting recipe books and cooking is one of my many hobbies. And there’s a lot of Jacqueline Wilson books there at the moment too. I love having a little library in the garden. It’s always worth having a look in.
Something new you will find in the book tree is a game I’ve just put there. It’s called ‘Find it’ and is a sort of sensory treasure hunt. You have to find things in the garden to match up to the cards in the ‘Find it’ pack. It’s aimed at visitors to the garden. I’d be interested to get feedback from anyone using it. Ways it could be improved or any new games you could do with the cards perhaps. It’s based on a game produced by the Sensory Trust. An organisation who give advice on setting up a sensory garden as well as selling products that help with this.
We are hoping to turn our garden into more of a sensory garden. We already have the plants for this. But we are looking to get some signs into the garden so that people become more aware of what parts of the garden are there to stimulate their various senses. The bright colours for sight. The herbs for smell. Furry plants and rough gravel for touch. Herbs and salad stuff for taste. The wind blowing through sweetcorn and grasses and bees buzzing for hearing.
With the sunny weather recently the garden has been very busy with visitors. Everyone says they love the garden. And it’s a magic place for kids. And volunteers have been busy weeding, planting and tidying.
A couple of recent plant additions have been from local Guides who are celebrating 100 years of Guiding in Runcorn this year. They have planted up a couple of tubs and decorated them.
The summer theme for the garden this year is children’s stories. So there’s lots of work going on behind the scenes with volunteers making things. A hare and tortoise have just appeared near the car track. Looks like the tortoise is winning the race already. As part of the theme we also have a grass called ‘Fairy Tales’ which seems very appropriate.
We have plants for sale when volunteers are in the garden. The plants are kept in the yard and consist of plants from cuttings, such as salvia, mint and lavender. And from seeds that we have grown, such as tomatoes and sunflowers. The donations we get from the sale of plants goes towards things like plant food.
We are also growing veg and herb plants to be used in raised beds at the local Railway Station and for the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park. These are as part of our role as Incredible Edible Runcorn. Unfortunately the slugs in the garden are finding some of our veg edible too. We seem to have lost our cucumber to a hungry slug this week. So if you find a fat slug in the garden when you are there, feel free to take it home. PLEASE
The Blooming Old Gardener